By Mark Halliday and Spirit Guides

Consciousness, is what the medicine wheel is trying to tell us: Everything is connected, it might seems separated, but it is not. Like our fingers, they look like separated, yet, they make up the hands.

If you can hear what the Sun says, you have transcended the directions and you seat in the Centre of the Medicine Wheel.  

The East Direction

The element: Fire. Fire is the beginning of everything. Scientists call it the big bang. Fire is light.

The season: Spring

The colour: yellow

The totem animals or spirit keepers of the East:  Hawk, eagle, owls, birds of prey, condors.

The medicine tool:  the Sacred Pipe.

The herb: Sage

Some of the professions related: Guru, artists, priests, visionaries, prophets, clairvoyants, pipe carriers, fire walker facilitators.

Shamanic profession: Vision Quest Guide

New beginnings, birth, has the medicine of illumination, vision, seeing, transcendence. It is where our spirit is, our full spirit. The Healing power of the East is Vision, being able to see into the problem.

In human life it is the birth, new beginnings, baby, infancy.

The spiritual body

Male energy sits on the East. Although the Pipe is balanced, it sits on the East because it represents Spirit.

The calling of the East is Vision Quest Guide. That is where the calling for the Soul is. It is the start of anything new in life. The beginning of the journey.

The South Direction

The element: Water.

The season: summer

The colour: red

The totem animals or spirit keepers of the South: fish, dolphins, snakes, anacondas, cobras. Place of coyote, deer, mouse, giraffe, rabbit, bees, peacocks, beavers, water birds and animals, porcupine, hedgehogs,

The medicine tool:  The Drum

The herb: Sweetgrass

Some of the professions related:   Nurse, doctors, the healer, the herbalist, peyote ceremonial leader, yuascakero 

Shamanic profession: The healer

This is the place of growth. Also the place of movement of water.

In human life it is the time of childhood. 

The South is the place of blood, passion, body, feelings, heart, sensuality, inner child in healing terms.

The emotional body

Red race, Atic people, South America.

Laughter in humour, gentleness, innocence, trust, growth and love.

 Divine feminine is the energy.

The plant kingdom stay in the South of the medicine wheel.

The West Direction 

The element: Earth

The season: autumn

The colour: black

The totem animals or spirit keepers:  Bear, badger, black panther, cougar, tiger, bats, big cats, jaguar

The medicine tool : Rattle

The herb: Tobacco

Some of the ‘professions’ related: farmers, mechanics, plumbers, cooks, chefs, professions where you work with the hands, practical people, grounded people.

Shamanic profession: Sweatlodge keeper

The living goddess of the Earth

Female energy, silence, stillness,

Quality:  strength

The physical body

Time of the day is late afternoon, when the shadows go and darkness come.

The Spiritual power: Introspection, reflections, looking within place, questioning who am I, where am I going to?

In human life it is the adolescence.

The rebel, the one who wishes to change the world. The thunder beings.

The being is the clown, or the heyoka  

The North Direction

The element: Air

The season: Winter

The colour: White

The totem animals or spirit keepers:  The buffalo, elk, moose, stag, insect people like ants, the ones who live in community. Hummingbird, the one who serves by spreading its love, kissing all flowers. Dragon, dog (the one who serves)

The medicine tool: The flute, the smudge fun or the feather

The herb: cedar

Some of the ‘professions’ related: Teachers, intellectual pursuits, historians, record keepers, healers wind talkers, warriors because they serve the people

Shamanic profession: The teacher / Wisdom keeper / Storyteller / Councillor    

Qualities: purity, maturity, wisdom

The mental body

Old and wise, we have passed through birth, childhood, adolescence and we move into adulthood. The North is the place of elders, grandmothers, grandfathers.

Place of purification, renewal and cleansing. Snow covers the ground and prepares the earth for rebirth, renew.

Air brings the healing medicine of clarity, expansion. The ahaha! Realisation moment.

Bones: All our knowledge and wisdom are written in our bones.

The North is the place of the mind, Science, European ways, logic, left brain activity.

The North is the place you serve your community.

Acceptance is the power of the Goddess. Acceptance is a difficult word in our culture. When we accept the Medicine Wheel as a teacher, a reality, a tool, that is when it starts to work with us.