Historically and practically there is a direct link between each of the five senses and the sacred directions of the medicine wheel. I have been exploring these connections in my daily meditations using my drum and found them to be very powerful. In a somewhat poetic form I have written down the method I am using which is based upon an ancient meditation system from India, blended with medicine wheel teachings from a variety of world cultures. ... read more →

There is a sacred drum beating in our hearts, its soft rhythm spreading blood, food and Qi life force through our bodies. Up to the top of the head and down to the soles of the feet this steady beat drums into the Mother Earth as a gentle returning gift from us to her. So little do we remember who we are and how powerful we can become. With shoes off, bare foot, gently walking on the Mother we can draw the Energy of the Sky Father down through... read more →

Sacred Drumming for Imbolc

Five in the evening and its still light, the season is turning into spring. You can feel it in the trees with their buds beginning to shine hazy pink with violet tips. Give the house a good spring clean, wash the floors, eject all that you don’t need from you that represents your body and soul as your home. When you have finished cleaning, smudge and open the windows, let this fresh spring air from the north east cleanse the rooms and hallw... read more →

ancestor drumming at winter solstice

We are approaching winter solstice at the speed of light, the moon is quarter and building by the moment, sparkling in silver shards as she chases her lover the sun over the southern sky. It will be full moon on that longest night just over a week away, her dance will be ours to follow, we can dance into the spring on quicksilver steps knowing that we have chosen well in how we celebrate our lives within the cycles of the year. Winter is so go... read more →

Sacred Ceremony

Ceremony is an essential part of our Sacred Drumming practice. The ceremonial ritual brings each person in the circle into alignment with their higher Self with a capital "S”. Each individual is coming from their own world and needs to enter a space of non judgement and surrender, self importance, ego and judgement are left in the past, are left outside the circle. In ceremony we are all equal, and in Sacred Drumming, like the drum form we ar... read more →

Ceremony begins with Smudging

In many traditions an honouring song is shared between people. It brings us all together, we can share with each other respect and even if we are in new company, a strong feeling is generated of giving and receiving from the heart. An honouring song has to be simple and immediately singable so that we all can take part, it has to have a purpose and universal meaning.  We use an ancient honouring song that surfaced during the first module ... read more →

Sunday Evening Drum Healing

Drum is a wonderful instrument for sending focused healing to others. It keeps you in time with the Now, keeping you in focus. It’s the combination of your body moving, the visual gentle repetition and the sound of the heart beat, plus a humming resonance within the drum that changes, weaves and carries that something, that energy of love that is within you and me. The heart beat on drum brings it forth, it brings the hearts love out in a foc... read more →

Why are we singing our song?

Simon Heather at the College of Sound Healing asked for some personal quotes of why singing is important to each of us. Wow, thats a big one for me as I expect it is for you. There are so many quotes from great singers, writers and philosophers, and it is so easy to crib a quote, feel good because you have done something, written it down for others to see. But who reads it? I’m the one who writes this and probably I will be the one to read it... read more →

Medicine Prayer by Matika Wilbur

This practice is essential and fundamental to our behaviour as humans, the fact that it has been kept alive by the first nation people of the Americas is their gift to us. Therefore its worth giving thanks to them and their ancestors for handling the ignorance laid upon them with so much grace and humility. I listened to a prayer tonight on a TED Talks given by Matika Wilbur a Native American photographer: ... read more →

Flexible friend

The medicine wheel has been used in many cultures, in many forms, for thousands of years. From the layout of enclosures, mounds and stone circles. As well as Tibetan Thangka (Tanka). Celtic Cross, and even the layout of Cathedrals and Churches. The Sacred directions have been called upon for the needs of mankind throughout time, across the ages. For health of the individual and community, for abundance in harvest and husbandry. For contact... read more →

People need to know what they are getting

If you have a problem you ask for help. Who do you ask when you pop out a vertebrae in your back, you are on the phone to the osteopath like a shot. How about a tooth ache? In the car and off to the dentist we go. When we are sure of what we are getting, there are proven results, and we have been amply conditioned by authority figures, there is no problem in asking for help. Traditionally in the Native American societies if you have a prob... read more →

