Medicine Cards
"It is thorough nature that the teachings come, and it is to nature that we all return. Each part of creation has a distinctive and valid place in the Medicine Wheel of all that is."
"When you call upon the power of an animal, you are asking to be drawn into complete harmony with the strength of that creature's essence. Gaining understanding from those brothers and sisters of the animal kingdom is a healing process, and must be approached with humility and intuitveness. Certain aspects of the lessons given by these brothers and sisters have been chosen to reflect the lessons each spirit needs to learn on the Good Red Road. These are lessons of being human, being vulnerable, and seeking wholeness with all that is. They are part of the pathway to power. The power lies in the understanding and wisdom of ones role in the Great Mystery, and in honoring every living thing as a teacher. The lessons taught are eternal and they are forever forth coming. If the learning is over, so is the magic and the life."
Your totem animals are your guides and each have a lesson to teach you, they will remain with you along your path and come to you as needed. Always to your left and right sides walk the protectors of your male and female side. She teaches you nurturing, of the mother within you and of relationships, she is always by your left side. he remains at your right side and teaches you of the warrior within you. Your guide of the west teaches you of personal truth. Your guide of the north teaches you when to speak and when to listen. Your guide from the east illuminates your spiritual path, and your guide from the south protects the child within. Your guide from above reminds you where you came from and to where you will return. Your guide from below helps you to remain on your path and reminds you of the inner earth. The guide from within teaches you of your heart and your inner truth.
There are many ways of reading the medicine cards and these include the medicine wheel and shield. The medicine wheel gathers the energies of all the animals. It symbolizes the wheel of life, which forever is evolving and brining forth new lessons, the truth to the walking of the path. "The Earth Walk is based upon the understanding that each one of us must stand on every spoke of the great wheel of life many times, and that every direction is to be honored. Until you have walked in others' moccasins or stood on their spoke of the wheel, you will never turly know their hearts" (Medicine Cards, Jamie Sams and David Carson.)
This is a path way to truth , to peace and to harmony , the circle is never ending , it is life without end .
The Good Red Road runs from north to south on the medicine wheel, we learn of being human of the physical life on this road. The Blue Road (also refrred to as the Black Road) runs from east to west. This is the path of the ancestors. of the spirit, one will continue to learn through counselling those still walking the Good Red Road.
The medicine wheel is used to set sacred space, although the whole of mother earth is sacred. Four large stones are placed at the points of the compass, south, west then north, the eastern door is the golden door to illumination and the spirits enter the circle through this door, this stone is placed last.
The medicine shield, an expression of its makers gifts. A warriors shield showed his inner strength, and a womans showed her motherly instinct, her vision and magical abilities, and her song and dance. A warriors sheild was made by a brother to ensure that the ego did not taint the truth, where as a woman would make her own shield. Exile was the punishment for a person who lied if the shield had lied it was burnt at a ceremony of mourning.
The shield had many uses, in marriage ceremonies, at the passing of the spirit, the embarking of a project and so on.
Every shield carries medicine, it is a reminder to the makers connection to life, a guide in the path to wisdom and truth, to there being a perfect time and place in life, and they are a healing tool.
Home 
© 2004
