Fall Drumming Retreat

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 erotic, life-loving energies.

The resort has a great sauna, so we’d definitely have steam ceremony (the lake is few steps away for those who want to do the classic post-steam dunk!). There is also a fabulous large outdoor fire ring on the beach and an indoor fireplace in the Lodge if it's raining or cold.

I imagine a weekend where we drum together surrounded by water, earth, air and fire - lots of fire. I don’t want to over-plan the weekend because I'd like to offer you some long stretches of rest, conversation, and silent contemplation if you wish, So even if you just want a break and don’t really want the steam or the drumming or the rowdy, erotic laughing, you are still heartily invited!

Beyond drumming together, I will offer those who want it the opportunity for creating your own personal ceremony working with the element fire, asking for energy, support, healing, or blessing of your own powers of eros. There is also massage available on site, and the people who own the resort do reflexology and aromatherapy. You can bring a drum or borrow one of my many instruments.

The cost is $210 and that includes lodging and Friday and Saturday dinner. The cabins have full kitchens for other food needs. There are restaurants about a ten minute drive away. I’ve tried to keep the cost as low as possible and I have a few scholarship spots if the fee is impossible for you to pay. It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive from the Twin Cities. You could arrive anytime after 3 on Friday, and I think it’s possible to go on Thursdays if you want to (that would add about another $60).

Please let me know if you would like to attend. I hope to keep the size of the group under 20. Email me at Jaime@drummingthesoulawake.com.

Thanks!

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 desire. Don’t’ worry. Just show up. Let the spirit of the drum drum you and dance you.

If you have been thinking to yourself “Oh, I’d like to try to get to drumming sometime” or if you’ve thought “Oh, how I miss drumming” or "God, I really need SOMETHING to move me" or if you are thinking “who is this nut writing this email?” now is the time. Just show up, and fear not. Don’t let that worldly inertia win this time. Stand up to the voices that say "too tired, too bummed, too worried, too poor, too embarrassed…" on and on the voices go. I know these voices well, because they are in me all the time and the drum has been the greatest gift of my life to help me stand up against any voce that tells me to remain small and sad, empty and disappointed and disconnected.

I’m no expert, I’m not wise man, I’m no guru. I’m a guy that fell in love with the drum and was opened, opened. It doesn’t matter if you want ecstatic fun, human connection, answers to that old question, healing from that wound, some way of running the sadness through you so it stops choking you, some way of touching the Divine, the otherworld, the Mighty Ones, the Holy Spirit – it’s all there in the drum. Welcome.

See you soon,

Jaime

August 2009 Experiences

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 described below will be limited to less than a dozen people, and focused on exploring the modern shamanic path. If you are looking only for cool, spirit-filled drumming, August 7th is for you, and you can skip the rest of this email. If you are interested in an introduction to the modern shamanic path, read on, traveler, read on.

Other August Drum Experiences
If you are interested in any of the below, please email me your reservation. I have a couple of scholarship spots open, so if money is your only obstacle to attending any of these, please feel free to contact me, and don’t let money stop you. There is also what I call “the intensive option” which is a way of adding in more individual guidance from me as you work through all or any of the experiences below. You can choose to attend one or more of the “intensive meetings” in this option.

Saturday Aug 8: Shamanic Experience: The Wisdom of Wild Things
1-4 PM Cost: $45 Intensive mtg. at 11:30
This work will focus on what are often called “power animals.” For those of you who have no experience in this area, this will be a very good introduction and will lay the groundwork for a great deal of further shamanic study. For those who have had experience with power animals, you can use this workshop to deepen your relationship with the other world. Location: Hidden Falls Park, North entrance. We will meet in the open space near the covered dining areas.
Click for Directions

Friday 14th Intensive meeting 7-8:30 PM At First Universalist Church, 34th and Dupont
Saturday Aug: 15: Shamanic Experience: The Healing of the Waters
1-4 PM Cost: $45
This experience is dedicated to asking to be healed. It will involve getting wet. Very, very wet. Like all shamanic work, this will be most effective for you if you bring to it a very open and trusting heart and a deep need to be set free from what has wounded you.
Location: Hidden Falls Park, North entrance. We will meet in the open space near the covered dining areas.
Click for Directions

