The Shamanic Energy Medicine Wheel: An Introduction

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“He who does not believe in magic will never find it.” – Roald Dahl

Shamanism, as known by experts such as anthropologists, is the most ancient spiritual practice, and yet has no scriptures or dogma. From archaeological evidence, we know the practice dates back at least 40,000 years, with some anthropologists believing the practice dating back over 100,000 years.

It’s a way of life or a way to connect back into all of Creation. Put most simply, it’s the realization and embodiment that we were never “cast out of the garden”. Rather, we are here to being Stewards of the Earth, or Earth Keepers. Ancient shamanic rituals have been practiced since the beginning of time. At its core, it aims to restore wholeness and balance to individuals and communities, where a genuine reciprocity is formed between humanity, Spirit, and nature.

SEE ALSO: 8 Lessons I Learned About Money During My Spiritual Awakening

A Few Core Beliefs Resting at the Heart of Shamanism

• Everything is alive and has a life force energy (sometimes called animism)
• Our “concrete” or material world is only the beginning and this “conceptual shift” opens up the possibility to connect with the realms of Spirit.
• Everything—and they mean everything—and everyone is our teacher; our mirrors.
• Compassion, and a deep union with nature allows us to see and live from the eyes of our heart, and the practice of living this way brings illumination to all aspects of life.
• Each individual has the birthright and responsibility to communicate with the Spirit world directly. No faith is needed, because shamans and those drawn to shamanism, garner experience.

Through Shamanism, we enter the realms of wisdom that can be experienced but not told. Experience is all there is here. Shamans say that this is a realm that cannot be found through seeking, and yet, only those who seek may find it.

What is the Medicine Wheel?

It is a technology to step into your infinite power to co-create with the One Infinite Creator and the quantum field.

The medicine wheel, stone circles, mandalas, and the like, are all vehicles used in one form or another (and called one thing or another) by highly sophisticated ancient societies. These include the Hopi, Maya, Inca, Olmacs, Druids, and Egyptians. Circles are the symbol of wholeness, healing, and integration—and their incredible power, have been understood by and familiar to these ancient peoples for thousands of years. They were, in other words, peoples “of the Circle,” and connected into a Source of power lost to antiquity over the ages; until now.

Virtually every “mystical tradition” encourages the walk-about, or vision quest, for knowledge and personal power. This differs from Western tradition, where we were thought we were cast out of the garden and/or punished for tasting the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Far from encouraging us to Journey around the sacred circle of life, and to the deepest recesses of our souls within, we’ve instead been fostered to “stay within the proverbial box”.

The Medicine Wheel, in effect, is a symbology of the great Journey, the fool’s Journey, and the Journey everyone must take. It’s what Joseph Campbell calls the Hero’s Journey, accompanied by certain parts or components along the way—a tried and true formula that virtually every story or movie ever written or told bases itself after.

It is a four-fold path toward freedom, wholeness, personal power and fulfillment. Far from the typical power we’ve come to know in the West, based on Ego, aggression, and dominance; rather, here, it’s about the infinite power to co-create with nature and the forces of the Universe.

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The Medicine Wheel, in Shamanism, calls four different directions home: The South, the West, the North, and the East. The power of this sacred number can be seen and traced throughout all of life: four letters in our DNA (A, C, T, and G); four chambers of the heart; four seasons; four forces of nature (gravity, electromagnetic, strong, and weak nuclear energy); the four stages of human development (infancy, adolescence, adulthood, golden years); and four parts of integration, including Body, Mind, Soul and Spirit, to name a few.

The Four Directions

The Shamanic Energy Medicine Wheel corresponds with the four directions: South, West, North, and East. Starting in the South and ending in the East, they are all interconnected, and with the ability to draw from each direction at any time, dancing among these directions and deriving their respective medicines any time we feel called.

• South: The direction of the South, represented by Serpent, is about shedding the stories that no longer are serving us; learning how to walk the beauty way and belly-to-belly with Mother Earth.
• West: The medicine of the West, represented by Jaguar, teaches us the ways of the luminous warrior, who stands impeccably in her truth; dying to and releasing the various roles we play, and about genetic lineage and DNA.
• North: The direction of the North, represented by Hummingbird, reconnects us to our epic Soul’s Journey, reminding us that every step we take is sacred. It’s about teaching us to drink from only the finest and sweetest nectar in life; reconnecting to joy, bliss, abundance, sustenance, and the unlimited goodness of all that is.
• East: The medicine of the East, represented by Eagle/Condor, is all about our visionary selves and reconnecting us to our destinies. In the East we learn tools of personal alchemy, how to harness these natural forces of the Universe, and co-create as the conscious co-creatresses and co-creators we are. It’s about manifesting our realities in every moment, reminding us and teaching us how to dream our worlds into Being on the individual level and for the greater good of the collective.

The Four Perceptual States

The four perceptual states correspond with the four directions:

• At the level of Serpent: Literal/Physical
• Jaguar: Emotional/Mental/Psychological
• Hummingbird: Journeying/Mythic/Soul
• Eagle: Vision/Energetic

Why Walk the Medicine Wheel?

Why then should we embrace the gifts of Shamanism? Many of us are actually on the Medicine Wheel anyway. In fact everyone really, if we think about. Everyone is dreaming their worlds into Being, in every moment, and yet some may be walking this sacred circle unknowingly, creating unwanted circumstances in their life unconsciously. Doing so allows us to tap into the Source of energy that informs all life, that infinite flow of all that is—the one making the birds fly South, or a school of fish turn, or creating a spiral nautilus or a spiral galaxy; from the tiniest of co-creations to the largest ones.

With the Medicine Wheel, we can take the quantum leap in healing and transformation, towards what’s in our best and highest goods, and step into who we are becoming. Said another way, it helps us to remember, and reconnect us back into the sacredness of all life; to remember and reconnect back to the truths within us each and every one of us already knows deep inside of ourselves. It helps us remember and rediscover our divinity, our true eternal natures.

Shamanism further tunes us into synchronicity, that organizing principle of the Universe. It allows us to break free from linear time, stepping instead into non-ordinary, non-linear time; into infinity that beautiful time-space reality where miracles are commonplace and magic is real. It can help us heal and integrate past events as well as anchor in our destinies.

In other words, the Medicine Wheel is a vehicle, a technology, or a map—to integrate, and invite us to become whole again. From the gifts of Shamanism, we can become fulfilled and complete. We can activate our inner Warrior or Warrioress, awaken our rainbow light bodies, and unlock our full inner potential. This is so that we may step back into our personal power, wisdom, and freedom once and for all; and be reunited with and invited to co-create with Spirit once again.