Read an Excerpt
A Spirit Walker's Guide to Shamanic Tools
How to Make and Use Drums, Masks, Rattles, and Other Sacred Implements
By Evelyn C. Rysdyk Weiser Books
Copyright © 2014 Evelyn C. Rysdyk
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-60925-943-3
CHAPTER 1
The Rattle
Since shamans receive much of their training and guidance from their tutelary spirits, the implements any particular shaman uses for healing are unique and usually vary widely from one shaman to the next. Native shamans may be bound by their tribal traditions to use particular rituals and bring certain objects into a healing ceremony, but even within those specific traditions many variations exist. Rattles are an important part of the shaman's tool kit and widely used around the globe. In this chapter you will find out how shamans work with rattles, and you will learn to create and empower your own rawhide rattle.
Some shamans use rattles much in the way drums would be, that is, to accompany the shamanic journey and keep shamans in the expanded state of consciousness required to perform their duties. Lighter and more portable than a drum, rattles can be used in situations when a drum may not be the best choice. For instance, a rattle is quieter and so may be the right implement when working indoors or when a softer sound would be beneficial. Rattles are also a great choice for working out in nature as they can be easily stashed in a backpack or coat pocket until they are needed. I find that I reach for my rattle as much as my drum to accompany my journeys. I often use it when I am doing shamanic work outdoors around my home so that I don't disturb my neighbors. The rattle is also my preferred shamanic instrument when I am engaging in healing work as I can be continuously rattling to keep myself in the shamanic state of consciousness at the same time I am using my other hand to work on my client.
A rawhide shaman's rattle is the first implement I have my students make in my initiatory shamanic training programs. It is a relatively easy object to create for people of all levels of crafting experience. This is the kind of rattle you will be guided through constructing in this chapter. However, there are as many variations among rattles as there are among drums. I have personally seen rattles constructed from gourds, buffalo or steer horn, turtle shells, rawhide, birch bark, animal hooves, bones, wood, seashells, and seedpods, among other materials. Some shamans even use objects such as tin cans or bottle caps as part of their rattles!
In North America, native tribal peoples use rattles extensively. In some cases the rattle replaces the drum as the primary shamanic instrument. Depending on the region, these may be made out of several different materials. Some rattles are fashioned from dried gourds that have been hollowed out, filled with a few small stones or seeds, and secured on a stick. Variations on this type of rattle are seen among the Northern and Eastern Woodlands, Plains, Southwestern, Californian, and Southern tribes of Native Americans. Especially large examples of these gourd rattles are made by the Hopi and other Pueblo peoples of the American Southwest. Some of the finest Hopi ceremonial rattles have been crafted from gourds with a round and slightly flattened shape like a fat disk. Usually very colorfully painted in combinations of white, black, yellow, red, turquoise, and green, these rattles have a feather secured by a string to the very top which flies around as the rattle is shaken.
Among the native people of the Great Plains of the United States, the gourds used are smaller and placed on a longer stick. Although these peoples traditionally leave the gourd head of the rattle undecorated, the handles are usually covered in designs of very beautiful and intricate beadwork. Like the pueblo-style rattles, they too end in a feather at the top and often have a horsehair tail at the base of the handle. These elements add extra movement to the shaman's rattling gestures. The southern Pacific Coast and southwestern tribal peoples of the United States use gourd-shell rattles that are decorated by boring tiny holes across the surface of the head which have the effect of slightly amplifying the rattle's sound.
Gourd rattles of the Cherokee utilize the neck of the gourd to create a handle. The gourd is carefully sliced at the base of the neck, the insides of the gourd are removed, pebbles are inserted, and then the neck is replaced with a small plug of wood providing a support to the joint. These rattles can be quite eccentrically shaped, based on the form in which the gourd originally grew.
Among the Guarani people of the Amazon forest, the rattle or ubaraka mri, is the tool the shaman uses to "communicate with god." The round gourd part of the rattle is seen as a womb and the handle as a penis. As such, the structure of the rattle helps to maintain the overall balance between masculine and feminine energies. Like the Hopi examples, these rattles also have feathers attached at the top that flutter as the rattle is shaken.
I have held examples of African rattles that had heads made from a gourd with a forked stick for a handle. Wire was strung between the forked ends of the handle, and flattened bottle caps had been pierced and strung along the entire wire's length. This design makes a very effective rattle with a wonderfully loud, clashing sound when shaken, thanks to the combined nature of the sounds of the gourd and bottle caps. Indeed, as is the case with many Siberian and central Asian shamanic drumbeaters, the extra jingles produce a fine rhythmic rattling sound to accompany the shaman's work.
