When the Drummers Were Women

A Spiritual History of Rhythm

By: Layne Redmond

Narrated by: Lauren Gobes

Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

For millennia, the sacred drummers of pre-Christian Mediterranean and western Asia were women. In this inspiring book, Layne Redmond, herself a renowned drummer, tells their history.

Artistic representations reveal that female frame drummers carried the spiritual traditions of many of the earliest recorded civilizations. During those ancient times, the drummer-priestesses held the keys to experience of the divine through rhythm. They were at the center of the goddess worship of matriarchal societies until the ascendance of patriarchal cultures and the loss of drumming as a spiritual technology. With wisdom and passion, Redmond chronicles our species’ deep connection to the drum, our rich heritage of inseparable spirituality and music, and the modern-day women reclaiming it.

This book encourages listeners—both women and men—to reestablish rhythmic links with themselves, nature, and other people through the power of drumming. Redmond illustrates her message with an extensive collection of images gathered during ten years of research and travel. Woven throughout the book are strands of ancient ritual and mythology, personal stories, and scientific evidence of the benefits of drumming. It is at once a history, a memoir, and a resounding call for spiritual and social renewal.

©1997 Layne Redmond (P)2022 Licensing Management, Inc.

Herstory traces Divine Feminine

This is not just about drumming. This is a full Herstory of the origins of the Divine Feminine, the rise of Patriarchy, the relabeling of the Feminine as negative in order to subjugate Her, and the resurgence as the fragmented Feminine is restored to Wholeness thru Drumming. Very informative. Well researched. Highly recommend. The narration is a bit robotic.

Beautiful Introduction To Drumming

This was well put together, well-read, and will be one that I recommend to all of my friends for future reading.

A Modern Classic

This is one of those books I always have extra copies of to lend out, re-read every few years, and cite frequently. Layne Redmond was an inspiring pioneer with her research into Goddess traditions of religion, societies, and drumming traditions of the ancient world and how she reimagined drumming traditions for modern women to reconnect to our divine power and birthright.
Unfortunately, the reader performing this audiobook mispronounces numerous words and names of Goddesses and sounds like she should be selling cars, clothing, or makeup. Layne was a very serious and intense person with a voice that was smooth, even, and hypnotic. The bubbly enthusiasm of the reader was comical in contrast.

Is the reader AI?

The book itself is amazing! But the reader leaves a lot to be desired, it’s difficult to get thru it because of the reader- who clearly doesn’t understand what she/it is reading. I’m fairly certain that due to the cadence and constant mispronunciation of words that it’s an advanced robot reading this book.

I did listen to the sample and thought I could make it thru the book but it got really difficult really fast.

Timeless and beautiful book, yet sadly very hard to listen to

What a lovely book! Unfortunately the narration takes so much away from the storytelling. This is incredibly difficult to get through, I think I’ll buy the actual book and read it because I’m sure I missed so much for the dry and emotionless narration.