We need to awaken to the reality within our thoughts

When I awake I  am grateful - I have another day to live. Doing my morning chores I see oblong pictures of history in the family, faces and forms of people, men and women I know and yet not know. It seems that Renata also sees the same scenarios, but her interpretation is different - more personal and more involved. Alone in her inner world of emotions and memories she has to ride her own waves of sadness and happiness brought into co... read more →

Masks in the Ritual of Sacred Drumming for modern everyday society

Development and healing :Masks in the ritual of Sacred drumming and medicine wheel for personal creative work as a Sacred Drummer health practitioner has come from my love of masks and all that is theatrical and visually expressive. I have been particularly influenced and inspired by the work of Elise Dirlam Ching and her partner Kaleo CHING in America . I loved their work captured in The Faces of the Soul. The book describes the use of guided... read more →

Healing is anchored by songs

It is well known in natural healing that the anchoring of your visions and healing experiences into songs, poetry, paintings and dancing not only brings the vision alive but it strengthens their reality and memory into the depths of your consciousness. This improves and empowers your abilities as a medicine person, since you are manifesting substance sound and form out of a pure energy experience. ... read more →

Slaughter of American Bison for fertiliser WOW

I bought a paper like the Big Issue called 'We the People' in the supermarket car park. Written in Deutsch so it will take me weeks to read,  since Im still slowly learning the language.  I came to this picture,  taken in 1892 in the midst of the wiping out of the Sioux and Plains Indians of North America. Can you see the hill of skulls and bones? By slaughtering the herds of Bison that migrate... read more →

Rest now and then celebrate winter solstice

The Coming of the Light This short period of time between now and winter solstice is our time to find rest, quieten down, listen to our heart beat and watch our breath. Rest long, enjoy the time to meditate, chant and sing quiet songs to the soul. Soon, very soon, the year will turn. The pitch of the Great Mother Earth will begin to lift from the deep notes of her sleep and begin to rise towards lengthening days. Sun... read more →

The empty void can be dark sound

BLACK SOUND Powerful metaphors for sound healing are found in the simple actions and experiences I happen upon in daily life, so long as I am awake and open to seeing them. This understanding came as I clean the window of the log burner, being a cheapskate I use burnt wood ash on a wet sponge as suggested by the chimney sweep. Wood ash is a wonderful universal cleaner as I found out later when I went to rinse the... read more →

They are as close as this conversation

This is a practical example of how Ancestral Medicine has been experienced in our lives over the past few years. The relationship is ongoing and there are not many days in which Skipper or Pop-pop as my maternal grandfather was called is not present in my life, I refer to him now as one of my guides. We were only allowed to call him skipper when we were older. One of his favourite games he played with us as children was wh... read more →

Healing Ancestral and Family wounds with Drum and Rattle

We are now flowing with the colder winds into the time of the Ancestors. Autumn, Fall, Herbst - these are some of the names for this time of the year where for us in the northern Hemisphere our days are shortening, nights are lengthening and temperatures are plummeting. Not only is autumn an expression of decay and breakdown in the cycles of each year and  also each day, but also signifi... read more →

Keep a simple and open space for healing

Making Space for Healing to Occur by Steven and Renata Ash For each of us to be effective healers we need to practice making space available within ourselves for healing to occur. Healing is a natural function of living tissue, it is the criteria that separates living from dead tissue, you don’t need examples described, its there obvious in our lives. Dr Michael Ash stated "The most important law in medicine... read more →

All of Life Will Love Us All of LIfe

Why Vision Quest or All of Life Will Love Us All of Life We stay asleep until we choose to awaken Awaken to the shape of breathing descending unto, under and beneath arising and lifting with ascent Yet not staying not lingering  Each small part a blessing a thing in space and time to relish and discover A wave with no thing moving just lifting and falling Between them both... read more →

