Winter

As modern people, we sometimes live so separated from nature that we assume that winter is a season devoid of life. Some will go so far as to say that deciduous trees that have dropped their leaves have “died”. This can be depressing, but when we really observe and know the trees, we don’t have to be depressed. They aren’t dead at all, but have drawn their energies inward to rest until spring.

If we can learn to think of winter as a time to slow down and relax, to think through all we’ve learned and to pass along what has helped us, winter becomes a season of beautiful reflection and sharing. We don’t have to mow the lawn or tend the garden. The seed from last season sleeps, secretly containing the records of all that came before it. It may look dry and lifeless, but deep within it is the spark of life, the hope of the future. Let it sleep. We too can curl up by the fire and develop wisdom to take with us into the coming year. Winter is a good time.

Maybe several thousand years ago one of our brilliant early ancestors heard her child worrying that the whole world might be turning to ice forever and looked around for a way to comfort him. Scanning the snowy landscape for an inspiration, she may have landed her gaze upon the tiny red buds of the maple tree, which begin to swell in winter, and she may have said, “Look at the branches of that tree. Can you see the little flowers have started all ready? That means that the leaves will follow, and when that happens the days always become warmer. Be patient. Enjoy the snow. It will pass and soon enough you will be complaining about the hot days!”

Spring is often thought of as a time of renewal, but really it is a time of awakening. It is when we sleep that we are renewing ourselves. Some say it is when we are dreaming that we are most fully resting. In winter we are recharging. Spring is when the alarm clock rings and the work begins. So let’s relax in winter and take a look at some ancient knowledge and where it might inspire us to go next.

The Basic Wheel

Life is not a stagnant thing. To keep living we must keep moving. Even if we try to be still our blood keeps moving through our circulatory systems. A Medicine Wheel is also a circulatory system. There are many different kinds of Medicine Wheels. The Medicine we’re talking about here is a model of living energy, and it tends to move in a circular fashion. When we build one from stones, each stone represents a different aspect of one thing.

To understand this idea, let’s make a Medicine Wheel to use as a visual aid. We could make a Medicine Wheel out of anything really, but many traditions suggest we create one out of stones. This may be because stones are thought of as the oldest and most enduring things on our planet. It also may be that they are fairly easy to find anywhere that human beings tend to live. There are some very, very old examples of Medicine Wheels that still exist on Earth today, and they are, of course made of stone. Any made of leaves, corn or feathers would have disappeared long ago, but they would have been just as effective in their day.

If we take a walk outdoors and look around, we might be lucky enough to find four stones, each with a different color. Let’s say our first Medicine Wheel will represent the full cycle of a day. Each color will represent a different aspect of this day. People of various Nations use their own sets of colors arranged according to their own teachings but really no one is more correct than the others. Let’s see if we can find a yellowish, a reddish, a blackish and a whitish stone.

Once our stones are found, we can begin by imagining a circle, or drawing a circle in the soil, or using a circular plate as a guide. On the easternmost point of the circle, place the yellow stone to represent the dawn, when the sun comes up. On the southernmost point of the circle, put the red stone to indicate mid-day, when the sun is warm. To the west on the circle we’ll put the black stone, to show that the sun goes down and things get darker. At the north point we’ll set the white stone to remind us of the moon that shines brightest at night. What we have now looks like a compass.

If we place two stones between each of these four directions, we have something that can be seen as circular. In fact, it looks a whole lot like a clock. If we have made a large enough circle, we can walk around it and imagine moving through a day. Since many of us wake up in the morning, we can start with our yellow dawn rock and think about waking up and starting our day. Then we can walk around clockwise to our red rock in the south and think about mid-day when most of us are busy getting our work done. Continuing around, we get to the black rock of the west and think of nightfall, when people settle down for their evening meal (especially the early people before we had electric lighting). Traveling north, we come to the white rock, which is like the moon in the night when most of us are in bed, asleep.

Does our path end there? No! It leads back to the east and the yellow morning stone again, another day followed by another night and so on. This can help us to understand that time is a continuous cycle.

This basic Medicine Wheel is also a model of other things. It is a calendar of the year. The yellow rock of the East denotes springtime, when the sun’s warmth spreads over the land. The red south rock represents summertime, when it’s hot. The black west rock is autumn, when the sunshine begins to wane, and the white rock of the north is snowy wintertime. We can imagine that this would have been a good illustration for the mother who was trying to explain to her child how the seasons go by. The two rocks between each of the directions might have been to show the gradual change between the seasons. Winter doesn’t suddenly turn to spring, it happens bit by bit. If we start at the top, we can count the first two stones stepping down from the height of the winter white stone as January and February, the yellow stone as March when Spring starts, then onto April and May and then the red hot stone of summer as June. Follow it around and we have the whole year. Does the path stop at December? No, it continues around with January and February and on into spring again.

This can also be seen as a model of a plant’s life cycle. The yellow stone is when the plant sprouts up out of the ground, all bright and new. The red stone is when it flowers. The black stone is when the plant produces fruit, and the white stone represents the seed. Does the path end there? No, the seed finds its way into the ground forming the base for a new plant to sprout in the coming growing season.

Tired of this yet? This is just the tip of the iceberg!

The basic Wheel is a way to understand how things get accomplished, too. We can think of the yellow stone as the point at which we get an idea, the glimmer of inspiration. If we march onward with this idea, we can take it to the red stone of creativity, of working out the bugs and struggling with the challenges. If we persevere (and are lucky!), we get to the point at which we are satisfied with our project, and that is represented by the black stone. If we follow the path on from there, we reach a point of beginning to wonder what else we could accomplish, shown as the white stone at the top. Does the path end there? Not if we keep walking!

