The Shamanic Drum: A Bridge Between Worlds

Andrea Lawrie
5 days ago
4 min read

Updated: 1 day ago

I’m writing this at the first full moon of the year. Each month, at the full moon, I return to this space to write - it offers me a chance to pause, take stock and begin again. That feels especially fitting at this time of year, when many people are naturally reflecting on where they’ve been and where they are now. Rather than looking ahead or setting intentions, I want to begin by coming back into rhythm.

That’s why this feels like a good moment to talk about the shamanic drum.

In my previous blogs in this series, What Is Shamanism? and The Shamanic Journey, I shared how shamanic practice is less about belief and more about relationship - relationship with the unseen, with the natural world, and with our own inner landscape.

At the heart of that relationship is the drum.

In shamanic practice, the drum may be beautiful to look at, whether made from animal hide or synthetic materials, but its role goes far beyond appearance. It is used as a tool of consciousness, one that has been relied upon across cultures and continents for millennia.

The Drum as Rhythm

In shamanic practice, the drum is played in a steady, repetitive rhythm. Not to entertain or impress, but to entrain, which simply means to bring something into sync with something else.

That rhythm (played at around 4–7 beats per second) mirrors the brain’s natural theta state; the same state we enter during dreaming, deep meditation or those moments when we experience profound insight. As the rhythm continues, the nervous system begins to soften. The thinking mind loosens its grip. Awareness shifts. This is why so many people report similar experiences.

“Something happened - I don’t quite know what, but I went somewhere.”

That “somewhere” is the landscape the drum opens.

A Bridge Between Worlds

Across shamanic traditions, the drum is often described as a bridge, or, as Mircea Eliade described it, a “horse” - because it carries the practitioner between worlds.

Some people understand these worlds as psychological landscapes: the subconscious, memory, symbols and intuition. Others experience them as real, relational spirit realms, places inhabited by guides, ancestors, teachers and helping spirits. What matters is not proving which interpretation is correct. What matters is the experience.

First stage of making my drum - willow frame on horse hide

Horse hide stretched over the frame and laced

The completed drum resting as a it dries with St. Ninian stone

Lived Practice: How the Drum is Used

In my own practice, the drum weaves through many forms.

I drum:

During one-to-one shamanic healing and shamanic counselling sessions
In one-to-one Reiki with drum healing sessions, where vibration, sound and energy work together
In group circles, where shared rhythm creates shared space
When teaching beginners, who are learning how to journey safely and confidently
For my own journey-work

Once someone has learned the basics of journeying, they can drum for themselves. At other times, recorded drumming tracks are used, particularly when hands are needed for healing-work or scribing, or when live drumming isn’t practical. Listening through headphones, for example, allows the rhythm to be followed without disturbing others.

Each Approach Has its Own Benefits

Being bathed in the sound and vibration of a live drum can be deeply regulating. The body feels it. The chest, the belly, the bones respond. This is especially powerful in healing work, where the nervous system needs to feel safe enough to open. Drumming for yourself, on the other hand, builds relationship and trust. You learn how rhythm affects your body, your inner imagery, your awareness.

Why Learning in Person Matters

Although we can journey on our own, when starting out, learning shamanic journeying in person is invaluable. Not because someone else has the answers, but because:

You learn how to form clear journey questions
You learn how to interpret imagery without forcing meaning
You learn to recognise the difference between imagination, symbolism and guidance
You experience shared, embodied learning with others which helps integrate and anchor the practice in the body, not just the mind

Shamanism has always been experiential and relational. It is learned through doing, witnessing and reflecting.

The Drum and the Body’s Wisdom

One of the incredible truths of the drum is that it speaks directly to us.

In a world where many of us live mostly in our minds, the drum calls us back down into our body. Back into rhythm. Back into sensation. Back into embodied presence.

Often, before images arise, you notice something else happens first:

The breath deepens
The shoulders drop
A sense of remembering often stirs

This is the body recognising a language older than words.

Listening, Rather than Striving

The drum doesn’t demand effort. It invites surrender. To journey, we don’t have to try. Instead, as the steady rhythm continues, the body and mind begin to entrain, meaning they gently align with the beat. As this alignment settles, the journey starts to unfold on its own. Awareness shifts, sensations and inner imagery can emerge, and the sense of travelling between worlds becomes possible.

While the drum is one of the most widely used tools for this, it isn’t the only one. You may recognise this in your own experience. Any steady, continuous rhythm can support this shift. Rattles, chanting, clapping, tapping the foot, dancing can all carry awareness in the same way. Even natural rhythms, such as water flowing in a river, waves breaking on the shore, or wind moving through trees, can draw us into this receptive state.

Long before we understand rhythm with the thinking mind, we know it in the body. The first rhythm any of us ever hears is the steady heartbeat of our mother in the womb.

From this place of awareness, people may receive guidance, healing, insight or a deeper sense of connection. This is why the drum remains central to shamanic practice.

It creates a doorway.

You can choose whether to step through and when to return.

With warmth and heartfelt gratitude