GODDESS DRUMMING CEREMONY

Serendipity

Several years ago, I attended a drumming ceremony given by artist, Lynn Yeatts. I had never drummed before and was looking forward to meeting women in our area of Roanoke, Virginia who practiced drumming. The evening will long live in my memory as one of the most enchanting times I have experienced.

After finding one excuse after another for postponing having my own ceremony, I finally decided to move forward with it.

What about drums? Some of the women who are planning to attend were in need of a drum. I had two in storage, I thought. After digging through my stash of misladen and forgotten items, I was able to find only one. I needed to find more, so today I made a trip to Happys Flea Market and hit the mother lode! It’s amazing how the universe seems to provide at just the right time. I go to Happys every Sunday and I’ve never seen drums and today I found four!

Intricate carving

The first two drums are hand carved with what looks like buffalo hide tops. Another one says ‘percussion’ on it. The fourth drum is the one that intrigued me the most. It is not a drum at all but an old tin candy box from yesteryear. It is hard to believe candy used to be packaged in these beautiful tins. This one has faces of women on the top. Even though the faces are highly distressed, they are beautiful. When I picked the box up, I tapped it a few times to see if it was tin..that is when I discovered it would make a beautiful drum for someone to use. When I tapped it a few more times, I was reminded of rain hitting a tin roof. Beautiful and melodious.

Antique tin candy box

I am having the Goddess Drumming Ceremony at my home at Woodloft. If any like-minded women are interested in coming, please e-mail me for directions at mailto:cherdolby@cox.com

7-circuit labyrinth where the drumming will take place

I hope to have everyone seated in the 7-circuit labyrinth I built a few years ago. If it rains, we will move inside. We will drum at 6:00 on Friday, July 17^th. It will also be a potluck. I have a pool so bring your suit if you care to swim before the ceremony.

There will be a lot of very special women attending. One such woman is Kayla Finlay. She took djembe drumming classes with Babatunji Olantunde several times before he passed and will be bringing her beautiful healing Native American white buffalo drum for the ceremony. Kayla has asked me to create a unique Goddess Ceremonial necklace for her. I will post a picture of the necklace tomorrow as well as the special scroll I made for her.