Golanv Circle
Thursday Thoughts

Intermediate Practicum
Lessons of the Medicine Wheel I

In most places around the world, conquerors and colonizers enforced that people should respect their religion for the country where they were at the time, regardless from whence or how it came. 

The First People of this world already followed the teachings of Nature here on Earth when those not of their land arrived. They observed in the cosmos above them many times that “foreigner’ would come to their land.  The First People of this continent walked the Medicine Wheel, and this Knowledge did not frighten them. The First People would endure.

Since our fore-bearers were all guests of the First People, it is fitting that we, their descendants of some of them, should understand this teaching intimately.

BEFORE WE BEGIN
You are about to begin an adventure of the Awa, Anuk, and all First People we have walked with around the world.  For me, Reverend Richoz, the Wheel or Circle as you deem, is what I have Journeyed for or have been divinely guided to. I would advise each of you to do the same as you are being taught this Way much later in life than most indigenous.

Some of these First People from this continent called North America now, have mostly been known by only by their white-man names throughout history.  This is across all tribes that had interaction with the colonizers.  We have covered some of the correct names here. For example, what you have been taught as “Navajo”, is actually Dineh as called by the people themselves.  Ignoring this fact has locked us off from thousands of years of Knowledge the First Nationers hold.  Those you know as the Cheyenne, the Crow, and the Sioux they were truly known among the People, as the Painted Arrow, the Little Black Eagle, and the Brother People. The Indigenous of the Americas are a rich and diverse cultures waiting to open to each of you.

The story of these people has at its center and all around it the story of the Medicine Wheel. 

The Medicine Wheel, also Sacred Circle, is the very Way of Life of the People.  It is an understanding of the Universe.  It is the Way given to the Peace Chiefs, our Teachers, and by them, to us.  For those that take the Path of Spirit and walk The Medicine Wheel, they learn that it is everything of the People. It is part of them. It is them, and they it. It is a physical representation of the Divine Self to many.

The Medicine Wheel is the Living Flame of the Lodges, the Great Shield of Truth that is written in the Sign of the Water.  It is the Heart and Mind of EVERY person.  It is the Song of the Earth.  It is the Star-Fire and the Painted Drum seen only in the Eyes of the Children. 

“It is the Red Pipe of the Buffalo Gift smoked in the Sacred Mountains, and it is the Four Arrows of the People's Lodge.  It is our Sun Dance.”

The Medicine Wheel Way begins with the Touching of our Brothers, Sisters, and Cousins – Animal Allies and Plant Allies.  As we move forward, we begin to hear a voice speaking to us of the Touching (Sacred Acknowledgment) of the world around us-- the Tree People,  Grass People,  and all other living things.  Finally, it teaches us to Sing the Song of the World, and in this Way to become Whole People.

We ARE whole Beings, Spirit and Matter.

Come sit with me, and let us smoke the Pipe of Peace so that there may be no lies between us.  Let us gather in Knowledge towards the Understanding of all things.  Let us Touch – Spirit to Spirit. 

May we each to the other, be a Gift, as is the Buffalo to us all.  May we never thirst.

Let us be Meat to Nourish each other, may we never hunger.

May we always Grow. 

Sit here with me, each of you, as you are in your own Perceiving to yourself, as Mouse, Wolf, Coyote, Weasel, Fox, or even Prairie Bird.  All of the Animal Allies and Medicine of the Wheel are here.  See through your Eyes.  Let us Touch each other here in the Great Lodge of the People, this Sun Dance, of each of the Ways on this great Medicine Wheel, our Earth.

SACRED CIRCLE – MEDICINE WHEEL
In many ways this Circle, the Medicine Wheel, can best be understood if you think of it as a mirror in which everything is reflected.  "The universe is a Mirror of the People," the old Teachers tell us, "and each person is a mirror to every other person."