In places where gourds were not as common and the weather is damp, the native peoples turned other local materials to create their ceremonial rattles. The Woodland tribes famous for utilizing the magnificently beautiful bark of birch trees for food containers, storage vessels, and even their canoes also reached for this material in making their rattles. Using the bark from fallen trees, a cylinder is sewn together with the white or outside of the bark turned to the inside. A circular top and bottom were then fashioned and sewn to the ends of the tube after pebbles or dried corn kernels were placed inside. This made a shape somewhat like a tin can. A hole was then bored through the top and bottom ends so that a stick could be passed through the rattle and secured. Horn rattles are made in this same manner by simply replacing the birch bark tube with a section of buffalo or steer horn. The Eastern Woodlands people are known for their rattles made of turtle shells. Beautiful examples of these may be found at powwows across New England and into eastern Canada. Using the empty turtle shell as the container for pebbles or seeds, these rattles sometimes incorporate an actual turtle head as a part of the rattle.
Among the people of North America's Pacific Coast, wood has also been the primary resource for making a shaman's rattle. Surrounded by the enormous trees of the temperate rain forest, these peoples are known for utilizing wood in both everyday and sacred objects as well as for their extraordinarily fine carvings. Originally the shaman's rattles were round in overall shape and carved over their surface with images of the shaman's spiritual helpers.
Sometimes the figures that form the rattle are quite fiercefaced. These effigy-like carvings may be empowered by the shaman so that they become extensions of the shaman's power or function as partners during healing work. Other Northwest Coast rattles are quite elaborately carved into the shape of the animals they represent and often also carefully painted. Particularly fine examples of these figure rattles are found among the Tlingit people. Rattles have been carved to resemble oystercatchers, ravens, bears, and other totemic animals. A dear friend who is a shamanic practitioner in Quebec uses a particularly fine example of this type of rattle in her healing practice. She works with Raven, and the rattle is carved in a wonderfully stylized image of this spirit's head.
Animal rawhide is another common material for rattle making. Rawhide becomes very flexible when soaked in water and can be easily shaped while in that pliable state. Once dry, the rawhide becomes quite hard again and provides a nice sound. The most commonly seen rawhide rattle is created by sewing wet rawhide into a sack or container-like shape, which is filled with sand to hold its form until dry. Once the head of the rattle is hard again, the resulting hollow is emptied of sand, filled with seeds, beads, crystals, or pebbles, and secured to a handle. This basic formula can be used to make rattles of many different shapes. The Sioux of the Great Plains and Ojibwa of the northern central woodlands of the United States and southern Canada often make rattles in a shape similar to maracas. The latter people sometimes pierce their rattle heads in the manner of the Papago tribe of the Sonoran Desert.
In truth, rattles have been made from just about anything that produces noise, even pieces of antler, deer hooves, puffin beaks, and bones. Shamans have ingeniously exploited every available resource to provide the sounds necessary to support their journeys into the spirit realms.
Exercise: Making a Rawhide Rattle
To become an effective shamanic practitioner or spirit walker, it is important to take opportunities to concretize the lessons you receive from spirit. When a spiritual lesson is manifested in this reality, it allows you to more fully internalize what you have learned. You will feel the work more deeply and strengthen the connections with your helping spirits.
Indeed, performing a ceremony such as making a gratitude offering or honoring the spirits of the natural world supports you in becoming more powerful. Another method for making the spiritual experience more physical is to create some of the objects you will be using as a spirit walker. This is one of the reasons I have always included making objects in Spirit Passages training programs.
While you may have many other shamanic implements over the course of your life, the simple rattle you will create in this exercise can become a powerful part of your practice. I have many rattles that I have purchased—most of which are more elegantly made than my own. However, the one that I crafted myself has become so empowered through my constructing and using it that its efficacy for me far exceeds the others.
Materials and Tools
* A piece of rawhide about twelve inches square and an eighth of an inch thick
* A stick for a handle
* Sandpaper
* A PDF file of the full-sized, full-color rattle pattern and instructions found here may be downloaded at www.myspiritwalk.com (Print out two copies of your pattern and set one aside. This second copy will be a useful reference for the project in chapter 2.)
* A soft pencil
* A good, sharp pair of scissors
* A push awl or sharp nail the same thickness as your needle
* A hammer
* A rectangular piece of scrap plywood or other flat board such as a secondhand cutting board about ten to twelves inches or so across (You will be putting holes in this piece.)
