Gathering at the River

Tonight I joined my friend Carol and her son Shaun at a "Gathering of the Tribes" organized by local drummer/shaman Jamie Meyer. People gathered at the north end of Hidden Falls Park,  a tree-line away from the Mississippi, which flowed with great enthusiasm thanks to all the recent rain. At Jamie's every-other-Friday night drum sessions -- and at his solstice and equinox events -- one of the aspects I find most appealing is how he "plays" the assembled people. He separates the group into smaller pods of different percussive rhythms and directs us all to be louder or softer, to silence and then explode with sound.

Carol played her own drum which she made. The process of dying the hide brings out all sorts of "spirit people" in the pattern.

I enjoyed the creativity of making my own different rhythms. I borrowed one of the many drums Jamie has for those who don't have their own.  I do have 2 small drums my Kansas friend Mike made for me, but their skin is a sturdy cowhide and so their voices are rather muted.  Tonight's drum had a synthetic skin and deep, bell-like reverberation.

People could also choose to play the Big Drum, which keeps the steady beat throughout which the rest of us weave.

Gabriel Ross had invited whoever wanted to join her down to the River's edge, where we placed symbolic offerings -- lavender, rose petals, corn and wheat berries -- on an 18" square raft of sticks, and sent it along the current with our prayers and good wishes for the River. At that spot on the shore, it's difficult to see any human influence -- no buildings or towers -- except for the pleasure boats that go by wondering who the hippies on the shore are!

Gabriel taught us "Celtic love talk" for the River.  It's a formula for a complimentary sort of prayer. "Beautiful is the Mississippi River; beautiful, too, are the green, growing beings that line her shore."  "Beautiful is this river; beautiful, too, the First People to be nurtured along her banks."  During this river blessing, an eagle did a swoop through the skies above us and settled in the thick woods on the opposite shore -- which we like to believe is a special blessing on our creative endeavors from the natural world.

Earth, air, fire, water... all creatures great and small ... we are all related.