Any idea, person or object can be a Medicine Wheel, a Mirror, for any HUMAN.  The tiniest flower can be such a Mirror, as can Wahya, a story, a touch, a religion or a mountain top.  For example, one person alone on a mountain top at night might feel fear.  Another night might feel calm and peaceful.  Still another might feel lonely, and a fourth person might feel nothing at all.  In each case the mountain top would be the same, but it would be perceived differently by each person as it reflected the feelings of the different people who Experienced it. 


CONSTRUCTION
Among the People, the Teachers are the ones who usually constructed it from small stones or pebbles, which they would place like this before them upon the ground outside.  Each one of these tiny stones within the Medicine Wheel represents one of the many things of the Universe relative to your life at that Time. 

One of them represents you, and another represents me.  Others hold within them our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and our friends.  Still others symbolize hawks, buffalo, elks and wolves.  There are also stones which represent religions, governments, philosophies, and even entire nations.  All things are contained within the Medicine Wheel, and all things are equal within it. 

The Medicine Wheel is the Total Universe.

Our Teachers tell us that all things within this Universe Wheel know of their Harmony with every other thing, and know how to Give-Away one to the other, except human.  Of all the universe's creatures, it is we alone who do not begin our lives with Knowledge of this Great Harmony.  This concept of giving Wisdom for the Red Path to your youth was taken away for a moment …and we are bringing it back.


UNIVERSE WHEEL
All the things of the Universe Wheel have spirit and life, including the rivers, rocks, earth, sky, plants and animals.  But it is only HUMAN, of all the Beings on the Wheel, who is a determiner.  Our determining spirit can be made whole only through the learning of our harmony, whether that be with Self or all of our brothers and sisters, and with all the other spirits of the Universe.  To do this we are advised to learn to seek and to perceive.  Everything you have learned at Three Circles Medicine has prepared you for this point.

We must do this to find our place within the Medicine Wheel.  To determine this place that we must learn to Give-Away.


The Vision Quest, Journey that Reverend Richoz speaks of, or the perceiving quest, is the way we begin this search.  We are wisest to all follow our Vision Quest to discover ourselves, and to find our relationship with the world around us.

The Powers

(FEEL these for yourself to validate them or rearrange them for YOUR life.)

NORTH – BUFFALO - WISDOM
Among the People, a child's first Teaching is of the Four Great Powers of the Medicine Wheel.  To the North on the Medicine Wheel is found Wisdom.  The color of the Wisdom of the North is White, and its Medicine Animal is the Buffalo.  (Reverend Richoz utilizes this Medicine on her wheel and in this Direction, but it is Blue Spirit for her, or Blue.)

SOUTH – MOUSE - HEART
The South is represented by the Stone of the Mouse, and its Medicine color is green.  The South is the place of Innocence and Trust, and for perceiving closely our nature of the heart. 

WEST – BEAR – SELF
In the West is the Sign of the Bear.  The West is the Looks-Within Place, which speaks of the Introspective nature of humankind.  The Color of this Place is Black. (Most practices around the world, including non-indigenous, have West as being represented by Water. Reverend has it represented with Black as well as this is what came to her on her Journey.)

EAST – EAGLE – ILLUMINATION
The East is marked by the Stone of the Eagle.  It is the Place of Illumination, where we can see things clearly far and wide.  Its Color is the Gold of the Morning star. (For Reverend Richoz, the color she Journeyed was Red, Red Spirit, Element of Fire.)


At birth, each of us is given a particular Beginning Place within these Four Great Directions on the Medicine Wheel.  We are given the place to start our walking. Some of us will remember from previous incarnations and have an easier time regaining our steps lost in transition, but this starting Place gives us our first way of perceiving things in Matter.  We then become our easiest and most natural way throughout our lives by walking our most beneficial Path for our chosen life purpose.

It is known that if any person perceives from only one of these Four Great Directions they will remain just a partial human in Experience.  For example, a person who possesses only the Gift of the North will be wise.  But they will be a cold and callous person, a person without a lot of feeling.  The person who lives only in the East will have the clear, far sighted vision of the Eagle, but they will never be close to things, or empathetic fully.  This person will feel separated, high above life, and will find it extremely difficult to understand or believe that they can be touched by anything, Matter or Spirit.