This Wheel is also a way to understand the cycle of life. The east is infancy, the south is youth, the west is adulthood and the north is old age. Is that the end of the path? Hmmm…there may be more to it than we know.

Perhaps most importantly, the basic Wheel can be a guide for meditation. The east represents enlightenment and inspiration. It can be a good exercise to face the east wind and take a moment to open our minds to new possibilities. When we’ve relaxed into that idea long enough, we can turn and let the warm south wind inspire us to think about how love and laughter help us feel better about things. Then we can face the west wind and see if we can summon the courage to take a good, hard look at ourselves. What have we handled well? What could we do better? The north wind is the place of knowledge and wisdom. It is good to acknowledge what we have learned. But look, the path goes on. As soon as we think we understand one thing, we can get inspired to work on another thought. We need to take a break though, to let ourselves absorb whatever we might have learned. For now we can thank the four winds. At the next meditation we can start in the east and go around again.

If we create a small basic Wheel on a tabletop, we can use it to understand a very important principal about where we stand in life. Imagine these stones as a ring of people. One of them is you. Where are you in your life? The others are other people in your life. Some are friends, some are enemies, some are family, some are acquaintances, and some are strangers. Now, get down to eye level with the tabletop and look around from the perspective of the rock you have chosen as you. You can see all the other rocks from different angles, but none of them is above or below you. None is any better or worse than you are. We are all on an equal playing field. The ones you love are the ones you can see most clearly. Your enemies are on the other side. You can only see one side of them and they can only see one side of you. This is why you disagree. If you can manage to change your perspective, you might be able to see another side of your enemy, maybe enough even to solve the problem, or at least to be able to forgive.

In any case, no one is superior or inferior to the others. Even a fool may have something important to teach us. Children are just as important as adults. Women and men are both crucial to the continuation of life. We need not be expected to bow to others, or expect others to bow to us. Even if some cannot see it, we are all together in this world. We all belong here equally. We are all related.

The Inner Wheel

If we have made our basic circle big enough, there should be room for lots more in the middle. Directly in the center we shall put …nothing! This can represent the one part of a turning wheel that stays the most constant, the source of everything- the Great Mystery. Around it we can start a small circle of stones. These will symbolize what was here before life began. Let’s find a green stone to play the role of Mother Earth. We can put her at the bottom of the small inner circle, as she is the ground beneath our feet, the home we all share. Across from her, at the top we can place a blue stone for Father Sky, the air we all breathe. This six stone configuration of the four directions around us, Earth below and Sky above, with some imagination can be thought of as a spherical shape. This is our sphere of influence and awareness. It might be held close as our immediate surroundings or stretch out into infinity.

To the right of Father Sky on the inner circle we can put a yellow rock to signify Grandfather Sun, without whose warmth our planet could not support life. Between him and Mother Earth we can place Grandmother Moon, who reflects the sun’s light during our nights, comforting us that he’s still there. To the left of Mother Earth going back up the circle we can put maybe a sparkly rock to indicate of the Stars, our infinite possibilities. Next up is perhaps a spotty rock for the Planets, our nearby relations. Finally we can complete the inner circle with a ringed rock to symbolize the Milky Way, our galaxy. A galaxy is flat and round and looks a lot like a spinning Medicine Wheel, and our galaxy is only one of many, many galaxies out there. That should give us plenty to meditate about.

It doesn’t really matter much what these rocks look like. They are there to remind us that we are not the be-all and end-all, there is the rest of the cosmos out there too! We are connected, we are important, but beyond us is the universe and we need to be aware of that. After all, we are also connected with it.

The Paths

From each of the four directions on the outer wheel let us place a line of three stones leading to the inner wheel. If we use stones of similar color to the directions each path begins at, it will help us remember the origin of each path. For instance, we could put three yellow stones leading from the yellow east stone inward to the inner wheel, three reddish stones going up from the red south stone, three dark ones coming in from the west and three light ones reaching down from the north. When we are done, we should have a cross pattern of stone paths connecting the large basic circle with the smaller inner circle.

Each of these paths can be thought of as a way to get answers to the questions of our lives. The yellow path from the east is a path of awakening one’s spirit to the world, of thinking beyond the box and transcending what might have been known before. From the south, the red path is one of healing through grace, love, trust and humor. The black path of the west is the path of introspection. The white north path is the way of research and learning. It doesn’t matter which of these paths we start on, but it is quite important to explore each one whenever we want to solve a problem. The Medicine Wheel is like a scale, if we put too much weight on one side we disrupt the balance. It is much better to explore all the paths to a solution and then decide where to apply the pressure.

It has been suggested that the four paths could also convey an awareness of four races of humankind. Although there are many different colors of people, it is interesting to consider that what is sometimes called the yellow race is associated with the east and spiritual enlightenment, the red race is associated with Native Americans and the healing Medicine, the black race is associated with people of African heritage and soul, and the white race is connected with Europeans and their technological leanings. But we should stand warned that the strengths of each of these directions can also be each one’s weakness when left unbalanced by the others. In truth, each of us has great potential when we avoid the shallow trap of assumed superiority. What matters most is what we have inside. We each have strengths and weaknesses and will do well to learn more from all of these paths so that we can find better balance for our lives.

The Medicine Wheel is sometimes spoken of as a mirror where we can see ourselves, and others. It can be tiny like a spinning atom or massive like a turning galaxy. There are many different ways to make one, many different colors that can be used, many different directions to go and many different concepts to apply to a Medicine Wheel. None is more important than any other. As long as we are completely honest with ourselves and with others, we can find and maintain balance with the rest of our world.

Onward to Spring

©2009 by E.P. Taylor