Listen carefully and you will hear the heart beat in your teeth

Clattering teeth in the rhythm of the heart We must find every available doorway in and out of ourselves to bring the source of light the sound of the healing creation from within, draw it out and share it with the world around us. And then in return, bring the light that pours down onto the earth, that makes life grow from the sun, stars and planets; bring that life into our inner earth and let it illuminate all... read more →

time of transition

LAMMAS  We have arrived at Lammas a special time in the years turning. The meadows have been harvested for sweet smelling silage and hay; golden green, yellow and brown are the colours creeping into the landscape between us and the huge Karawanke mountains due south. This is the time of tall medicine herbs, artemisia, mugwort, mullion, marigold and yarrow are reaching up drawing down into the earth the sun a... read more →

Mouse in the South

Dear Sacred Drummers Here we are, we have arrived. The light has come building steadily from the cold bitter winter stone black night, through a gathering spring, and now light is full and over flowing, heat-light-on. We are at Summer Solstice. What does it mean for you? Is it really the beginning of summer with holidays, Italian vanilla ice creams and lazily swimming in c... read more →

Trance Journeys into the Middle World using Drum or Rattle

Middle World Journeys with a drum or rattle In Sacred Drumming we explore our relationships with the powers of the sacred directions using the drum to speak a language into that we seek. The voice of the drum carries our friendship, our willingness to listen, going way beyond the limitations of our conditioned human concepts. "The Elders had a way of tolerating uncomfortable places when they travelled. ... read more →

White Buffalo Calf Woman brings the Sacred Pipe

The story of White Buffalo Calf Woman As told by John Fire Lame Deer One summer so long ago that nobody knows how long, the Oceti-Shakowin, the seven sacred council fires of the Lakota Oyate, the nation, came together and camped. The sun shone all the time, but there was no game and the people were starving. Every day they sent scouts to look for game, but the scouts found nothing. Among the bands assembled... read more →

Winter time drum hazards with central heating

When a drum breaks it is a message of something breaking inside the drummer. It often happens in the winter when the house is very dry, so keep your drum in a cool dry place rather than the heated sitting room, I have repaired two drums this week because of this. Now you will need to get on and repair it, and it is easy and a lot of fun.  This is what I do. Whilst your drum is still dry look at where you can put repl... read more →

Feb 14th distance healing for tolerance and peace

World Sound Healing Day February 14th 2017 The College of Sound Healing and Sacred Drumming Drum Healing Event The power of the Sacred Drum is not limited to time and space. Where ever you are on Mother Earth you can join in and be part of a distance healing drumming event to bring peace and tolerance into world affairs. Between 7-8pm UK time we will join together in a virtual drumming circle from our h... read more →

The Harp is made from a Glastonbury Holy Thorn from Chalice Well Gardens

The Glastonbury Holy Thorn Harp On the 8th December 2010 the Holy Thorn growing on the easterly slope of Wearyall Hill in Glastonbury, the ancient Avalon of the British Isles, was cut down in an act of vandalism. Reputed to have been planted from the staff of Joseph of Arimathea, the uncle of the master Jesus, this was a tree of legend and worship. Over the centuries other holy thorns have been grown from cutting... read more →

We must learn to get out of the way

Renata sent this email out to a student, and it makes so much sense that I felt it would be appropriate to put it into the blogs. Please open this up for discussion, with warm regards Steven buffalo spirit. She says: Firstly, it makes me very happy to see your enthusiasm and dedication to the work - that�s exactly the attitude needed to be successful! However, there are a few things that I want and need t... read more →

Filling out the Sacred Circle

The Cross Quarters The medicine wheel envelopes the circle of life from the shape of each breath, the rising and falling of the day, the chapters in a life, to the seasons of the year. On this circle of the year there are eight major times of celebration equally spaced apart by about six weeks, like eight spokes on a cart wheel, each has a character, shape and series of qualities that help us to shape our human b... read more →

