The Collapse

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Dear Drummers,

Welcome one and all to the next boom-boom-whacka-whacka-thump-tikka-takka-thump- drumming gathering. If you have been wishing you’d finally make it to a drum, turn those thoughts into life-loving action and join in this week for what will be great deal of lighthearted fun. Well, lighthearted for the first 93 minutes or so, and then…well, I’ll get to that.

Some days I write a really smart, insightful letter to you that lays out a stunning, imaginative plan for the upcoming drum. And then I erase it because it’s all a bunch of insincere crap. Today is one of those days, and I have to go back to being honest, which always scares me.

The past few days I’ve noticed that my dreams have been overwhelmingly anxious. I wake up having been chased around by wild-haired women who bite me all over with razor sharp teeth, or I wake up after driving fast along winding mountain roads, with those three guffawing yellow-toothed murderers trying to run me off a cliff. I began to realize that these dreams are otherworldly translations of the ambient anxiety upon which we are all floating these days – worry over the economy, job losses and the future. I personally welcome the change that we are seeing – a forced move away from panting consumerism that is so destructive. But I admit to wishing everything was back to “normal” with my house ballooning in (false) value, and being able to refinance again and again to feel (falsely) ever-richer.

The collapsing economy is, in essence a collapse of cultural mythology. What we all “bought into” is collapsing under us. It does not matter if you welcome this new world or fear it; we are all in the collapse together.

So I wrote a really smart letter and laid out a wonderful plan, and it was all so spiritually hip except for the fact that I had completely ignored what I had been told by the spirit world earlier this week. I ignored it because I was afraid of it - afraid of doing what I was advised to do. Finally after far too much typing of brilliant, flat and meaningless drivel, I came back around to saying yes to the advice.

When the mythic structure is collapsing, it’s even more important to drum, for two reasons. First, the drum catches you, cradles and embraces you. Second, the drum reminds you that you are not really falling, but changing, which certainly can feel like falling. So the drum is a great help right now, a necessary tool to help us remain grounded, calm and focused on what matters most. Coming on Friday just to let the drum hold you – that is reason enough to make your way to the group.

After that 93 minutes or so of drumming we will head into the ceremonial part of the evening involving some shamanic activity that I’d rather not do, but I trust it has a healing value or it would not be made so present to me this week. Time after time when I am resistant to what the spirit world asks of me, and when I take the courage to move against that resistance, to melt into trust, I have found that there is a healing involved. I think the spirit world wants to offer you that kind of healing, so I’ll do what I can to follow its advice this Friday during the ceremonial part of the evening. As always, you’ll have the complete freedom to participate in whatever way feels true and right for you.

But we will begin the evening with rambunctious, rowdy rhythmocity, moving toward sublime, supine (but not sub-prime) soulfulness.

Welcome fellow travelers in the landscape of the inner body! Welcome adventurers of the soul-scape! Welcome one and all!

Jaime

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