This new 14" drum from the Journey Oracle--of blacktail doe hide on a spruce wood frame is special for lots of reasons. I very rarely receive a doe skin from the Cortes Island hunters who bring me hides. Doe hide is much thinner and so the overlay of harmonics is quite amazing.
This wonderful horse has been present to my gaze since the
drum first dried, but I could not figure out how she was standing. This is
because she is not standing at all, but walking right out of the Mystery toward
the drummer. Yes, I know horses' eyes do
not look forward, but spirit horses can look in any direction they want.
The interlacement pattern on the reverse of the drum is the
Octagram. Barbara Walker says
this"gateless design is achieved by extending all eight sides of the two
squares until they meet at the points of an eight pointed star. On contemplation it seems mysterious that a
figure with an even number of termini should be formed of a continuous line,
which may account for the magical implications so often drawn from the
Octagram."
This motif is said to be a symbol of regeneration.
