UPDATE: Due to the great response we have had for my workshop, we have decided to add an extra date, Sunday 29th January. We want to keep numbers low for each workshop so I can give everyone plenty of individual attention and ensure I have time to answer questions and provide guidance.
I am very pleased to be able to announce this exciting workshop planned for January 28th “The Condor and the Jaguar – Shamanic Trance and Shamanic Dance” led by myself, and in partnership with Andrew Dunham of “The Chiswick Backman”. The workshop will cost £30 per person. This workshop will be strictly limited to 12 participants. Please write to Andrew with your request for bookings as soon as possible. The workshop will run from 1pm to 5pm.
Please see below for more information on this workshop. One lady who experienced my drumming for the first time told me that she had been practicing yoga for many many years but never once had been as close to an oceanic feeling of oneness as she had with just one of my drumming sessions. I say that really to draw attention not to myself, but to just how powerful shamanic drumming can be when you really experience it in person as opposed to using a CD, where you feel every nuanced beat and ringing of the drum around your body and the sacred space that you are in.
Contact
Andrew Dunham: backman@chiswick-backman.com
Website and directions: www.chiswick-backman.com
The Condor and the Jaguar: Shamanic Trance and Shamanic Dance Workshop
Shamanic drumming is a very ancient technique and for people who have never experienced it before it can be surprisingly powerful. It is still utilised in many shamanic cultures and communities around the globe, in ceremonies and in healing.
The workshop will start with an opening circle. The first drumming session will be a shamanic journey. This will enable you to journey into extremely deep dimensions of consciousness, being and the universe. The second part of the workshop will be a shamanic trance dance. This is an extremely powerful practice of free dance with shamanic drumming, enabling you to ground the energies of the journey into your mind, body and soul. We then end with a closing circle of thanks and gratitude, with full grounding and closure. If you are new to shamanic drumming, my following thoughts may help in learning more about this practice.
The Shamanic Journey
Invocation: I always start with a short invocation to the spirits who I work with, and the spirits of the four directions. For me, this helps me as a drummer express my humility and gratitude to those beings who choose to join the drumming session. When I am drumming, my intention is always to take my ego out of the drumming, so that the beats and rhythms that need to come through can do so through me, not by me.
Exploration: Many shaman will say that the universe consists of the physical world, the spiritual world, and the underworld, and many books on shamanic drumming will teach you visualization techniques for visiting the underworld. My own maestro teacher Javier however told me that the world consists of just the physical world and the spiritual world.
When I am doing shamanic drumming in groups I do not like to do either guided meditations or tell people what to expect or where to journey to. I would simply recommend that you make yourself comfortable (I normally lie down), slow your breathing down, and just let the drumming take you to where you need to journey to, without expectation. You will be surprised just what you can and will experience in this state, once you let the drumming take you into trance.
If you have not done shamanic drumming work before, you may find the beats difficult to get used to. This is normal, so just try and relax and not worry too much if you are finding it hard to get going.
Integration: After the journey, I do not like to end the session there. I always give people time to integrate either the information or the healing that they experienced on your journey.
When you experience this you will find that it gives you time for bathing in deep relaxation with no rush to come straight out of a shamanic journey back to your normal waking state. You are free to use this time in any which way you please.
Closure: I always start to bring you back into your body and the material world slowly. In guiding you through this process, and knowing that I will in advance, you are able to fully leave your body and journey, knowing that I am there as a guide to bring you back safely from whereever you have been and whatever you will have experienced.
I finish in honouring the spirits and closes the space that you have been journeying in. This is a time when I do the final grounding grounding so that you feel fully embodied, refreshed, and alive from the experience.
About Simon
Simon began his shamanic path under the guidance of the late Celtic shaman, healer and sculptor Dei Hughes. He has undertaken tantric initiations in Varanasi, India, and shamanic initiations as an apprentice ayahuasquero curandero with maestro Javier Arevalo. He is the author of the book “The Shaman and Snow White: Ayahuasca, San Pedro, Shamanic States of Consciousness and Certificate 18 Healing” and the CD “Shamanic Drumming and Shacapa Meditation”. He has a masters degree with distinction in Holistic Science from Schumacher College, Devon, UK where he wrote his dissertation “Ayahuasca Curandero.” He is the editor of www.transitionconsciousness.org and www.shamanicdrumming.co.uk.
On Amazon.co.uk:
Shamanic Drumming and Shacapa Meditation
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