Circle of Heroes

What more do I need to say about WolfStone Ranch’s spiritually-based, activist drum circle and musical ensemble than what I’ve already said on my Home page?

Okay, listen… I realize that many of you may already know all about drum circles, but for those who don’t… a drum circle is any group of people playing hand-drums and percussion in a circle… although anything can be used as a percussive instrument, everything from natural objects such as sticks and hollow logs to manmade objects such as buckets, pipes and cans.

There are many purposes for drumming together, including recreational music-making and celebration, personal growth and healing, team-building, and spiritual activism. That is, one can drum together for entertainment, wellness or any prayerful intent… such as drumming for peace or for justice or to save the environment… or to build and strengthen community relationships.

Indigenous cultures around the world have been drumming as medicine for centuries… and now science is documenting what our ancestors have long known. That is, the beat of the drum is one of the most primal sounds of life. And at its simplest, it can connect us with our own heartbeat… as well as the heartbeat of others.

Research has now shown that participating in a drumming circle reduces tension and anxiety… boosts the immune system… accesses the entire brain, and even synchronizes the two cerebral hemispheres… which produces feelings of insight, understanding and integration, thereby creating a sense of connectedness with oneself and with others.

Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart once said, “When we drum together, we create sacred space.” Think about it... When we create sacred space, through the common language of rhythm, we have the potential to dissolve enemy lines… and bring people together for conflict resolution!

And we can start prayer-drumming together, just as soon as a handful of you think you want to get involved with WolfStone Ranch! At first, it’ll be just us… drumming for our own personal healing and to build our own sense of community. But before long, we can start reaching out to others… to share the benefits of drumming together, and to build that sense of community with our family and friends, and beyond… performing at appropriate private or public events. The key word here is “appropriate”…

Because remember, I want Circle of Heroes, WolfStone Ranch’s community drum circle, to be intentionally and meaningfully all about SPIRITUAL ACTIVISM. As I said previously, our drumming will ALWAYS be PRAYER. Now, that actually covers a lot of territory! We can prayer-drum just for personal healing. Or we can prayer-drum for a specific outside cause… for instance, at an event for a particular social-justice issue. But always, when Circle of Heroes performs, whether by ourselves (within the WolfStone Ranch Community) or with others, I want the message to be clear to everyone… we are drumming as prayer, for spiritual goals.

I say this because I’ve had some experience with community drumming, and while I have no problem whatsoever with drumming just for fun and entertainment, that’s not what Circle of Heroes is to be about. Now, my hope and goal would be that every time we drum, it would be fun! Or if that’s not an appropriate emotion for some situations, then it might be more apt to say, I would hope that whenever we drum, it would be “rewarding”.

But bottom line, I want our drumming experience (and later on, our reputation) to be spiritually powerful. I want Circle of Heroes to be able to miraculously open peoples’ hearts and minds… to inspire them to get in touch with their own Sacred Selves, and to get in touch with each other’s Sacred Selves, and from that heart space to become passionate about making the world a better place for all. So I don’t want to ever dilute the potential for powerful healing by ever performing for any purpose other than spiritual activism. Make sense?

Eventually, I want to expand the drum circle into a full musical ensemble, with other instrumentation and singers. I’ve written some prayer songs that I’d like us to perform… and of course, others will want to write prayer songs as well. But this is something that I want to grow “organically” out of our drum circle community, and I don’t want to set up rules here and now. Still, I think I’ll keep my old web page about this, just to give you some idea of my thoughts from when I originally set up my website (back in 2014). This is one of those places you’ll definitely get a different feel between the old way I was thinking and expressing myself… as compared to the new way I’m approaching the mission of WolfStone Ranch! Quite a “sea change”, I think you’ll agree! Read more…