2017 CPD events in Britain

Sacred Drumming Practitioner Course 2017 Module 1     8 - 9 April 2017 Module 2     20 - 21 May 2017 Module 3     1 - 2 July 2017 Module 4     23 - 24 September 2017 Module 5     4 - 5 November 2017 CPD - The Peruvian Healing Rites of Munay-Ki    19 May 2017 In this CPD training you will receive the four foundational Munay-Ki rit... read more →

UK Sacred Drumming course dates for 2017 with Steven and Renata

Dates for the Sacred Drumming Practitioner Trainings for 2017 held in Britain. This five modular training will be facilitated by Steven and Renata at Kingfisher Cottage Community, Birdham, Chichester, West Sussex PO20 7HH Module 1. April 8-9 Module 2. May 20-21 Module 3. July 1-2 Module 4. September 23-24 Module 5. November 4-5 Booking forms, cost and course details will be available after Septemb... read more →

The Flowering Tree is the centre of the hoop

I sing from my heart for the brave and the wave of souls coming forward the earth to be saved. We sing to the rainbow, to the sea on the shore our arms reach to heaven to the Ancient Ones door. The clouds roll in beauty flecked with the suns golden light they thunder this calling for the balance made right. We sing with our voices, we sing with our eyes we sing with our listening, we sing with our cries. The heavens are opening wi... read more →

we live in heaven its on earth

It is very hot, I gave Joy my canoe a coat of varnish this morning and just had to slip into the warm water to cool down, heaven. We travel over to Scotland next week to take a group up to Iona, heaven. I live with the most astounding and beautiful woman, heaven. Our four beautiful children give us nothing more than pleasure, heaven. The meadows are full of flowers, butterflies and loads of grasshoppers bouncing around, heaven. The... read more →

Exploring the many uses of the rattle in sound healing

Rattle Medicine The rattle is a mysterious sound healing tool, even in writing this I want to run away. Rattle takes a lot of getting to know, because in truth we have to go back to the innocence of the child in order to use it affectively. Compared to drum, rattle is seen as the follower, coming in to refine a nearly completed job, to deal with anything left over, and to ensure that everything is cleared away out of t... read more →

Sacred Drumming the next Phase

Christine Headland from Northumberland, Susan Cole from Surrey and Mike Barron from Dyfed came over to Austria in May and became teachers for Sacred Drumming. What an amazing weekend, fabulous weather, we all got out on the canoe on the Faakersee and enjoyed Renata's wonderful Austrian cuisine. This takes Sacred Drumming into a new phase, these new teachers will bring in their own skills and messages. We have a foundation based upon the po... read more →

Take a winter walk and drum through your feet

The days are lengthening out, I have been mapping the position of the sunset each clear evening and noticeably grandfather Sun is going down further west and later each evening. The grassy tufts in the meadows are still bleached brown by the frost and snow and yet we all know that under the frozen surface the seeds and shoots are waiting, full of vigour and potential, their roots going down into the Mother are strong, ready for the le... read more →

ocean waves breaking in the sky

Mountain Waves What a beautiful Imbolc surprise to watch huge waves breaking and tubing over the Karavanken Mountains. No word of a lie and no exaggeration that these waves were over 600 meters high. It is like a prayer was being answered because I have been missing the ocean and I am being treated to the sky ocean breaking in huge tubing waves. Clouds build up, climbing on the east wind from the southern sid... read more →

We are the Earth

each limb represents a path to the ancestors

The Paths of the Ancestors. The picture of life after death that keeps being reinforced by people who have had near death experiences is that of a tunnel that leads to a brilliant source of light and peace, and at the end there is a relative or group, either blood family or of soul family member waiting in the light. The aspect of this near death experience we will explore is the universal experience of being... read more →

Rain Dance

THE RAIN DANCE A clear azure sky supported by tall green pines circled the dance ground on the dry yellow sand hill, the only piece of elevated land on this part of the reservation. Wikwemikong, my new home was the only unceded reservation in Canada, on the north shore of Lake Huron it was the home of mainly Ojibway and Odawa First Nation people. On this warm sunny day we were going to experience our first authentic medicine ceremony, the ... read more →

