Meeting Each Direction Of A Medicine Wheel

This meditation is designed as an introduction or re-introduction to the sacred Medicine Wheel. I do not claim to be a Shaman - though much Love to each and every Shaman. I have spent years learning and leaning into the Medicine Wheel and I am so grateful for the wholeness, direction, and guidance it provides. The intent of this meditation is to begin to share that same wisdom, guidance, and love.

Transcript

Hello and welcome. I'd like to take us through a quick meditation that introduces us to the different energies of the medicine wheel. So if you have a minute, Let's take some time to relax, Come back into ourselves and into this present moment. So maybe that's sitting down in a meditative posture for you, Or maybe that's laying down, Whatever feels like a place you can get into. Find comfort, Find yourself in your body, And find yourself present. And once we're there, Once we're in our position, Let's take three deep breaths. In through the nose, And then out through whatever feels best. Do what the body wants to do. Wonderful. So we should be feeling a little more present, A little more slowed down. So, To get an introduction to the medicine wheel, I'm going to ask that we start to imagine a place in nature that really feels like home to us. Wherever that is, Whatever that looks like. And I do believe nature shows up everywhere. Maybe that's just right outside a building in a downtown area, And it's a walk along a path through a park or through a sidewalk or through a particular part of town that's enjoyable. Or maybe that's by an ocean, A lake, A river. Let's come to that place. I'll give a little bit of time for the mind to settle in and zone in and put itself there. To say, Here I am, This is my place. And if you can't think of a place, That's okay, We'll still guide through this. So there we are, And this is where we're going to start our journey. And as we walk along the path we've chosen, We keep moving through. Perhaps different things come to mind in our imagination. Maybe there's animals or people. Maybe there's our to-do list or emotional quandary that has come up in our lives. Whatever it is, Just know you're on your path and you're walking. And just keep walking for a little bit, Just sort of settling into being here, Being in this space. Reminding ourselves of Mother Nature, A tree, Some grass, Animals, Maybe different water features. Even if that's a sprinkler or a hose, A river, An ocean, A lake, Rain. We're walking. And we know just around a corner of the head there's an opening, A clearing. Where there's just a way to see clearly what's ahead of us. And so we know we're walking towards that. So we keep walking, Aware of our environment and what's around us. Feeling more and more peaceful, Uplifted, Confident, Present. Right when we turn the bend and we see that clearing, We know that there'll be a circle there, A medicine wheel. That's going to help us to teach itself about us. So we walk towards it. We start on the east, On the east side of the wheel. There's a marker on the east side of the wheel to know exactly where we should stand. So we stand right there. And we start at the east like a day starts with the sun rising in the east. In the east. And in the east we just feel the presence of a beginning. We can equate it to the sun rising. We can equate it to springtime emerging from winter. We can equate it from all the activities that happen in springtime. We move from the cool coldness of winter into a thawing, Into an idea of blossoming, Of planting seeds, Of watching leaves return to trees, Begin to return to trees. An ideal time to start our new beginnings for the year, Or for our life even. We kind of step into that east direction and we feel it. It reminds us of getting a higher level perspective, Like the winged animal, The hawk, The eagle. Being able to take a very high perspective as we plan and plant our seeds. What are the seeds we really want to plant? Not just in our actual garden, But that's important too. We're in the garden of our heart, Those heart centered seeds. Which ones resonate? Now take some time and think about that and we can always come back to every east, Every morning awakening. It offers us an opportunity. We walk to the south. In the south it becomes summertime as spring transitions into summer. Summertime is usually longer days, Warmer days. The seeds we planted we get to water, Or the earth waters for us. They grow, They grow. More activity, More movement, More fluidity. We get to play with our relationships. Relationships of course involve our deep emotions and our shallow emotions. We feel that sun shining on us, Allowing us to transform and to grow. We feel a sense of freedom, A sense of playfulness like a dolphin. A sense of growth and adaptability like a frog. A sense of love. And then we move up into the west as summer falls into autumn. And as autumn comes a slowing down, A gradual slowing down, Summer gradually moves into fall. The days become slower, Less light and less light. But not right away. We have a beautiful moment when the leaves turn colors. Nature really reveals itself to us in all its beauty. Perhaps in our play we missed how beautiful a tree was. Or we just played with the tree and we didn't take the time, And we now get to take the time to appreciate it. To say thank you tree for being there providing shade, Allowing us a place to play around, To run around, To admire, To be with. A sense of gratitude, A sense of reflection. And of