Wildlanders #16 Connecting to the Cycle of Life and Death...

A Journey into the Eternal Cycle through drum-making and a Tale or two of the fierce-some Hunter Goddess, Artemis. NB. A warning that there are images and references to a Deer Kill in this episode.

As the year’s life cycle turns through the dying days of Summer, and the light ebbs shorter beyond Autumn Equinox, I am recalling Summer Solstice this year, when a small group met to celebrate the Climax of Life’s yearly cycle in the glade near my home. All was bright and burgeoning, fresh growth everywhere…

A woman called Kathleen Mckee brought her beautiful deer-skin drum to the gathering and beat it to my whistle tune, as the children danced around the circle of trees. A spontaneous moment of magic brought alive by the skin of a deer and the gentle, listening intent of its maker.

She told me how the making of that drum with her own hands, had taken her on a journey into the Wild. With reverence she spoke of the stalking of the deer with a local hunter and her sense of the sacredness of life, as she witnessed the kill and the butchering, of how she ate and shared the flesh with friends and harvested each part of the deer’s body; how she used his skin to make this sacred drum.

Below is something of Kathleen’s Story of “Making a Deer Drum” ,a recording of my “Ode to Artemis”, with sounds from Kathleen’s drum along with a look into Artemis as a figure of the Wild and how these two tales meet.

Artemis is the Greek Goddess of the Wild Hunt, protectress of the young, and vengeful destroyer of those who do not respect the Sacred.

An Ode to Artemis, Queen of the Wild Hunt

This Excerpt tells of “Artemis, Apollo and Orion”. The full 3 part Story is a separate post accessible to Paid Subscribers.

The full Ode describes Three Myths of Artemis. She is the divine embodiment of the wild feminine; fierce and beautiful, capable of a vengeful rage but, in her other aspect as Mother Goddess, she is associated with the Moon, patron of midwives, fertility goddess for the womb and protectress of the children who are born forth and out into the world.

She is like the lioness who protects her cubs- fierce and tender in one.

The Story of Apollo and Orion in the Excerpt featured above, tells how Artemis pulled her twin, Apollo from the womb of their Mother- a mid-wife at the scene of her own birth. A baby born strong enough to help her own twin into the light of day, there in the slipstream of the womb’s emptying… An image both viscerally natural and supernatural at the same time!

The Excerpt tells of her meeting with her divine Lover, Orion and how this passionate love inspires her tender side. It is the only Myth of her being with a lover (apart from her brother- Apollo!) In Orion’s embrace her rage melts away and she is, for a short time, utterly in bliss.

The full recording for Paid subscribers also includes the Tale of Artemis and Acteaon. After the hunt, Artemis washes with the nymphs in a pool and is, for a moment, as blithe as a Summer’s Day. But how quick the switch when Actaeon puts her hackles up, daring to consider her rape. Instantly she summons her powers to manipulate matter and with utter ease transforms him into a deer, who meets a swift and bloody death…

The final story of the three (sent to Paid Subscribers) will tell how Artemis’ Rage was calmed by the dream-invoking magic of moonlight and a potion made from the herb which took the Goddess’s name “Artemisia Vulgaris”

This name points to Artemis’ sisterhood with the Moon and the herb’s ability to support women’s health and create sacred space…

In Britain we call it Mugwort; it grows wild along our river banks and damper hedgerows and has traditional use for women’s womb healing and for calming “dis-regulations” caused by hormonal dips, among other sacred and physical healing uses…

My tale tells of Artemis first magical encounter with Mugwort.

One Winter night Artemis wandered beside the river as Selene the Moon rose high,

“Help me, my sister, there’s a storm in my heart- please calm me with your light?”

“Hush Artemis, listen, and you will find a deep sleep here soon;

Beside the river there is a weed, dark spiked leaves, moon-silver beneath.

Boil it, drink it, lay on the ground, let your cares go and flow downstream to the sea.

And In your dreams you will meet the one who you miss, you will find the loving touch of bliss.”

Having drunk a potion of the Herb, Artemis dreams of Orion, re-connects with that tender Love and goes on to be more Protectress than destructive Kali-figure.

In my Ode, Artemis has a deer drum, also called her Gorgon shield, because, in certain Myths she has the protection of the mysterious Aegis of Zeus. The Aegis is a shield made of animal skin, emblazoned with a Gorgon’s head which links the holder to the divine power of Zeus.

As you will likely know, a Gorgon was a female monster, known through the Myth of Perseus, in which Medusa, with her snake locks turned hapless heroes to stone with one look into her eyes . In the myth of Perseus, Medusa’s Gorgon head retained the power to kill even after it was severed and so was used as a weapon by Perseus thereafter. The brutality of Myth!

