Dear reader, thank you for your attention. Please take a moment to look around you. Look in all eight directions. It's fine if you cannot immediately tell which are which. We will get to that. Just take a look about you. You may notice that no matter how you look around, whether you're right side up, lying on your side or standing on your head, what you see seems to be distributed around you in a sort of a circle, or a sphere if you're very active. And if you've given thought to or studied our universe's cosmic events, such as the paths of the sun and the moon, you might have noticed that they, too, have circular aspects, as do the seasons.

Some natural events, like comets, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, do not follow easily observed cycles; however, a majority of nature appears to be ordered into circles and cycles. Many of our ancestors noticed this trend. They experienced first-hand the power of nature flowing in accord with these different cycles and wheels. This is our universal human heritage, and we can all bring this experience back into our awareness today in simple ways. For example, Sun Bear (see sidebar The Man Behind the Wheel) advised us to "eat with the seasons." When we do, we connect with local food producers, participate in food preservation, and begin to think ahead about what is going to be available and when. Being in sync with the seasons is good for our physical systems, as we do not always eat exactly the same thing every day. There is nothing mystical about eating in accordance with the seasons. After all, the bears and our other hibernating relatives do it by instinct.

Humans have the ability to think in symbolic terms. This seems to be a recently acquired trait. The oldest evidence of symbolism in our thinking appears about forty thousand years ago in various forms of art on cave walls, carvings and beadwork. After finding the evidence, it didn't take people long to begin thinking about these circular patterns as having powers of different sorts. Most of the "earth peoples" traditions of which I have become aware have large amounts of wisdom tied to these cycles, yet there seems to be a huge diversity in these circular symbols.

Some wheels refer to ideas only, some to the organization of constellations and astronomical events, animal activities, the seasons and weather, social organization and spiritual insights. These different wheels are expressed in different ways, including through song, art, stone, sand and water. It's only very recently, possibly just in the last century, that small numbers of people, primarily in North America and Europe, became insensitive to most of these cyclic events.

Some traditions made circles of objects of various sorts to use to amplify or solidify the lessons of these ideas and insights. In North America, there has been quite a tradition of forming stones into circles (see the sidebar ont the next page for information on how to form your own wheel). The oldest one of these that I have interacted with is near Murphy, NC, and has been dated to four thousand or so years ago. These circles are collectively termed "Medicine Wheels." While there may be better terms for these symbols and structures, "Medicine Wheel" is the one we commonly use at this time.

Sun Bear, with whom I had a long, close and fortunate relationship, had a life mission of attempting to help us live in balance with nature. In middle age, he withdrew to Reno, Nevada, into a period of spiritual renewal. During this time, he had a vision that he was at an ancient Medicine Wheel, and around it he saw all manner of animals. He looked closer and saw that some of these were humans in animal costume or form. They came to the Wheel to sing the songs of their power, their learning, their stories and to heal the Earth. He realized that it was his duty to bring back the Medicine Wheels in North America and, in doing so, gave us a tool to re-balance our lives. He dedicated the rest of his life to this mission.

Sun Bear's Medicine Wheel has a certain organization of stones in circles and pathways into and out of the center. It came from his visions and culture. There are many other such Wheels. In fact, you can look into your center and come up with your very own Wheel or personal symbol.

When you look for these symbols and forms, you may begin to have dreams, daydreams and unexpected events and encounters that sort of "fall in" on you. These can be symbols or actual elements of life that you need to interact with, and they may have a place on your personal Medicine Wheel or altar.

Your personal Wheel may be quite large, but this is not necessary. If you are interested, you can make yourself a Wheel on a piece of notebook paper. Draw in the elements and/or find representations for them, then be just a little bit aware of it daily. The elements and their relationships may well change as you progress in your cycle of life.

The elements on our Wheels are contact points with our world from its more material to its less material aspects. We interact through those points, and through this interaction, both our world and ourselves are changed. Our awareness itself moves in cycles: mobilization, contact and withdrawal, again and again. When we have a personal symbol in some or all of these points, it helps to enliven our psychological existence. Our world is more personalized in some ways.

