THE MEDICINE WHEEL - sacred path cards - Jamie Sams

Today I pulled the Medicine Wheel Card from the beautiful Sacred Path Cards pack that was created by Jamie Sams. The Medicine Wheel has been something sacred to my own path for some years now and rather than give the teaching I thought I would share with you some of the information that Jamie Sams offers about the Medicine Wheel. This is the first time I've read this myself and am grateful for her wisdom. Also in gratitude to being able to feel the wind she speaks of and to the angels for their constant guidance. And of course, to you for taking the time out to read this.

The Medicine Wheel is sometimes called the sacred hoop. This symbol of all life's cycles has given the people of Native America an evolutionary blueprint for centuries. Each cycle of life is honoured in a sacred way, giving us a way to see the value of each step of our pathway and a new understanding of our growth patterns.

Just as all people and their gifts are honoured as living treasures of the tribe so are the life lessons they learn. When tribal members share the wisdom gained from actual experience, the whole nation benefits from the stories that are passed amongst different bands or clans. The understanding of each persons unique experience is a way for the other members to see varied themes on the same lesson.

The Medicine Wheel is the circle of lessons that each person must pass through to complete their journey on the good red road of physical life. Physical life begins at birth, which is the south direction on the sacred hoop. Each of us will travel through the circle on that South to North path until we reach the place of the Elder, which is at the north.

Our spirit is made of wind, which is one of the four clan chiefs of this world. Our spirit can travel around the rim of the medicine wheel and urges us to learn certain lessons.

The east is the home of the golden door, the entry point to all other levels of awareness and consciousness. Spirits of the Ancestors who have finished their earth walks leave at the north of the wheel and follow the rim of the hoop to the east. this allows them to pass through the golden door and enter the blue road of spirit, which crosses the road east to west. We also return to new physical lives via the blue road. Once again we come through the golden door in the East as spirits and travel the rim of the medicine wheel to the south where our spirits are born again into our physical bodies.

The powers of the four directions can be immediate answers when sent by wind spirits. Traditional native american teachers always teach the children of their tribe to feel the wind so that they will know what to do if they are lost or afraid. If wind blows from the west, they would sit and look inside their hearts for courage or an answer. If wind came from the south, they would stop pretending to know all the answers and find humility, perhaps listening to another child who knew the way home. If wind caught them in a whirlpool of motion they would wait until help arrived. If the wind came from the north the children knew that the elders in their wisdom knew where to look for them. When wind came from the east they were to use their good sense of logical ideas that would bring an answer to their predicament.

The medicine wheel is the blueprint for all situations and can be used in a multitude of ways. To build a physical medicine wheel for Sacred Ceremonial use, 12 stone people are needed. The first placed in the south, the beginning of life. The second and third stones are placed in the west and the north. No stone is placed in the east, the door is left open. Following the circle, the fourth stone is placed at the four o clock position and the fifth at five o clock. South is the six o clock position and is filled with the sixth stone. Stones fill each empty position until you reach the east once more.

Before the east stone person is placed to close the circle, the medicine wheel is blessed and the spirits of the four directions have entered, the medicine wheel is dedicated to the honouring of Sacred ceremonial space. The stone people are thanked for their guardianship and for holding the energy of the circle. At this time the stone is put in place closing the golden door. Celebration and feasting follows the dedication ceremony.

The stone circle of the medicine wheel is a symbol of sacred ceremonial space that has been honoured by our people for centuries as a place to come and experience the beauty of the cycles of physical life. These cycles of planting, gestation, birth, growth, death, and rebirth are the life lessons of the sacred hoop.

In the seeking answers of the Void, where future lives, life becomes extraordinary, exciting and filled with beauty. The mundane awareness of everyday living melts away when we pause to sense the adventure being offered by the constant messages brought by the four winds of change. Everywhere we look life is calling. Each moment is packed full of the life forms that seek to align with us as two leggeds. We are the only creatures that have lost our sense of belonging to the total creation of the great mystery. In learning the lessons of the sacred hoop we learn to touch life in a deeper more gentle way. The understanding comes from a way of living, being and thinking.

To live the path of the medicine wheel we are asked to see the gifts of growth that each direction offers. If only by noticing the obvious around us and asking our inner feelings and knowing what those feelings mean, we begin the seeking.
Associations with the four directions are made through using the connections of the totem animals in those directions. In connecting with the lessons of Eagle, coyote, bear and buffalo or their counterparts in those directions may we see the lessons they offer. In asking what lessons they may bring us and by giving them permission to come to us in dreams we may come to the place of inner knowing. In many writings on Native american tradition, the mention of the sacred hoop becoming whole again has left a question in the readers mind. How was the hoop broken? The hoop was never broken. The faithful of all nations have kept the eternal flame alive in their hearts since the beginning of time. The sacred hoop is growing stronger because those who were red people in other lives are now remembering their roots and are coming together from different pathways to preserve the earth mother and reconnect with the spirits of nature. When we as children of the earth lose our sense of where we fit into the medicine wheel of life, we lose sight of the unified circle and how to live in a sacred manner.

Our Native nations are gathering the teachings and preparing the way for the fifth world of peace by returning to ceremony, ritual and by using the wisdom of the ancestors to heal any old wounds and bitterness. The spirit of the people is returning and the whirling rainbow of peace is mending our hearts.
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Thanking Jamie sams for her beautiful words.

Peace to all. x