When I first began offering this work publicly, I sometimes referred to it as a drum meditation. It made sense at the time – the rhythm of the drum, the slowing of the breath, the inner stillness people felt. Later, I began calling it a shamanic journey, which more accurately reflected the deep spiritual process people were experiencing: entering non-ordinary reality, connecting with spirits, receiving healing and insight.
But over time, and through deeper reflection, I’ve come to see it more clearly for what it is: a ceremony. A sacred space, held with intention and devotion, where ritual, journeying, spirit connection, and healing all come together. (What I’m referring to here is not an individual session of drumming, but a session/event involving a group.)
I’ve been walking this path for over 25 years. I first learned this practice from a Siberian shaman master and his apprentices. Their way of teaching was experiential, embodied and esoteric. When they offered this work, they didn’t call it a ceremony or a journey. They usually said, “Tonight, we’ll beat the drum in the forest,” or even more simply, “We’ll do shamanism.”
That phrase has always stayed with me. It pointed to something alive and mysterious. Not a technique. Not a performance. Not even something that could be fully explained. Just shamanism. A living current.
But as I began sharing this work with others, especially in the Western world, I realised that people often need language to help them enter into an experience. They want to know: What is this? What can I expect? What am I stepping into? And so I began to search for words that could translate the sacred without reducing it.
Words of the Sacred: Meditation, Journey, Ritual, and Ceremony
In trying to name and describe the work I do, I found myself returning again and again to these four words: meditation, journey, ritual, and ceremony. Each carries a specific meaning and cultural weight. And while they’re often used interchangeably in modern spiritual spaces, they each point to something unique.
Let’s look at them more closely.
Meditation
The word meditation comes from the Latin meditatio, meaning “to contemplate” or “to reflect.” It has roots in many traditions – Buddhist, Hindu and beyond – as a practice of quieting the mind, centring attention, and turning inward.
In many modern contexts, especially in the West, meditation is often seen as passive, meaning a still practice of silence, breath and inner observation. In the context of drumming, this might look like someone lying down, letting the rhythm carry them away while entering a dreamlike state.
This can be powerful. But it’s not quite what I do.
Journey
The term shamanic journey became popular largely through the work of Michael Harner, an anthropologist who helped bring awareness of shamanic practices to the Western world. He and teachers like Sandra Ingerman emphasised the idea of “journeying” into non-ordinary reality to meet helping spirits, power animals, or teachers.
In a journey, one often intentionally travels with a specific purpose: to retrieve information, receive healing, or connect with unseen allies.
Many Western practitioners guide shamanic journeys in a format where the participant lies down, often passively receiving or witnessing the journey.
And again – this has value. But it’s still not the whole picture of what I learned.
What I Was Taught: Practising Shamanism
When I trained with Siberian shamans, the phrase they used wasn’t “let’s meditate” or “let’s journey.” They simply said: “Let’s do shamanism.”
And doing is the key word here.
In the ceremonies I was part of, we didn’t lie down and drift, but we moved. We moved our body, used our voice to make sounds, shook, cried out. The drum was not a background sound; it was a portal, a heartbeat. It was the spirit of the deer transporting us to different worlds and realities. Our bodies were involved. Our voices were active. Our spirits were engaged in a process of transformation.
It was not something that happened to us. It was something we were doing with the spirits, in co-creation.
Ritual
Ritual is an ancient word, from the Latin ritualis, meaning “relating to rite.” It refers to a set of symbolic actions, often repeated, often sacred. Lighting a candle, making an offering, circling with intention – these are all rituals.
Ritual helps create a bridge between the seen and unseen, between the ordinary world and the sacred. It’s a language of the soul, a way to speak directly to spirit through movement, symbol, and intention.
Ceremony
Ceremony is the wider container. From the Latin caerimonia, it’s one of the oldest human impulses to gather, honour, invoke, and transform.
Ceremony holds ritual, journey, song, dance, silence, prayer, and more. It holds community, intention, and sacred time. It tells us: this moment matters. We are stepping into the timeless. We are not just doing something – we are part of something.
And this is where I’ve landed: what I offer is a shamanic ceremony. It includes ritual. It includes journeying. It includes moments of meditation. But above all, it is a sacred act of both being and doing.
It asks us to be fully present – with our bodies, our voices, our breath, our hearts. It invites us to participate in the great dance between the seen and unseen. It’s not something that happens to us, or something we simply observe. It’s something we live through in the moment, together with spirit.
Trance and the Drum: Pathways Into the Sacred
Drumming has been used for thousands of years to shift consciousness and open the doors between worlds. The steady rhythm of the drum, especially at certain beats per minute, can help shift the perception of reality in our brain, moving us from ordinary waking states into deeper, altered states of awareness. This is often called a trance state, a state where the veil between the seen and unseen becomes thin, where we can receive visions, healing, and guidance.
In many modern “drum meditations,” the participant lies down, listens to the drum, and lets their mind drift into the journey space. This can be deeply powerful. But often, it remains primarily a mental process, guided by imagination, intention and inner visioning.
The practice I was taught is different. In the Siberian tradition I carry, trance is not just a mental shift – it’s a state involving all our bodies and all our parts. We don’t just lie down and receive. We move. We use our voices. We let the drum awaken our bones, our breath, our energy field. The body becomes part of the communication with spirit. The trance deepens because the whole being is involved.
This kind of trance is not just something you think – it’s something you do. It’s something you become.
And from the participant’s perspective, something powerful happens when they are invited into that level of engagement. Moving the body – even gently – and letting the voice sound – even softly – helps people get out of their heads and into their direct connection with spirit. It becomes easier to drop into the space, to let go, to trust the energy and where it wants to move.
The trance becomes more alive. More real. More transformative.
Not Better, Just Different: Honouring the Diversity of Sacred Practices
I share all of this not to compare or say that one way is better than another. Every path into the sacred has its own wisdom. A quiet drum meditation, a deeply internal shamanic journey, an elaborate ritual, or a full-bodied ceremony – all of these have their place. Each one meets a different need, a different person, a different moment in time.
What I’ve described here is the way I was taught, and the way I now hold space. It is rooted in an embodied, spirit-connected tradition that invites full participation – body, voice, heart, and soul. It is ceremony.
But that doesn’t make other ways less meaningful. On the contrary, it’s the diversity of approaches that makes this field of spiritual work so rich and alive.
So this is not a comparison. It’s a clarification, a sharing, an honouring of the path I walk, and an invitation for others to feel what resonates most deeply for them.
Whatever form it takes, what matters is that we keep showing up. That we keep listening. That we keep creating space for spirit to move through us, in whatever way we are called.