Friday Aug 28: Intensive meeting 7-8:30 PM
Saturday Aug 29: Shamanic Experience: The Baptism of the Elements
1-4 PM Cost: $45
The focus is on making a change in your life, asking for support for that change from the elements (earth, water, fire and air) and also making a promise to the elements. This is a simple sounding experience, but I can tell you from experience that it can be quite challenging and profound, and absolutely not to be taken lightly.
Location: To be determined.

Sunday Aug 30: intensive meeting/coffee chat 10 am-11:30

You can sign up for all of the above, or pick and choose.

Intensive option: Like our Friday drums, all of the above are “stand-alone” experiences that require no preparation, no follow up, and no previous experience. Also like the Friday drums, if you chose to participate in all of these experiences, they build on one another creating a total that is greater than the sum of the parts. For those who have previous shamanic experience or want want to go deeper into this kind of study, I have what I call the Intensive option which is merely a way for us to work on crafting your journey through these experiences more to you specific, individual needs. Those choosing this option will have the option to meet with me one-on one and also as a group.

Payment:
If you are not part of the intensive study, please feel free to pay on the spot at any of the experiences you are able to attend. Cash is best, but checks are okay too.

For those in the intensive study your total cost is $250. I ask that you pay $150 in advance of or at the first meeting on Aug. 7, and $100 by Friday Aug 29 (unless I have made other arrangements with you). If this poses a problem let’s chat about the timing. If you decide to exit the study before Aug 15, I will refund $75, and no refunds will happen after that point. It’s outside of my nature to sound so strict, but I consider the commitment you are making to be very important. I will work very hard to give you the best experience and guidance I can, and hope you will return this by placing this brief time period very high on your priority list. You may pay by check or cash at our first meeting, or you can pay through www.paypal.com (click on “send money” and enter jaime@drummingthesoulawake.com ).

Thanks to you all for your shimmering courage and your warm yearning.
Jaime

"Sun God*" by Anya ´broom rider´ Kholodova

Dear Drummers,

You’d think a shamanish-mythic guy like me would pay more attention to the summer solstice. The winter solstice – I’m totally wrapped up in that, but why is the summer solstice less important to me?

The winter solstice has been drawn into the mainstream by the influence of feminism. The images around the winter solstice are immediately accessible to all: rebirth, hope, light in the dark time. You don’t need to be in any way pagan to love these ideas. The winter solstice is also powerfully rebellious – it’s the anti-Christmas holiday, but placed at the same time of year so you get to eat fudge without needing to obey Jesus.

The summer solstice has none of this going for it, and it has a major strike against it: it focuses on the divine masculine, and this makes my feminist energies uncomfortable. I danced my way to the great mother largely because I was tired of having the divine masculine jammed down my mythic gullet. I have been wanting to explore and rectify my own resistance to the summer solstice.

In the pagan world it is said that the summer solstice honors the sun god in all his full, blooming, exuberant, life-giving, Yang-ness. The Celts connected summer to the direction south, where the sun comes from, climbing its way up from the southern horizon day by day after the winter solstice and returning there as winter returns. And for the Celts, the south is the mythic direction associated with exuberant, sensuous, celebratory reveling of the life force: music, dancing, love-making and feasting are all qualities of the south and summer.

But the summer solstice is also the point on the wheel of the year when the sun begins its descent toward the darkness of the winter solstice. So the day that we celebrate as the first day of summer is actually the last day of the sun-god’s brilliant fullness. There is a grieving here and this is another reason why the summer solstice has not made it into the mainstream.

But how beautiful, and how exactly like all of life: in the midst of the greatest, most intense joy, the grieving: the knowledge that life is linked inextricably with death, that everything is transient. Your lover’s face will grow old, and yours too; the darkness will come. Isn’t this what makes orgasm so powerful and so sought after – the fact that it only lasts a few moments? The sun turns its back on us and heads south, and we cry out over the unfairness; summer should last longer, the life force should never wane or transform or abandon us.

