The teachings create holistic foundations for human behavior, health, wellness and social interaction. A Medicine Wheel can best be described as a mirror within which everything about us is reflected back. It requires courage to look into the mirror and really see what is being reflected back about our lives because some of it is painful, while others joyful and reflective. However, it is ultimately facing the pain that makes us stronger and better people. The Wheel's sacred teachings assist us along our healing paths, and the relationships among the teachings form the basis of what it is to be human. After all, humans are the weakest of all creation and therefore, as the world’s ‘takers’, we must be cognizant of what we take, how much we take and why we are taking it.The central essence of the medicine wheel is that each of us must make our own choices. More often that not, however, these choices are influenced by other individuals (families, co-workers, friends). Not of all our experiences are good, there is a lot of hate, terror, jealousy, fractured families and societies in our very unsettled world which has resulted in an increase in various kinds of cancers. Sometimes we are not successful in working around the pain and we become caught up in a jungle of tangled emotions, followed by ‘not right action’. It is difficult to walk the earth walk with care always looking to our futures in healing, positive and understanding ways, when it is so easy to just give up. But, then, this is the challenge isn’t it? To learn from those experiences that have not elevated our lives, (even though it can be a scary process!) and keep moving forward in a manner that pleases our Ancestors. and keep moving forward in a manner that pleases our Ancestors
Medicine Wheel teachings are among the oldest of First Nations people and are based on the seven directions (North, East, South West, Father Sky, Mother Earth, Centre.
The term "Medicine" as it is used by First Nations people does not refer to drugs or herbal remedies. It is used within the context of inner spiritual energy and healing or an enlightened experience, in other words, spiritual energy. The Medicine Wheel and its sacred teachings assist us along the path towards mental, spiritual, emotional, physical balance and enlightenment. (Source: Shannon Thunderbird.com)
