Shamanic DrummingA History

The first two chapters look honestly at what we actually know about the druids, poets and seers of Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Brittany: the ancient clues, the medieval stories and the modern revival. They cover the Otherworld, the bodhrán, second sight and sacred places in Scotland and Fife, followed by a gentle Celtic drum journey to try.

The rest of the guide traces the wider history: where the word “shaman” comes from, drums in Siberia, Tuva and Mongolia, the Sámi noaidi and the painted drums that were taken, burned and are now being returned, and traditions in North America and the Arctic. It follows the drum into the modern West and “core shamanism”, asks what scientific studies have and have not found, and explains how to drum with respect. There are chapters on Samhain and the Wheel of the Year and on finding a circle in Fife, Perth, Dundee and Edinburgh.

Every date and quotation comes from a published source listed at the back. Where historians disagree or the evidence is thin, the guide says so.

• Celtic shamanism: what we really know
• Drums, seers and sacred places: Scotland and the Gaelic world
• Try it: a Celtic drum journey
• Where the word ‘shaman’ comes from
• Siberia, Tuva and Mongolia
• Sápmi: the noaidi and the painted drum
• North America and the Arctic
• The drum comes West: ‘core shamanism’
• What does the science say?
• Samhain and the Wheel of the Year
• Find a circle: Fife, Perth, Dundee and Edinburgh