As a team we can make the circle stronger

Yesterday I put in Humming Drum, describing a good method of following the resonance of the drum to bring healing to others and situations on the planet that need a good positive charge. Lovely feedback has been coming in thank you. Each morning we are doing sacred drumming to a list of people and places who want help. Please join us, this will make the circle strong, the drum is like a mobile phone, sending messages of love with our strong... read more →

It is the resonance of the drum that carries you into a journey

Every medicine drum has a hum, this the pathway upon which the drum beat runs. When you beat drum on its sweet spot, this you find by exploring the drum sound, moving over the face until you hear the hum as a continuous note.  It will sound like a resonant river moving between and within the beat. Listen to this hum, make sounds with your throat to copy and stay with the hum. Move off the hum and then back in sett... read more →

Sacred Drummers we can be very useful

William Bloom suggests that we send compassionate healing towards the souls who have passed over in the earthquake in Nepal. As a community of sound healers and sacred drummers we can make our contribution so that increasingly we learn to become more useful; teaming up to bring peace, trust and comfort to others undergoing catastrophic change around the world. The drum is like a sophisticated and yet ancient mobile phone. Throug... read more →

Earth Healing at a distance

Hi Sacred Drummers. This afternoon I started the first clearing of souls in No Mans Land on the border of Germany and Czech Republic. At this carved rock that marks the border after the ceremony I divined that 263 souls were released through to their ancestors. read more →

Earth Healing with the Sacred Drum

In the middle of Germany to the east is a corner where not long past East Germany met West Germany, and where now Germany borders onto the Czech Republic, which until recently was part of the Eastern Block. This border land is an hours walk from Laubbuehl or Leaf Hill where we are living for a year, we have built a stone circle and medicine wheel covering the whole area of the farm and small holding, here we hold regular moon, s... read more →

try out sacred drumming

Sacred Drumming with Steven Ash at Peace Haven, on the 22nd Nov. 2014. info Tel. Mike Barron on  01588 620572 Steven will be giving us a glimpse into the power of the medicine wheel.  This sacred space can be used for protection, journeying, healing, contacting our ancestry  and so much more. The day may also include a journey to our lower worlds and upper worlds. This will depend on how ... read more →

Keeping the world in balance is my responsibility

We are having an Inipi lodge here tomorrow and I can not sleep, instead I get dressed and spend the night walking the medicine wheel on the land, up to the sweat lodge and back to the circle of stones I trudge questioning " what is going on, why am I so ill at ease?" Hours later back in the house I use my medicine stones and needles to treat my personal disturbance and as I become more open, relaxed I begin to see the truth. I have chosen... read more →

In July we moved to Germany

Renata and I moved to Oberfranken in Southern Germany, the nearest town is Selb near Hof on the border with the Czech Republic. This was not a sudden move but it happened fast. We have been looking towards living in a community for the past 5 years and Selb just kept calling us. Over the last 7 years we have held seminars and stone people lodges here twice a year. The land is pristine, green open fields with no fences, babbling trout streams and... read more →

A strong fundamental approach works wonders

FUNDAMENTAL The dictionary definition of fundamental is serving as a base or foundation, it is essential and primary, as in "being a fundamental form". In music the fundamental is the lowest note in a chord and the tone produced by the vibration of a whole sonorous body and is called the fundamental tone. On a daily basis we need to return to the fundamental, but for all of us this... read more →

Having the confidence to do this work of beauty

It is a beautiful morning; we have awoken well with another day to live. Frosty white in early January and the daffodils are slicing up green into the clear blue air, like flexible pointed crystals. The government is endorsing "fracking� by encouraging councils with tax incentives to allow Shell and any other petro-chemical-pharma business to extract shale gas from beneath the green grass and rolling hills of our beau... read more →

Sacred Drumming brings the heart back into balance

The Heart of Sacred Drumming   I am in a beautiful garden in the south of England. Here nature is allowed to shape itself and the seasons flourish. Just three miles from the coast, the sea is crashing in on the shingle after last nights storm, this so beautiful.   From the beginning of this incarnation nestled in the safety of our mother�s womb, the first sound you and I experi... read more →

