The Medicine of the Drum
by Patrick Pinson
When you select your drum or drum kit, you may choose from Elk, Deer or Horse. We also have Buffalo and Moose available occasionally (at a slightly higher price).
The Cedar Tree
Most of our drums are constructed on a foundation of hand- wrapped Yellow Cedar rims. Our rim makers harvest their own wood, striving to take only trees that are dead from natural causes, and doing so with reverence and respect.
The Cedar tree is a powerful healing tree, and the flutes and drums constructed from the Cedar carry a superior resonance and healing energy. The Natives of the Northwest smudged with Cedar, used Cedar tea for healing and carved their totems and canoes from this sacred wood. Many songs were written about the healing energies of Cedar, and when a tree was taken, all parts of it were used for the healing and survival of the People.
Willow Oak
The diva of the Willow Oak teaches mental clarity. When you are inundated with worry, anxiety and repetitive thoughts, your mind acts as a screen that keeps you from sensing fully your own spiritual understanding. Willow Oak mentally detaches you from your confusion, and gives you the central focus from a broader perspective. The soul tone is G#, element is air and subtle body affinities are Mental/spiritual. If you want to learn how to meditate, willow oak is a fascinating teacher. It can relax your physical body, calm your anxiety, and aid you in releasing thoughts that run in your head like a broken record. The affirmation is “I still my thoughts with compassion, and center on the Purity and Peace of My Spirit”
Maple
Quality: Healing disappointment in relationships. Spirit tone: D Subtle body affinities: Emotional/Mental, Element: Fire
Maple helps you release disappointment and disillusionment at a change in form or the termination of a relationship. You are encouraged to extend unconditional love to the other by affirming the positive qualities of that person. Maple also tells you to focus unconditional love toward yourself and affirm your own gifts to the relationship. As you do this you will experience more peace. Unconditional love for another always connects you with that person and comforts you with your own strength.
Spruce
Quality: Understanding your Spiritual Purpose. Sitka spruce can help you clarify your spiritual goals and prioritize the steps that you need to take along your path.
The Deer
When we are working on the natural laws of circulation — the circulatory system, the Heart — then Deer is our Medicine. Many of us are taught to figure life out, and live in our heads with little attention to our hearts. We suffer from “poverty consciousness”, the belief that there is just not enough time, money or love to go around.
Deer opens the heart chakra, teaching us to trust and to empower the feminine quality of love and wisdom. Drumming with Deer reminds us that we live in an abundant universe with more than enough of everything. Deer helps us learn the laws of circulation — when we feel unloved, it is time to love others and feel that love returned many fold.
The Elk
When we are working in the West on the Medicine Wheel — the Water, Emotions, Chaos, Shadow Self — then Elk medicine gives us the stamina and endurance to get through the edges — from the Known to the Unknown. As we go through our fears, we expand ourselves and add more trust to our circle. Trust is the lubricant that helps us take the “leap of faith” that leads us to unity with Spirit, and to a reclaiming of our original grace.
Elk is powerful medicine for healing child abuse and addictive patterns. The Elk will bring up our unresolved grief, and help purify and cleanse us through grieving and crying our sweet tears. The vibration of Elk opens the third Chakra, the belly, where we carry our fears and undigested values that interfere with our pure will. The Elk is a communal animal, hanging out with members of the same sex except during mating season.
The Horse
Horse takes us on the Shamanic Journey, keeping us in third dimensional reality so we may ride the vibration to the spirit world to get the healing we need for ourself and others. Horse is pure energy — Like lightning, it can transport us quickly through the cracks and crevices to the other side. Drumming with Horse will lead us to trance states and to the higher vibrations.
The Buffalo
When we seek wisdom and guidance from the Ancient Ones, the Ancestors that came before us, drumming the Buffalo opens the door to that vibration. Buffalo is associated with Wisdom and Abundance and is the source of the Sacred Pipe, as White Buffalo Calf Woman brought the Pipe to the People.
When we pray with the Pipe, we are joining the masculine Sky energy with the feminine Earth energy, and whatever we pray for will be given. If we are manifesting from Spirit to Form, drumming with Buffalo is an ally in that intention, reminding us of the connection of prayer (Spirit) to form (Physical).
The Moose
Drumming with Moose is empowering the Feminine energies, as the Moose hangs out near the water and can stay under water for up to a minute while eating from the bottom of ponds and lakes. The Moose reminds us to go into the through the feelings and take the nourishment available in emotional honesty.
The Moose is also associated with self- esteem, learning how to get our nourishment from the inside, and spontaineity, trusting our instincts to act in the moment rather than controlling future decisions through planning the results. The Moose is a great protector of the child, and working with Moose can teach us to nourish and protect the Little One inside.
Mitakuye Oyasin
(All My Relations)