The medicine wheel
The Medicine Wheel is an ancient and universal map which has been used by many cultures around the world since prehistoric times. Its most fundamental representation is a circle with a middle point from which four or more spokes radiate to connect with the outer ring.
In the Andean tradition, each cardinal direction is recognized as holding unique wisdom kept sacred by animal spirits: Serpent in the South, Jaguar in the West, Hummingbird in the North, and Eagle in the East. The four directions converge in the center, summoning Earth to sustain with profound richness and Heaven to shower sublime inspiration
The four directions
South: Serpent
The medicine wheel begins in the South, where we learn to walk with beauty on the Earth. The South is also where one goes to confront and shed the past, just as the serpent (the archetypal symbol of this direction) sheds its skin.
West: Jaguar
In the West, we call on the archetype of the jaguar to help us find those things that need to die within us so that we can be claimed by life. Here, one assumes the stance of the spiritual warrior who has no enemies in this life or the next.
North: Hummingbird
In the North, the archetype of the hummingbird helps us learn how to connect to our passion and drink only from the sweetest sources, those that nourish the soul. It is here we learn to step outside of linear time, which binds us to cause and effect, and step into sacred time where all things are possible.
East: Eagle
The East is the path of the eagle, flight to the Sun and the journey back to one's home to exercise vision and skills in the context of one's life and work. In the East, we learn how to dream our world into being.