Many Wheels are organized in terms of the directions, which helps with various insights like the progression of seasons and of our lives. West, North, East and South are usually the first four. Then there are the Earth and the Sky. This makes six directions. If you want to learn to find all eight, see the seventh direction as a sphere radiating away from you on all six sides, and, finally, see all of the seven directions return into your heart. That makes eight. Walk in balance.

The Man Behind the Wheel
Sun Bear (aka Vincent LaDuke), Native American environmental activist and father of the former Green Party Vice-Presidential candidate Winona LaDuke, was a Screen Actors Guild movie extra when young. He was born into a Chippewa family on the White Earth reservation in Minnesota and appeared in many "Western" or "Cowboy and Indian" movies of the 1950-1960 era. Sun Bear was the name given to him by an elder relative when he was still a baby. Due to his father's early death, he left school in the sixth grade to work in logging camps to support his family. During his development and travels, he worked and studied with numerous elders and wisdom keepers from different backgrounds, as well as his own tribal elders.

In the Native way in North America, he sought visionary guidance, and, in the mid-1960's, he began receiving a series of visions. At this time, he took up his medicine name and became known as Sun Bear. He lived his visions, which transformed his life, our lives, and then millions of lives, before passing in 1992. His influence is still moving through the world, and his books are widely available. Of particular relevance are his works explaining the Medicine Wheel. His associate Wabun Wind has developed several manuals about the Wheel, and the Bear Tribe, which he founded, maintains ongoing Medicine Wheel activities and distributes his books through their website: www.ewebtribe.com/BearTribe.

Make Your Own Medicine Wheel
The Medicine Wheel that Sun Bear gave us is quite complex, with different levels of symbolism and spiritual focal points.

Stones are used to make these Wheels. Stones are not inert, are quite complex and have numerous capabilities. We give them a ceremonial offering of tobacco and ask them if they want to come to different ceremonies, and we only use volunteers. This is all done by hand, and no power tools are involved in the gathering. Some stones show up under unexpected circumstances. The movie Powwow Highway has a sub-plot involving stones finding their way to one of the lead characters as he discovers his Medicine or Power. Sun Bear gave us his vision, and I will use portions of that as a model of how to go about building your own Wheel. This Wheel represents many levels of cycles: daily, seasonal and cosmic, as well as pathways to the Creator, progressions of development and medicine clans. As we move around with these symbols we can use them to gain insight into our personal cycles. For instance:

The major directions and their Spirit Keepers are the level of reality that contains the physical universe. There are higher or more pure levels; however, we rarely experience these directly. The directions we experience are homogenized combinations of the pure masculine and the pure feminine energies, for instance, spiritual/psychological developmental pathways are keyed to the directions:

We can go quite a bit further regarding elements and relationships on this Wheel. But, I would not attempt to completely fill in all of the elements on one of Sun Bear's wheels to being with. Start simple, just the directions. Elaborate your design as you feel yourself growing into some familiarity with it. Remember that one of the purposes of this Wheel is to help us focus on our reality as a small part of the great circle of creation. Many of us are more sensitive to one or another of these elements and such sensitivity might be a good place to begin working with these energies. People who are or who become sensitive to these symbols are often able to have strong experiences merely being in the vicinity of these circles. As I said before, these components are contact points with the great mystery which surrounds us and of which we're all a part. These are called Wheels because, in part, they move and we move with them. Nothing in the world is static-even the mountains move.

Ceremony with these Wheels may be as simple as being aware of a point during a portion of a day. Some people make small Wheels into altars in their homes or outside their homes and make offerings of tobacco, sage, sweet grass and cedar on a regular basis, sometimes daily. Another prayer method is to take string and tie up very small bits of cloth containing tiny amounts of tobacco while praying about the message the tobacco can take to creation. You may also use a color of cloth that is associated with an element or direction and ask for some help with prayer from that direction.

Arthur C. Horn, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist in North Carolina. He has been a long-term student of Traditional Peoples ways and was a close associate of Sun Bear. He can be reached via email at arthorn@charter.net.

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