Medicine Rattle

This Maraca Shaker is used for various dancing ceremonies by Witch Doctors and Shamans for healing, blessings and rain making.

It measures approx 25cm long, and 12cm wide, but the dimensions will vary due to the differences in sizes of coconuts and other organic materials used to make the instrument.

It has a wooden handle and tassels, with some local tribal decoration which will vary from piece to piece.

These authentic Medicine Rattle make a great percussion and both look and sound fitting for a holistic ceremony.

We now sell these to a number of practising witches and shamans throughout Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas.

Approx 200g (varies).

Each one is unique.

All our native American items are made by Nanang.  They are fairly traded items based on the designs of the Native American Tribes.

We have lots more tribal items.

Background

In Native American culture, rattles signify independence. They carry raw, powerful elemental energy and embody water, fire, earth, and air.

Their construction celebrates the three kingdoms, or nations, of animals, minerals, and plants. Animals are represented by the rattle’s container, or the feathers used to decorate it.

The rocks and other materials used to create the rattle’s rain-like sound, or the paint used to decorate its exterior, are references to the mineral kingdom.

The plants are represented by the rattle’s wooden (or bone) handle, or by the container if a gourd is being used. More information can be found here

Many thousands of years before Christopher Columbus’ ships landed in the Bahamas, a different group of people discovered America: the nomadic ancestors of modern Native Americans who hiked over a “land bridge” from Asia to what is now Alaska more than 12,000 years ago.

In fact, by the time European adventurers arrived in the 15th century, scholars estimate that more than 50 million people were already living in the Americas. Of these, some 10 million lived in the area that would become the United States. As time passed, these migrants and their descendants pushed south and east, adapting as they went.  More information on native american cultures can be found here.The wonderful traditional items that they created are replicated in our range at Terrapin Trading.