Ouroboros Shamanic Drum

This drum is a vessel of story and spell, carrying threads from hearthside folklore to the high myths of the Otherworld.

The Hart stag moves within its circle, in Celtic lore, the antlered one is a guide between worlds, guardian of liminality. To follow the white stag was to step across the veil into realms of vision and initiation. Its antlers, branching like trees, were said to be a map of the worlds, growing and falling with the turning of the year.

 Here, the Ash tree forms the hoop, the world-tree of northern lore, Yggdrasil, whose roots fed on the Well of Memory and whose branches touched the sky. In folk tradition, Ash was carried for protection and healing, and its wood was said to ward off serpents and lightning. Thus the circle of Ash and Hart becomes a living axis,  earth to sky, body to spirit, threshold to threshold.

The hoop is fire-etched with stag antlers, periwinkle flowers, and a crow. Each a charm in its own right: periwinkle, known in folk magic as “sorcerer’s violet,” bound against wandering spirits and was stitched into bridal garlands to protect fertility and love. 

The crow, companion of the Morrígan, was the watcher of battlefields and the keeper of prophecy, guiding souls from life into death and back again. Hidden inside, these emblems open like a secret garden, a place where protection, prophecy, and adventure entwine.

The hide that wraps the hoop belonged to the deer,  the same creature who, in countless British and Irish tales, lured hunters into the mists of the Otherworld, where time ran differently and the soul was tested. To sit with this hide is to listen for those same whispers: mysteries, enchantments, the ancestral knowing that rises through the body like a half-remembered dream.

Upon the face coils the golden serpent Ouroboros, painted in 18ct gold. This serpent biting its tail is the oldest alchemical sign of eternity, a reminder that death folds back into life, and endings conceal beginnings. 

Folklore tells us that serpents knew the earth’s hidden veins of power, and their shed skins spoke of renewal. In Norse myth, Jörmungandr the World Serpent encircled creation, while in Celtic charms, serpent symbols were etched for healing and rebirth. Here, Ouroboros seals the drum as both spell and symbol, holding the endless cycle of return.

This drum is not only an instrument but a living myth: Hart and Ash, Crow and Flower, Hide and Serpent .  woven together in a circle of protection, prophecy, renewal, and wild memory. A keeper of thresholds, a mirror of cycles, a storyteller that speaks in the language of skin and strike.

She’s in the shop - £345 plus P&P,  delivery to the USA and Canada available - be in touch for costs. 

With love, always. xx