Introduction to the Medicine Wheel:

An American Way of Balance

As adults we tend to look back at our childhood years with a sense of longing, remembering a time of freedom when everything seemed possible. We sometimes forget that children have responsibilities and enforced limits just as adults do. The difference is that most children have not yet become deeply entrenched from slogging after the same self-imposed goals year after year. If one path doesn’t work for them, they simply leap onto another one. Adults sometimes find that they have spent so much energy working towards one thing that they have no idea how to turn around and start anew. Some of us can be too stubborn even to lift our heads and look in a new direction. In the belief that we have to keep our eyes on the prize, we have trained ourselves out of flexibility. This is how we come to feel confined, trapped, lost to the world. The world is still out there waiting for us, though. It may have taken a while to lose our way and it may take a while to retrace our steps, but we can do it when we make up our minds to return to the place where every direction is open to us once again.

A child’s mind is a learning machine, it is open to new experiences and new possibilities. Children learn to walk by noticing other people walking and then deciding to try it themselves. They feel the space around themselves and pull themselves up. They learn to stand and get a feel for the earth beneath their feet. They sway in different directions and learn to balance. If they fall, they rise again. They move forward. They learn that they must slow down in order to stop without falling flat on their faces. They learn to start again. With the help of loving guardians this can be a very exciting time.

If, as adults, we find ourselves stuck in one direction we can learn to walk again in a similar way. But to whom do we look now for guidance and reassurance? Even though we are grown people, there are still older and more experienced voices we can call on to be there for us as we learn. They have been with us all along and are easy to find if we can re-train ourselves to listen for them. These are the voices from history, our ancestors reaching out to us from the past. They point to a reliable reality that has stood the test of time: nature itself. This is where they started to find understanding of the world. This is where we can begin to find balance in our lives, too.

 As modern people we like to flatter ourselves by marveling at the amazing technology we have achieved in the last few hundred years. It is easy to assume that the earliest societies of humankind were primitive and that the people were simple, even stupid. But we shouldn’t sell them short. Considering the quantum leaps these people made from living basically as organisms- eating, procreating and trying not to be killed- to having actual thoughts beyond physical survival, these early people were truly the original geniuses. They somehow managed to teach themselves how to think from scratch. These amazing early ancestors of ours are the originators of thought that lead the way for us.

The early people of earth figured out that to survive they had to be flexible. They had to pry open their minds and discover their imaginations. If they ate all the fruit off the trees, where could they find more trees when they wanted more fruit? A stupid person would have just begun to wander aimlessly hoping to find another natural orchard. But someone long ago began to look around and notice that young trees grew into mature fruiting trees and that they had to be coming from somewhere. This probably took them a long time to figure out, but what a mind-bogglingly wonderful moment it must have been when someone suddenly realized that trees start from a seed and if we put a seed into the ground there is a good possibility that a tree will grow there and bear fruit. What an empowering thought that must have been- to know at last that we were not necessarily at the mercy of random chance.

To understand that nature proceeds on a fairly reliable course is possibly the greatest piece of knowledge we ever received. It was the beginning of science, and of spirituality. When humans realized that day reliably follows night and that spring reliably follows winter it must have been a tremendous help to their psychological as well as to their physical survival. They caught sight of the light at the end of the long, dark tunnel of their perceived limitations, and that light meant hope for them.

What must it have been like to see all the vegetation freeze and not know that it would thaw again in a few months time? How immensely comforting to be able to count on the warm months and plan for the cold ones. Understanding the cycles of nature for the first time may have felt like getting a peek at the sketchbook for all creation. Life is not utter chaos, there is a cyclical pattern to things. This circular design may have inspired humans to ponder the divine. We have to wonder if it was, in fact, science that originally led to the development of spiritual thought. Perhaps our early ancestors founded what could be called a science-based faith, a faith in which there is tangible proof in the natural world.

Americans are sometimes criticized for lacking “culture”, but we need to realize that America actually has a very old, established and dignified culture- arguably the oldest one on the planet. Those of us unfamiliar with it may be surprised at its level of sophistication. Some indigenous people of the Americas refer to themselves The Original People and say that all human life began in this beautiful land. Their legends say that some stayed in the Americas and some trudged across ice bridges or boated to other continents. Could America be what the Christians call Eden and could we all be the relatives of these Original People? Why not? Anthropologists have found evidence all over the world of similar early belief systems. When we look at how we are alike, instead of how we are different, we may be able to recognize some family resemblances with one another.

