Traveling the world tree

Photo by Petri Laakso

I had a pleasure to meet a handful of local pagans for talking and traveling via drumming yesterday evening. In a local drum circle meeting there was first some half an hour of talking about what travelling via drumming is all about, then three about half an hour rounds of drumming. Two of those rounds were played with my self-made drum (pictured above), one with two drums of other individuals present.

I was asked to speak a bit about drumming as a magical technique and things involved. Since shamanism and its universal traits in their many forms have been of great interest to me both academically and magically for more than a decade, I was very happy to ask some questions from participants and also to say few words on the subject myself.

I decided to touch upon some very basic questions involved. What is actually taking place when you “travel” via drumming? What is the context where the experience takes place? How your traveling via drumming differs f.ex from some classical Siberian shaman’s context and contents of the experience – in physical, social, and conscious realms? What kind of shared elements are there?

I don’t to try explain here what I experienced during the drumming. As I said during the meeting while talking about the experience, I think that suprarational experience typical of traveling via drumming is something that is best grasped with a rather poetic language. I also noted, that if individual’s involved have studied enough the best sources available about shamanistic tradition they are using as their context and if they have synthesized that knowledge with personal experiments and experience (Dr. Stephen Edred Flowers has called this the polarian method), it is possible to understand what people mean by such a “poetic” language, as well as to truly link with transpersonal current involved instead of just indulging in some strictly subjective fantasy world.

My thanks for the organizer of the event and everybody present. It was a good evening in a good company. I am looking for more of these events.