I was first introduced to this practice by my beautiful friend Melissa who is of Native American descent. And since those first few times I have gone on to do this many times, not as a core practice of mine but every so often when the opportunity arises. It's a great way to connect with your self more deeply, it alters the brain waves and creates a situation for guidance to come through.
I don't actually have a drum myself, yet I was given a pretty cool rattle to 'hold on to for a while'. The rattle was made by Shipibo elders in Peru. I can feel the presence of the rattle, and it's loud shrill noise will definitely disperse any malevolent spirits.
The journeyers will find a way to be still and comfortable. It is most easy to do when lying down, but you can do this sitting as well. The person drumming can also journey, but it may require some practice to drum and journey at the same time. When Melissa drums for us, she also journeys and reports that these are short and concise and perhaps less immersive. We close our eyes and can use something to cover our eyes, this helps to focus the intention inward.
By beating the drum in a steady way, it changes the brain waves moving us more into the Alpha and Theta parts of the spectrum. This is a receptive state, where the intention of journeying and going through the mental process will create an internal experience. The Journey experience can come through visually, but also with any of the other senses. The mind is relaxed and un-intrusive but still functional, insights and intuitive guidance can come through.
We use a portal to initiate the journey when the drumming begins. The portal is unique to each individual, and serves as a means to go down into the earth to the other realm or realms. Some people use a hollow in a tree, or a cave. I tend to imagine just wading into the ocean and then going down a hole under the water. This twists and turns for a while as the drumming continues and then I am spat out into the other world. The experience varies for everyone, and there is no right and wrong. Personally I have had very powerful journeys at times, and at other times it seemed more 'imaginary' or distant.
During the journey the journeyers generally call upon guides and helpers who take us through the other world and show us things. These can be animal spirits or power animals, but also dieties, angels, and multi dimensional beings. It could also just be a presence of some kind. As I have said there is no right or wrong with this, and everything that we experience seems to amount to a kind of 'message' which can be a metaphor. You never really know what you will get, some times it will be a huge tiger, other times something it will be a house cat. One time I actually spoke to an extra terrestrial, it took me a second to allow myself to be OK with that.
More often than not I experience things that don't make any sense at all to me, so I simply accept them and allow them. Some times when we share afterwards these things actually make sense to some one else. Journeying can be insightful, but it's less about getting a coherent story for mind and more about connecting in to expanded states of consciousness. These expanded states tend to function in very non linear ways.
We journeyed today, and we used several intentions. One of our intentions was to ask the question:
This question had arisen from some current events and some alarming statistics, so we took the opportunity to see what healing we could bring forth and what kind of future we can imagine and also hold within ourselves. The results from the journey were very positive, and I feel OK to share them here on Steemit due to the nature of our journey and the people that I journeyed with.
One recurring insight was that the emphasis on separation was much less. The idea of children and adults; and also animals plants and everything else, as being separate - was an idea that we could do away with. Coming from a unified and integrated space, we naturally know that every piece of life should be loved and can base our decisions and actions around that. The internally divided state is creating these situations for children to suffer unnecessarily. By living in a connected way we would simply not be able to act so selfishly and hurtfully.
Another thing that came up was our role as parents and adults. Adults are learning to 'grow up' enough to provide the right kind of environments for our children, allowing their natural insights to come forward. The assumption of adult knowledge and child ignorance is actually flipped upside down. We bring children into all spheres of life, to break the separation of adult seriousness syndrome. Rarely are our decisions based purely on everyone's well being, it's always an excuse based on our economic games or self importance that makes us compromise. Our children's simplicity and honesty helps keep everyone accountable. We can learn a lot from children if we could quiet down enough to actually listen. Children have a general tendency to be highly sensitive and intuitive, why did we create a world that is hard to exist in for the sensitive soul? It's not too late to create a more aligned world, we are continually creating.
My personal journey showed me a scene of dome like earth buildings, and inside children sat in a circle holding hands. These were holy children who clearly knew about spirit and held a kind of sacred silence. In this vision the adults were background figures who dutifully attended to the small tasks that keep everything running smoothly - leaving these children center stage to be and do what they were naturally inclined to. I also envisioned myself as a toddler, and tasting a fingerfull of delicous vegan chocolate goop. No child should be going hungry because of our silly games, so I set my prayer out that very soon we can revolutionize our economic systems to empower and assist everyone who experiences lack for one or more reasons that we have created ouselves.
Peace Love Balance
