Tea break at drum circle
There's something women's bodies remember that our minds have forgotten.
For thousands of years, we gathered around fire. We drummed. We moved. We spoke our truths and witnessed each other speaking theirs. We let our emotions move through us without apology - joy and grief, rage and tenderness, all of it.
This is in our DNA.
And it's medicine we desperately need.
Because modern life has taught us to be small. To stay quiet. To hold our bodies rigid and our expressions polite. To carry things that were never ours to carry. To disconnect from what we feel because feeling isn't convenient or productive or ladylike.
Women are sick because we can't feel. Can't express. Can't take up space.
This circle is different.
This circle follows the turning of the land.
In summer we meet in the morning light, when the woodland is alive and the energy is expansive.
In the darker half of the year we gather just before dusk, as the light fades and the fire becomes our centre.
Same circle. Different medicine. Both necessary.
Summer: morning in the living woodland
From late spring through to early Autumn, the circle meets in the morning, when Conham River Park is birdsong and green light with the river running below. The woodland is fully alive. The body wants to match it.
There is a particular kind of drumming that belongs to morning; expansive, rising, connected to something that feels like joy even when joy has been hard to find.
We let the summer land do what summer does: draw us upward and outward, into our bodies, into our voices, into the pleasure of being alive in a body on this earth.
Feel the vibrant energy of the Women’s Woodland Drumming Circle in Bristol
Winter: gathering as the light fails
From autumn into winter, the circle shifts. We meet an hour before dusk, arriving in the last of the afternoon light and drumming as darkness gathers around the fire.
This is the dark feminine part of the year, and the circle honours that honestly. We are not here to push through or perform. We are here to go inward, to let the shorter days do their work, to find in the firelight and the company of sisters the protection and belonging that winter asks us to seek.
Here in the woodland, around the fire, with drums in our hands and earth beneath our feet, something shifts. The authentic woman you've been keeping contained starts to breathe again.
“Where else in our modern society can women be free like that? It’s beautiful to see women singing, and using their voices too. It’s amazing how quickly they sense the energy of the safe space - you can see those barriers lowering, masks being cast aside to reveal the true wild woman within.”
Who this women’s circle is for
This circle is for the woman who's done with surface-level wellness.
You know intellectually that you need boundaries, that your voice matters. But knowing it in your head and feeling it in your body are different things.
Maybe you're carrying tension that won't shift. Maybe your voice gets small when you need it strong. Maybe there's a wilder, freer version of yourself waiting for permission to emerge.
You don't need to be ‘musical’ or have drummed before. You don't need to know anything about Celtic traditions.
You only need to let yourself be held in a space where all of you is welcome.
“I was apprehensive when I went to my first session but it was a wonderful freeing experience and left me feeling more in touch with myself and my body.”
What to expect
Gathering in the woodland grove around sacred fire
Guided embodied practices - guided somatic meditation, breath, sound, movement
Drumming that builds from gentle to wild (all levels welcome)
Space to express however feels true - drumming, dancing, stillness, voice
Seasonal rituals aligned with the land's wisdom
Women witnessing women without judgement
All emotions welcome
What to Bring
Your drum / rattle (there are some spare rattles available)
Comfortable, weather-appropriate clothing and boots
A camping mat or camping chair to sit on
Water, a thermos of tea and/or mug and a light snack to share
A torch
Anything else to make you comfortable
An open heart and curious spirit
Tickets range from £10-£15
No refunds or transfers policy
Our drumming circles are priced below market value at to keep them accessible to the community. Due to this pricing model and administrative costs, I cannot offer refunds or process transfers. However, participants are welcome to independently sell or transfer their spot to another person.
Exact location given upon booking
Interested in finding your own shamanic drum?
I have a small selection of vegan shamanic drums available to try at my home in Bristol. These are handmade instruments with incredible sound quality and healing power - the same maker as my green drum. Find out more →
About your Space Holder
I'm Ruth - a somatic practitioner, space holder and sound therapist who understands intimately what it means to be disconnected from your body wisdom.
I live with fibromyalgia. I know what it's like when your body feels like an unsafe place to inhabit. The way back home to ourselves happens through feeling, through expression, through being witnessed by other women.
My work weaves Celtic wisdom and folklore with modern somatic practice. I follow the turning of the wheel - each gathering aligned with the land's energy, the direction we're facing, the medicine this moment offers.
“A beautifully held space by a kind and open soul.”
This work matters because women's health depends on our ability to feel and express. Creating space to feel and be witnessed is the medicine we need.
Would you like to go deeper in Circle?
The drum circle is a taste of what becomes possible when women gather in sacred space. But sometimes one evening a month isn't enough. Sometimes the work wants more room.
Bone Deep Women's Circle gives it that room. Six evenings where we slow down, go beneath the surface, and let the old wisdom settle into your bones. This summer we journey with Áine, Irish goddess of the land, the sun, and embodied sovereignty, exploring what it means to remember your body as sacred territory.
Two circles to choose from, starting in St George, Bristol in May.
Or perhaps you’d like to work 1-1?
Sometimes a drum circle awakens something that wants more space.
You arrive, you drum, you sit with women, something moves in you that you haven't felt in years. And then you drive home and you think: there's more here. There's something asking for more space, more time, more attention than a circle can hold.
Or perhaps you already know you're carrying something that needs tending. Something in the body, in the lineage, in the parts of you that have been quiet for too long.
That's what 1-1 sessions are for.
We work individually, at your pace, with sound healing, somatic practice, IFS parts work, and ancestral healing going into the places that group work can gesture towards but can't always reach.
Sessions are available face to face in Bristol and online for women anywhere in the world.
