Sisters drummers set worldwide beat

The sounds of beating drums reverberated across Sisters and around the world in the Ceremony of 8,000 Sacred Drums, Friday, March 21, at 10 a.m. local time.

It was noon in Mexico.

The International Indigenous University, a university with no walls headquartered in Toluca, Mexico, hosted the ceremony on site at Otomi Ceremonial Center in Temoaya, Mexico and worldwide through a global campaign that asked drummers to participate. It did not matter whether an individual was alone or with a group.

The prophecy that drives the event says that the day when the sounds of 8,000 sacred drums join together is the day that healing will start to come forth for Mother Earth. Humans together with all species will begin to live corroboratively in harmony on the path to "sacred peace."

This prophecy was first revealed at the Otomi Ceremonial Center in the State of Mexico by the Otomi elder sages as a vision from their ancestors. The first 8,000 drums ceremony was held on March 21, 2004 in Temoaya, Mexico. Since then, the ceremony has been repeated on the Spring Equinox of each year; the plan is for the ceremonies to continue every year until 2012.

The Sisters event at the Blue Spruce Bed and Breakfast was organized by local resident Louise Jacobs, who heads a drumming group that meets monthly in Sisters.

"All of the people that came have been to the drumming group before," said Jacobs.

According to Jacobs, the worldwide ceremony was very powerful.

"It was to heal the earth and establish a balance again. Our earth is so depleted of balance. We can't feed the people any more. We are putting in so many pesticides. The earth is not serving us the way we need it to serve us. We need to ask for healing of the earth," she said.

In addition to drumming for an hour and 15 minutes, readings and prayers were exchanged.

"We did tobacco prayers, which is something that we learned about the native ways of doing things. We spread tobacco onto the ground, as we read some prayers," said Jacobs. "It's giving to the earth."

Before the drumming ceremony started, participants were smudged with sage by a swooping feather to clear the energy.

"It is a tradition that the native circles come and do," said Jacobs. "We burn the sage in an abalone shell. Then, we take a raven's feather and kind of use it to spread the smoke onto the people to clear the energy," said Jacobs, noting that after the smudging ceremony all feel as though they are in the same atmosphere.

The sage symbolizes purification, and the swooping symbolizes expanding energy outward. The act allows recipients to "leave the stuff behind that you don't want to have with you, like your home life or whatever, the world...," said Jacobs.

The smudging act creates a state of prayer, Jacobs said. Once the drumming starts, participants are "traveling and channeling," she added. "The drumming is an exchange of energy. The drum is like the heartbeat of the mother, the mother meaning Mother Earth. You drum, and you journey in a daze with an awakening.... It's like meditation," she added.

For information about Sisters drumming group, contact Jacobs at 549-0184.