For Matters of
LIFE AND DEATH
BAY VIEW DRUM & JOURNEY CIRCLE
A community for drumming, journeying & personal growth - No experience necessary!
Meeting once monthly on 3rd OR 4th Fridays from 6-9pm.​​
UPCOMING CIRCLES FOR 2025
No December Circle, 2024
January 24, 2025
February 28, 2025
March 28, 2025
April 25, 2025
May 16, 2025
June 27, 2025
July 25, 2025
August 22, 2025
September 26, 2025
October 24, 2025
November 21, 2025
No December Circle, 2025
​
Subscribe to the Circle's Mailing List
Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates.
(We usually send just one blog post and circle reminder a month.)
​​​​
Please join us in Circle at A Space for Change Studio in Bay View!​
Join us on Friday, January 24 from 6-9pm for our next Circle.
Please be sure to bring your drum, your journal, and whatever else you need to make yourself comfortable for the evening. Also, for this next Circle, bring along a bell, rattle, or another kind of noisemaker, if you’d like.
​
Spare drums and rattles are available for your use for the evening, if you don't have your own. This is a free event, and heart offerings are appreciated.
​
​
If it’s been a while since you’ve attended a Circle - Click HERE for WHAT TO EXPECT when attending a Drum & Journey Circle in-person.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at info @ drumjourneycircle.com.
​
To your inner wisdom,
Holly
​
ABOUT THE CIRCLE
Established in 2015, the Bay View Drum & Journey Circle is an open community of folks who meet for journeying and community with the intention of connecting to spirit for practical wisdom, learning, and guidance. Our Circle is open to everyone, including those who are brand new to the idea of journeying/awake dreaming/ecstatic trance. Our circle celebrates and invites people of all religious and spiritual backgrounds.
​
This is always a free event that accepts heart donations to offset the costs and pay for the space, with remaining money given to Survival International, a non-governmental organization helping tribal peoples to exercise their rights to survival and self-determination.
​
Don't have a drum or rattle? No worries! We have spares you can borrow for the evening.
​
Journeying can help us uncover the energy blocks, whether past or present, that keep us from moving forward to achieve our wellness goals and guide us, and our communities, back toward balance again.
​
The circle keeper of the Bay View Drum & Journey Circle is Holly Emmer (click name for more info):
Holly Emmer (she/her)
WHAT TO EXPECT
Our drum and journey circle uses the beat of the drum and other simple, natural techniques (rattling, dancing, etc.) to help participants gain access to their inner wisdom. Drumming has been used in many cultures for thousands of years as a way to create an altered state of consciousness. The repetitive sound, ranging from 180-220 bpm, induces a state of consciousness that is relaxing and meditative.
To honor a safer, sacred space for all, our circle is absolutely drug- and alcohol-free. The Circlekeeper intends to provide a trauma-informed safer space for all. Additionally, since people sometimes will share private and personal information, everything that occurs during a circle is to be considered strictly confidential.
​
A TYPICAL DRUM & JOURNEY CIRCLE EVENT
-
The circle begins with a group drumming, an introduction, orientation, and check-in with the attendees.
-
Before we begin our sacred work, we either use sound (like bells, bowls, tingshas) or herb smoke to cleanse ourselves and our instruments to purify any negative thoughts/feelings from the day, and place any special/sacred items we've brought on the community altar.
-
We open our sacred space by welcoming help and guidance from all directions.
-
We do a journey or two for answers to our own questions. Sometimes, we work with a theme or idea for journeying.
-
Sometimes, we will stand as a healing circle and send prayer drums to those in need (with their permission).
-
We conclude the circle by giving our thanks, singing the Circle Song, and closing the circle.
Click HERE for a Drum Etiquette and Circle Overview pdf for download.
No experience is necessary; please come with an open mind and willingness to experience something new and different!
WHAT TO BRING
There are no requirements besides yourself. However, if you would like some suggestions of what most people bring to a circle, may we suggest that you bring:
-
a drum, rattle, or other percussion instrument (extra instruments are available)
-
eye cover such as a bandanna or sleep mask (helps remove visual distraction while journeying)
-
notebook & pen (for documenting journey experiences -- journeys can be like dreams where details fade quickly if not written down)
-
an item to share on the community altar during the circle (people may bring their medicine bags, mesas, special stones/crystals, totem animal symbols, a gift from Nature, etc. You will take this item back home with you after the circle.)
-
water and a snack for self or for sharing during our break and/or after the circle
-
an optional goodwill donation to help with costs for maintaining the circle​​
LOCATION
We meet at A Space For Change Movement Studio & Wellness Center, located inside PT Plus Bay View, at 3073 S. Chase Avenue (corner of Chase and Oklahoma inside the Chase Commerce Center, right across the street from the UW Credit Union building), Building 28, Suite 630 (first floor).
Look for Drum Circle signs when you enter the Chase Commerce Center.
​
Click this link for Google Map directions to the building inside the Chase Commerce Center.
​
THANK YOU! to Dr. Carol Dusold for inviting us to drum and journey in your beautiful studio!
Our host, Dr. Carol Dusold, is a physical therapist and Brown Belt Nia Teacher. She facilitates personal and community healing and growth through the activities held in A Space for Change, which include yoga, Nia Technique, sound healing, and meditation classes and events.
DRUM CIRCLE ETIQUETTE
​
I cannot emphasize enough the responsibility you take on as a drummer in a shamanic drumming circle. Your drum's voice at the circle touches the heart and soul of every person present and spirals out into the resonating circle of life. That is no small responsibility, and it's one that should be taken very seriously. There are three basic rules of etiquette in shamanic drumming circles: honor, respect, and gratitude. Each circle is different, but the following is some basic protocol:
1. Come with the intention to serve each other through love;
2. Enter sacred space with respect and leave your ego at the door;
3. Honor the rules of the circle as established by the circle keeper;
4. Ask permission before playing someone else's drum;
5. Play at a volume that blends with others for harmonic results;
6. Adjust accordingly to the ebb and flow of energy in the circle;
7. Play in unison with the lead drummer, which facilitates shamanic trance and entrainment;
8. Seek harmony and accord with the collective intention of the circle;
9. Give thanks to the spirits, the circle keeper, and the participants for their gifts;
10. With all of the above in mind, allow your spirit to soar!
Drake, Michael. (March 31, 2014). Drum circle etiquette. Shamanic Drumming.
Retrieved and reprinted with permission from author March 18, 2015, from http://shamanicdrumming.blogspot.com/2014/03/drum-circleetiquette.html
RESOURCES
LINKS
​
****NEW! -->BEST LISTENING WITH HEADPHONES***
​
​
POLICY & DISCLAIMER
Individuals who attend drum & journey circles and/or special events are solely responsible for themselves. Energy workers do not diagnose conditions, nor do they perform medical treatment, prescribe substances, or interfere with the treatment of a licensed medical professional. Energy work or any other natural healing therapy should not compete with medical doctors and their treatments. All therapies are meant to complement medical treatments. In no event can Bay View Drum & Journey Circle or Holly Emmer be liable in any way directly or indirectly for damages resulting from information or data provided or for the loss of profits through the use or misuse of said information and data, either via its use, negligence, or other actions.
​
CREDITS
Original artwork by Curt Emmer. Thanks, also, to Curt for recording my drum tracks!
​
The sun is a circle - The moon is a circle - The earth is a circle - We are a circle - Everything that is, is alive - And everything has a place on the circle