Grandmother Knight Consulting: Wisdom for Life's Transitions
Contact Connie Hill at gmnite@yahoo.com
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July 2, 2016  •  Drumming
"My life path made a big transition about 20 years ago as a result of a vision quest... Even though I was sure I couldn't afford it I signed up for the quest. Amazingly, once I registered, the money appeared."  Connie Hill, Money Stories
Hi Friends
When I began leading drumming circles seven years ago I thought it was going to be just one time, but then it continued and continued and continued. Now it has been nearly seven years and each circle opens me to something new.
     The circles at New Renaissance began because there was a Friday night in September 2009 that needed filling with an event. The Friday was a Full Moon, so I agreed to lead a Full Moon Drumming Circle.
     Before leaving my job at New Renaissance people asked me when I was going to start leading drumming circles. I said I had no plans to lead any. Then I was asked that same question again and again. Each time my answer was the same, "I'm not planning to lead a drumming circle."
     But then the opportunity came up, and I guess Spirit knew best. That circle in September 2009 was the first one of many, and since then I've been drumming every month at New Renaissance on or around the Full Moon.  
     That was also the beginning of a Progressed New Moon Cycle for me. It hit in my eighth house, the place of death and rebirth, death of one life, birth of a new one!
     Now, besides the New Renaissance circle I also lead a circle in Tigard, usually the Sunday just before the New Moon. And in the last year a drumming meditation Meetup group on a Monday around the Full Moon has been added.
     As I said I had no plans to lead drumming circles. But Spirit had other ideas!
     Over these years I've learned that this loud thing can be my most profound meditation, that each group is different, each Moon is different, and I can't predict how a group will be any more than I can predict who or how many will show up.
     It is still a surprise to me to realize how perfectly these circles utilized the things I love--drumming and astrology and the moon!  I am a night person and in fact my spirit name is "Grandmother (K)Night." The heavenly symbol of night is the Moon. These drumming circles are the perfect blend my love of the Moon and astrology with my growing love of drumming.
     I also have remembered that the wish to drum first came to me in grade school when we got the chance to pick and learn to play a musical instrument. My pick was drums, but I was told that girls didn't play drums. So, I ended up not playing any instrument back then. But at about 35 years later, drums and drumming came back into my life when a drum making class was offered.
     As I made that first drum in 1987 I felt a real deja vu connection to drums, I knew I had done it before and I strongly wanted to teach people to make their own drums (in the spirit of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance!).  
     So I began teaching drum and rattle making in 1988 and for the next 22 years I taught an occasional drum making class (in the early 2000's I estimated that I had taught 300 people to make drums!) and lead an occasional circle, but mainly did other things, until 2009. Even though I didn't realize it, that was my call to a new path.
     Drumming has helped me listen to my intuition or my internal guidance. It was my inner guidance that told me to lead that first drumming circle. And most of what we do in the circles has come from the intuition Spirit has led me to see, hear, or feel.
     I've learned or been opened to a lot in these past seven years, and I believe there is still more to learn and be open to. So seven years is not the end of these circles. In some ways it's just the beginning.   And so, here's to more drum learning and more deepening with sound.
     The schedule for drumming for the next three months is in the Event Calendar to the right. If you are led to, I hope you'll join me as I continue to learn more about the Moon and drumming. Come be part of my learning process!
     I send the energy of learning and intuition to each of us as we journey into the great and wonderful unknown. Take care on your path.
Connie Hill/Grandmother Knight