The Traditional Cross Handle

The Traditional Cross handle style is one of the more common styles that I work with, with each of the four arms of the handle being bound to an equal length, all wrapping four strands of the lacing. 

This style is what I was initially taught, when I began drum making in 2011, and originates from the Coastal Salish style of Drum Making. The four arms of the handle are associated with the sacred hoop, and can represent the four directions, the four seasons, the four elements, the four ages, the four sacred herbs, and many more associations. 

The symbol of the equal armed cross within a circle is also known as the Solar Cross, and is a symbol found all around the world, and some of the earliest examples in Britain are found carved onto Bronze age burial urns. Similar to the Medicine Wheel associations, the Solar Cross symbolises the cycles of the year and changing of the seasons.

The style traditionally does not include the stone in the handle, but I first developed this way of binding the stones and crystals into the Traditional Cross handle in 2013, and have done ever since with all of my handle styles. 

This style, and its connection to this symbol connects us with the universality of these ancestral traditions, and honours the original tradition of drum making that this came from, and is great for those who are wanting to work with their drum to connect with the wider web of life and cycle s of nature.

Click here to order a Shamanic Drum birthed with a Traditional Cross Handle, or visit the online shop to see our available drums