Medicine Wheel Teachings

Medicine Wheel Teachings

The medicine wheel symbolizes the Hoop or sacred unbroken circle that permeates all of creation. The circle is the continuance of life through right relationship with the planet and all of our relations. The sun gives a little life to the grass which offers food to the deer. The deer offers itself to the people who use the meat for food, the skin for clothes and shelter and the bones for tools. But these things are not taken with out giving back. The circle is complete when we say thank you.

The Four Directions

Each Direction has a meaning an animal and a plant that holds the direction as a totem or guide. These guides are meant for us to help us better understand our purpose on the planet and how relationship with all of the beings here help facilitate our journey towards this understanding. Long long ago, there were only animals and then the people came. The people had to learn by watching the animals which plants were food and medicine, how to hunt, how to seek shelter, etc.. the animals sacrificed their lives so that humans could live.

Because each tribe uses the medicine wheel, or something like it there are many different interpretations. I have been trained in ceremony through the Lakota tradition and this is the way I will be presenting this information to you. Which color goes where, which animal sits in the North etc is not the most important thing and not what they really want you to know. The true point of the Medicine wheel is that it is a circle. Everything in this world is a circle, our blood pumps in a circle, the Earth moves around the Sun in a circle. The seasons have a cycle that never ends. We’re born we live, we die, we return to the Earth and complete the cycle.

East

• The East is the place of the rising Sun and birth.

• The place of hope.

• The Eagle sits in the East to remind us to look ahead to what may come.

• The medicine of the Eagle reminds us to notice the notable happenings of each day.

• The East is where we plant the seeds for things that we hope to grow, such as projects, children ,a new home etc.

• The East is the color of yellow for the Morning Star

South

• The South is the place of play and teenage years.

• It is the place to enjoy the fruits of labour, “the honeymoon phase”

• It is where the buffalo sits which represents the everlasting abundance of the Earth.

• The color is Red.

• The element is Fire.

West

• The West is the place of Death.

• The Cave.

• Where we go when we’re looking for resolution to problems we face.

• The animal that sits in the West is The Bear.

• The color is Black

North

• The North is the place of the ancestors and wisdom.

• It is the place of snow and long white hair.

• The animal that sits in the North is the wolf

• The wolf guides us to our highest Spiritual self when we get to the other side.

• The color is white

Creating your own Medicine Wheel

1. Find a place in nature where you can sit for up to 30 min undisturbed.

2. Take a stick or a stone and first give an offering of a strand of hair to Mother Earth for scratching into her. Then begin in the East and draw a circle clock wise around you ending where you started.

3. Place a stone in The East, one in The West, one in the North, and one in the South.

4. Smudge yourself and the circle.

   1. If you can’t burn anything because of where you have chosen your circle to be simply crumble sage leaves around your wheel creating a barrier between you and those Spirits who may wish to do you harm while you are praying in a sacred way.

5. Sit in the center of your circle in the direction that calls you.

6. Call in your animal helpers the plants in the area and your guides.

7. Pay attention and listen with your heart not with your ears.

8. Pray hard for at least 12 minutes or longer if you feel called.

9. When you have finished remove your rocks and sage, take your hand and wipe the circle away in a counter-clockwise direction.

10. Leave tobacco or cornmeal in the space where you were and say thank you.

In the final analysis, we are all related: “Mitake Oyasin”, All My Relations. Each and everything around us is us, and thus deserves all the respect and consideration we would desire for ourselves. Here is the crux of it all: we are the universe and the universe is us. What a different world it would be if we, all people (7 billion plus) subscribed to the Native American way, the way of the circle.

The circle has no beginning and no end, the circle “is”.

From Adult Prayer by William Two Feather