So, the Gorgon’s head upon the Aegis- the skin-shield- gave clear warning of just how dangerous Artemis was, not just as a killer but as one protected by the mightiest God of all.

So Kathleen and her Deer Drum- a link with Artemis- and there are other reasons for choosing the tale of Artemis to honour Kathleen and her journey into the Wild through the Hunt, to deepen her sacred connection with Life and Death. Artemis was a gateway Goddess between Life and Death, both as Goddess of the hunt and a killer of many humans too, whilst also fiercely overseeing child birth and childhood. Her Power of bridging all parts of the Life Cycle is reflected in the three faces of the Goddess. She is, at times, seen at one with Selene as Maiden, Mother/ Midwife as herself and Hekate the Crone as guardian of the Gateway into the Land of the Dead.

Obviously, Artemis, as a figure would have been more than a little scary to meet- very far from the lovely Kathleen with her strong but humble approach. Truly a very positive person to meet with a refreshing clarity and directness. (Though I am sure she would be capable of expressing anger when appropriate..!)

But Artemis is a force of Nature, embodying the wildest extremes of the divine feminine.

As Death-bringer, like the Gorgon with her stone-stare, she is Kali-esque in her ability to kill quite wantonly at times, often triggered to brutal vengeance by the wrongs of thoughtless males.

Conversely she has a sense of Sacred-ness of helpless Lives defiled by thoughtless acts, as a protectress of wronged women and children.

Kathleen expresses her dedication to her offspring in her account, “Making a Deer Drum” where she tells how motherhood is a focal force in her Life.

As the balancing Female to the Divine Male her aspect of Moon Goddess is important. She is Night to the solar deity’s Day: Apollo her brother-lover and father, some myths said, of her only child Herodias. (Another murderous Goddess but that is another story for another day...)

These Tales of Gods and Goddesses connect us with the rawness of ancestral belief. They are Divine and so beyond Human Morals, representing the forces of the Wild- the ever-transforming world of Animism where a woman could become a tree, a man become a deer and be ripped to shreds in an instant. For our Ancestors, Humans are never far from the other-than-human world- so these myths would have been very alive to their consciousness. The deities are driven by elemental forces but also capable of judgement, at times sagacious at others vengeful and so they transform the world around them, destroy or create.

And Kathleen​? Well, this mortal woman brought her 21st century sensibilities as a novice to the Hunt, to find a way that honoured the Life and Death of a deer and enabled her to create a truly Sacred Drum… and so, to become more her Wildlander self.

A transformation indeed...

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“Making a Deer Drum”- A Journey into the Wild…

In her written account, “Making a Deer Drum” Kathleen explains how she came to embark on this venture, as part of a group called “Kith and Kin”.

She came to the group after being “drawn to exploring the ‘Twin Trail’, mentored by Tim “Mac” Macartney,” linking “ecological restoration and personal healing as two facets of the same process, a path that will be different for each person.”

The group seeks to restore, re-explore, re-invent a sense of connection to our planet, based on the wild skills and ritual practices of our ancestors, who lived so closely entwined with the Web of Life. As part of this self-rewilding process she set about making the Deer Drum, feeling a calling to be part of the kill, to meet with Death first hand, as our ancestors had before us.

For most of our time, as humans on Earth, our species has lived so intimately with Death and with the cycles of life which bind us with the other-than-human beings- plants and animals…that give us food and resources for life, but…

“somewhere in the Evolution of Human consciousness we have forgotten that we are mammals first and have mammalian needs… the need for our natural habitat, to run barefoot in long grass, to climb trees and tumble into rivers, to feel the cold crash of waves on our skin or the fury of a storm all around us and within us, to sleep beneath the stars on a bed of moss…”

ref. Kathleen Mckee “Making a deer Drum” quoting Ian Siddons Heginworth 2008: 117

As a self-professed “urban vegetarian”, Kathleen had avoided eating meat for 30 years because of the ways animals suffer through industrial farming and slaughter.

Yet now she felt drawn to have a real lived experience of a hunt. She approached this with an open mind and an admirable awareness from every possible angle.

She realised that:

• Deer in Devon live as natural a life as is possible in these days when humans have tamed our landscape. They have the benefit of natural grazing and relative freedom in the outdoors, compared to farmed animals and do not have the terror of being taken to the abattoir.

• Now we have wiped out the wolves and most of Wild Places they inhabited for human settlements- humans are the top predators of these semi-wild ruminants and so it is our role to keep the balance of the deer population so they do not graze away precious woods. Some grazing helps diversity of course, but if the deer bred without culling, the woodlands would be decimated. So whether she is there or not the deer cull will happen anyway.

• The most ethical course was to seek a “culler” who had a respectful approach to the lives of the animals he shot and the skill as a marksman to make a clean kill.