Become a qualified and confident drum healer

Sacred Drumming Practitioner Course 2015  This is a 5 modular course on using the shaman hoop drum to awaken, stimulate and encourage healing and transformation in yourself, your clients, your home and the earth. The Sacred Drumming Practitioner Course is being held over 5 weekends. The course starts with making a drum and a rattle for healing and medicine, and offers a firm foundation in the fundamental workings o... read more →

The power of the drum is an intimate and inner relationship

  Sacred drum is our mother; mother is sacred drum, both the same, beating together. In between, we stand in between two mothers, mother and drum. And between these two mothers is the beating heart, finding its way home. Bring this out, let it be seen; by you and by me. As sound finding its way home, draw it out as a forgotten child. Remember, remember, and put it together, like the notes on a f... read more →

The drum and rattle access past lives with ease

"Victor Schauberger liked to say that birds don�t fly, they are flown by air currents, just as fish do not swim they are swum. Similarly, the heart does not pump, but is pumped by the continuous flow of blood, an idea that Alexis Carrel, winner of the Nobel Prize for medicine, had already proposed in 1912� Paolo Consigli in Water Pure and Simple   It is fascinating exploring the use of the dr... read more →

Listen with your eyes, see where you are going with your ears

  "Drum holds your attention, you cannot sleep, you cannot drift away, drum keeps you present, in the moment, focused on the gift of giving�  Absent healing with drum or rattle is a strong retreat. I set a time each evening to sit down with a drum and focus on the people who have asked me to help them. I first smudge, tell Renata that I am doing some healing so she will not disturb me, and switch off the phone. ... read more →

Rattle shakes things loose

Rattle is a great medicine tool, not only is it soothing and comforting but also very strong in shaking things out, loosening up concepts, confusing the dominance of the controlling mind. Look how safe a little baby feels with a rattle, the baby leans itself towards the sound, mesmerised and drawn into all the tiny moments uttered by the shaking "thing" With us grown ups, our inner child who has seen, heard, felt and taste... read more →

Coming of the Light

It was never intended to be a selfish thing, she only wants to make your heart and mine inside me sing. Golden love is needed now to spread right through the night, to show us, touching hands, all will come to right. The colours of the rainbow blend to make the love in you. The missing part within your heart can start a lighter blue. To wash the hurt sustained decades long before, we bow our heads lower now and pass right through the ... read more →

This is our time to gently walk, gently breathe and Know that all is well.

This is our time to be who we were born to be, or to put it another way. To be who I am. Renata's mother helped me to write a song, its a song for filling the Sacred Pipe with prayers, and the words go: Gently I walk upon the Earth Gently I breathe the Air Gently I walk upon the Earth I Know that my prayers are heard I fill my pipe with sweet tobacco I fill my pipe with all my prayers... read more →

Lets get the foundation clear for Sacred Drumming

Being in safe space when you do medicine drumming is essential for both you the drummer and the person receiving the drumming session. Sacred Drumming is medicine drumming I regard it as not entertainment but intertainment. The drumming and rattle methods are there to let sound waves carry in a message, the message and intent going in is: "return to your natural state, listen and feel your heart, you ... read more →

From two dead things you make something alive

Making your own sacred drum in ceremony is even more meaningful if you look at your drum as if it is becoming alive as you make it. So lets look at its anatomy as we go through part of a drum making.  We start by smudging ourselves and all the tools with white sage. The wooden hoop is the drums skeleton, the structure in which hollowness can exist, like the bones of our body that are smooth and rounded, all the sharp ed... read more →

Standing between Heaven and Earth, Walking betwixt Heaven and Earth, Sacred Drummer uniting Heaven and Earth

The awakening of drum healing in ceremony is fulfilling a deep need for our modern society in which close family and community ties are in decline. Drum has been used for thousands of years by indigenous healers to shift people out of stuck energy and re-connect them to the flow of life in order for healing and transformation to happen. The power of the sacred drum lies in her ability to connect you with your bones, your heartbeat and ... read more →