A person who perceives only from the West will go over the same thought again and again in their mind, and will always be undecided, that is until they decided to place the effort into their personal growth.  And if a person has only the Gift of the South, they will see everything with the eyes of a Mouse.  They will be too close to the ground and too near sighted to see anything except whatever is right in front of him, touching their whiskers.


There are many people who have two or three of these Gifts, but these people still are not whole.  A man might be a Bear person from the East, or an Eagle person of the South.  The first of these men would have the gift of seeing Introspectively within Illumination, but he would lack Gifts of Touching and Wisdom.  The second person, of Eagle, would be able to see clearly and far, much like the Eagle, within Trust and Innocence but he would still not know of the things of the North, nor of the Looks-Within Place.

In this same way, a person might also be a Golden Bear of the North, or a Black Eagle of the South, as “no two Paths are the same”, but none of these people would yet be Whole.  Only after each of us has learned of our Beginning Gift, our First place on the Medicine Wheel, will we then Grow by Seeking Understanding in each of the four Great Ways.  Only in this way can we become Full, capable of Balance and decision in what we do. 

Seven Arrows speaks of this Growing and Seeking.


EXPERIENCE OF LIFE
To Touch (Matter) and Feel (Spirit) is to Experience.  Many people live out their entire lives without ever really Touching or being Touched by anything.  These people live within a world of mind and imagination that may move them sometimes to Joy, tears, happiness or sorrow.  But these people never really Touch.  they do not live and become one with life.  This too is okay to Experience. We each are wise to FEEL our way – FIRST.

The Sun Dancer believes that each person is a unique Living Medicine Wheel, powerful beyond imagination, that has been limited and placed upon this earth to Touch, Experience and Learn.  The Six Grandfathers, FOUR DIRECTIONS PLUS ABOVE AND BELOW, that each man, woman, and child at one time was a pure Living Power that existed somewhere in Time and Space.  These Powers were without form, but they were aware.  Conscious. They were alive.

Each power possesses boundless energy and beauty.  These living Medicine Wheels are capable of nearly anything.  They are beautiful and perfect in all ways except one.  They had no understanding of limitation, no Experience of substance.  These Beings are total energy of the Mind, without Body or Heart.  They are placed upon this Earth that they might Learn the things of the Heart through Touching.

According to the Teachers, there are very few things that all people possess equally.  One is their loneliness.  No two people on the face of this earth are alike in how they feel that emotion.  This is the cause of our Growing, but it has also been the cause of our many wars.  Love, hate, greed and generosity are all rooted within our loneliness, within our desire to be needed and loved.

The only way that we can overcome our loneliness is through Touching, Spirit to Spirit.  It is only in this way that we can learn to be Total Beings.  Many believe Divinity, or Divine Energy, is a presence of this Total.  Heamavihio, the Breath of Wisdom, and Miaheyyun, Total Understanding, are but two of the words in the Cheyenne language which express this Wholeness. How would you express your wholeness of Being?

BACK TO ANIMAL MEDICINE
This brings us back again to the Medicines.  Each of us has PERSONAL Medicine --a particular animal reflection.  We all do.  The characteristics of this reflection are determined by the nature of the animal itself that resides in you.  It is also related to the place we begin our Journey upon the Medicine Wheel.  These two things, our Medicine Animal and our Beginning Place on the Medicine Wheel, together are the Beginning Gift to each of us from Miaheyyum, or Total Understanding, Great Oneness.

For example, there are Eagle People, Elk People, Bear People, Wolf People, Pheasant People, Otter People, Buffalo People, Mice People, Rock People, Cloud People, and as many other kinds of People as there are kinds of living beings on this earth.  Seek your connections.  Within each of these different kinds of People, there are other differences of the Four Great Directions.  Thus an Elk Person might be born a White Elk of the North, a Green Elk of the South, a Black Elk of the West, or a Yellow Elk of the East, depending upon the Direction of their Beginning Gift. t would be impossible to tell you here at Three Circles Medicine of all the different Medicines as this si a lifelong pursuit.  But we can speak of the Mouse.  Mice live all their lives next to the ground, building their nests and gathering their food among the roots of the tall grass and bushes of the prairie.  This is what you will learn when you read about our Animal Allies.  Although, nothing beats being able to go into one’s habitat to learn privately from each Animal.  Regardless, Mice never see things at a distance. 

