The Unity North Shamanic Drumming Circle provides an opportunity for community service, spiritual development and inner work through shamanic journeying, drumming and dance. Our normal way of dealing with metaphysics and ordinary reality (thinking about them, sharing ideas, interpreting, referring to a standardized set of symbol meanings, etc.) are set aside for the moment so that the voices of that other world may speak to us most clearly and not have their message contaminated by our ordinary-reality interpretations.

Participants should be familiar with the shamanic journey. Those wanting to participate but who have no prior experience would benefit by obtaining instruction from one of the regular participants before attending.

We follow a disciplined routine in order to create a safe vessel in which participants can have effective experiences.

Our Usual Schedule of Events

Ecstatic Drumming

Smudging

Calling the Directions

Circle Song and Naming Circle

Special Monthly Event

Shamanic Drumming for Journey

Sharing

Circle Song

Thanking and Dismissing the Directions

During Ecstatic Drumming, we let the spirit of the drum take us into various rhythms. This is how we as a small community become present and attune ourselves to one another in preparation for the work to be done for the evening. Some may dance.

Smudging is an act of purification of the space around us, of our bodies and of our intention.

In Calling the Directions, we are attuning ourselves with the world around us while we invite spiritual helpers to assist us.

The Circle Song is sung four times before the journey and three times at the close of the evening (the fourth time to be carried within us into the world).

The Special Monthly Event will be facilitated by the leader for a common purpose, such as divination, movement or healing.

Shamanic Drumming occurs for 20 to 30 minutes during which participants will drum, dance and/or journey. Drumming is to support the altered state, not to interact with it. The standard shamanic drum beat is a steady monotonous rhythm for the purpose of helping the journeyer and dancer to enter an altered state of consciousness and attend to non-ordinary reality.

Sharing is a way of honoring the journey by telling its story. Telling the story helps us to grasp it and, in the sharing of the journeys of as many as wish to, themes for the circle itself may become evident. The sharing time is brief as it is about the journeys, not about discussion or interpretation. This is neither a therapeutic nor interpretive group. The real teachers are in the other world and interpretation by group members of another's journey represents an invasion into the relationship between a journeyer and his or her teachers. The application of this-world concepts (especially psychological or metaphysical ones) can be devastating to this process. This does not imply mindless acceptance of whatever comes during the journey but, rather, if there are questions, they are taken back into the spirit world. (It is not "wrong" to comment on or interpret another's journey but it is preferable to do so outside of the circle so that the journeys themselves may speak there.)