Red Drum Carrier
On Saturday October 14th I became a red drum carrier. It was an honor to make my drum, to journey with her, to be able to use her sacred medicine in my Reiki practice, and for my own personal healing.
First, let me give a bit of the 'herstory' of the Red Drum. This is the creation of Nikiah Seeds of Red Moon Pathways. She is a priestess, shaman, author, and a spiritual teacher. On one of her journeys while creating her own drum she saw everything cloaked in red, including her drum. "Over the years she dove into women's healing work, co-authored a book on menstrual wisdom, and found a long established connection between women and the color red. In her studies, she found that in herstory women were the very first shamans and drum carriers. Nikiah has since created a beautiful practice in creating a red drum made from sacred elk skins hunted by natives in her area and the ring of cedar also made by a craftsmen local to her. She has brought back the connection women have with the drum and the sacredness we emanate with the frequency of our drums. She has birthed a large community of red drum carriers and has established a team of Red Drum Leaders to bring this medicine into many hands." Tatiana Wild, my beautiful Red Drum Leader.
I first heard the call of the red drum in June of this year. It would be 5 months before I would be able to sit in ceremony and create her. It was so incredible hearing the other women's womb stories. We all took time to hold space for one another before we created our sacred red drums, to hear and honor our womb wounds. This is more than just creating a drum. It is about healing our wounds as we create this drum. Specifically the wounds of our womb. The whole process is done in sacred ceremony. When it was time, we each took our turn reaching into the beautiful bath that our skins had been soaking in for the last several hours, dyeing them each a unique shade of red. We lovingly wrapped them in a red cloth and took them over to the fire to start putting our drums together. I punched holes in the hide, stretched it around the cedar frame, then began weaving the nylon cord through the holes. It is a long process of securing the skin to the frame. It take patience and awareness to make the necessary adjustments as you go along. More than once I had to pick out my mistakes when I lost my focus and did my work unconsciously. My fingers were sore and tired from tightening the cords, but it was all worth it in the end. It was as beautiful as I imagined it would be. At the end of the day, we stood in a sacred circle once again and talked about our experience of making the drum, and if we had discovered our drums name, we shared that too. I knew Rose was a part of her name, but her whole name didn't come to me until later that night while at home. It had been such a long day with most of it spent outside by the fire. Although it was a sunny day, and we had a fire, I was frozen to my core for most of the time outside. I didn't dress warm enough for my body, and my joints were aching by the time I got home. I ran a hot bath to get me warm, and it was while I was soaking in the hot water that the full name of my beautiful drum came to me.
The secret from the Universe for today is this, we all march to the beat of our own drum. We are all carriers of sacred medicine for each other. Thank God we are all unique in our gifts and in our talents. Nikiah's vision during her journey has blossomed in ways I'm sure she never could have imagined in the beginning. Now, thousands of women have made beautiful red drums all over the world because she listened to the special beat of her own heart. What a gift! We can all do that too. May the Universe inspire each of you to make a difference in your own little corner of the world. Make it brighter, make it better, make it shine!
Namaste!
www.iamsacredlight.com
www.sacredlights.net
www.sacredlighthealing.blogspot.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByM4YAvwap4
Comments
Post a Comment