So we create heaven and we tell our children that death is only an illusion, or only for some, but not us. The Celts created “Summerland” - sort of a version of heaven where it’s always summer, and the trees have blossoms, fruit and nuts all the time, where it’s never night and the air is filled with constant music, dancing and revelry. Summerland is heaven with sex and whiskey, and that is why I think the Celts are the smartest people in the world.

There is nothing at all wrong with heaven unless, as is so often the case, your vision of heaven keeps you from dancing, eating, singing and kissing your ever-loving worldly heart out while in this life, and sneering at those who aren’t afraid to. If the summer solstice teaches us anything, it teaches us to not be afraid of loving this world, loving our bodies, and loving our desires and our skills, and loving this moment - this moment, now, as the sun god does.

So this Friday, please come prepared for exuberance. Bring cut flowers if you can, and maybe a little summery kind of snack. And don’t be distressed if you can’t, or if you forget.

I leave you with this poem from my book “Drumming The Soul Awake”

Don’t listen to those who tell you
it’s wrong to love me.
Untie those perfectly starched clothes
and open your soft animal body.

Seawater wears down the sharp rocks
kiss after soft kiss
then takes such pleasure moving a slow hand
over that smooth roundness.

The southern breeze runs its fingers
through the trees
and they can’t hold back their bursting:
One after another fragrant sighs fill the air.

And that flame — how it licks at the crevices
between trembling logs.
Can’t you hear them crying out:
“Glowing like this is what I was made for!”

How I enjoy stealing up behind you
on your peaceful walk through the shady woods.
How you moan with surprise and fall open to me.
How I love to sing to you from
the night branches
holding my distance until you beg me
in that particular voice
to climb in your window
and utterly own you.

But, beloved, you know a secret dance —
the one they warned you not to learn.
When you open your soft animal body
you become my favorite wine
and before I know it
I come begging you for that particular kiss.

© 2006 by Jaime Meyer. I am compelled to admit that the “soft animal body” line is a quote from Mary Oliver’s poem The Wild Geese.

Appearing and Vanishing

Dear Drummers,

Welcome all, welcome newcomers and old-comers, welcome rhythmically proficient and groovlically challenged, welcome to anyone who wants to set in motion their hands, their arms, their bodies, and most important, their life-loving, love-living, ever-pulsing Spirit, that Spirit coursing through you that loves your Earth and earths your love! Welcome, welcome to drumming this Friday, June 5th.

The photo above is a robin’s nest that seemed to suddenly appear on the second-story window sill of our house two weeks ago. Ten days ago, these eggs appeared. A few days ago, two gooey, trembling almost-birds appeared. A couple of days ago, fully feathered small robins seemed to replace the previous occupants. This morning the nest was empty. Tonight, while playing catch with my two boys in the front yard, a sudden explosion of bird screeches made us run to the back yard where we witnessed no less than six robins attacking, as mightily as they were able to, a large, dark bird. They all scuttled through the shadowed branches of the giant elm, appearing here, disappearing there, until finally the large bird swooped out – maybe a Cooper’s hawk – I’ve seen him fly through our yard low several times lately, gliding low past the living room window – or maybe it was a crow. In the large bird’s mouth, a trembling baby robin. A few muscular flaps of its long wings, and the dark bird was gone, skimming just out of reach of the tree tops, the community of robins only able to watch: stunned, quiet, empty as the sun sank down.

And so it goes, this life in which each and every one of us eats, and each and every one of us becomes food.

And so we drum.

Addendum: This morning I awoke to the sound of small wings fluttering against the window. I looked out, and there I saw the mother robin, perched in the nest - preparing it for the next brood? Robins typically have two broods per season, sometines three. On it goes, this dance between eros and thanatos, the life force and death force, both of whom sing to us at each moment. On it goes, on and on.

And so we drum together.