- blue (north) ... defeat; trouble ... winter - a season for survival and waiting
Wisdom, intellect, the adult self, MIND
Element = Wind/Breath - yellow (east) ... success; triumph ... spring - a re-awakening, the power of new life
Illumination, creation, the wonder child self, SPIRIT
Element = Fire/Life Source - black (west) ... death ... autumn - the final harvest, the end of life's cycle
Introspection and intuition, the physical body, MANIFESTATION
Element = Earth - white (south) ... peace; happiness ... summer - a time of plenty
Trust and Innocence, EMOTIONS
Element = Water - Center ... learning, SELF
Balance, beauty, harmony
The symbolism may vary from tribe to tribe.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
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The medicine wheel consists of the four cardinal directions and four sacred colors representing certain properties:
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The Native American Medicine Wheel was used for various spiritual and ritual purposes, especially for healing almost any illness. Since it was believed that illness sprang from spiritual in balance, the focus of the healing was on treating the source of the problem, not the symptoms. As the medicine wheel focuses on balance of all things, it was thought this balance would help the spiritual in balance in the person who was sick.
ReplyDeleteMost medicine wheels have a basic pattern - a center of stone (cairn) then having an outer ring of stone with "spokes" of stone radiating out from the center.
Being a wheel, it is round depicting the circle of life, the shape of the sun and the moon, etc. The medicine wheel consists of the four cardinal directions and four sacred colors representing certain properties:
blue (north) ... defeat; trouble ... winter - a season for survival and waiting
Wisdom, intellect, the adult self, MIND
Element = Wind/Breath
yellow (east) ... success; triumph ... spring - a re-awakening, the power of new life
Illumination, creation, the wonder child self, SPIRIT
Element = Fire/Life Source
black (west) ... death ... autumn - the final harvest, the end of life's cycle
Introspection and intuition, the physical body, MANIFESTATION
Element = Earth
white (south) ... peace; happiness ... summer - a time of plenty
Trust and Innocence, EMOTIONS
Element = Water
Center ... learning, SELF
Balance, beauty, harmony
The symbolism may vary from tribe to tribe.
Medicine wheels are still used today in the Native American spirituality, however most of the meaning behind them is not shared among non-Native people.
For non-Indians, medicine wheels are believed to create a roadmap to sacred space...it's a mapping of the sacred landscape we live in...it's spinning...it's rotating like the earth...the things in your life are spinning and you are the center.
Native American medicine wheels can also be made by hand and it can be as small or as big as desired. Some are stone formations on the ground, some are shields, some are held in the hand.
http://www.support-native-american-art.com/Native-American-Medicine-Wheels.html
ReplyDeleteMedicine wheels, or sacred hoops, were constructed by laying stones in a particular pattern on the ground. Most medicine wheels follow the basic pattern of having a center of stone(s), and surrounding that is an outer ring of stones with "spokes", or lines of rocks radiating from the center. Some ancient types of sacred architecture were built by laying stones on the surface of the ground in particular patterns common to aboriginal peoples. Originally, and still today, medicine wheels are stone structures constructed by certain indigenous peoples of North America for various astronomical, ritual, healing, and teaching purposes. Medicine wheels are still "opened" or inaugurated in Native American spirituality where they are more often referred to as "sacred hoops", which is the favored English rendering by some. There are various native words to describe the ancient forms and types of rock alignments. One teaching involves the description of the four directions. More recently, syncretic, hybridized uses of medicine wheels, magic circles, and mandala sacred technology are employed in New Age, Wiccan, Pagan and other spiritual discourse throughout the World. The rite of the sacred hoop and medicine wheel differed and differs amongst indigenous traditions, as it now does between non-indigenous peoples, and between traditional and modernist variations. The essential nature of the rite common to these divergent traditions deserves further anthropological exploration as does an exegesis of their valence.
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