 SWEET
THUNDER MEDICINE
WHEEL TEACHINGS IN THE 21st CENTURY
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The Song of Wolf Brings the
Magic of
the Natural World &
Connects us to each other, our Ancestors and the Seven
Directions.
 "We
once thought you came to live with us. You still could have that chance.
We're still here, and we live on this land. We don't live in your
libraries in the pages of your books. This project is not for digging up
our pottery, or for digging up our bones, for that matter. It's not even
for digging up data and statistics about us. We have a long surviving
and sacred tradition and an experiential wisdom that's been passed on
for more centuries than you can imagine. This is your chance to benefit
from that. All you have to do is be quiet and listen and quit worrying
about proving and believing."(Mad Bear - Tuscarora Holy Man of the Tuscarora Nation of the Six-Nation Haudenosaunee Confederacy) |
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What many other tribal communities did, rather than "reinvent the wheel", pun intended, was to simply adopt the medicine wheel and its teachings as a universal symbol of peaceful interaction among nations. Quite simply, the teachings crossed cultural understanding and knowledge and so why fix it if it aint broke?
STORY: "Long ago, I heard my children cry. Four days later, I took on the shape of a White Buffalo Calf. Four days after that, I went to them. And over the next four days, I taught them Sacred Songs and Dances and I taught them the Seven Sacred Ceremonies. I taught them the Sun Dance. I taught them to Fast. I taught them the sacred and traditional ceremonies necessary for youth Coming of Age. I gifted them with the Peace Pipe and taught them how to use it. I taught them the ways of the Medicine Wheel. I taught them to seek their paths to The Good Red Road by reaching out to me through the Vision Quest. And I taught them how to build and use the Sweat Lodge." (The Seven Sacred Teachings of White Buffalo Calf Woman, by David Bouchard and Dr. Joseph Martin, 2009).
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Scattered across the plains are a number of stone medicine wheels. Some are extremely large, greater than 12 meters across. The term "Medicine Wheel" was first applied to the Big Horn Medicine Wheel in Wyoming, the most southern and the largest in existence. Big Horn measures seventy meters across and on the June Solstice, a ray from the Sun cuts directly across it. Big Horn consists of a central circle of piled rock surrounded by a circle of stone; "Rays" of stones travel out from the central core of rock and its surrounding circle. The whole structure looks rather like the wheel of a bicycle.
Despite their physical existence, there is still a lot of mystery surrounding them, because without written records, so little is understood as to their true meaning. Many theories abound, including: (a) the wheels contain significant stellar and cosmological alignments, specifically designed in other words to point towards the rising sun or to certain star nation constellation(s); (b) the performance of specific rituals and ceremonies that have been lost to the mists of time.
There have been many books written about the Medicine Wheel with some of the knowledge placed in difference directions. For example, red people in the west and black people in the east; Anishinaabe version places the Red People in the South and the Black People in the West. They sometimes replace the yellow and white with green and blue. Others suggest the wheel is walked in a counter-clockwise direction.
As so little is really known, there is really no wrong way to build a wheel, A circular walk after all has no beginning and no end no matter which direction you start. It is more of a question of what resonates within the world view of each tribal culture as they seek their own understandings through the expression of building a medicine wheel.
I can only speak from my own knowledge, research and what has been taught to me. "Some things on the wheel", as one of my teachers once said to me "are simply based on geographical logic." For example, where the main colours of human moreorless currently originated' "Logic." he said, White in the North, Yellow in the East, Black in the South, Red in the West.
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PREAMBLE “We have no
buildings, there are no steeples. The lake is our church, the
evergreen trees are our living saints if we must speak in your
language. Leave us to see beauty everyday rather than find it only
in our memories.” (Taos Pueblo Elder)
"Medicine
wheel teachings are among the oldest of First Nations people and are
based on the seven directions (North, East, South West, Life above
the earth, life on the earth, life within each of us).
Native people are being called back to share
our sacred medicine wheel teachings; wisdom that influenced tribal
life for thousands of years. We are living in a time of fractured
families, countries at war, and the innocent caught up in the
maelstrom of "power over" mentalities. Yet, it does not have to be
this way. The Tsimshian call it
Ama't'ilgoolsk, ama'diduuls,
or
"good thoughts, good
life".
