The Flying Drum

A Simon & Schuster eBook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every reader.

In The Flying Drum, author and therapist, Bradford Keeney, presents evidence of real mojo—magical objects and practices from around the globe that have an authenticated history of healing, transformation, and inspiration. Whether it is a flying drum, dancing doll, vanishing pot, magical drawing, Samurai pillow, divining sticks, mystery book, or Amazonian feather, the mojo of ancient heart-medicine can appear at social service agencies, university clinics, and psychotherapy centers to help transform people’s lives and heal their souls. As a modern mojo doctor and therapist, Keeney helps everyday people with real problems by working with the ancient, living mojo in sacred objects. In this book he offers specific prescriptions for taking a journey that introduces a treasure chest of magical experience capable of bringing authentic magic and wonder into everyday life.

In response to the phenomenal resurgence of the drum nationwide, Michael has completely revised and expanded the 1991 edition for all those folks discovering the power of drumming. This useful book reveals profound teachings about shamanic drumming, which is a time-honored method of healing and helping others. Trained as a ceremonial drummer in the Mongolian and Native American shamanic traditions, Michael presents the first practical guide to applying this ancient healing art to our modern lives. Through a series of simple exercises, lessons, and rituals, he teaches you the basic shamanic methods of drumming. The focus is on creating sacred space, journeying, power practice, power animals, geomancy, drum therapy, drum harmonics, drum circle dynamics, and the universal rhythmic phenomena that come into play whenever we drum. The techniques are simple and powerful. Whether you are an accomplished percussionist or a total beginner, this user-friendly book will help you harness the power of drumming.

The Big Drum is the lively ancient dance rite of the small island of Carriacou, Grenada. This book introduces 120 of the song texts & dances that call & entertain the ancestors who are central to Carriacou religious experience. Performed since the early 1700s, the Big Drum dance reveals an African-Caribbean religion at its inception as practiced by enslaved people & in its current expression as a vital, living aspect of Carriacou society. No other Caribbean ritual like it still exists. The author maintains that the nine coded rhythms of the boula drums hold the history of the nine African "nations" that inhabited early Carriacou, keeping alive their memories of Africa & of family lineage. In discussion of the spiritual bases of the Yoruba dances of Grenada, Trinidad, Cuba, & Jamaica, the author illustrates the connection between the liturgical symbols of danced religions & the ancient myth of "The Flying Africans." The author concludes with an analysis of a single calypso that memorializes the 1983 invasion of Grenada & illustrates the history-keeping function of the calypso & Big Drum. She uncovers a structural relationship between ancient praisesongs & modern political songs & suggests the continuing impact of music on the memory of the Caribbean people.