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Summary: Inspiring history of feminine power and spirituality
Review: "In the mother goddess cultures of ancient Europe, the rhythm clans come alive in Layne's fascinating and insightful book." --MICKEY HART, author of DRUMMING AT THE EDGE OF MAGIC and PLANET DRUM"Reading WHEN THE DRUMMERS WERE WOMEN gave me goosebumps. This inspiring history of feminine power and spirituality shows that patriarchy is just a blip on the screen and that women in charge of our bodies and spirits is our natural state. Layne Redmond has restored the drum to its rightful place as a sacred technology for repossessing our own consciousness." --CHRISTIANE NORTHRUP, M.D., author of WOMEN'S BODIES, WOMEN'S WISDOM "I devoured this book with a spiritual hunger that astonished me, hunger for roots that go all the way back to zero. Hunger for information to back up my instincts, my intuitive responses to a world that has forgotten that god is the dance. Hunger for religious roots buried in the beat, burned at the stake, pulsing in the bloodlines of a billion wild women. Erased but not eradicated. Layne Redmond offers us proof that rhythm is our mother tongue. She has undertaken a shamanic journey or all of us to recover our spiritual heritage and call the beat back into our tribal hearts." --GABRIELLE ROTH, author of MAPS TO ECSTASY from YOGA JOURNAL, July/August 1997-- "This book traces the history of the handheld frame drum in the ritual life of cultures around the world, from the caves of Old Europe to the mystery cults of Rome and beyond. It turns out that the rhythms at the heart of many sacred ceremonies were played by women, who today are rediscovering their ancient birthright, turning to drumming to connect them to spirit and to one another. Even mainstream business people and doctors are recommending drumming to increase managerial cooperation and to treat dementia and other disorders. Redmond leads a women's drumming troupe called the Mob of Angels, and her passion for the power and magic of women made me want to grab a pot and join the band.
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Summary: absolutely wonderful
Review: as a female drummer for almost a decade now, i highly recommend this book to everyone out there, musical or no. this book really enhances a feministic sense of spiritual power...i've never bought a better book.
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Summary: WILL BROADEN YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF PREHISTORY AND BEYOND
Review: By tracing the history of the frame drum Redmond greatly expands our knowledge of the role of the Goddess (and women) in prehistory and classical times. While Christianity suppressed the Goddess more successfully than the storm-gods that proceeded them, she still re-emerged as Mary.
One of the many interesting facts you will learn from this book is why the church tried to ban music, including the drum.
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Summary: A primer on prehistoric spirituality
Review: How do you stand back far enough from something that is as personal and lifegiving as your own heartbeat so that you help a casual questioner understand it? What do you include, what do you leave for another time? I've long looked for a primer for exploring prehistoric spirituality. Like Goldilocks, those I found were "too, too dreary," covering detail after detail without finding the soul, or "too, too gooey," too close to the writer's intimate self and not reaching my needs. Redmond's book on drumming is "just right." It is clearly written and interesting. It is easily accessible to this casual reader. At the same time it is well researched with sufficient documentation both to make her assertions credible and to permit the reader further research. The notes, discography, bibliography, index, even the credits for the illustrations underscore the quality of the material presented and offer the reader plenty of direction for further investigation.
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Summary: A book you will want every woman you know to have!
Review: I am not a drummer, but after reading this book, I think that will change. This book has great history about frame drums but it is so much more. After I read this book, I ordered another one for a friend. I only wish I could find the words to show how deeply touched I am by this book. Bring on the drums!
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Summary: A book you will want every woman you know to have!
Review: I am not a drummer, but after reading this book, I think that will change. This book has great history about frame drums but it is so much more. After I read this book, I ordered another one for a friend. I only wish I could find the words to show how deeply touched I am by this book. Bring on the drums!
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Summary: Quotes from other authors about When The Drummers Were Women
Review: I worked on this book for fifteen years so its hard for me to say a little bit about it. I think the quotes it has received from other authors are a wonderful introduction to the book: I devoured this book with a spiritual hunger that astonished me, hunger for roots that go all the way back to zero. Hunger for information to back up my instincts, my intuitive responses to a world that has forgotten that god is the dance. Hunger for religious roots buried in the beat, burned at the stake, pulsing in the bloodlines of a billion wild women. Erased but not eradicated. Layne Redmond offers us proof that rhythm is our mother tongue. She has undertaken a shamanic journey for all of us to recover our spiritual heritage and call the beat back into our tribal hearts. GABRIELLE ROTH, author of Maps to Ecstasy..... Reading WHEN THE DRUMMERS WERE WOMEN gave me goosebumps. This inspiring history of feminine power and spirituality shows that patriarchy is just a blip on the screen and that women in charge of our bodies and spirits is our natural state. Layne Redmond has restored the drum to its rightful place as a sacred technology for repossessing our own consciousness. DR. CHRISTIANE NORTHRUP, author of Womens Bodies, Womens Wisdom..... By searching out the lost, early history of the frame drum, Layne Redmond has uncovered an important missing chapter in the history of humanity -- a chapter in which goddessses ruled beside gods and in which women's spirituality, wisdom and sexuality were affirmed through rituals involving drumming. In an age where people are rediscovering the communal and healing powers of rhythm, When The Drummers Were Women establishes the link between ancient knowledge and the contemporary emphasis on the importance of passion and soulfulness to life. RICK MATTINGLY, Editor, Percussive Notes magazine...... Wow! Through Layne's fabulous book, my own intuitive experience with drumming has been made more clear, and has been grounded in "Her-story." I'm sure this learning will deepen and enlarge my personal and group work. I highly recommend this well-documented treatise to EVERYONE, and especially those who are drawn to the power and magic of the drum. BROOKE MEDICINE EAGLE, author of Buffalo Woman Comes Singing.....
