Frame Drum Practices: Rediscovering Feminine Consciousness by Ianthi Sparsis of MA GAIA

In the beginning, the drummers were women. From Egypt to the Indus River Valley, from Cyprus and Crete to Greece and Rome, priestesses and worshipping women used the frame drum to celebrate their goddesses as the endlessly rhythmic energy of life. Priestesses of Inanna, Isis and Hathor, Istar, Astarte, Aprhodite, Rhea, Artemis, Demeter and Cybele… rhythmically beat their frame drums to connect humanity’s heartbeat to the rhythm of the cosmos, celebrating the miracle of creation in sacred rituals. It was a time when the earth itself was revered as the Great Mother of All That Is and all that was, pulsated in unison. It was a time when women were in harmony with themselves, when their bodies were considered a microcosmic reflection of the profound energies of the earth and heavens.Recent archaeological excavations and scientific investigations into prehistory reveal a wealth of information suggesting that there is a significant vein of feminine wisdom at the core of western civilization. Thousands of images of the Divine Feminine have been discovered at sacred sites where she was once worshipped, revealing the frame drum as the musical and psychic centre of these rituals. It is one of the oldest known sacred ritual instruments, its earliest appearance on a shrine wall in ancient Anatolia (present-day Turkey) from the 6^th millennium B.C. The number of figurines playing the frame drum that were unearthed on Cyprus is staggering, as the drum was at the core of all religious practices and rituals. It was a medium of communication and spirituality, and a way of exploring the human consciousness in connection to the surrounding world.

It is an ancient thought that rhythmic sound is at the root of all creation, that matter is structured by sound and that life is rhythm. Modern scientific research seems to concur that our bodies are expressions of energetic fields of vibrations; from the pulse of our hearts to the rhythms of our breathing and the patterns of our speech, we are truly rhythmic beings. We are conceived to the pulse and born into a rhythmic world.

The sound of the drum has represented this primordial pulse of creation since the beginning of human ritual. The sound of the frame drum echoes this cosmic beat along with the first sound that we hear in the womb - the pulse of our mother’s blood. Our bodies and consciousness took form to this sound. This powerful sound draws us back to our earliest stirrings of awareness and is why drumming has been used is shamanistic, religious and transformative rites since Paleolithic times. Entraining to the sound of the frame drum can return us to the pre-socialized, unconditioned and balanced state of awareness we experienced in the womb. It is time-tested, powerful trance-inducing instrument that gives us a means of creating peace and wisdom within ourselves. Frame drums were eliminated from early Christian, Islamic and Hebrew worship because of their association with the divine feminine - the goddess.

MA•GAIA is a non-profit making company dedicated to the study and revival of women’s frame drumming tradition in Cyprus, through workshops, presentations, concerts and exhibitions. Its formation has been inspired by the work of Layne Redmond, percussionist, teacher, drum historian and author of When the Drummers Were Women. Acting as a bridge between the Women Drummers of Past and Present, MA•GAIA is currently recovering this joyful and uplifting spiritual heritage which aligns us with the natural rhythms of life and invites feminine consciousness back into our culture.