October, 2003

Dear Drummers,

In the Celtic wheel of the year we are entering the direction West: the direction of destiny, faith, mystery, the sea, the dusk, the autumn, the ancestors. I don’t l know about you, but I find that as Autumn becomes more present, I am filled with a strange kind of powerful yearning that I have often called, over the years “sweet gloom.” It is a melancholy, brought on by fading temperatures and fading light, the closing in of the weather and darkness. And yet, this melancholy has a sweetness and richness—even a nurturing, or nourishing quality to it. It is not yet so dark or cold that we feel threatened by impending death, but the mystery, the sea, the dusky twilight reminds us of the transience of all things. It inspires in us questions of destiny: have I fulfilled my destiny, or will I? Have I become the person I was meant to be, or will I? Elizabeth Kubler Ross, a well known philosopher on death and dying has said there are three questions that we should ask at the end of our lives:

1) Did we become ourselves?
2) Did we give and receive love?
3) Did we leave the planet a little better?

That last question is probably not to be answered by us, but our descendants. More on Kubler Ross can be found at: http://www.insight2000.com/kubler-ross.html.

This month we will come together in new groups. Many of you will know one another, and many of you will not. My hope is that as we drum together, you will also begin to think of one another as your community. I think it was Paul Tillich (Protestant theologian or Pagan depending on your initial bias) who said “all real religion happens in small groups.” I take that to mean that religion needs an intimacy to fully blossom. Our drumming groups hopefully provide some of that, within the larger community of First Universalist, so elegantly led by our ministers.

So, as usual we will drum for a little over an hour—building our rhythmic senses, and releasing reason’s grip on our eyes—cleansing the doors of perception, as William Blake liked to say. In “Hour 2” I’ll lead you in a shamanic experience focused on the question “have we become ourselves?”

As always, you are totally free to view everything we do in the monthly drums in your own way: as interesting theatre, as useful psychological exercises, as soul work, as “direct experience of the mystery,” as building your relationship with the spirit world, as prayer, or any combination of the above. There is no right or wrong way to approach this work. All I ask is that you approach the work with wonder, imagination, and an open mind and heart. Spirit comes to those who make themselves open to receive it—with all the ambiguous (or wrong) things said about God in the last 40,000 years, this is certainly a truth.

I leave you with two meditations:

The Creator wants us to drum.
He wants us to corrupt the world with drum, dance and chants.
After all, we have already corrupted the world with power and greed ....
which hasn't gotten us anywhere -
now's the time to corrupt the world with drum, dance and chants.
-Babatunde Olatunji (master drummer, perhaps the father of the American African drumming craze of the last 30 years, recently set sail for the other world).

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW TO BE A POET
all you can about animals as persons.
the names of trees and flowers and weeds.
names of stars, and the movements of the planets
and the moon.
your own six senses, with a watchful and elegant mind . . .
-Gary Snyder

See you on Friday!
Jaime