Thursday, January 26, 2023

Braiding Our Medicine Wheel Life

 


What I know of things, I share, but I only know a grain of sand of what there is to know so I encourage you to seek out more information for yourself.  Different tribes, different clans, different Medicine People, speak of the wheel in different ways, specific to their ways of understanding the Medicine Wheel. There are great depths to the wheel and one does not look at it as a flat-planed surface, it is really a spiral upon spiral of depth.  

It begins with the wheel, the circle which speaks to how all things are interconnected and all about creation and all things of creation are connected.  It is segmented into four equal quadrants: Physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual.  You will find the quadrants in different orders around the circle, betimes, depending on the Medicine Person or group that designs it.  I am using this one for clarification purposes.

Medicine Wheel: White/North – United South & Eastern Tribes

In the center of the circle is the fire of becoming and going back to the light,

In the Spiritual quadrant of our Self, it has to do with our spirit, spiritual activities, ceremonies, the time of the Elders, the time of being closest to going back to Creator.  Think of the tipi opening where going to the center fire and coming from it comes through this area between spiritual and physical quadrants. 

In the Physical quadrant, there is care for the body, the child, the honoring of our body, the senses, and our physical needs and desires.  It, like the elder area, is the other closest to Creator as they come fresh from Creator’s ‘fire’. 

In the Mental quadrant, there is the lifelong learning that we do.  It is about inventions (and in this, we never invent anything that Creator does not deem necessary or a good thing).  We do not use anything that would inhibit our brain from reaching its potential.

The Emotional is all about our feelings, our heart’s desires, hurts, joys, passions and things we do in healthy ways of being happy and calm and peaceful. 

Of course, this explanation of the above is totally just skimming the surface.  There is so much more.  But being in balance is imperative.

Think of a car wheel.  If there is a flat in one area, it thumps thumps and finally gives up on being fixed.  Well, the same is with balance in our four quadrants of being.  If we lose one of our senses, another often takes over for it.  If we do not take care of one area, or move into the negatives we begin to thump.  If we do not take quick care, we can find ourselves ‘unfixable’.  There is no room for taking care of things later.  We put ourselves at physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual peril. 

The Medicine Wheel can be applied to everything about being up there or down here or under there.  If you research about Medicine Wheels, millions of years ago, you will find that the circle has been used to explain everything about a culture’s life.

I find the circle a great way to explain pretty much anything I choose to think about.  I know and I have experienced pretty much everything of every area of life through testing on the wheel. 

Balance is crucial for a ‘good’ life.  I walk what is called ‘The Good Red Road’ as I know it.  Do I stumble?  Oh, my goodness, yes, but I find my way back to it asap because I also know the enhancement of life on a well-lived wheel.

With great gratitude, I share this knowledge knowing I only know what I have been told and am ever grateful in my life for my teachers.

©Carol Desjarlais 1.26.23

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