drum ceremony

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• The name of the drum in Tiwa is “NA-MO-LO-NEY' – “NA” means “self” (you, the inner, ie, inner self); “MO” means “seeing into the deep recesses of the self, the inner self”; “LO” means “deeply”; “NEY” means “healing the inner self and putting yourself in a state of awareness”.

• The drum is a living, breathing entity and not just an object. Whoever is seated at the drum is seated next to a divine space.

• In a ceremony the drum is the entity that connects the dancers with the Higher Mind (The Divine Presence).

• The human body is the micro of the macrocosm and, in a ceremony, people dance the past, the present and the future at the same time.

• Practice is the key to great playing. Practitioners have to play and sing the sacred songs together until each can play and sing each of the songs themselves.

• In a dance, the drummers will send whatever they are thinking to the dancers, who are traveling through Cosmic Consciousness.

• The designated place for the drum is the center of the circle of life, your sacred circle. All areas of the dance are sacred places and should not be treated otherwise.

 

the corners

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• The song is a prayer that is being sung aloud, not a prayer that is being said silently.

• In the Tiwa language, every single sound is a sacred sound, a sacred word and must not be expressed simply at random; it is, in fact, a sacred song.

• Playing and singing is divine work because you are singing to Mother Earth and Father Sky. The tympanic membrane is used to lift up to the Father-Mother Creator.

 

An Ancestral Medicine

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• It's not the drummers who play the drum... they are played by it... they don't sing the songs. it's the songs that sing them

• It is an honor to join a group of drum practitioners and play in ceremonies... a very special ancestral medicine

• Dancing is a religion for the Picuris-Tiwas because through dance people travel in the arms of the Creator to be loved and nurtured by Him.