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Makes every yesterday A Dream of Happiness And every tomorrow A Vision of Hope |
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G to N
GHOST DANCE
Near the end of the 1800's, as the last free Indians were being destroyed, a Piute Indian named Wavoka, had a vision of a "ghost dance" in which the Indians would dance themselves back into power, bring back to life the spirit of their ancestors, and recreate the huge herds of buffalo. It quickly spread from tribe to tribe, renewing the hope and self-esteem of the Indian people.
This revitalised energy of the Indians did not go unnoticed by the US government, who realised they had to put a stop to it before they had a full scale uprising on their hands.
The Ghost Dance came to a violent and heartbreaking end with the massacre of hundreds of men, women and children by US soldiers at Wounded Knee.
It devastated the indigenous mind of North America, making total surrender the only possibility for survival. As a revitalisation movement, the Ghost Dance was a complete failure.
MEDICINE WHEEL
A medicine wheel is considered "a map for finding one's self". The medicine wheel is the alchemical circle of protection that surrounds a person while they quest. This wheel represents the circle of the constructor's life and all they bring to it. It enables a person to journey into the centre of one's life, where s/he commands self-authority and takes charge of, and full responsibility for, his/her life. It is constructed out of stones and is about ten feet in diameter, large enough to lie in.
Rocks are placed in the four cardinal directions: North, South, East and West, and in the non-cardinal points as well. Each direction has a particular quality associated with it. With the placing of each rock, the person is seen as invoking that energy into his or her circle.
The stone representing the east is the stone of vision, insight and illumination. It carries with it the spiritual aspects of the self and is represented by the colour yellow and the element of fire; the power of the Eagle presides over it.
The West stone is the stone of introspection. it is known as the "looks within place". It is the place of the shaman, the soul and darkness. It is where physical healing occurs, and it is associated with the colour black and the element of Earth; The Bear is its power animal.
The third stone is the South and represents the emotions, water, the colour red and the ability to be trusting and innocent. The trickster energy of the Coyote sits here, as well as the healing power of plants.
The final stone represents the North, where belief systems and mental activities are located. It is the place of the air element and the colour white. The quartz crystal sits here as a transceiver of energy. The grandmother energy of White Buffalo Woman guides this direction, as does the power of the animal totems.
The non-cardinal directions represent particular powers of the Self as well as the four aspects of the spiritual warrior known as the Four Enemies.
The Southeast is the place of the ancestors and the ability to love and accept oneself. For the spiritual warrior it is where fear is encountered through confronting the unknown. Fear is always defeated by first distinguishing real fear from imagined fear through the process of staying in the "non".
The Southwest is the place of the sacred dream where we experience our capacity to recognise the symbolic (archetypical) patterning that runs beneath the surface of our lives and to dream our dreams awake by manifesting our dreams in the real world. The enemy is clarity and in this sense, it is a false knowing that perpetuates or verifies what we already know but does not open us up to new ways of viewing the world.
In the Northeast is the karmic pattern that brings trials and tribulations - these are seen as "teachings". These repeating life lessons change when we gain the wisdom and understanding to break the pattern or karmic cycle. The enemy is power and the challenge is to move beyond our fear of becoming really powerful and at the same time not wield a heavy-handed form of power.
The Northwest represents change and our emotional reaction to all that change brings. The enemy is old age and death. All life is viewed as a process in which change is inevitable. Coming to grips with our own death is the challenge of this direction.
The construction of a medicine wheel may take anywhere from one to three days. With the placement of each rock, a person lays another piece of his or her psyche down on the Earth. The periphery of the wheel is seen as representing different aspects of the self and the Wheel of Life that surround us.
By spending some time actually sitting in each of the eight directions that compose the medicine wheel, gives the opportunity to self-examine these different parts of Self and to directly feel the power of the medicine wheel. Emphasis is placed on the importance of fully developing all eight parts of the Self and recognising how they function together to create a whole person.
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