* A spool of artificial sinew
* A needle that is big enough to thread the sinew
* Two large skeins of natural, undyed, thick wool knitting yarn or wool roving (unspun wool that has been cleaned and combed)
* An embroidery hook to remove wool when the rattle is dry
* One teaspoon or two of very tiny pebbles (one-sixteenth to one-eighth of an inch in diameter)
* White glue
* Drill and one-eighth-inch drill bit
* Small scrap of deerskin or other soft leather
* Paint, beads, feathers, and other things you may want to use to decorate your finished rattle
* A shamanic journey drumming recording with callback signal to facilitate your journeys to the spirits of the hide and handle as well as for empowering the rattle once it is completed
Rawhide is the scraped and dried hide of an animal. It is typically used for drumheads and may be found through companies that supply drum-making supplies. Commercial rawhide is usually from a steer, but it is possible to find deer, elk, goat, and even black bear rawhide through online sources. In a pinch, the larger ten-inch rawhide dog chews with the knot at each end may be used for a rattle. Choose only the unflavored variety to make your rattle!
Take time to pick out a handle stick with meaning for you and prepare it by sanding it smooth. If you are close to the ocean you may wish to use driftwood. Perhaps a beaver stick from a pond or river may appeal to you. You may ask your favorite tree for a small branch. Maybe you have a treasured piece of wood from building a house or piece of furniture. Even a dowel from the hardware store can be decorated to feel "just right!"
Make the Rattle
1. Begin by gathering all of your tools and ingredients. Take time to make thoughtful choices. In planning a time to actually construct your rattle, remember that your piece of rawhide will have to be soaked in water overnight for it to be pliable.
2. While your rawhide soaks, you have the opportunity to sand and decorate your handle. Before you begin, perform an offering to thank all the spirits who are participating in the project with you. These include the animal whose hide you will be using, the tree from which the stick has come, and so on. Your offering can be as simple as burning incense while holding these spirits in your mind or placing a bit of cornmeal outside while saying your thanks aloud. Or you can reference the more extensive instructions in Spirit Walking: A Course in Shamanic Power. By entering into a prayerful state, you are inviting the spirits to participate with you. You may then wish to journey to find out what imagery or colors would be best for the handle. I like to use a wood-burning tool to decorate my rattle handles, as the designs hold up well over time. A combination of paint and incised lines produced through wood-burning can create wonderful handle designs. Whatever you decide is best for you will be just perfect!
3. On the day you will be assembling your rattle, gather your tools and again perform an offering to thank all the spirits.
4. You will notice that the pattern tells you to measure your handle's circumference. You can use the ruler that is on the pattern for this purpose. Adjust the pattern's neck according to the directions and then start tracing the pattern onto the rawhide's rough side (wrong side) with your soft pencil.
5. Carefully cut the pattern out of the rawhide.
6. Once your rawhide has been cut out, fold it along the line (red in the downloadable pattern) where the heads of the two bulbs meet and begin to punch the holes with your scrap plywood underneath your rawhide. A nail and hammer work equally well as a traditional leather punch for this purpose. Punch the holes about three-sixteenths of an inch from the edge of the rawhide, starting at one side of the neck. Only punch four or five at a time, then begin sewing. If you try to punch more all at once, it may be difficult to align the holes when stitching.
7. Start sewing at one side of the neck leaving a tail of artificial sinew at the beginning of your stitches. I have found that using a stitch that goes over the edge seems to make the best looking finished rattle.
8. Complete the way around the rattle and again leave a long tail.
9. Start another length of sinew and sew again through the same holes from the other direction, remembering to leave tails at both ends. The result will be that the stitches cross over the outside seam. This will produce a nice finished outer edge on the rattle head.
10. Start stuffing the damp rawhide with wool. Keep feeding in the wool to make the rattle head round. You can use a smooth stick to force more of the wool into the rattle's opening. It will take more wool to stuff the rattle than you might believe is possible!
11. Temporarily place your stick in the neck of the rattle and leave it to dry in a sunny spot or put it in a very low oven (the lowest setting) for an hour or two to speed up the process.
12. Once the rawhide is hard and dry, remove the stick and take out all the wool. An embroidery hook is the perfect tool for coaxing the wool back out of the head of the rattle.
13. Put your stones inside the hollow and again temporarily replace the handle to test the sound. Experiment with more or fewer stones until it sounds best. (Remember, the sound will sharpen and become a bit louder as the rawhide dries even more thoroughly.)
(Continues...)
Excerpted from A Spirit Walker's Guide to Shamanic Tools by Evelyn C. Rysdyk. Copyright © 2014 Evelyn C. Rysdyk. Excerpted by permission of Weiser Books.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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