For many thousands of years Native American holy people showed respect for and made connection with the divine nature of their surroundings. Although much has been lost during the hostile takeover of their territories, some have carefully preserved the philosophies so dear to their lives, and some still know how to speak directly with all creation. Though they have been called Medicine People, the Medicine they work in is not of the pharmaceutical kind, it is the spirit that connects us all. It is the potential we each have to find balance, to heal ourselves, to heal others, and possibly even to heal our world. It is the Medicine of respect, humor, gratitude and caring. It is not a magic potion to give us selfish power (which is ultimately worthless because it can so easily be corrupted), but a way to build positive strength, strength enough to get through anything and still have plenty to share.

When things get bogged down and over-complicated for us, wisdom suggests that we go back to the point before we got muddled up to see where we went awry. This is sometimes referred to as “putting the scales back to zero”. It would be counter-intuitive to back up technology-wise and go back to living in huts, but what if we re-zero our spiritual thought back to a less rigid time and begin to adapt again from there? We need not throw away all the spirituality with which we have grown comfortable, but what if we can enrich it so that it works better with the rest of the world, now that we’re recognizing ourselves to be part of a global whole. To be healthy maybe we need to work on flexibility not just in our bodies, but in our minds and spirits as well.

We need to be open to the possibility that there may be no better authority than our own selves when we are finding our way. Age, race or gender can make no claim to higher rank when forging our own path. There are people that call themselves authorities but any healthy mind will doubt them, especially if they claim to know our minds better than we do. Each of us must learn to judge for ourselves what is truth, and even then we must take our conclusions and re-examine them thoroughly, and then again from time to time to see if they still hold up for us. That is how our spirituality can grow along with us and how it can adapt to our changing lives as we go around the seasons.

 These words should not be regarded as authoritative, either. They are merely suggestions for a possible way to go, and are meant to be helpful to those who may be waiting to hear them. It will not be suggested here that anyone drop his or her own identity and begin acting or dressing in the traditional manner of any Native American Nation if they do not all ready belong to one. That would be just as bizarre as asking traditional Native Americans to stop being what they are. The fact that this actually happened in our history is one of many tragedies that we must take care not to repeat again, in any way, ever. It is only through steadfast and quiet dedication that any shred of these ancient philosophies survives today. These are perhaps the oldest (it is said they go back many thousands of years) and most steadily practiced ways of connecting the human consciousness with the world. Thankfully some wise people recognized this and passed these treasured ways along through the ages, even through hardships. We humbly honor all those who have done so, those who have so kindly shared them with us, and those who continue to carry them forward today. Our modern world can only benefit from the kind of mutual respect that these ways endorse.

This is not about who is right or is more right than others. It is an attempt to grasp the concept of everyone as part of a whole presence. In the tradition of some indigenous American languages, the word “we” will be used more than “I” or “you” here in an attempt to get used to the idea that we’re all in this world together. It is not about me as opposed to you, or us against them, but about all of us together, no matter who we are, where we came from or what our lineage. There is no need for alienating groups or guru hierarchies. We need to find our way back to balance as “us”. This attempt of balance is not some outlandish proposal, it is the most reasonable thing we could possibly strive for. Balance is sanity.

This information should not be viewed as “what all Indians believe”, because Native Americans are individuals and have a wide range of beliefs. It isn’t considered to be a religion or even how all Medicine People view things. These are personal observations that one person felt strongly enough about to want to share. If they interest you enough to pursue them further, please take advantage of the many good resources available on the subject and go make your own conclusions. May they be just as unique as you are!

There is so much to learn when our minds are opened and information comes rushing in. This is an attempt to organize some inspiring thoughts in hopes that they may serve as a helpful outline to whomever may be searching for them. These concepts are not meant to all be swallowed in one gulp, but taken in whatever doses as one can handle at a time and ruminated upon. If they don’t ring true for someone, that’s okay. In truth, we each need to find our own way from our own personal perspective. There are many paths to choose from, and many yet to forge, but all are connected through the experience of living.

In the natural world our ever-cycling years are commonly experienced in four seasons. These observations are arranged in four parts to reflect Winter (history), Spring (intention), Summer (action) and Autumn (reflection).

Onward to Winter

© 2009 E. P. Taylor