Everything they can see is right in front of them, where they can sniff at it with their noses and Touch it with their whiskers.  Their lives are spent in Touching things in this way, and in gathering seeds and berries to eat.

Since we are speaking about our species, human, the Medicine are best understood within the ways of people.  A Mouse Person would be one who saw everything close up, and whose vision would be limited to the immediate world around them.  They would be a gatherer of things.  They might gather facts, information, material objects, or even ideas.  But because they could not see far enough to connect their world with that of the great prairie of the world around, they would never be able to use or understand all that was seen or gathered. There it would all sit.

If a Mouse Person were born into the North, his Beginning Gift would be the Gift of the Mind.  Their name might be “White Mouse”.  They would be a wise Mouse Person, but they would not yet be Whole.  As stated, to become Whole they would first have to seek the South, the place of the Heart, and find the Union of this Gift with their Beginning Gift. 

They would then have to psychically visit and have Sacred Intercourse, Touch, Feel Spirit to Spirit, with the things of the East, Illumination.  They would then have to psychically travel to the Looks-Within place of the West. 

They would be able to Grow and become a Full person by doing, Exploring, all of these things.  This Medicine would then give a greater understanding of their own Nature. (Shadow Work, Ego Work, etc)

In traveling your Sacred Circle, or Medicine Wheel in this way, over time you can become able to make your decisions within the Balance of the Four Directions.  A person with the Beginning Gift of the Mind must always try to include their Heart in their decisions.  (Just as one of Mind always keeping the Heart validated.) When you do this, you begin to turn upon the Medicine Wheel.  A person can live out his entire life without ever finding more than what was already within as the Beginning Gift, but to Grow, one must Seek.  Seeking for Self and the other Ways.

When you have done this yourself, and when you have reached a full Understanding of the different Medicines of human, you will never feel surprised or threatened by the actions or decisions of your Brothers and Sisters.  Never.  It is almost impossible to be shaken from your Tree when you regularly work on Self and the Understanding of Self.  This Understanding is held within the meaning of the Shields carried by the People, which were Mirrors of their Medicines.

THE SHIELDS
An excerpt, “To understand the Sun Dance, we must first gain an Understanding of the Shields.  My Father, whose Name was Hyemeyohsts and who gave his Name to me, was a Shield Maker and my Teacher.  Hyemeyohsts taught me the construction of many Personal Shields.  He also taught me the construction, Painting and Medicine Ways of the other Shields:  the Men's Shields, Women's Shields, Children's Shields, Peace Shields, and the Sacred Shields.  This was Hyemeyohsts Gift to me, as it was his Gift from his Fathers and from the Medicine Power, the Great Spirit.  it is Miaheyyun's Gift to all of us, in order that we might learn and become Sun Dancers together.”

There were originally Twelve Sacred Shields. These equivocate to other metaphysical concepts such as astrology from around the world.  The number 12 is sacred amongst all people.  Another example, “the twelve tribes of Judah.”  At the time of the annual Renewal (varies by practice) these Twelve Sacred Shields were brought together, and placed inside the Twelve Forked Poles which formed the outer circle of the Sun Dance Lodge, the People's Lodge.  The number 12 itself has garnered the meaning as “perfection, completion, entirety, or cosmic order” just to name a few.

But these Sacred Shields were never together except at Renewal time.  They were never kept by any one Tribe, but were passed on from one People to another. Sharing Knowledge has always been the Way for most of the world.

If a man or woman in their lifetime aspired to high honor, they might seek to be the Keeper of one of these Sacred Shields.  A Wisdom Keeper amongst others they are known.  At any one time there could only be Twelve of these Keepers of the Shields of Light for our North American indigenous.  These Wisdom Keepers were the most powerful and respected among all the People.  They were Healers, Diviners, and Teachers.  It was they who carried the sacred Shields from camp to camp, and from Tribe to tribe. 