My book is about, clearing physical, spiritual,
emotional mental debris so that another story emerges; a story of
hope, sharing, understanding, survival and, ultimately, the triumph
of the human spirit. The Lakhota
call it,
Hanta Ho, or
“clearing the way”,
Ojibwa call it
Mene Doh, or a
"state of
revitalization";
the
Mi'gmaq call it
Gsite'taqan
or
"something to be cherished or valued",
which extends to re-infusing
the earth and its citizens with healthy attitudes and
right actions. Certainly, witnessing
the land come back to life cannot help but impact everyone in a good
way.
Canada's Original People lived lives of
dignity and integrity, we did not engage in sordid behaviour;
we did not
subjugate a genders, or destroy another tribe; instead, we lived
lives of deep meaning and substance that held at its centre an
abiding respect for the land which gave us our physical (east)
spiritual (south), emotional (west), mental (north), sustenance. We
came into our leadership by staying in our personal and collective
power, by showing up and choosing to be accountable; by extending honour and respect to all living beings. We lived by the dictate:
"Begin as you mean to carry on." We honoured our heritage, we were flexible
and fluid in our dealings with each other. Every day, we
demonstrated by our behaviour the power of "right action", and its
components of clarity, objectivity and discernment. We were open to
outcomes, not attached to them which would have limited the scope of
our lives. In other words, we paid attention to what had heart and
meaning because above all else, we knew that it was the heart that
held our memories; when we extended the arms of love inward to
ourselves and outward to others, we held a balanced view of the
power of health, wellness and positive interconnectivity. We dared
to dream but remained humble in the process. We gave voice to the
majesty of ceremony and prayer through our songs and stories. We have never forgotten that our life dream depended on our judicious care of the land and each other. You see, we were more than the sum of our physical parts, or our tribal names, we were water, land, trees, animals, swimmers, flyers, crawlers and the supernatural. And, so we accepted without limits or conditions our role as Mother Earth's caretakers and we found joy and challenge in the journey. There was a deep understanding of the equality of all life with each living and non-living entity having a soul. The Tsimshian believe, for example, that the animals and the standing people (trees), brought to the spiritual table their own unique gifts which were equal in strength to their human cousins. There are many stories from the Pacific Northwest Coast about the standing people which were revered for their ability to provide protection, warmth and shelter to humans."
NOTE:
My book
contains a chart to build a forty-stone Medicine Wheel, along with
both a Character and Environmental teaching. Forty Stones = Eighty
Teachings! The book is a valuable tool for Educators in helping to
incorporate the teachings into their mindful character education
curricula.
It
is also for all those interested folks wanting to know more about
the rich knowledge of First Nations people. To order a copy
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MEDICINE WHEEL AND
SPIRITUALISM Sixty Minutes TV Show pundit, the late Andy Rooney in one of his tiresome, irrelevant televised diatribes. 1992).
Despite irresponsible views by public figures such as the late Mr. Rooney, my Ancestors possessed an enlightened consciousness that rested in the spiritual power contained in the highest and best of each of them.
"Spiritualism is the highest form of political and social consciousness. Native people are among the last surviving teachers of this kind of enlightened experience." (Haudenosaunne address to the western world, Geneva, 1977). It is important to use spiritualism and the medicine wheel wisely and well in the 21st century - which is a time of b ridging ancient wisdom into the creative tapestry of contemporary times. In other words, spirituality is not a religion. As a matter of fact, there is no word for the word religion in First Nations tongues because it creates an unnecessary separation between humans and Mother Earth, whose spiritual essence resonates through her natural warmth, sound and visual sensations that heals souls and raises spirits. Our relationship with her provides for us a holistic road to peace and this goes well beyond any human-designed religion that often seeks to control and manipulate.
On the Pacific Northwest Coast where I am from, it started with Adaax (Stories or True Telling), when during Yaawk (Feast Season) elaborate oral narratives and dance dramas depicted our cultural history and knowledge. In a pan-Native sense, our Ancestors closely studied the natural world, becoming familiar with animal behaviour, plant medicine, darkness and light, the changing tides, and all other forms of nature. We treated each living being as a sacred and equal member of the living world; hence all living beings were referred to as People, given human attributes, souls and spiritual responsibilities. It was inconceivable for the tribes to view themselves as separate or above the natural and supernatural worlds; it was this vast and profound knowledge that sustain us, and we flourished for thousands and thousands of years.
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MEDICINE WHEEL AND SYMBOLS
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