by Michael Baird
Drumming, sound, music, harmony, experiencing feelings, stepping into the flow... this describes my life today, yet it didn’t before I regained the awareness of the healing sounds and rhythms of drumming.
Many of us were silenced in childhood, “children should be seen and not heard”. However, today we are remembering that sound is our participation in life’s symphony, music plays all around and within us.
Several years ago on a sunny spring day the seeds of freedom to be one with healing sound were planted within me. I quietly followed and watched as two 14 month old children explored their world. They laughed, gurgled, touched everything and even cried. I saw two people living in enthusiasm, experiencing their feelings, two people affecting and being affected by everything in their world. Most of all I heard, all their many sounds unsilenced, freely expressing their joy. I was the silenced and quiet observer, separated from the awareness of living by the restrictions of my long gone caregivers; restrictions that I still maintained. Standing there watching the joy and life of those two children, I saw my choices, remembered my enthusiasm and the joy of being in this world.
Years later I bought a drum for a friend’s birthday, which was several weeks away. For many days I walked past it and even picked it up a few times, yet never played it. Then one night while I was home by myself, I picked up that instrument and very slowly began to explore the sounds it and I could make. I released the expectations of what the sound should be, and abandoned fear of disapproval. I, like those children, just explored. I imagined that I was a child; a child feeling sound flowing from my interactions with the drum. Enthusiasm, joy and even sadness flowed from me through that beautiful drum. We sang, we danced and I cried tears of reunion with what I had silenced years before, and what I had stilled to be good in the eyes of others. That night I remembered... the joy of healing sound.
Since that time I have been inspired to incorporate Reiki and other energies with drumming. This combination has produced powerful vibrational frequencies and deep healings. At the end of this article I share a basic Reiki Drumming™ healing technique that is designed to work with a basic shaman’s drum.
Many things in your world can become a drum, a healing tool that emits a sound with each stroke of your hands. Imagine yourself as a young child discovering the world. Remember your enthusiasm as you touch and hear each responding sound. Remember your joy as you interact with the world around you. Hear the song, conducted by your heart, and feel the Reiki energy rise from the silence. Remember the child laughing and know this is you. Celebrate your presence with sound. Feel your heart-beat with each stroke of the drum. Know you have rhythm... your very existence is a rhythm. Awaken to your presence and hear the song of everything around you.
The Basic Reiki Drumming™ Technique
Focusing Intention:
Dialogue with your client to determine the issue they intend to heal. Ask them to focus on the issue and on their willingness to heal and release it. Ask them to confirm that they are willing to make any changes in their habits, behavior, or thought processes that may be necessary to complete this healing.
State their healing request in the prayer of sacred intention... give thanks that this healing is for the highest good, and that your personality and ego stand aside. This will help Reiki flow clearly and freely through you and your drum. Call on your guides, angels and the healing spirit of your drum.
Preparation of Self and Setting Sacred Space:
Draw all the Reiki symbols that you know over your drum, and with each symbol, channel the energy into the drum. Hold the intention that the essence of the symbols will flow out with the sound.
Draw or visualize a large Usui power symbol over your entire body, and also on each chakra starting at the base and moving toward the crown. Intend that your chakras are aligned, clear and open to the full power of the Reiki healing energy. Hold the intention that your light is being strengthened, and that any denser energies which are released during this session will be healed and not absorbed by your energy system.
Draw an Usui power symbol in all 7 directions, NSEW as well as the Sky, the Earth and the Center.
Preparation of Client:
With your drum mallet, or your hand draw a large Usui power symbol, (or Master chakra balancing symbol), over the client starting above the crown to the base. This is to align the client’s chakras, open them to the healing, and to invoke the recipient’s higher self’s assistance.
The Session
Draw any Reiki symbol(s) you are guided to use over your drum. Slowly scan the client’s body with the drum, and begin drumming over the area your drum is drawn to. Let Reiki and your drum guide you. Drum for 2-5 minutes 12-24 inches above the physical body, letting the drum glide over the client’s energy field.
Note: Drum higher above the person and softer from the heart chakra to the crown. This is to protect the client’s hearing and the subtle energies of the upper chakras.
Closing the Session
When you feel guided to stop, give a prayer of thanks for the healing, and draw an Usui power symbol over the client to seal the healing with love and light.
© copyright 2000, Infinite Light Healing Studies Center, Inc.
