Working with medicine of Moose

Close to 20 years ago now while canoeing with a close friend I had the rare opportunity to witness a mother moose and her two calves swimming between islands. At first we were shocked to see moose swimming and at what looked like such a long distance, but we quickly realized that these moose were clearly equipped to swim and in fact were pretty good at it!

Before long we watched the mama moose climb up on the shore, noticing how gigantic she was, and then ushering her two calves with her and quickly they disappearing into the trees.

This event has stuck with me all these years and although since then I have only been fortunate enough to spot a moose once, they will always remain majestic and very resourceful.

In my personal shamanic work, moose is not one of the animals that I  work much with, however the few times that moose has come into my journeys, it was very powerful and held great meaning.

As drum maker I also only work with only a small number of animals, usually deer and elk and once raw buffalo. In the past few months though I have had the honor of working with several pieces of reindeer hide from Finland given to me by a Tuvan shaman, the bear hide that I mentioned in a recent blog and as of last week raw Moosehide!

Now I have only worked with raw hide once before, and that was many years ago when a piece of buffalo came my way. That buffalo is now the bee drum in the image above which is sitting beside my reindeer drum. Both of these drums are used for different work.

So it was once again a new adventure when the moose came my way! The thing to know about working with raw hide is that if you cant work with it right away it either must be soaked immediately, which will give you a week at most, or you must freeze it!

For myself I feel that it is important to begin right away as I like to let the spirit of the animal know what is happening and how I am honoring it as best I can by making a sacred drum. I like to pull out some smudge and ground myself and then begin working, as the process can take several hours.

The final result was three drums the first two of which are now all finished and listed up at the shop.  These drums hold the deep resonant sound of the forest within them and of course are heavy with the medicine gifts of the moose.

Moose Medicine is said to be one of the most ancient and unique of the animal medicines as many of the first nations peoples revered this gentle and yet very powerful animal. The size and appearance of ungainliness of the moose is deceptive, as these animals not only have the ability to hide themselves despite their size, but their depth perception allows them to move quietly and easily through the bush. it is because if these qualities that the moose has been associated with shape shifting and magic.

Because of the time that moose love to spend in marshes and near water {even swimming long distances} they are also deeply associated with the watery maternal forces of the world, the primal feminine energies, rich in creativity, intuition and illumination.

From a shamanic perspective, it is said that moose have the ability to move back and forth between the outer world and the inner world between life and death, and it is said that those who are shamanistic and work deeply with their moose medicine  are also strong in soul retrievals.

If you are drawn to moose and have always loved them, it is good to do some research on these creatures, discover their cycles and patterns and if you are serious begin working with their medicine. A drum is a good starting place for that.