This listing is the Brown Bear & Oak Snow Drum™ with Reindeer Antler, Chrysocolla & Quartz Handle, from The heART of Ritual.
This ritual rhythm colleague is a very unique one of a kind Drum, and the one you see here is the one you will receive.
Brown Bear supports us in walking our true path so that we may embody it fully, and with compassion, grace, and integrity. Oak is the Celtic Tree that supports rooting/grounding, strength, courage, determination and resilience. Both Brown Bear and Oak explore signs, divine timing, the natural cycles, and pace.
This Drum colleague draws on Oak and Bear for clarity in the ways that we have been abandoning ourselves (through over parenting others - both in personal and professional life - and prioritizing their needs over our own), and the ways can better parent ourselves through the non egoic tending to our own Soul needs.
ABOUT SNOW DRUMS
Snow Drums™ are very unique ritual drums, both in their energy and in their creation. They are made with virgin snowflakes and carry the energy of clarity, purity, serenity, and new beginnings. Each ritual drum always has a story, and to better understand the medicine of this particular Snow Drum™, in depth information on its birthing process, and insights into this Drum colleague are shared throughout this page. I highly recommend you read them fully.
I am sharing personal insights into this particular birthing process so as to show you how space is fully honoured for the drum to speak for itself, and name itself. What needs to come through always does, it cannot nor should be forced. This is how ritual colleagues are birthed into BEing through me.
This Drum was actively birthed between December 19th 2024 and February 4th 2025, Winter Solstice to Imbolc, the deep Winter hibernation time during which we honour the light returning and the inner hearth. I became aware on the Summer Solstice (June 2024) that this creature was on it's way, but of course was not aware of any of the details other than this new colleague would arrive in the form a Drum.
The way I work ritually is to fine tune my ear, listen, and then do. I do not (nor cannot) work to a planned schedule for this, matters of Spirit operate on Spirit time. By this I mean I need to be fully prepared (and able) to stop everything and begin the work as soon as I am told it's time. Oftentimes this results in me being woken at night, and with this particular drum there was alot of night time work done in the beginning with preparing the rawhide by candlelight, making the Oak botanical dye, with walking through snow in the garden placing vessels at the directions into which the virgin snow would fall, gathering the snowflakes in from outside (which once melted would rehydrate the rawhide and form the base of the dye vat), the slow process of preparing the Birch for steam bending, cutting the wood by hand and sanding by hand, sanding the antler, gently carving the chrysocolla crystal, and more. All the dusty work had to take place outdoors too, for practical and health reasons. Overall, the process of birthing this drum took place equally both indoors and outdoors over the two months, but always in complete stillness and silence, overseen by the crystalline winter heavens outdoors, overseen by the hearth and flame indoors. It was only from the Imbolc new moon that sunlight came into play and we began working by day. Befitting really, the Drum emerging (from its winter den) into the daylight on Imbolc!
Immediately before the Winter Solstice, 'seemingly out of the blue', brown bear foot bones and a piece of fur arrived from a colleague in the Arctic. I had asked him about this in 2016 and then received a message from him in December 2024 to say he had just sent me a 'surprise'. I knew immediately that great magic was afoot...literally! Even though the active birthing with this particular colleague was between the Winter Solstice and Imbolc, the process as a whole began many years earlier.
The images you see here of this beautifully ethereal ritual colleague are all made in natural light and unedited. It seems to continue to bring through new images each day. I am not going to list what I see and feel in this here as I do not want to influence your own impressions and perspectives. Trust me when I say that this Drum colleague is absolutely extraordinary though, and has an incredible balance between cosmos/above/masculine (macrocosm) and inner realms/below/feminine (microcosm).
This Drum colleague is approx 18 inches in diameter. It comes with my standard Drum Sounder and a care sheet. There are a number of accompanying artifacts that come with this Drum, however I am not listing those details here as it is information that this Drums human will receive personally for the altar space they set up for this Drum Spirit.
If you wish to order a custom Drum Sounder for this drum, please see the relevant listing in the RITUAL RHYTHM section of our shop. Our 18 inch and 24 inch free standing drum stands are also available and made to order, feel free to contact us to know more.
For those who feel drawn, there is a Brown Bear, Oak & Mugwort Ritual Drum Sounder, and a Brown Bear, Oak, & Mugwort Ritual Sounder and Rattle Duo, also available to purchase in our store. Both pair beautifully with this Drum colleague.
Please note that this is a one off ritual Drum colleague and I will not recreate this nor make a second one. If you feel drawn join me and birth your own Drum and Sounder colleagues in person on one of my Heartbeat Retreat (ceremonial drum birthing weekends), please click here for information. Thank you!
Brown Bear & Oak Snow Drum™ with Reindeer Antler, Chrysocolla, & Quartz Handle
Its colour is created with the magic of ancient Oak tree pigment (from the old growth forest on the north shore of Bantry Bay, Ireland), Oak is the tree of the Summer Solstice however it shines bright during the Winter Solstice time of year as it brings inner strength, courage, resilience and stamina to us when we are in need. These pigments were slowly infused into the rawhide over the space of five days, both outside in daylight and inside in moonlight this winter. The organic patterning on the rawhide created itself through a wholly (hands off) natural process - this is nature doing what nature does best, incredibly beautiful, slow medicine! This speaks to allowing the tree, earth, and reindeer speak for themselves and have their own voice without human interference per se and I prefer this natural and respectful approach...
This alchemical process is influenced by the natural patterning on the rawhide, how virgin snow melted and the amount of time it took to melt, how the melting snowflakes distributed the tree and earth pigments, and how the pigments infused and mellowed as one with the rawhide.