"Over the Earth there are Twelve Great Tribes.  Two of these Peoples are the Indian People.  The Other Ten are the other Peoples of the Earth.  These Twelve Peoples are the sacred Shields."


PEACE SHIELDS, NOT WAR
The Chief's Shields are tied to the sacred Shields, in that they each tell a part of the Story of the Sacred Shields.  There are Forty-Four of these Chief's Shields amongst those who keep them.  Because the Chiefs were Peace Chiefs, and because their Shields were used for Teaching about the Sacred Shields and the Sun Dance Way, their Shields were also known as Peace Shields or Teaching Shields.

Among the People, every person possessed a shield of one kind or another.  One of the most important things to understand about these Shields is that they were never intended to give physical protection in battle.  These were not, and are never, “shields of war”.  A grave misunderstanding occurred amongst those who colonized the indigenous peoples of the world.  They were not made to turn away arrows or bullets, nor were they made for people to hide behind.  These shields to those who understand appear too thin and fragile for the battles of Matter.  Sometimes they were even made from the tough hides of bears or buffalo bulls, but more often they were covered only with the soft skins of deer, antelope, coyote, otter, weasel, or even mice.  The Medicine from the Wheel was clear. 

They were then hung with eagle plumes, cedar pouches, tassels of various animal fur, and many, many, other things.  They were also painted with various symbolic figures. Sigilized. Consecrated. Blessed.

In the case of the Personal Shields, all of these different things represent the individual Medicines and Clan Signs of those who carried them.  These Signs told who they were, what they were seeking from understanding Self,  and what loves, fears and dreams were.  Almost everything about those who carry the Shields and walk the Medicine Path are written here, reflected and seen in the Mirror of their Shield.

The Personal Shields of Men were first constructed and given to them after their Vision Quests.  On their return from the Quest, they would tell four chosen Spiritual Fathers of their Experiences.  (Women choose Spiritual Mothers, as Female Mysteries are a little different than Male Mysteries.) Sometimes, these Experiences might actually have included true visions, but more often the seeker would simply have had quasi - normal Experiences and “a-ha” moments.  Whatever they might have been, in terms of what they reflected of the Seeker's character and Medicines. 

Women Journeyed in the same way but were gifted Sacred Belts to wear from their Spiritual Mothers.

NAMING
They would each then receive a Medicine Name which symbolically represented these things, and they would construct for each a Shield or Belt that visually reflected the same symbolic meanings.

They created both items among the People in order for anyone they meet to get to know the Seeker.  Even when they rested in their lodges, their Shields were always kept outside where all could see them.  The practice of this Medicine was no secret, it was –and still is in many places, a Way of Life. Examples for the Shields, they might be hung up on the lodge door, or up by the smoke hole, or on a tripod near the lodge, according to each person's own Medicine Way.  But they were always kept outside, where the People might see and learn from them. “Knowledge Seeker, Knowledge Sharer.”

The women also carried their Medicine Signs in ways to be seen, usually as symbolic designs woven with porcupine quills or beads on their dresses or belts.  The Woman's Belt was usually the most important of her Shields.  Many times it was her only Shield, since not all of the different Peoples had both Dress and Belt Shields.  These Belts were totally symbolic in design.  Usually they contained the symbols of the Brotherhood Societies the women lived among, such as Kit Fox, Rattling Hoof, Crazy Dog, Coyote, or Painted Spear Societies.  Added to these signs were those of the woman's spiritual Family, her blood family, and those of her Personal Medicines, or Name.

The woman's Spiritual Clan relatives were called her Clan Fathers, Clan Mothers, Clan Uncles, and Clan Brothers and Sisters.  It was to these people that she had her closest ties and responsibilities.  Her Clan Fathers, Mothers, and Uncles reciprocated these responsibilities to their Spiritual Children.  Because of this, intermarriages between different peoples caused the tradition of the Shields to spread widely across the land.  The Brotherhood of the Shields grew and became very powerful among the People.  It was a time of great peace and Spiritual renewal.  It was a time of the Medicine Wheel, the Sun Dance.

