When The Drummers Were Women A Spiritual History Of Rhythm

For millennia, the sacred drummers of pre-Christian Mediterranean and western Asia were women. In this inspiring book, Layne Redmond, herself a renowned drummer, tells their history. Artistic representations reveal that female frame drummers carried the spiritual traditions of many of the earliest recorded civilizations. During those ancient times, the drummer-priestesses held the keys to experience of the divine through rhythm. They were at the center of the goddess worship of matriarchal societies until the ascendance of patriarchal cultures and the loss of drumming as a spiritual technology. With wisdom and passion, Redmond chronicles our species’ deep connection to the drum, our rich heritage of inseparable spirituality and music, and the modern-day women reclaiming it. This book encourages readers—both women and men—to reestablish rhythmic links with themselves, nature, and other people through the power of drumming. Redmond illustrates her message with an extensive collection of images gathered during ten years of research and travel. Woven throughout the book are strands of ancient ritual and mythology, personal stories, and scientific evidence of the benefits of drumming. It is at once a history, a memoir, and a resounding call for spiritual and social renewal.

Take a guided tour from a writer who grew up and studied on Native American reservations and join those throughout the world—from Siberia to South America, Australia to Africa—who venerate the drum for its healing and celebratory powers. Through painting, cleansing, blessing, smudging, dedicating, chanting, and performing, you’ll find your own special beat, transforming the drum into a medicinal tool. Become one with a purchased or homemade instrument. Draw on the knowledge of Native American and other cultures to drum away fear, purify, establish a sacred space, and reach into areas of the consciousness that would otherwise be inaccessible. Extra special bonus: a CD with more than an hour’s worth of music for a Sacred Directions ceremony, meditation, trance, and more.

In The Healing Power of the Drum psychotherapist and drum facilitator, Robert Lawrence Friedman weaves an extraordinary tapestry of personal experience, fascinating anecdotes, and compelling research, demonstrating the hand drum's capacity to provide significant health benefits for everyone. This breakthrough book examines the use of hand drums in treating at-risk adolescents, stress-out employees, veterans, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Autism and more. Find joy and self-expression in The Healing Power of the Drum.

Explores the role of drums, rattles, and gongs in human societies revealing the primal hypnotic power of these instruments

An approachable introduction to the drum kit, drummers, and drumming, and the key debates surrounding the instrument and its players.

Our chakras—the seven energy centers located from the base of the spine to the crown of the head—govern every aspect of our health and consciousness. Resting in the lower chakra is the primordial life force of kundalini. With Chakra Meditation, Layne Redmond presents a complete program for awakening kundalini and bringing its cleansing, revitalizing energy up through all seven of your chakras. Combining five traditional yogic techniques—visualization, breathing, postures, sacred sounds, and meditation—Redmond provides a safe and effective system to tune each chakra and open you to inner sources of inspiration and personal power. This book-and-CD training program includes: Eight full-color chakra yantra (sacred geometry) illustrations to help focus your healing meditations • The "Breath of Fire" practice to cleanse the respiratory system • Yogic gazing techniques to sharpen concentration, release anger, and rejuvenate the eyes • Nadi shodhana (alternate nostril) breathing to purify the energy channels in the body • A full 30-minute chakra purification practice to enhance physical health, emotional balance, and spiritual growth

A volume ideal for classes in women's studies, religious studies and the sociology of religion, Daughters of the Goddess also serves as an invaluable guide for anyone wishing to gain a thorough introduction to this rapidly growing religious and cultural movement."--BOOK JACKET.

Hiding in a lake under lily pads after fleeing U.S. soldiers, a Dakota woman was given a vision over the course of four days instructing her to build a large drum and teaching her the songs that would bring peace and end the killing of her people. From the Dakota, the "big drum" spread throughout the Algonquian-speaking tribes to the Ojibwe, becoming the centerpiece of their religious ceremonies. This edition of "The Ojibwe Dance Drum, "originally created through the collaboration of Ojibwe drum maker and singer William Bineshii Baker Sr. and folklorist Thomas Vennum, has a new introduction by history professor Rick St. Germaine that discusses the research behind this book and updates readers on the recent history of the Ojibwe Drum Dance.