Medicine Wheels: Spirit World Compasses


(Medicine Wheel in Adamsville Cemetery, Arizona)

In Arizona, you run into medicine wheels from time to time and especially at the vortexes in Sedona. They are beautiful, but they are also symbolic. Two things I've always dreamed of having in a garden are a labyrinth and a medicine wheel. Here's a chart to show you the quadrants of a medicine wheel:



Some who construct them, use rocks for the cross pieces in the color of the direction, like yellow rocks pointing to the eastern quadrant, et cetera.

These are a grounded and sacred place to interact with the spirit world. Some stand in the during the season facing the appropriate direction. It means something different to each culture and even to the new agers and wiccans who have borrowed the concept for their own process. Everyone has a different experience, but for most it is a way of staying focused, a kind of spiritual reset button.

Here is a wonderful site that explains how to construct your own.



Here are prayers that can be said facing each direction:

O Great Spirit of the East, radiance of the rising Sun, spirit of new beginnings O Grandfather Fire, great nuclear fire of the Sun. From you comes life-energy, vital spark, power to see far, and to envision with boldness; with you we can purify the senses, our hearts and our minds. We pray that we may be aligned with you, so that your energies may flow through us, and be expressed by us, for the good of this planet Earth, and all living beings upon it. 

O Great Spirit of the South, protector of the fruitful land, and of all green and growing things, the noble trees and grasses. Grandmother Earth, Soul of Nature, great power of the receptive, of nurturance and endurance, of bringing forth and growing, flowers of the field, fruits of the garden. We pray that we may be aligned with you, so that your powers may flow through us, and be expressed by us, for the good of this planet Earth, and all living beings upon it. 

O Great Spirit of the West, spirit of the great waters, of rain and rivers, lakes and springs; O Grandmother Ocean, deepest matrix, womb of all life. With you comes the dissolving of boundaries and holdings, the power to taste and to feel, to cleanse and to heal. Great blissful darkness of peace. WE pray that we may be aligned with you, so that your powers may flow through us, and be expressed by us, for the good of this planet Earth, and all living beings upon it. 

O Great Spirit of the North, invisible spirits of the air, and of the fresh, cool winds; O vast and boundless Grandfather Sky, your living breath animates all life. From you comes clarity and strength, and the power to hear inner sounds, to seep out old patterns, and bring challenge and change. The ecstasy of movement and the dance. We pray that we may be aligned with you, so that your powers may flow through us, and be expressed by us, for the good of this planet Earth, and all living beings upon it.

 If you don't have the space in your yard to do a medicine wheel, consider a tabletop one made of stones. 

Some people do a smudging with sage or tobacco in all four directions. Others leave offerings for the medicine wheel.  Yet others opt to make a medicine wheel herb garden. The circle is sacred throughout history including the symbolic shape of a wedding ring with no beginning and no end, just an eternal loop. Experiment with the construction of a medicine wheel or visit one if you can. It really does have a rather remarkable feel to it.

Comments

  1. Very interesting! Just out of curiosity, why does the one at the top have more than four quadrants?

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