Seven Arrows
Hyemeyohsts Storm (1973) The Four Powers of the Medicine Wheel of Life
Web Publication by Mountain Man Graphics, Australia

What is the Great Medicine Wheel of Life?

Introduction

The Great Medicine Wheel of Life looks like a compass, bearing four separate branches, and a network of pathways set between them for the traveller.

Traditionally, this pattern is set out on the ground with stone markers, but in a deeper sense, this pattern is set out in our worldly experience, and our reflections upon our worldly experience, and in our words and our actions.

We learn that the four different points of the compass are four different but simultaneous vantage points upon the world that are associated with the powers (or lack thereof) of being human. We also learn to understand that whenever an object is placed in the Medicine Wheel, and viewed within the circle by a community of people as a whole, it is invariably perceived differently.

It is this invariable disparity of common-viewpoint that may attribute varying degrees and layers of misunderstanding. This all has to do with perspective, and the respect of other peoples' perspective.

Earlier the author writes:

"In many ways this Circle, the Medicine Wheel,
can best be understood if you think of it
as a mirror in which everything is reflected.
'The Universe is the Mirror of the People' , the old Teachers tells us,
'and each person is a Mirror to every other person'."

In the brief extract below, the author outlines the four powers of the Medicine Wheel of Life, and begins to develop a story about how the Medicine Wheel is central to all things. Those who see thamselves as the students of life would be well advised to attempt an understanding of this philosophy and metaphysical viewpoint.

The Medicine Wheel is a dynamical system, and the journeys through its breadth, and depth and wild blue expanses is the journey of Life Itself. We gradually ascertain, after repeated trecking, that the four directions of the compass are inherent at all places in the cosmos, self-similar and as an assemblage of the viewpoints from all other places in the cosmos.

Tangential to this line of thought, but very much in alignment to the natural principles outlined, here is an armchair thought experiment.

Clearly, IMO the Medicine Wheel of Life paradigm will be determined to be able to deal with those more complex and ethical issues, such as those associated with integrity, and principles. The small amount of information presented here should be followed up in earnest elsewhere.

A good place to start is here:

Title:  Seven Arrows
Author: Hyemeyohsts Storm
ISBN:   0 345 32901 5

Best wishes to one and all.

Pete Brown
Mountain Man Graphics, Australia
In the southern autumn of 2004

"Among the People, a child's first Teaching is of the
Four Great Powers of the Medicine Wheel.

To the North on the Medicine Wheel is found Wisdom.
The Color of the Wisdom of the North is White, and
its Medicine Animal is the Buffalo.

The South is represented by the Sign of the Mouse,
and its Medicine Color is Green.  The South is a
place of Innocence and Trust, and is for perceiving
closely our nature of heart.

In the West is the Sign of the Bear.  The West is the
Looks-Within Place, which speaks of the Introspective
nature of man.  The Color of this Place is Black.

The East is marked by the Sign of the Eagle.  It is 
the Place of Illumination, where we can see things
clearly far and wide.  Its Color is the Gold of the 
Morning Star.


At birth, each of us given a particular Beginning
Place within these Four Great Directions on the
Medicine Wheel.  This Starting Place gives us our 
first way of perceiving things, which will then be
our easiest and more natural way throughout our lives.

But any person who perceives from only one of these
Four Great Directions will remain just a partial man.
For example, a man who possesses only the Gift of the
North will be wise.  But he will be a cold man, a man
without feeling.  And the man who lives only in the
East will have the clear, far sighted vision of the 
Eagle, but he will never be close to things.  This
man will feel separated, high above life, and will
never understand or believe that he can be touched
by anything.

A man or woman who perceives only from the West
will go over the same thought again and again in 
their mind, and will always be undecided.  And if
a person has only the Gift of the South, he will see
everything with the eyes of a Mouse.  He will be too
close to the ground and too near sighted to see 
anything except whatever is right in front of him,
touching his whiskers.

There are many people who have two or three of these
Gifts, but these people still are not Whole.  A man
might be a Bear person from the East, or an Eagle
person from the South.  The first of these men would
have the Gift of seeing Introspectively within 
Illumination, but he would lack the Gifts of Touching
and Wisdom.  the second would be able to see clearly
and far, like the Eagle, within Trust and Innocence.
But he would still not know of the things of the North,
nor of the looks-Within Place.

In this same way, a person might also be a Golden Bear
of the North, or a Black Eagle of the South.  But none
of these people would yet be Whole.  After each of us
has learned of our Beginning Gift, our First Place on
the Medicine Wheel, we then must Grow by Seeking
Understanding in each of the Four Great Ways.  Only
in this way can we become Full, capable of Balance and
Decision in what we do.  Seven Arrows speaks of this 
Growing and Seeking.




Mountain Man Graphics | The Soul of the Indian | The Gospel of Buddha | E-Mail

QuoteForTheDay:        

  "Consciousness is never experienced in the plural, only in 
   the singular. How does the idea of plurality (emphatically 
   opposed by the Upanishad writers arise at all? .... the 
   only possible alternative is simply to keep the immediate 
   experience that consciousness is a singular of which the 
   plural is unkown; that there *is* only one thing and that 
   what seems to be a plurality is merely a series of different 
   aspects of this one thing produced by deception (the Indian 
   maya) - in much the same way Gaurisankar and Mt Everest turn 
   out to be the same peak seen from different valleys."

    -  E. Schrodinger, "What is Life"