Robert Watson (Redkite Shamanic Drums)

Most stalls at a mind body spirit event you browse. Robert Watson’s you can hear. He’s a drum-maker and drumming-circle facilitator working under the name Redkite Shamanic Drums, and drums have a way of pulling a room together that cards and crystals quietly can’t.

Robert works in the Northern Tradition — the shamanic strand rooted in Northern European and Norse practice rather than the Native American imagery people often expect — and describes himself, plainly, as walking the shamanic path. What he does splits into two things: birthing drums, and running circles.

What “drum birthing” means

It sounds mysterious; it’s surprisingly hands-on. Drum birthing is the making of a frame drum from scratch — hide, wood, and a fair amount of intention — usually as a slow, ceremonial process rather than a craft class. The idea across shamanic traditions is that a drum you make yourself carries something of you, so it becomes a personal instrument rather than a bought object. If you’ve never watched it happen, his stand is a good place to see how a drum goes from raw materials to something with a voice.

Why the circle matters

The drumming circle is the other half. Steady, repetitive rhythm is one of the oldest tools humans have for shifting how the mind sits — it’s the reason a heartbeat settles a baby and a drumbeat can lift or calm a whole group at once. In a circle nobody has to be any good; you’re not performing, you’re joining a pulse. People tend to come out looser and quieter than they went in. Join this uplifting rhythm, and you may just feel the shift.

Something to try before you come

You don’t need a drum to borrow the principle. Next time your head is racing, find any slow, steady rhythm you can make — a hand on your thigh, a foot, a pen on the desk — and set it a touch slower than your heartbeat feels. Keep it going for a minute and let your breathing fall in with it. The body reads slow, regular rhythm as a signal that it’s safe to stand down — which is exactly what a drumming circle does at scale. Small thing, same mechanism Robert works with all weekend.

Robert brings Redkite Shamanic Drums to the Mind Body Spirit & Wellness Weekend, Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September 2026 at Stockport Masonic Guildhall — one of over 70 readers, healers and stallholders across the two days. Any sessions he runs are included with entry.