If you have difficulty with inner work, mind-travel to the sound of shamanic drumming may turn out to be your method of choice in connecting with inner guidance. There is nothing like the hypnotic, heartbeat rhythm of the drum to get us out of the egoic mind and into alternate realities.From the Siberian tradition, where shamanism began, to Chi Kung (Qi Gong), Native American practice, and the many flourishing drumming circles that have come out of Michael Harner's teachings — and whether or not drumming is a part of the ceremony — a shaman's contact with spiritual information is achieved by traveling in consciousness into the Other World — the Lower, Middle, and Upper worlds that lie behind and beyond the everyday reality perceived by our physical senses.
For most, shamanic journeys begin with drumming. You "ride" on the sound of the drumbeat, which becomes the heartbeat of the Earth or the Universe. If you can't find a drumming circle, you can purchase a taped shamanic drumming session. It should last no more than 20 or 30 minutes, at least in the beginning. Some tapes have drumming on one side, and a guided journey meditation, also with drumming, on the other.
Most shamans suggest that before we do journeying we first acquire a Power Animal or Guide. If you visit a shaman, he or she may do the journeying for you to identify and retrieve the Power Animal that wants to walk with you at this time, "blowing" it into your body through the heart chakra. But there is no reason you cannot journey on your own to find your Guide.
There are various methods of imagining the route to the Other World. For example, the path to the Lower World, where we would go to find our Power Animals, might be down through the roots of a tree, or through a cave. The path to the Upper World might appear to us as a flying carpet, or a crystalline staircase "to the stars," or a whirlwind that simple picks us up like Dorothy and drops us down in the Other World.
Many shamanic traditions, like the one Shiela Baker uses, begin by envisioning a birchbark canoe for their journeys. (This is reminiscent of the visionary boats that the Ancient Egyptians used for their travels to the Underworld.) If you are working with a shaman, you would simply follow his or her suggestions.
Let the drumming begin.
Source: Sheila Baker
