Medicine Wheels

I began to study a variety of traditional Native American Medicine Wheels in 1987 as part of my undergraduate experience through the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. Having already studied the wheels of Celtic, Nordic and Wiccan traditions as well as Taoist and other Eastern traditions, the Native interpretations of life as a wheel resonated in my core. The characters of the Lakota Wheel were especially compelling as in my studies of Jungian psychology I had already spoken with a few of my internal characters.

Each cardinal direction, East, South, West and North (and each point in between), has a cultural architype associated with it. All of these characters live within the collective mind of each individual, the community, and humanity at large. They speak to us through dreams, visions, and when they are called into us to take posession of an individual through rituals such as the Medicine Wheel or Sweat Lodge Ceremony.

They are alive through our relationship with them. If we maintain a relationship with them, our inner balance is also maintained. If we ignore or dishonor them, they seek us out - not always in gentle ways. Popular western thinkers and authors such as Joseph Campbell, Karl Jung, Robert Johnson, Merlin Stone and Shinoda Bolin have explored these archetypes of the collective unconscious mind of humanity and have found that Earth based traditions share these archetypal figures across the diversity of the globe.

These studies and practices have led me to many new understandings of human complexity.

In the Lakota Tradition:

A community can call a circle together for ritual, for celebration, or even to seek aid by posing certain questions to the archetypes sitting in each direction. Members of our tribe or family will take positions in the circle to represent the specific archetype which "lives" in that direction. Through a process of meditation, chanting, masking, the individual sitting in, say, the East, allows their individuality to recess and brings forward the attributes of the Spirits of the East. Since every individual posesses the entire wheel within themselves a single individual is capable of "playing all of the parts" for themselves. This, however, takes a good deal of discipline, practice, and honesty. A wheel can be called and include as many people as an entire community. But generally there are two individuals who sit in each of the four cardinal points and each of the points in-between.

These are the descriptions of the directions in basic:

The Gateway to the circle is the NE corner. One asks permission to enter the circle here. Let's say the circle is called by an individual in order to ask a question and seek divinatory answers.

NE - The Pattern Keeper is the archetype who sits in this spot. Her job is to keep the integrity of the circle throughout the ritual. These people see the gestalt - the whole. They are the web weavers, the fates, the ones whose permission is needed and whose final word is law. These people are very intuitive, can sense energy shifts, have an eye and ear for Truth and worthiness. If the questioner is allowed to enter they proceed to the East.

EAST - The Fool - This archetype has names like Loki, Jester, the quick wit of the rising sun. The mirror. Spring. The Maiden. Idea hatcher, lover of jolly good fun, the new moon. The questioner asks their question to the Fool, the Fool replies with a question, the real question. The Fool's response is the question that the seeker then takes to the rest of the wheel.

SE - Tradition - Tradition sits next to the Fool. This is the character within ourselves that holds knowlege of the way things have always been done. Tradition answers the seeker's Fool's question from the standpoint of history. This position gives us the framework, the boundaries, the reference points and the lessons learned from the past.

South - The Warrior - the attributes of the South are personified. The heat of passion, the heart center, the noontime sun, Summer. The full Moon. The Warrior is the character of action and has the special function of protecting the children's fire in the center of the circle. The Grandparents sit on either side of the children's fire. The children's fire must never be let to die or be threatened in any way. This way we protect the past and the future. The Mother protecting her children without thinking, only feeling. The Warrior will answer the question from this place of the heart and with the sacred duties in mind.

SW - The Shamman - Faces the Pattern Keeper. A shaman is nothing without a community to serve. They are the healers, the interpreters of dreams, the keepers of the faith. They rely on the Pattern Keepers for balance and grounding when they are in their states of ecstasy. The will answer the questioner with psychic insight mixed with the health of the community and the individual in their thoughts.

West - The Witch - The Crone, the waning moon, wise woman, she doesn't care about community per se. Like the Fool opposite her, she is only interested in her own knowlege. She is in control of the Magick, the dreamtime, the setting sun, the autumn time. She will sacrifice the grain god with no remorse. She is sexuality and opperates out of the sensual where the Fool operates out of the intellectual.

NW - The Tribal Chief - Sitting accross from Tradition, the Tribal Chief is the one who will weigh the information and give answers/make decisions for the general workings of the Tribe. Where we will hunt in the Fall, when we will travel in the Spring, whether we will make war or peace. They are the diplomats in this great circle of opposites and strong personalities! They are gathering information, listening hard. While the Shamman is concerned with the individual as part of the whole and the pattern keeper is concerned with the whole as part of the universal, the Tribal Chief sits opposite Tradition who has knowlege of the history of the whole and makes decisions about what the whole might be.

North - The Creator-first thought woman- The Logos, the sun when it has set, no moon, Winter and the dark secret knowlege of creation, the void womb before conception. The creator will answer questions from the logical and scientific. The Creator can answer the why of things because she creates everything. Sitting opposite the Warrior whose passion and heat are like the woman giving birth, North is the conception.

NE - the Pattern Keeper is addressed at the end of the ritual. He decides whether the participants were truly in their architypal character or answering out of personal opinion. If the integrity of the wheel has been upheld, the seeker is free to depart and ponder the answers given by the archetypes.

EXERCISES:
1. You are now sitting in a room. Where is North? Where are you sitting?

2. Now move to another position from the one you naturally chose when you entered the room. How does it feel?

3. Do you know anyone who seems to opperate out of one of these archetypes more frequently than others? What are they like? What do they do for a living?

4. As you go about your day, take note of where people choose to sit, where you choose to sit.

5. Is there any particular character on the wheel that makes you feel uncomfortable? Why?

6. On a piece of paper, draw a circle. Put in the cardinal points, the mid-points. List characteristics of these directions: colors, shapes, who lives to your east? what lies to the south of where you live? what imagery does this evoke?

7. Take a question such as "How should I educate my children?" or "What is my greatest gift?" or "What will happen if I take a different job?" Go around the circle you drew and see how each character would answer your question.

Getting to know these stereotypes, these archetypes, is to understand the full potential of ourselves as individuals. Recognize them as you read the myths of gods and goddesses who embody these things. Recognize who is "really" talking when you are in a meeting at work. As you walk in the circle of life you will find yourself in one position, then another, and another, until in your lifetime you have played all of these parts. Start to understand these characters and you will start to understand yourself and your place in the universal wheel of life as we all dance the Spiral Dance.