The Shamanic Energy Medicine Wheel: An Introduction – Part 1

PART I

“The shamanic energy medicine wheel helped me to observe my body, my community and my connection to the whole… To recognize and develop the vision of myself as a healer…"

KC The Greek Shaman

What is the Shamanic Medicine Wheel?

The Shamanic Energy Medicine Wheel is a technology to step into your infinite power to co-create with the One Infinite Creator and the quantum field.

The shamanic medicine wheel, stone circles, mandalas, and the like, are all vehicles used in one form or another (and called one thing or another) by highly sophisticated ancient societies. These include the Hopi, Maya, Inca, Olmacs, Druids, and Egyptians. 

Circles are the symbol of wholeness, healing, and integration — and their incredible power, have been understood by and familiar to these ancient peoples for thousands of years. They were, in other words, peoples “of the Circle,” and connected into a Source of power lost to antiquity over the ages; until now.

Virtually every “mystical tradition” encourages the walk-about, or vision quest, for knowledge and personal power. This differs from Western tradition, where we were thought we were cast out of the garden and/or punished for tasting the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Far from encouraging us to Journey around the sacred circle of life, and to the deepest recesses of our souls within, we’ve instead been fostered to “stay within the proverbial box”.

The Shamanic Medicine Wheel, in effect, is a symbology of the great Journey, the fool’s Journey, and the Journey everyone must take. It’s what Joseph Campbell calls the Hero’s Journey, accompanied by certain parts or components along the way — a tried and true formula that virtually every story or movie ever written or told bases itself after.

It is a four-fold path toward freedom, wholeness, personal power and fulfillment. Far from the typical power we’ve come to know in the West, based on Ego, aggression, and dominance; rather, here, it’s about the infinite power to co-create with nature and the forces of the Universe.

Why Walk the Shamanic Medicine Wheel?

Why should we embrace the gifts of Shamanism? Many of us are actually on the Shamanic Medicine Wheel anyway. In fact everyone really, if we think about it. Everyone is dreaming their worlds into Being, in every moment, and yet some may be walking this sacred circle unknowingly, creating unwanted circumstances in their life unconsciously. Doing so allows us to tap into the Source of energy that informs all life, that infinite flow of all that is—the one making the birds fly South, or a school of fish turn, or creating a spiral nautilus or a spiral galaxy; from the tiniest of co-creations to the largest ones.

With the Shamanic Medicine Wheel, we can take the quantum leap in healing and transformation, towards what’s in our best and highest interest, and step into who we are becoming. Said another way, it helps us to remember, and reconnect us back into the sacredness of all life; to remember and reconnect back to the truths within us each and every one of us already knows deep inside of ourselves. It helps us remember and rediscover our divinity, our true eternal natures.

Shamanism further tunes us into synchronicity, that organizing principle of the Universe. It allows us to break free from linear time, stepping instead into non-ordinary, non-linear time; into infinity that beautiful time-space reality where miracles are commonplace and magic is real. It can help us heal and integrate past events as well as anchor in our destinies.

In other words, the Medicine Wheel is a vehicle, a technology, or a map — to integrate, and invite us to become whole again. From the gifts of Shamanism, we can become fulfilled and complete. We can activate our inner Warrior or Warrioress, awaken our rainbow light bodies, and unlock our full inner potential. This is so that we may step back into our personal power, wisdom, and freedom once and for all; and be reunited with and invited to co-create with Spirit once again.

The Four Directions of the Mountain Shamanism Medicine Wheel 

The Mountain Shamanism journey begins in the South, this is the Healer’s Journey. Here we have the Serpent archetype from which we draw the inspiration to shed the past, begin to detach from wounds and personal stories as acts of power and love. Here we are initiated with rites of passage which will assist in building a mesa and lead to Healer’s Rites. 

In the West, we embark on the Warrior’s Journey. We meet Jaguar, who teaches about life, death and rebirth. We gather our courage and face our fears by learning about love. In the West we also embark on radical forgiveness, living with impeccability and step across the rainbow bridge walking as warriors without enemies in this life or the next. Here we receive the seeds for the initiation rites as guardians and keepers of the earth. 