You have learned that Names always had symbolic meaning among the People and were the reflections of the People's individual Medicines.  Within Seven Arrows you will meet many different People.  Their Names will tell you much about them.  They will tell you of their Medicines and of their Ways of Perceiving.


OTHER REFLECTIONS OF SELF
One of the Reflections you will meet will be Day Woman.  Translated within the People's tongue, Day Woman means Woman of the Sun, or Truth.  This Name is also the Sign of Sun Dancing, the Seeking of Harmony.

You will also meet a person called Hawk.  The Hawk is the Little Brother of the Eagle.  This person's Medicine Sign means that he was born with the Gift of Seeing, both at a Distance and Closely.  Of course, this should be interpreted symbolically rather than literally.  Hawk's Gift was the ability to perceive clearly and broadly into the things of the Mind, the Heart, and of the Way of the People, the Sun Dance Way.  Red Hawk was this man's color.  Red symbolizes Fire.  Fire represents the Living Spirit of the People, and it also tells that hawk perceives with the Illumination of the Golden East.

Within the Story of Seven Arrows, Night Bear's Name and his Way of Perceiving are also explained.  As you learn of these things, you may also learn of your own Name.


STORIES
There are many old Stories told within Seven Arrows and oher Nations of Turtle Island.  These stories were used among the People to Teach the meaning of the Sun Dance Way.  They were themselves a Way of Understanding among the People, and also between different Peoples.  Because the People did not have a written language, these stories were memorized and passed down in one way through countless generations, ORAL TRADITION.

The Stories are always about both animals and people.  You will find Stories about Mice, Wolves, Raccoon, Otters, and Buffalo.  These stories are almost entirely allegorical in form, and everything in them should be read symbolically.  Every story can be symbolically unfolded for you through your own Medicines, Reflections, and Seekings.  As you do this, you will learn to see through the Eyes of your Brothers and Sisters, and to share their Perceptions.

THE WAY OF THE FIRST PEOPLE
“I release my parents from the feeling that they have already failed me.

I release my children from the need to bring pride to me; that they may write their own ways according to their hearts, that whisper all the time in their ears of what brings them Joy.

I release my partner from the obligation to complete me. I do not lack anything, I learn with all beings all the time. I am whole.

I thank my grandparents and forefathers who have gathered so that I can breathe life today. I release them from past failures and unfulfilled desires, aware that they have done their best to resolve their situations within the consciousness they had at that moment.

I honor you, I love you and I recognize you as innocent.

I am transparent before your eyes, so they know that I do not hide or owe anything other than being true to myself and to my very existence, that walking with the wisdom of the heart, I am aware that I fulfill my life project, free from invisible and visible family loyalties that might disturb my Peace and Happiness, which are my only responsibilities.

I renounce the role of savior, of being one who unites or fulfills the expectations of others.

Learning through, and only through, LOVE, I bless my essence, my way of expressing, even though somebody may not understand me.

I understand myself, because I alone have lived and Experienced my history; because I know myself, I know who I am, what I feel, what I do and why I do it.

I respect and approve myself.

I honor the Divinity in me and in you.

We are free."

(This ancient blessing was created in the Nahuatl language, spoken in Mexico. It deals with forgiveness, affection, detachment and liberation). 

Wednesday GO1

General - Journal - Book of Shadows

SUBMISSION: GO1 THU WHEEL CONCEPTS (Due by Sunday)
Please discuss your interpretation of the above Lesson in TWO PARAGRAPHS or more.

EMAIL
Three Circles Medicine & Magick™
Please utilize the above email link
IF NO BUTTON IS PRESENT
to receive full Submission credit.

Lessons are subject to change without notification to Practitioners.
Late Submissions receive no credit without prior approval.

PLEASE NOTE: NOTHING in the passages above is meant to offend anyone.
It is but a Knowledge Share.