A Medicine Wheel is a tool for inner reflection, prayer, ceremony and connection with All That Is. It is an ancient tool that stems from indigenous cultures. I have seen Medicine Wheels in the Four Corners region of the USA, in Peru, in Mexico, in England and in the Angel Room at The Crystal Garden. The original Medicine Wheels were permanent structures. There is an amazing Medicine Wheel at Big Horn amidst the mountains of Wyoming on a ridge called Medicine Mountain. It is sitting in what most would consider the middle of nowhere. That nowhere is more somewhere than most places because of the sacredness of the site which holds that wheel.

As the name indicates, the Medicine Wheel consists of rocks that are placed in a very specific circular fashion. Stonehenge in England is a standing stone Medicine Wheel. From my personal visits to Stonehenge, this circle of stones was used for prayer, ceremony, magic and healing. The energy within the wheel, especially while performing ceremonies, is surreal.

I can attribute my first connection in this lifetime with the Medicine Wheel to my friend, Karen McCoy, who is an astrologer and author of Spiritual Astrology. During that experience, it felt like visiting an old friend. The wheel is an integral part of me and it is a tool for healing, communion with the Source and for teaching myself and others. Sun Bear, wrote Dancing with the Wheel and Medicine Wheel: Earth Astrology, co-authored with Wabun Wind. Sun Bear was the founder and Medicine Chief of the Bear Tribe Medicine Society. He is the one who really brought the Medicine Wheel to our current culture.

Through years of study and meeting with my own tribe, the Angelic Warriors Tribe, which I founded in 1991, we re-created the Medicine Wheel to incorporate Sun Bear’s teachings and other teachings we learned from many other Medicine Teachers. The Angelic Warriors Tribe met every Wednesday for about 6 years at The Crystal Garden.

The Medicine Wheel I work with is a traveling Medicine Wheel. I have 36 stones, which are river rocks from Durango, Colorado. Victoria Martin, an amazing artist, painted these stones back in the early 1990’s. They depict the energy of that particular position within the Wheel. The Medicine Wheel I build is usually approximately 7 feet in diameter when in the Angel Room at The Crystal Garden. When at the Sacred Circle Gathering it triples in size as it is built outdoors.

Anyone can build a Medicine Wheel. Pick up Sun Bear’s book or go online and print out a diagram. One can make a Medicine Wheel with tumbled stones or pebbles from the garden 7 inches or so in diameter. Size doesn’t matter. It is all about intention. One should always have intention when building the Wheel. Is there a prayer in your heart? Is there a person, place or thing to which you want to dedicate the Wheel? I decided I will be building a Medicine Wheel on Saturday, February 11^th, in honor of our 18 years operating The Crystal Garden.

Building a Medicine Wheel, in itself, is very specific and ceremonial. Prayers are said, sage and other smudge products are burned, and songs are sung. Each and every one of the 36 stones has a story and significance. As with any ceremony, it takes as long as it takes. Stories can go on for a while just as prayers and meditation take the time that they take! Each story is a teaching, a lesson and a position of power. The stones are reflections of the sky above us and the earth beneath our feet. Although it looks flat on the floor or ground, it is truly multi-dimensional and multi-layered.

Each position has astrological significance. I am still learning more about the Wheel and it teaches me each time I build one. And that is the blessing of the Medicine Wheel. Once the Medicine Wheel is complete, we walk the Wheel in a very specific way, in a very specific order and direction. As we walk the Wheel, again in a very specific way, we sing songs. We stop and contemplate at the teachings of the various positions. We sit in meditation at specific positions within the Wheel to gain insight and a greater perspective of ourselves and our lives.

Each position also has an animal associated with it. Therefore, that animal brings a teaching to that position with its own energy. To learn more about what animals have to teach us, observe their behavior. Each animal gifts us with a teaching and medicine to bring us healing and balance. Animals appear in our lives to bring us a message and remind us where we are and what we are doing with our lives . . . or not doing in our lives. I had an otter show up in my backyard by my sliding glass windows that go across the back of my home. As the otter frolicked and looked into my house, I was amazed at the appearance of this creature as it is not something I’ve seen or heard of often in our tropical climate. They do exist here, but it’s not a common sighting. After figuring out that this creature was an otter, I ran to my Animal Speak book, by Ted Andrews, to look up Otter medicine. Otter showed up to help me remember to play! (Ted will be teaching here on February 8th!)

When the Angelic Warriors re-created the Wheel, we didn’t have Otter in our wheel. Most of the animals we chose to hold the energy of that position in the Wheel are familiar to us and our surroundings here in South Florida. We wanted the teachings to have significance to something that we could relate to more deeply.

With that being said, I would like to invite each and every one of you that has an interest in this to come be part of the ceremony of the Medicine Wheel on Saturday, February 11^th. I will start building it at 1 pm. If you want to have an authentic experience, please come prior to that to be there with me from the very beginning and plan on staying until it is done.

I can’t say when it will be done except that we will close the store at 6 pm. If you want to come in the middle or end of it for a little while, please be aware that you will have to smudge yourself before entering the room or participate in the walking of the Wheel. And, as I said earlier, there is a very specific way to walk the Wheel. You will be given instructions when the time becomes available if you jump into the ceremony in the middle. I normally wouldn’t allow for that, but this is a special event and I would rather you have some experience with the Medicine Wheel than none at all because of time constraints. Please respect the silence and the prayers or meditation that might be occurring when you enter the Angel Room. And, please, do come and check it all out. I welcome you and invite you to join the Sacred Circle.

May your days be filled with Blessings and Love and May the Angels Light Your Path,

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