More on Medicine Wheels

Below are links to more
information on the Medicine Wheel, including
Friends Sites, Information Sites,
And Pictures.

May the Great Spirit be with you as
you travel your earth walk.

"The Medicine Wheel is an ancient symbol used by many Aboriginal people

of North and South America. The Medicine Wheel teaches us that all life

moves in a circle and each person's journey to self fulfillment lies within.

There are many different ways that this concept is expressed, all reflecting

the importance of wholeness and balance and the significance of the number

four in Aboriginal life: four seasons, four grandfathers, four directions, four

elements and four aspects of our nature, four life stages. The Medicine

Wheel has no beginning and no ending, just as there is no end to our

journey of the four directions. The human capacity to develop is infinite -

The Medicine Wheel turns forever."
Medicine Wheel
Source: CIBC Aboriginal Banking
Thanks to Vincent Proteau for submitting this information.

"THE KEY, ONCE CLEAR TO THE MANY,

IS NOW CLOSED TO THOSE WHO WOULD

WISH TO KNOW THE TRUTH"

Spirit Message 2-26-2001


"And there are Four Corners of the Earth that we talk about, the Four Colors
of people, and the Four Winds. You see, the Winds -- they are Spirits."

(Grandfather William Commanda, Algonquin)

The Elders teach us about the four directions. If we learn about direction, we also learn about attention, about focus, and about power. Each direction has spiritual power. In the morning, go outside, face the east and get still, then, listen to your thoughts. After you have done this for a while, turn and face the west. Get quiet once again and listen to your thoughts. Did your thinking change when you changed directions?

PRAYER:

"Great Spirit, teach me the power of the four directions."

Locations of Prominent Medicine Wheels

At Fort Smith, on the Crow reservation, is the wheel , whose longest, southwesterly spoke and central altar-cairn form a sight on the summer solstice rising sun.

West of Great Falls, Montana is a wheel whose southerly spokes are partly destroyed by erosion from the Sun River, but suggests a similar alignment.

At the top of the Continental Divide, near an old travois trail, on Trail Ridge Road in Colorado is a huge, rough cairn with two long spokes that line up with summer solstice sunrise.

In Minnesota, on the open grassland prairie of Blue Mounds state park there is a 1500-foot line of quartzite boulders which is a northeasterly sighting line for solstice sunrise, though the Historical Society mistakenly identifies it as equinoctial (which would be direct east-west; many non-scientific people are confused about the words equinox and solstice).

Not far from it (not in the park) are the enigmatic Jeffers Petroglyths -- thousands of mysterious signs pecked into flat red rocks which may include astronomical records.

The Leon River Medicine Wheel was mapped by participants in Texas A&M University's archaeological field school during the summer of 1990 (Carlson 1993). Medicine wheels are sacred sites traditionally of Northern Plains origin that are significant to many Native Americans today. They are governed by the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA; see Chapter One). During that same field school, the participants excavated a rock shelter that included the remains of six persons. Those remains were stored at Texas A&M University.

The Leon River Medicine Wheel was renewed and restored under the direction of representatives of the North American Medicine Wheel Alliance in May 1994. The Medicine Wheel Alliance had been asked by the Native Americans to participate in the renewal ceremony to ensure that a proper ceremony was conducted.

Medicine Man Who Wishes to Remain Nameless

April 16, 2000

Copyright by The Electric Wigwam (N.H.), 2000,
all rights reserved

When I considered offering to you, I fasted and prayed for the wisdom to know what would help those of you who need the help the most. I saw two spirits as I prayed. The first who came to me was standing tall. He held a spear from which hung the feathers of hawks and owls. He did not speak to me. He pointed his spear to the direction of the wind and I looked into the wind and saw many of my people who walk the Earth today. They were standing in a muddy place. They were angry at me for talking to you. They called to me that I was a traitor to my people if I offer words to help any others. The warrior with the spear looked at me and his hard face softened and he turned away.

Another warrior came to me. He wore a buffalo skin over his head and he drew a grand medicine wheel on the sand in front of me. One side pointed to each spirit of the wind, to each element of the Earth. He stood in it and walked around slowly. He stopped in each direction and spoke to me.

In the first he said, "Truth is the truth. There is nothing else.
Truth is not owned by any people."

In the second he said, "Every people have their sacred ways to dance their truth. Do not change them or give them your ways. Let each find their own dances for the one truth."

In the third he said, "What makes a people strong is their heart. A painful heart is not strong. A strong heart is not selfish."

In the fourth direction he said, "Each must protect their sacred ways, yet each must share the truth that makes those ways sacred."

Then he stepped into the center of the circle and then before me, on good ground, stood the spirits of all the ancestors of my people. The man with the spear stood there as well. He did not speak. He pointed the spear to the Ancestor Spirits.

The man in the circle said, "Respect your ancestors and hold what is sacred close to your heart. In this way you will respect your people. Respect your Creator and speak the truth to those who wish to hear it. In this way you will respect your world."

The vision was suddenly gone. I sat in the sand looking where the spirits were and I heard a voice say, "Be a messenger not the message."

This was my vision. This is why I chose to do this.

By the Nameless Medicine Man