• She wished to set about using all parts of the dead animal with reverence and find her own path to honouring the life she took, inspired by the ancestral ways.

“I realise the hunter’s intention is the essential element differentiating between ways of hunting, which can be done with respect and honouring of the life taken, or the other end of the spectrum which would be trophy hunting and blood sports.”

ref. Kathleen Mckee “Making a deer Drum”

Having found a truly ethical hunter, Kathleen joined him in the early morning, when the deer move through the woods to open grazing. They decided to hunt for a young buck, with the first growth of antlers- aka a Pricket- because they did not wish to kill a female who could be pregnant at that time. The idea of killing mother and child was abhorrent to Kathleen and so was the idea of the Buck suffering unnecessarily, so together they stalked through the wood and awaited the right moment to ensure a clean Kill.

Once the shot was made straight to the heart of the Pricket, Kathleen went to the body and found herself moved in a way both old and new. Our ancestors who had to stalked for hours, who depended on the kill for food and materials, they would have felt a deep gratitude for this Life; they would have ways and rituals to honour this Life at every stage, but this is not part of the experience of most 21st century folks…

So Kathleen stood there, in awe at the Beauty and vulnerability of the deer, just killed, aware of a new raw sense of connection with Life and Death.

Here was a bridging experience to the reality of our Ancestors’ lives, but she was- or had been- a 21st century “urban vegetarian” and she felt suddenly daunted by the task of truly honouring this precious life.

“How do you show gratitude to a deer that has been killed? I have no idea…”

So in line with the aim of the “Kith and Kin” group Kathleen set about re-discovering, perhaps re-inventing of the “how” of connecting with that Cycle of Life and Death.

She made it her intent, to explore how to honour the life of the deer, in whatever ways became apparent, inspired by all she knew and sensed of the Ways of our Ancestors- the Hunter- Gatherers of old.

As the deer’s body was taken from the wood, she found herself leaving some carrots on the woodland floor- an offering for the Pricket’s life in the place where he had found sustenance.

As she witnessed the butchering, she found reverence for all his body parts.

As she shared some of the deer’s flesh with her community, there was a blessing ritual in recognition of the life-force the meat offered to all who ate at the feast.

As she travelled through the year and through her own life changes, she became more aware of the Life and Death Cycle, deepening in gratitude as she went.

As she scraped flesh from skin and bone to make her drum, her flutes and rattle, she remained mindful and focussed on gratitude and awe for the transformation of that living being into materials to craft.

As she embarked on the Drum-making with Nigel Shaw (a Devonian Music-maker and expert Crafter of Drums and Flutes), brought Mugwort (Artemisia) to be burnt, as part of a blessing ritual for of the Drum skins.

(NB. Here, of course, a synchrony with this month’s Ode to Artemis who gave her name to Mugwort. I don’t believe the drum-crafters made an intentional link with Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt; it was burnt because the use of this native herb for ritual was part of ancestral practices… and it smells good!)

Once the skin was cut to shape and stretched over the hoop, she returned some of the remaining strips of hide to the Earth.

Then the beating of the Drum, each beat a recognition, in itself, of the eternal Cycle of Life and Death.

Body to Earth; Earth to Body.

Heart-beat to Silence; Silence to Heart beat.

The Pulse of Life: The Peace of Death.

Witnessing the killing of the Pricket energised Kathleen to overcome her uncertainty and find a way to eat and honour his body for the life-force it gave her and to craft his skin and sinew into a Drum.

At the Glade, as we celebrated Midsummer, I watched Kathleen hold and play that Deer Drum, she had formed with her own hands and I sensed that in the killing and through the making she had also formed a deep relationship with her instrument.

In her playing, I felt she brought a gentle intent, that made each beat an honouring of the life of the deer and the sacred Cycle of Life and Death.

Only through his life springing through the wood, browsing on wild leaves, could the Pricket grow a body so full of vitality.

Only through the act of killing, and the skilful taking apart of that beautiful body could he be transformed into so many resources for the living.

Only through her practice of reverence, could this Life and Death be truly honoured.

Beating her own deer drum, Kathleen embodies a deep ancestral connection to Life:

She has seen that pricket leaping, lively among the trees.

And, of course, a new and ancient connection to Death:

She has seen his beauty as he lay on the woodland floor, killed cleanly by a shot to the heart, at Peace in Death…

“In rare moments when the boundaries between self and other beings dissolve… a feeling of deep love and connection…a very deep sense of belonging floods in…”

ref. Kathleen Mckee “Making a deer Drum”

Thanks to the Life of the Deer that gave the skin.

Thanks to the Hands that made the skin into a Drum.

Thanks to this our Earthly home which gave us Deer, Hands and all that makes Life possible…

A piece on “Drum as Symbol of the Mysteries of Life and Death” below for Paid Subscribers…