What is so important about Layne Redmonds work, is that it has sprung from an immemorial need: It is the quest for women to recover their ancient roots. Some scholars of myth, such as Joseph Campbell, have insisted that the seemingly more widely distributed men1s mysteries emerged from a male attempt to rival the natural magic that women have always had: The mysteries of fertility, menstruation, childbirth. But the work of Marija Gimbutas, Riane Eisler and Layne Redmond show that women were far from passive embodiments of the Mystery. Rather, in a way congruent with their own magic they celebrated the universe in Her Feminine Form; an ancient religion largely free from violence or grandiosity, one in harmony with the natural rhythms of being. STEPHEN LARSON, The Shamans Doorway and A Fire In The Mind, a Biography of Joseph Campbell..... When the Drummers Were Women adds a valuable new dimension to our understanding of the ancient Goddess religions. Redmond, herself a brilliant drummer, documents that these instruments have long been played by women in ritual. Her own experience as a musician gives her insight into the ways drumming can be used to affect consciousness and opens our imagination to envision the actual ceremonies of the Goddess. As a drummer and priestess myself, I loved this book! STARHAWK, author of The Spiral Dance.....
It it were possible to select a single factor responsible for the parlous state of the world today, patriarchy might be the leading candidate -- with its brutal suppression, denigration and denial of the feminine. In this passionate and erudite book, Layne Redmond links the goddess principle (expressed in the sacred, ecstatic sexuality of the distant past and the role of sexuality in evoking divine consciousness) to the playing of the frame drum -- once, apparently, exclusively a feminine instrument. As a scholar she traces the history of the drum from its former exalted position, thought its centuries of suppression, down to its current intense revival; as a virtuoso performer she speaks with authority on the drum1s real and readily accessible powers. Women reading this book will want to jump up and start playing Layne Redmond1s drum; men will get a valuable lesson in what they have been missing these past 5000 years or so. JOHN ANTHONY WEST, author of The Serpent in The Sky
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Summary: That Paleolithic-Neolithic Beat....
Review: Loved the book. Fascinating history. A great companion to other books that delve deeply into world rhythms, such as "The Brazilian Sound" (Temple University Press).
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Summary: What We Lost When God Killed the Goddess
Review: May I tell you about a wonderful, mind-expanding, and heart-expanding book I have recently read called "When the Drummers Were Women"? With lavish illustrations and photographs, meticulous research, and a cross-cultural perspective, author Layne Redmond (a master drummer/teacher herself) gives us a thorough and thoroughly human look at the Goddess cultures and religions which were destroyed by the violently patriarchal Indo-Europeans roaring out of the steppes of central Asia to found the late-prehistorical and historical cultures and religions of Europe, Asia Minor, the Middle East, Persia, and India. Layne traces the mythology of the Goddess religions as the Goddess is raped and subjugated by the male gods of the Indo-Europeans. The so-called Western Tradition has quite a different look from the perspective of the cultures, religions, and philosophies which it destroyed in its ascendance to world domination. It's also possible to read and absorb it in small pieces, which is a real advantage for sick or busy people. While this book would not appeal to guns-and-football men or religious conservatives, it makes a good and fundamental source of information for readers who wish to consider themselves to be educated. This book lies in the new "Inclusive History" movement, in which events are selected and portrayed to show multiple viewpoints. This approach contrasts quite sharply with the enormous bias shown in the selection and portrayal of events in the "Exclusive History" writings of the victors. Thus, for those who have not been fortunate enough to attend schools where "Inclusive History" textbooks are used, this material helps to correct biased representations and to fill vitally important gaps in a lifetime learner's knowledge of The Human Experience.
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Summary: What We Lost When God Killed the Goddess
Review: May I tell you about a wonderful, mind-expanding, and heart-expanding book I have recently read called "When the Drummers Were Women"? With lavish illustrations and photographs, meticulous research, and a cross-cultural perspective, author Layne Redmond (a master drummer/teacher herself) gives us a thorough and thoroughly human look at the Goddess cultures and religions which were destroyed by the violently patriarchal Indo-Europeans roaring out of the steppes of central Asia to found the late-prehistorical and historical cultures and religions of Europe, Asia Minor, the Middle East, Persia, and India. Layne traces the mythology of the Goddess religions as the Goddess is raped and subjugated by the male gods of the Indo-Europeans. The so-called Western Tradition has quite a different look from the perspective of the cultures, religions, and philosophies which it destroyed in its ascendance to world domination. It's also possible to read and absorb it in small pieces, which is a real advantage for sick or busy people. While this book would not appeal to guns-and-football men or religious conservatives, it makes a good and fundamental source of information for readers who wish to consider themselves to be educated. This book lies in the new "Inclusive History" movement, in which events are selected and portrayed to show multiple viewpoints. This approach contrasts quite sharply with the enormous bias shown in the selection and portrayal of events in the "Exclusive History" writings of the victors. Thus, for those who have not been fortunate enough to attend schools where "Inclusive History" textbooks are used, this material helps to correct biased representations and to fill vitally important gaps in a lifetime learner's knowledge of The Human Experience.
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