course fall time is also when we get to pluck the tomatoes from the tomato vines and other produce and fruit and vegetables. And the seeds we planted have come, Some of them have come to fruition. And we get to see what they are, What we birthed and what we've created and become. Both in the, In our actual garden and in the gardens of our heart. If we planted peace, How did it show up? In what way are we moving forward towards that? We planted trust. In what way did it grow into fruition? We get a chance to be grateful for all that we have, For all that we have. A sense of realness, A sense of the reflection of being human, Of saying yeah we planted peace and trust but maybe I faltered here or there. And to bow our heads and to accept that gracefully. To continue to birth and rebirth as a human. Going through many lives, Even in our this one lifetime. So the animals of the West are a Phoenix, Being able to rise up from the ashes and see our transformation. Snake, Sort of raw, Real, The medicine that you seek is within you. Take a little bit of time with that as we head into the North. As we've gathered our perspective, Our reflection and our gratitude, Our medicine, We head to the North as fall turns into winter. And winter gets a little more cold, More frigid. Time to retreat within, Time to go back to our home, Our internal home. Moving from, Moving more and more inward within we seek to find who we are, To find who we are. These moments, Deep introspection. We look at what occurred in our life and asked how did it challenge me, How did it challenge my beliefs, A sense of who I am, My identity. Who am I? Who am I? Of course, We have our buffalo and our owl. Deeply spiritually connected animals that are connected to us. Each animal brings its medicine, But these are the animals that bring their spiritual medicine to us in depths. They help us look into who we are with gentleness and truth, With gentleness and truth, And appreciation for who we really are. They kind of go within the North. And then just before emerging in the North, We're going to go back full circle to the East. We're going to take a few breaths and we're going to walk directly into the middle of the circle. Coming down from the North into the middle. In that middle we get a chance to sit in reverence for this medicine wheel. A wheel that many, Many cultures have used, Taught, Allowed us and shared now with us. To feel a gratefulness, A simplicity and the complexity in this beautiful circle. And certainly as it applies to our life, Giving it definition, Order, A compass, A way to organize and live more fully, Truly. We sit in the center, Bowing to the North and all the energy and the love it provides. Turning to the East, Bowing to the East for all the energy and the love it provides. Taking a moment to really put our heart into the Earth. Grateful. Bowing to the South for all the love and energy it provides. Grateful. Really grateful. Bowing to the Earth. Then we turn to the West. Grateful for all the love and support it provides. Grateful. Grateful. Then we put our two hands on the Earth and bow our heads and take a moment to just be with our Mother Earth. And everything that's touching the Earth, Our legs, Our shins, Our knees, And all 10 fingers and all 10 toes. A true mutual connection between Earth and yourself. Take a moment in the middle here and just feel. Now, We'll lift our hands up out of the dirt and raise them up high, Our heart lifting upwards towards the heavens. Grateful too for Father Sky, For the expansive universe, The feminine and the masculine. Stars that shine every night, The moon providing so much for us here on Earth. Reflecting on how grateful and amazing and awful, Terrifying at times, And also inspiring this world can be. But grateful for all that there is. And that we have all the support of the cosmos and the Earth and the medicine wheel to help us, Guide us, Move not just ourselves, But all the people around us and all the people in this world towards higher and higher consciousness of living. Grateful, Connected both above, Below, And in all directions. Grateful. Now, One last bow to the medicine wheel. We'll walk back out onto the east vein where we started. Feeling lighter, More aware, More guided. We walk back along our path. Maybe we walk a little bit slower, Feeling more at home, More at peace within our bodies. Confident, Soft, True, Present. We walk back towards our home, Back towards where we are. We continue, We turn past the bend we came into the clearing. We continue to walk down our path that we came here on. See if anything's changed, If there's a new animal showing up, A house that we remember, A tree we never saw. Maybe there's some markings or some symbols. We can jot those down. Maybe someone comes to mind, A message to be heard. We can listen to it. We return back into our meditative posture, Wherever we are, Wherever we find ourselves. We return back to where we are. Having gone on a little journey to deepen into the medicine wheel, Grateful, Grateful for this tool, For this beautiful, Beautiful compass to direct us in this world. We're back in our bodies, Fully back in our bodies, Fully back in the present. Here, Guided, Supported, Loved, Capable of being loved and loving, Truly. Let's take three deep breaths to close this out. And with that, Friend, I hope you feel more directed, More understood. Love to you all.

Reviews

Such a powerful yet tender journey…thank you for the guidance and wisdom shared. I found it to be deeply supportive 🙏🏽