A Spirit Walker's Guide to Shamanic Tools: How to Make and Use Drums, Masks, Rattles, and Other Sacred Implements

Build Your Own Shamanic Toolkit

In this beautifully illustrated guide, artist and shamanic teacher Evelyn C. Rysdyk shows you how to create, decorate, consecrate, and use various sacred tools in ritual and healing. 

Navaho traditional healers bring rattles, corn pollen, eagle feathers, and sage smoke together with songs and dances to affect healing. Ulchi shamans use drums, rattles, and larch tree wands called gimsacha to work healing magic. Manchu shamans will perfume the air with incense and tie on a heavy bustle of iron jingles as a part of their ceremonial costume. Modern shamanic practitioners likewise use sacred tools to facilitate our connection to helper spirits in the Upper, Middle and Lower Worlds, as well as the spirits of nature. While you can purchase many of these tools, there’s nothing quite as powerful as making your own. You’ll find instructions for making rattles, drums, masks, mirrors, spirit figures, fans, bells, pouches, wands, prayer bundles, flutes, whistles, and more.  Plus suggestions for responsible ways to obtain the materials you’ll need.

“Having an intimate connection to all the spirits that came together in my favorite rattle—knowing that the tiny pebbles came from the local riverbank, the wood handle from a lightning-struck maple in my yard, and the rawhide from a black bear that was hunted by a native friend for food—gives it a far deeper meaning and power.”  —from the introduction

The author’s original artwork and photographs of shamans and their authentic tools appear throughout the book.