Our third direction is the Teacher’s Journey. In the North, we meet Hummingbird who teaches us that we are enough. Learn to taste knowledge directly, to manifest the impossible, and to receive ancestral knowledge. We also call in the mountains and come to know our lineage, stepping into the space in time that has been kept for us. Here we will receive the seeds for the rites as keepers of the mountains. 

The Visionary’s Journey is our last direction of the Wheel. In this final gathering of the East we explore Eagle, who teaches us about destiny and daring to go where we have not gone before. We also learn how to see with our hearts and create a vision of peace. Here we receive the seeds for the rites of the star beings.

The Serpent

The serpent is one of the most universal archetypes there is. We see serpents represented for example in the Bible, Hinduism, and Ancient Greece. In each instance they maintain a similar energy or meaning. In the Bible the serpent brought Eve the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. From Ancient Greece we have the legacy of two serpents coiled around a staff to represent Medicine and the power of healing. In Hinduism the serpent represents Kundalini, the dormant energy that lays at the base of our spines. It is this energy as well that connects us with samadhi, the true knowledge and remembrance of our divinity just like the Garden of Eden. 

If we think about a snake, it invokes a sense of fluidity, sexuality and fertility. This is because the serpent rekindles the memory of the creative force of life. We call on serpent in the South to teach us about letting go of our past, of our personal stories just as the snake sheds its skin. We also want to be able to embody this perceptual state, this way of being in the world, which is detached, non-emotional and able to see things just as they are. Sometimes having this vision is helpful in moving forward on our earth walk. 

The direction of the South also encourages us to walk in beauty, teaching us that by letting go of that which no longer serves us, we are able to reclaim our luminous form and help others also see their radiance.

Jaguar and Cougar

Jaguar and Cougar is the archetype of the West, the direction in which we begin to hunt the death which stalks us. As the top of the food chain, Jaguar represents the cycle of life, death and rebirth. This is the cycle of transformation. Change doesn’t often occur when things are easy but when we are in crisis. Cougar is a representation of how this chaos is a critical part of our cycle and that after chaos comes order. She teaches us to wage this war is innocence, to track down what tracks us and transmute that heavy energy into light thereby recognizing that all energy is light, that it is all love. 

Fear is the absence of love, and we can be consumed by fear because we have forgotten this higher truth. A powerful course of action is to find that which makes us fearful and give it back to the light so that we walk courageously through our lives, knowing we have no enemies in this world or the next.

The perceptual state of Jaguar/Cougar teaches us even more about her nature. She is fierce and powerful, sexual and instinctual. Jaguar is all emotion, all feeling. He is the great tracker who can sense and feel the universe around him. In the state of jaguar things are more than they seem, they carry meaning beyond what can be observed in the literal.

Hummingbird

Each year this tiny bird flies an epic journey, crossing distances that seem impossible, to answer an ancestral call. Hummingbird represents that we too can answer those whispers even if it seems we do not have enough, know enough or believe we are enough. Hummingbird also shares her teaching of sweetness by drinking directly from the nectar of life. In the Squamish tradition he is believed to be the bringer of joy, friendship and a symbol of good luck.

Eagle

The eagle, the condor  and the winds of the East teach us about our destiny and flying wing to wing with the Great Spirit. These great birds show us how to vision our destinies and see with the eyes of our hearts. Eagle has an incredibly discerning eye. From high in the sky Condor and Eagle have a great view of the whole picture but they can also see all the details, each and every piece that creates the whole. This type of view reminds us to hold the vision and trust the process. It also teaches us that we make our lives. We place each seed, flower or tree, and either feed it or weed it out. 

Eagle asks us to discern with our hearts what we want to grow in the garden of our lives and challenges us to walk how we want to live. These great winged birds show us we vision our destiny and then create a life that takes us there.

Book your appointment now online or visit me at Sacred Space here in Athens and experience your own Shamanic Healing.

Give your body, spirit, soul and mind the opportunity to finally embrace all its finest qualities… the ones blessed with from Spirit…

Always here, always yours,

KC The Greek Shaman