Living with the Medicine Wheel

               By Susan Gilliland

I circle around….I circle around…...the boundaries of the earth….

I call to the Power of the Thunder Beings; I call to the Power of the Earth,
I call to the Power of the East and West; I call to the Power of the North and South…..

Most of us practicing contemporary shamanism in this country have probably all sung the two songs that those lines come from.  I learned them in my first shamanic workshop with Sandra Ingerman back in 1993.  Although I sang them for years and felt their mystery and intent, it was not until much later that I was finally able to fully absorb their meaning.

That time came when I studied the Plains Medicine Wheel with Carol.  I started taking Bear Medicine workshops from her in 1994 and continued my studies of this powerful medicine way continuously for the rest of that decade.  I even began to teach. I knew that Bear had an affinity for dreams, water, stones, the west, and the cave.  I knew she lived above and below and I knew how she turned the world. She was my teacher and friend and I trusted her completely.  But it wasn’t until Carol revived her teaching of the Medicine Wheel in 2002 that I came to know more about Bear in all her dimensions and in the fullness of her place on the Wheel.  Understanding of the Medicine Wheel has given a power and depth to my shamanic practice that I never imagined. I hope this short article encourages our readers to also take some steps along the Medicine Wheel way.

Before I began my studies with Carol, I thought the Medicine Wheel was a thing -- a creation of stone, a drawing of shapes and colors, a marking on a wall.  Those are just physical representations of what the Wheel is really about.  Different native peoples ascribe somewhat varied meanings to the directions and show a range of colors in the quadrants, but all are variations on ways to understand the circle of life.  Carol teaches the Plains Wheel and when learning the Wheel from her, it was clear that this Way is an intimate part of her nature and who she is. She was delighted and somewhat surprised by the reception and impact of these teachings on her students.. I will always be deeply grateful she offered this knowledge.

The Medicine Wheel is a cosmology, a way of perceiving time and place, a way of understanding the universe that is quite foreign to our 21st century goal-oriented society. I had always assumed that the future was somewhere straight ahead and when you reached a conclusion, such as academic graduation, or achieved a goal, then you looked ahead again and kept on marching. Life and time were linear, and at death you fell off the edge, like in the medieval concept of a flat earth. Imagine my delight to begin to see life and the universe as a series of ever unfolding circles.  I reveled in circles of time, circles of relationships, circles of ideas, circles of intention, circles of transformation - despair circling to become hope, mature thought circling to become new inspiration - and on into eternity - no falling off the edge required.

Now here at the end of four paragraphs of writing freely, I freeze. What does spirit really want me to say about the medicine wheel?  How can I, a white woman of the 21st century, know anything about the cosmology of a culture my ancestors decimated?  I am torn apart by anxiety.  How can I be confident that I’ve understood anything? What is the trickster Carol asking of me? Is this even something I should do?  I fritter away a whole afternoon with the struggle, not even knowing what it’s about.  I make popcorn, I sit in the sun, I call an old friend and the whole time the Medicine Wheel haunts me.

Of course, the answer, as I let go and flow back to the words, is that I am living through an example of how to use the wheel to understand life.  I am struggling in one quadrant of the wheel, seeking vision and inspiration.  It is only after I find that place of heart and mind that I can move into the writing process - to the doing of the thing in all its details of typing and spell checking.  When that is finished, I will have come to the ripening of my labors and can look inward to make sure my efforts have brought about the vision I was blessed with.  I then can finally move into the space of being able to share my work, to give to others the gifts I have received and the lessons I have learned.  Only then can I turn once again to the rising sun and look for a next place of vision.

The visioning, the ripening, the harvesting and the giving away are all processes of the different directions on the wheel - directions that correspond to the way the sun moves in a day, a year or a lifetime.  In a straight-line world, why should January have any different energy than June?  On the wheel, I now understand my irresistible urges to sleep in Winter and dance with a heart full of joy on the Summer Solstice.  Or why should certain times in a relationship be fraught with peril when others are easy and full of growth?  Why do I sometimes feel like a child when I’m clearly entering my Eldering time?

From a shamanic perspective, learning the Medicine Wheel brought the energies of the directions to life. I am learning what it means to face and call in the spirits of each direction and what powers they share. I know who to ask for help and why. I understand the blessings and the beings of each direction and I can feel power ebb and flow as I call.  Why does the North answer me so strongly at this time and place?  What will the East teach me today and why are the beings of the West so soft and quiet.  What does it mean when I call, and grasshopper shows up from the South for the first time in months?

When I need help on a specific problem I know where to look and listen in my shamanic practice and in ordinary life.  When I’m overwhelmed by details, I think about the explosion of life in the South and ask Mouse to help me with her scurrying, busy and tireless energy. When I know I’m at a fork in my path, I can look to the rising sun for inspiration and see Eagle before me with the big picture, visioning place so I can move surefooted in my chosen direction.  When I am ready to close a chapter, I can ask Buffalo and the wisdom of the North to help me see what I have learned, to help me find a good way to make a blessing for others of my moving on, and to help me not get stuck in the fear of change.

I have found hope, wisdom, understanding, humility, acceptance and joy through these studies.  That’s a big thing to say, but I know that the Medicine Wheel has grounded my shamanic practice and my life.  I found in this way a cosmology that took me from seeking a way home, to being at home.