Personal Power Objects

RATTLE

This is the rattle I use to seal healings, break up blockages, call in spirits, etc. It is a personal item used by me and no one else.

It's made of a gourd I purchased for about $2 in a craft store. The handle, made from a dowel purchased in a hardware store, is wrapped with leather. The colors are acrylic paints from a hardware store. The designs are based on some Southwest prehistoric pottery designs and have no special meaning to me other than they feel right. Inside the rattle are 20 Adzuki beans.

Spirits reside in this rattle, spirits invited into the rattle to assist with healings. Once these spirits entered this rattle, the tone changed radically. The energy of this rattle is very strong and masculine. When shaken over a person, the energy can be felt deeply within.

I use this rattle for dancing my spirit animal before and after shamanic journeys and when the inspiration hits me.

DRUM

The drum is called in various cultures the shaman's horse and the shaman's canoe. The drum is the primary instrument in many cultures to transport the shaman on his journey to the various worlds. The the shaman rides his drum, or the rhythm of the drum, on journeys to the upper and lower worlds. The drum is used to bring the shaman to the altered state of consciousness used for journeying, normally the theta state of mind by being beaten at a monotonous rhythm of about 180 beats per minute.

The decorations on the drum have power meanings to the shaman. They can denote plants, animals, or other spirits that work with and through the shaman. The feathers are feathers I've found or been given and are as varied as Magpie, Canadian Goose, and Peacock.

As there are legends about powerful Shamans, there are also legends about powerful shaman drums.

My personal drum, pictured here, is a Remo Hand drum purchased for about $35. It has a synthetic head making it more able to keep its tone. Although, not expensive or authentic, this drum works quite well for me. We've been on some interesting journeys and welcomed the sunrise several times together.

If I were purchasing a hand drum now, I'd probably buy the Remo Buffalo Drum, just because it comes equiped with the internal harness for holding it, is about $50, and holds its tone quite well. When I took my last Shamanic Journeying Workshop from the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, the instructor, Sandra Ingerman used a Remo Buffalo Drum. So much for authentic verses what works.

FEATHERS

My feather bundle. These are feathers I've been gifted with, either by finding them in Nature or being given by friends. I often hang this bundle in a breeze or draft and watch the feathers move during meditation.

I experiment with feathers in healing. At present, I am a novice in working with feathers but I am passing what little information I have obtained from my experience along to those of you who are interested in working with these energies.

I begin my work by asking all of the energies and spirits I work with to assist, guide, and protect in the healing as they see fit. I ask the birds that I have feathers from specifically to assist in making the person whole and well. Then, while doing the healing, I do aura sweeping with the feathers I am guided to use.

I do an aura sweeping starting at the head and working down the body very slowly. I start working down the center line of the front of the body, dragging the feather slowly down the full length, almost but not quite touching the person. When I feel an extra drag on the feather, I violently cleanse the area with the feather. I will then go back and repeat the scan of the blocked area to make sure it is clear. If not, I repeat the violent cleansing motion. I then do the same thing down the front of the body on each side of the center line, covering the front of the body completely, including the sides. I next go to the back and repeat the procedure. I make sure to do a complete sweep of the arms and legs, hands and feet. While I am doing this sweeping, I tell the person I am working with to tell me what is happening. This is all guided and intuitive and sometimes I depart from the above procedure as guided.

When doing this procedure I make sure the material I remove is properly disposed of. I do this by throwing it into a bucket of salt water, a candle flame, or a flame I envision burning or by asking a spirit animal to properly dispose of it.

In doing this work, my experience is most feathers will remove blockages. Specific feathers do a much better job in finding and removing certain types of subtle blockages. The more kinds of feathers you have available, the better. Sometimes a specific feather will not remove blockages but will energize a person. I have used this technique after doing a complete Reiki treatment and find feathers will remove some things that Reiki won't remove.

Another way I use feathers is in smudging. I get my smudge going, usually from sweetgrass or sage, and sweep the smoke through the aura of the person, item, room, building, etc. I am cleansing.

I also use the feathers as talismans. I feel nothing is more comforting for a long trip, for instance, than having a feather from Canadian Goose to accompany me on my journey, bringing its energy to the venture.

Feathers can be used as objects of meditation. I often hang a feather in a convenient location and focus on it for a while. This will sometimes have a relaxing and cleansing effect. For exmple, I might focus on a feather from Canadian Goose to help me get moving on an issue. Or, in some instances, I might feel what it is like to fly with the bird the feather is from, almost shape shifting.

I often give feathers as gifts to friends to use as talismans, for cleansing, or for meditation. A feather, as with other natural items, makes an ideal gift for the right person.

Of course, feathers make wonderful decorations for rattles, drums, hair, and articles of clothing.