Primitive Instruments

Frame Drum

Some people collect handbags, or action figures...and some people collect primitive instruments. Wherever I go, I'm drawn like a magnet to any sort of flute, drum, rattle or unrecognizable musical instrument made of natural materials. Over the years, I've made several, and I'm sure this trend will continue.

Amusingly, I didn't think of myself as a musician for most of my life, despite the fact that I own and play many an instrument. Nor did I have any idea what this fascination was really about for me.

Egg rattle

When I learned to play guitar, I began to notice how the vibrations made me feel better. I remarked on this to my teacher, who was nonplussed. "Duh, why do you think we make music?" - a paraphrase of his view of the matter. In those days, it was one of my main reasons for playing, but I didn't think of the larger implications.

Rain Stick

The further along I got with my singing, the more I started to see the light. Music is sound healing, sound therapy. Singing, especially, has been a big part of my personal healing process. It helped me to address issues with first and third chakras. It has also acted as an indicator of my progress - my ability to sing has progressed the more that I heal, whether or not I have been practicing.

Gourd rattle

Bull Roarer

But back to primitive instruments. Might not our ancestors have recognized the healing properties of music? Certainly they used music as a method to alter consciousness. Shamans use sound to induce trance states for healing, journeywork, and oracular work. So surely, the makers of these primitive instruments must have known on some level about the healing vibration of sound. How cool is that?

"The Baconator" native flute

In my mundane life, I work as a healer. I'm a massage therapist, yoga therapist and reiki master. All of this work, regardless of modality, is about moving energy. To boil it down to essentials, I try to remove blockages in people's energy so that they can heal themselves. Take away all the fancy lingo, the certifications, the licensures...and that's what I really do.

Conch Shell Horn

Turtle rattle talking stick

Bamboo flute walking stick

Wood shakers

Now it makes sense - I'm a shaman and a healer, and I love the vibration of sound. That means more music for everybody! More singing, more chanting, more drumming, more dancing! And soon, I'll be offering my own trance journey/sound healing sessions. I'll keep you posted, internets.

Meanwhile, check out all these neat instruments. What do you play? Drop me a comment, I'd love to hear about your experiences with primitive instruments, sound healing and shamanic work!

Turtle ocarina

Tracking a Fresh Trail

The Pagan Experience - Wk 2- August 10: New Paths of Learning.. This is the time of starting new paths of learning as students either prepare to return to school or complete their studies. How do you determine what new paths of learning should be added to your foundations? Where do you seek further training? How do you balance the old and the new?

This year, my study group has been working with rune magic. We have been performing the rituals in Diana Paxson's Taking Up the Runes. Previously, we worked through Northern Mysteries & Magic by Freya Aswynn. At this point, we are a year into working with the runes. During that time, I've been exploring the magic, mythology and shamanism of my Germanic ancestors.

I didn't plan this turn of events. In fact, I may have been the one saying "no more than six months" when we originally discussed studying the runes. I was anxious to get on to other things, namely, studies in shamanism. 

As it turns out, this is exactly what I needed. I've been using shamanic practices for a number of years, but many of them came from indigenous cultures with whom I have no biological connection. This troubled me deeply, and I stirred up plenty of contentious debates as I processed this part of myself. Discovering that my ancestors also were shamans...this was very healing for me. 

Of course, we could also say that witchcraft in general is the shamanism of Europe. In retrospect, my journey with witchcraft has been a long trail of re-wilding, of shamanization, if you will. I started out influenced greatly by Doreen Valiente, who in turn was the chief student of Gerald Gardner. His work was, in my opinion, quite heavy on the ceremonial magic aspect of witchcraft. Looking back, my work has gotten more and more primal over the years. Closer and closer to the Earth.

As far as where I seek knowledge, and how I choose it...it generally shows up at the right time. At this point in my life, I tend to ask friends that I trust for book and teacher recommendations. I cast about online. I hit used book stores. I meditate about it. More often then not, the right teacher appears, even if only for a moment.

The runes are a great example of how I learn - I first studied them as a baby Pagan around age 15. I used them to record my magical work, and for divination. I even made my own rune sets to sell, complete with a book that I wrote and hand-bound. I thought I knew the runes.

About four years ago, I went to a rune class taught by a local Heathen group. When asked why I was there, I said that I wanted to learn about the cultural context of the runes in order to understand them better. Later, I found my coven and my study group, who then chose to study the runes with me. Following that path has not only deepened my understanding of the runes, it has enriched my shamanic work. It's helped me tie my ancestral magical heritage together. It has opened so many new vistas that I never dreamed possible. It has made me more whole. 

I guess that for me, determining and following new paths is really a process of peeling back the layers. Of retracing the steps of my ancestors. In some cases, going places I have been before with a new level of understanding. Spiralling backward to find a new way forward. And of course, following my nose to sniff out fresh trails!

Journeying with the Runes

Writing this blog has been a blessing to me, as have my study group, my old coven, and the Pagan community in general. Participating in discussions forces me to think about and verbalize the practices that I use subconsciously or innately in my life.

What I have overwhelmingly realized is that I don't need to add much of anything to my practice. My life is magical, and has been throughout. It's simply a matter of realizing it on a conscious level, bringing various things under conscious control, and delving more deeply into the well, so to speak.

One thing I have realized is that I get various types of messages. Sometimes it's in the form of a vision; my spirit names have come to me in this way. In both cases, I went into a spontaneous trance and received the name as a vision. Other times, there is a subtle knowing, like when driving, I will often know the next move of a nearby driver, or know that I need to go one way or the other on a familiar route. I also have occasional important dreams that give me some necessary information.

At other times, I go out on spiritual journeys. Occasionally, I have done this on purpose, but most often, it has again happened spontaneously. Early in my Pagan career, I practiced straight astral projection. That’s not what I’m doing now. This is definitely in the realm of the shaman, what I would call journeywork. Is it still my astral body? Christopher Penczak writes that shamanic journeying is “more than astral”, that it is whole-being, soul or psychic projection. Honestly, I don’t know. An interesting question, to be sure, but not a vital one for practitioners.

What happens for me is that I go to my inner temple – a special place within. I honor each element there, then perform whatever work is needed that day. When it’s time for a journey, I shapeshift. Usually, I change into a hawk and take flight. I fly first over the trees that surround my inner temple, then to the nearby river. The river takes me where I need to go.

My current project is to systematize my journeywork. I was blessed to meet a local eclectic oracular group who have been heavily influenced by seidr, the norse shamanism and magical work. The workshop in which I participated included direct experience. We went on a trance journey through the world tree and looked into the well of Mimir for answers. We later went into trance and answered questions ourselves. This was surprisingly easy and powerful for me. At first, it was very hard to speak what I was experiencing/seeing/feeling. My jaws felt frozen and my tongue wooden. After some timeless time, I spoke, and it began easier the more that I did it.

Afterwards, I was set afire with incorporating the runes into my journeywork. I have been a woman obsessed, researching and reading, dreaming and creating my own ways. This is the next logical step in my journey with the runes.

At this point, I don’t yet know if my journeying will lead to oracular work. Maybe. Maybe not, though. One can also work magic in the other realms, do healing work, explore, battle and many other things. So far, most of my travels have been in the middle realm – here on Earth. In the future, who knows?

It seems that it’s time for another vision quest. It’s been a while. I know that I have some unfinished business with a certain hilltop grove.

As I get older, I see that spiritual life…maybe all of life, is about re-discovering truths that we know deep in the center of our beings. It's not really about learning, or getting new truths or insights. No, instead, it is becoming aware of our multitude of talents, traits, characteristics, strengths and weaknesses. Learning is essential to this process, but often, the things that resonate most deeply with me when I learn something new…this is a thing that I remember. It may be a faint, far-off echo within my being, like a memory of a dream…but when examined, the call grows stronger, louder and clearer…like the tolling of a pure bell. A bell that rings with truth.