Drumming The Soul Awake

Drummers: This is the huge mother-drum-heartbeat-of-the-earth that we'll be using in the solstice show Dec. 18-19. Please join me in welcoming it at the drum group this Friday Dec 4 th . This drum has a great deal to teach us about claiming our fierce power and we will enter into that study this Friday . See you soon! Jaime

Dear Drummers, The letter for this Friday’s drum is below, but I do want to remind you of the fifth annual “Winter Solstice Blessing.” It’s at the Minnesota Opera Center. Seats are limited and we only have 2 performances rather than the usual four to six. If you really want to attend, I suggest you get tickets soon. Click here to buy tickets on line. Click here for more information about the experience. Dear Drummers, Welcome to the joyous jumble of groovelicious rhythmocity known as Drumming The Soul Awake, this Friday, November 27! (See the sidebar at right for directions ) Welcome one and all! Welcome tap-tender beginners and slap-happy whappers ! Welcome all. Welcome to all of you who have made the drum your spiritual tool and those of you who sense that drumming might be a fun thing to try. Welcome to you who always want to get to our drumming evenings and never quite seem to. Welcome to you who have heard tantalizing stories of wild, laugh-filled, mystical experiences bursting...

Dear Drummers, Welcome to you, oh wild wanderers on the road of wonder, you who know you are bigger than your worries, bigger than your envies, bigger than your fears. (You know you are, though so many voices tell you that you are a small, quivering thing and you should act like it.) Welcome, seekers after the heartbeat of the deep, oh open-armed lovers of the pulse of life. Welcome you who want the kiss of the stars, the kiss of the moonlight on the rolling hills, the kiss of the sea rolling against the sand. Welcome, you who ache to learn the next verse of “Oran Mor,” the “great song” of the universe. Welcome one and all to the drum this Friday, November 13th 7-9 PM at First Universalist Church, 34th and Dupont, in mystical uptown, Minneapolis. If you are like the rest of us, you say,” Oh I really want to make it to drumming!” and then Friday comes and some force steps in your way - inertia, tiredness, shyness, fear, and you say “Ah, well, maybe another time...” I say to you now, be...

I read recently that in the early 20th century, the sum total of human knowledge would double every generation. Now it doubles every year or faster. You could say that our daily world is moving 40 times faster than our parents’ world did. Technology advances so swiftly that none of us can keep up completely. Our lives become like a ride I went on in Copenhagen a few weeks ago, called the Himmelskibet which means “Sky-Boat” (but we called it the “Shpinup-Highunpuker”). Spiritual work, at least how I see it, is our way of entering into a power that helps us slow down this whirling thing we call our life so that we can make decisions not out of shrieking, wind-blown terror as we clutch the handle of our Sky-Boat, but out of the power of beauty. This is what I hope our drumming does for you. Stanley Schachter conducted a famous experiment years ago in which young women were told they would be given electric shocks. The more anxious they were about the shocks, the more they wanted to wait w...

I have been offered an extraordinary opportunity to hold a drumming retreat Oct 9-11 (Friday-Sunday) at a lovely resort, Crow Wing Crest Lodge, near Brainerd . Click here to see their web site. I've been there twice with my family, and it is very beautiful and peaceful, located on a lovely lake near great hiking trails (and Itasca State Park) and it's more upscale than places we have held retreats at in the past (It has actual beds, actual living rooms and couches.) We would be the only people there that weekend, and the autumn colors should still be vibrant. I’m calling the retreat "Nurturing the Fires of Eros." The weekend is dedicated to the element fire, and we would ask that spirit to help us nurture (or reignite) the life-force - the fire of eros - that is in us, that animates our creativity, boldness, curiosity, confidence, pleasures, and passion for life. We would also ask the element fire to cleanse us of any obstacles in us that inhibit the flow of our erot...

Welcome one and all to the 8th boom-boom-chakk-chakka-tikka-tik-boom year of Drumming the Soul Awake! Friday, Sept 11, 2009, 7PM -9:30 PM. Welcome to the newcomers and the old comers, the once-in-awhile and the every-ones, the dancers, the thump-thumpers, the explorers, the timid, the loquacious, the whappity-whappers and the closed-eyed reverie-ers. Welcome to you who are on fire with Spirit, and to you afloat in grief and confusion, and to you air-borne thinkers of grand thoughts, and welcome to you lovers of the moist, dark, mothering earth who teaches us how to be human beings. Welcome one and all. For those of you newer to this, usually about 25 people show up, we drum for about 90 minutes – with a little guidance from me, but mostly my job is to get out of the way of the emerging groove. If you are new to drumming, I’ll teach you what you need to know, don’t worry. I have mounds of drums and rattles and shaky, thumpy, scratchy, woo-wooy gizmos to satisfy just about every rhythmic...

Amanda Hone Dear seekers after earthy wonder, I can’t stand it, I want to drum. I want to drum in the woods. How about you? It's a full moon this Friday. Below are a series of drumming experiences I am offering in August. The first one, August 7th (7-9:30PM) is most like one of our usual drumming events, except it will be outdoors. The location is Hidden Falls Park, North Entrance . (There is a south entrance too, but we will be at the north entrance). We will meet in the open space near the covered dining areas. Then I will lead you to a hidden spot in the woods, and we will drum, drum, drum for about an hour. Then the second part of the evening will focus on contacting the spirits of nature. Wa-hoo! Click for Directions. Bring a blanket or camp chair to sit on. And bug spray if you need it. And water to drink. And an absolute lack of worry about how you look when you are sweating and ecstatic. And a dose of curiosity. And a love of this wondrous earth. The remaining August events...