Sun Bear, a sacred teacher of Chippewa descent, is the founder and medicine chief of the Bear Tribe, a multiracial educational society. He is a world-renowned lecturer and teacher and the author or coauthor of eight books. He is publisher of the magazine Wildfire and founder of the World Earth Fund.

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The Native American philosophy behind the vision of the Medicine Wheel is that all things and beings on the earth are related and, therefore, must be in harmony for the earth to be balanced. "Dancing with the Wheel" teaches you how to apply this philosophy to your daily life through many practical exercises and ceremonies. These exercises will help you gain energy from the spirits, which can heal both humans and the earth. Through "Dancing with the Wheel," the second book specifically devoted to the Medicine Wheel, those familiar with this vision will gain an increased understanding of the wheel and its developments over the last ten years. Those new to the Medicine Wheel will be ushered into the teachings and technique of what has come to be a source of comfort and direction for thousands of people around the world. Whether you are in the middle of the wilderness or the middle of a city, this book and its exercises will help you center yourself and establish peace with the earth and other beings.

Échantillon de lecture
Chapter 1

The Dance Begins

To enjoy dancing with the wheel you must first learn the steps to the dance. Like most earth-based ceremonies and tools, the Medicine Wheel appears to be simple. After all, it is merely a structure of thirty-six stones. Yet there are untold levels of meaning to this simple circle and the lines within the circle. Dancing with the Wheel is a step-by-step guide to these levels.

To understand the Medicine Wheel dance you must first know that the Medicine Wheel of this vision is similar to the 20,000 Medicine Wheels that existed on this continent before the European people immigrated here. These Medicine Wheels served many purposes for the Native people of the Americas. They were the ceremonial centers of culture, astronomical laboratories, and places people would come to mark the times and changes in their own lives as well as the life of the earth. They were places to pray, meditate, contemplate, strengthen your connection with nature, and come to a higher degree of understanding of yourself and your relationship with all the creation. Medicine Wheels were usually placed on areas where the energy of the earth could be strongly felt, and their use in ceremony made this energy get even stronger. Consequently, Medicine Wheel areas became what people now call vortexes: places of intense earth energy and healing. The new areas where Medicine Wheels have been built are serving the same function.

Forms of the Medicine Wheel exist all around the globe from the great stone circles of Europe to the mandalas of India. Ali of these are reminders of our past when the world was guided by the law of right relationship. and humans respected themselves and all their relations -- mineral, plant, animal, spirit -- on the Earth Mother. Learning about the Medicine Wheel can help you remember your connection with all these aspects of the universe. Each stone in the Medicine Wheel is a tool to help you understand your ties with the ancient past that molds both personal and planetary present and future. Each position in the Medicine Wheel will directly affect you at some point in your life.

The Creator stone, or symbol, is the center of the Medicine Wheel as the Creator is the center of all life, always creating without beginning or ending, always moving, always continuing. From this center radiates the energy that creates all the rest of the wheel. The seven stones that surround the Creator form the Center Circle of the wheel and represent the foundation of all life. Slightly to the south of East is the stone that represents the Earth Mother, the being who gives us our home and our lives. Continuing in a sunwise (clockwise) direction -- as we almost always do in building and using the Medicine Wheel -- is the stone honoring Father Sun who warms and quickens life. Next comes the stone for Grandmother Moon who guides our dreams and visions, followed by the Turtle clan stone, representing the element of earth; the Frog clan, representing the element of water; the Thunderbird clan, representing the element of fire; and the Butterfly clan representing the element of air. These seven stones teach about the basic building blocks of all life.

The anchor stones for the outer circle of the Medicine Wheel are the four stones honoring the Spirit Keepers: Waboose in the North; Wabun in the East; Shawnodese in the South; Mudjekeewis in the West. These Spirit Keeper stones divide the circle into the quadrants that set the boundaries for the twelve moon stones in the outer circle. These stones represent the moons that divide the year. From them we learn more about each season; each time of day and time of life; and each mineral, plant, animal, elemental clan, Spirit Keeper, and human associated with that moon.

Completing the Medicine Wheel are four Spirit Paths, each consisting of three stones. These paths go from the Spirit Keeper stones toward the Center Circle. They represent qualities that take us from daily life into the sacred space of the Creator.

That simple physical description of the Medicine Wheel provides you with the first basic steps for dancing with the wheel. But to really understand the wheel, your comprehension must surpass the physical and the intellectual. You can never dance well if you are always thinking about where to place your feet. To dance you need to listen to the music and allow that music to be a part of your body and being. That takes time and practice. When you are ready to begin, use the following simple technique, the first of many that will help you dance with the wheel.

Throughout the book, these techniques are called visualizations or an exercise. These provide ways for you to mentally see, feel, and imagine yourself and your life as something different from what it is now. All visualizations and exercises, if treated with respect, can be done as ceremonies that are ways for you to connect your energy with the energy of the universe and to thank the universe, and all of its parts, for the gift of life.

**HEARING THE EARTH'S SONG

What you need. A quiet space and, if desired, notebook and pen or tape recorder.

Estimated time. Ten minutes at first, five when you have done this visualization a few times.

1. Sit comfortably in a chair, or on the floor, or lie down. Take a few really deep breaths, allowing your breath to go through as much of your body as it can.

2. Close your eyes. Relax your jaw and stomach.

3. Be aware that the earth is beneath you even if you are on the fiftieth floor of a skyscraper. Feel your energy connecting with the energy of the earth.

4. When you are relaxed and feel connected, just listen.

5. Do you hear something? Faintly at first then louder you will hear a beat that sounds like a drum.

6. What is it? Listen closer. Tum, tum, tum, tum. The drumbeat you hear first is the beat of your own heart. Listen longer.

7. *Tum...tum...tum...tum...*goes a slower drumbeat. You feel your heart slow to beat with this new music and you feel yourself deeply relaxed, deeply connected to the source of this music: the Earth Mother.

8. Enjoy the music, enjoy the few moments in sacred space.

9. When you are re…