Earthstar Magic Spring Medicine Drum Crafting Weekend

Join Helen from Earthstar Magic and Nicki from Sacred Rhythms Wellbeing for this one-and-a-half-day workshop where you will birth your own Medicine Drum and Drum Beater in sacred ceremony.

This is a residential workshop and we will camp together on site at the Mount Egerton Recreation Reserve, a beautiful rural location surrounded by forest. A unique opportunity to gather with likeminded individuals and live in community throughout this transformative process.

We ask that all participants bring along a plate to share for our communal meal on Saturday evening, as well their own breakfast for Sunday. We will provide nourishing and delicious snacks for morning and afternoon tea, as well as lunch on Sunday, along with a range of naturopathically formulated herbal teas. All dietary requirements will be catered for.

Our gathering takes place two weeks after Spring Equinox, the time when we cross the threshold into the light half of the year. The energy is so palpable here with the world singing itself into being, sap rising and nature humming with life.

When we birth a drum, we have the opportunity to work shamanically with the elements - as above so below, as within so without. Weaving together threads of the plant and animal kingdoms, the earth cycle and lunar phase, as well as the stories present in our own bodies.

DETAILS:

✨ DATES: 1pm on Saturday 4th October to 5pm Sunday 5th October.

✨ LOCATION: Mount Egerton Recreation Reserve. 30 mins from Ballarat, 90 mins from Melbourne, 1 hour from Geelong

✨ ACCOMMODATION: All accommodation is camping - please BYO camping gear (reach out if you are in need of anything!).

✨ FACILITIES: Cosy communal indoor space with wood heater and comfy lounge style seating. Full kitchen, toilets and a shower if needed. Situated on the edge of local bushland for nature walks.

Arrive at 1pm on Saturday with an hour to set up camp and settle into the space before the workshop begins at 2pm. We will be gathering at the beautiful Mount Egerton Recreation Reserve, nestled at the edge of the forest on Wadawurrung Country. This location has plenty of room for camping and nature connection, plus a large indoor area heated with a wood stove and a communal kitchen, toilets & a shower. 

The workshop will conclude at 5pm on Sunday, and you will leave with your completed Medicine Drum, plus instructions on drying and caring for your new sacred tool.

“It is often said that the first sound we hear in the womb is our mother's heartbeat. Actually, the first sound to vibrate our newly developed hearing apparatus is the pulse of our mother's blood through her veins and arteries. We vibrate to that primordial rhythm even before we have ears to hear."

(Layne Redmond, When The Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm.)

This relationship with rhythm and the drum began in the womb. Each cell of our body has been created with this pulse, this rhythm of sound, this beat of the drum.

The drum is a universal instrument, not owned by any culture. Played for thousands of years across all continents; by Celts in Europe, Native Americans in the USA, and all through Africa, South and Central America, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. Each of us has the ancestral memory of long ago playing the drum. This cross-cultural instrument and Shamanic tool is the call of the heartbeat, the wild self, and the song of Mother Earth.

It's the sound of coming home.

We will be working with your birth imprint in this workshop - the story of how you came to be in this world and how that shows up in creative process, and in your relationship to 'other'.

Birthing your own drum is a deep experience. By approaching the process with awareness and intention you will not only craft yourself a personalised shamanic tool, you will also have a shamanic experience, connecting with the animal of the hide you are using, the wood of the frame and observing the way you show up during the creative process.

We are excited to be offer four different styles of drum crafting with full instructions and illustrations, and yet we are skilled in holding space for you to find your own unique way of birthing this powerful sacred tool. Guiding you as we walk the line between having a deep shamanic experience and birthing a beautiful and resonant sacred tool.

This workshop includes everything you will need to birth your own Medicine Drum.:

✨ 14 inch Ash Hoop and Goat hide

✨ Teaching around the origins of the Shamanic Drum and the lineage of this work

✨ All instructions, templates and tools required to create your medicine drum

✨ Camping Accommodation (Please BYO camping gear)

✨ Ceremony and ritual

✨ Shamanic Drum Journey to connect with the animal of your hide and the wood of your hoop

✨ Delicious and nourishing lunch is provided for Sunday

✨Naturopathically formulated herbal teas & yummy snacks

*If you feel a strong calling to work with a different hide e.g. deer or kangaroo, please get in touch with us directly. This can be accommodated with plenty of notice (there may be an additional charge for different materials).

Sacred exchange for this workshop is $650 with a deposit of $300 required at the time of booking.

Payment via bank deposit is welcomed, to save booking fees on other platforms - please message us directly to arrange this.

More details on what to bring and how to prepare will be provided once you have booked your place.

With love & gratitude

Earthstar & Nicki

Meet your facilitators: