Drumming keeps the beat of spiritual journeys
November is International Drum Month, a special time to celebrate instruments of rhythm.
But there's something about drums that is timeless.
More than mere percussion, they provide a spiritual pulse that beats through the ages and across cultures.
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<td>If you go</td>
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<td>What: Making Your Own Drum
When: 6:30 to 9 p.m. Thursday; 9:30 a.m. to noon Saturday
Where: New Dimensions Studio, Womanspace, 3333 Maria Linden Drive, Rockford
Cost: $130
Information: Class is full. To sign up for the waiting list, call 815-877-0118.</td>
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"Drumming has always been one of the methods across cultures to invoke meditative states, calls to cooperation and action, or celebrations of pure joy," said Elaine Hirschenberger, executive director of Rockford's Womanspace. "Whenever I participate in drumming gatherings, the energy that is generated in the group is palpable."
Womanspace, an interfaith center offering holistic programming, is hosting a sold-out workshop this month in which participants will stretch, string and paint their own hand-held drums.
Spirituality and drumming became an American phenomenon in the 1990s, thanks to a gathering in which men channeled their warrior spirit. But Rockford musician and educator David Stocker of One Drum sees a universal link that goes far beyond any pop culture trends.
"In our journeys visiting with drum masters in this country and in other lands, we have studied and learned many ancient rhythms," Stocker said, explaining the award-winning Midwestern ensemble's name. "We are one planet, one people, one heart, one drum."
In his poem, "Drum Call," Stocker writes, "Heartbeat beckons from within the womb."
The mother's heartbeat in the womb is our earliest, most intimate experience of life, said Pastor Jim Roberts of Emmanuel Lutheran Church, who uses a djembe (an African drum) at the interactive poetry gatherings he occasionally holds at Barnes & Noble.
"It was a rhythm that made us feel safe and cared for, our earliest experience of the divine presence," Roberts said. "Drums have always played a part in religious ceremony and practice, because it is part of our DNA."
Roberts discovered the power drumming adds to the spiritual journey back in the 1970s, when he learned how seven minutes of a steady drum beat can allow you to shift slower brainwaves.
"It can open the soul to a deeper prayer and stimulates one's whole physical ecosystem," he said.
Beyond the individual benefits, drumming provides common ground, Roberts said. That is one purpose of the drum circle gatherings Gretta Anderson organizes for the Unitarian Universalist Church of Rockford.
Held quarterly, at the change of the seasons, they include singing, dancing and chanting, performed by people of different ages and backgrounds.
"It's not necessarily quiet, but you're focusing on the drum beat," she said. "It's the stillness of the mind and being able to detach from the rest of the world."
Anderson is not a musician. She is drawn to the community-building of drum circles.
"I've drummed with groups after 9/11 as the focus for healing and mourning for the lost, world peace, sisterhood ...," she said. "The main components of drumming include focus, intent and visualization."
Which sounds a lot like prayer or meditation, she said.
"Many of the rhythms used in a drum circle are basic," she said. "So is spirituality. It's a basic need of humans, and this is one of the ways we celebrate it."
A poem for International Drum Month: "Drum Call"
Written by David Stocker, Nov. 8, 2007
Heartbeat beckons from within the womb.
First sensory experience of this life-time.
Our own heart or our mother's heart?
Hearts beating together, the poets call Love.
Unbroken mother song places us among all living things.
Takes us to a worry-free, need-free time.
While we live, it never stops.
And then we give it to our young.
Other, greater rhythms pump life
Into oceans and rivers, trees and plants, winds and planets.
Drum of wood and skin, of Africa, Eur-Asia and Americas.
Remind us of the awesome power of thunder and of horses hooves on earth.
Drum on plantation air, call the slaves to rise up.
Drum tattoo, beat the passing of great leaders, men and women.
Mountaintop drum, signal the return of the fishing boats.
How many? The drum tells.
While other drums excite warriors,
Make them fearless, instill confusion in opponents.
Be mindful that these rhythms are out there as well.
Elders of the village guide the young
To remember the healing heartbeat.
-- Rockford Register Star