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Medicine Wheel
consists of thirty-six shrines on thirty-six pedestals arranged
in a circle. It represents the wheel of life forever evolving.
Just as Native American cultures believe that every inch
of mother earth holds an energized connection to life and
therefore should be honored, Medicine Wheel, the
physical manifestation of this energy, is used as a sacred
ceremonial space.
There are many
sacred places in the world: places that seem naturally sacred
and those that are made sacred by the people who consecrate
them. The circle has been used by many cultures as a place
for ceremony. The ancient Celts used Stonehenge, the Indians
the Wheel of Salvation, Buddhists the mandala, and Native
Americans the Medicine Wheel. Many folk dances are done
in a circle such as the Hora of Israel and Rumania. Children
play games in a circle. People often refer to their friends
as their circle and people often hold hands to pray in a
circle. The word chakra in Sanskrit means wheel or disk
and is used to describe the seven power centers in our bodies.
The circle with no beginning or end is a way of honoring
the connections of all life through prayer, dance, song
and ritual.
One traditional
use of the wheel is to to walk in each others’ shoes
and to know each others’ hearts by standing on each
spoke of the wheel.
to keep watch
Each year people
are invited to keep the Medicine Wheel Vigil. This
has been a meaningful and powerful way for individuals and
groups to connect to themselves and to each other.
Groups and individuals
have been invited to lead or participate in meditation,
song, prayer, healing rituals, dance, reading poetry, etc.
Many spend the full twenty four hours in the wheel, arriving
equipped with sleeping bags, blankets and air mattresses
Invitation to
participate in Medicine Wheel
No matter what
our tradition, we all, as individuals, seek the truth. The
religious amongst us seek the truth through prayer, appealing
to a higher power as a guide or source of the truth, as
a revelation. Others seek the truth from within themselves,
through meditation and self-actualization. Artists, though
seldom excluded from either group, seek the truth through
the manifestation of their gifts and talents. The process
of creation becomes a meditation on the truth, peeling away
layers of illusion and occlusion, in hopes of glimpsing
the light. Though not often successful, the drive to find
the truth propels us to continue our art, our search, our
body of work.
Medicine
Wheel offers a solemn, secure, sacred space for prayer
and meditation. It has inspired and influenced artistic
meditations in the past-some rehearsed, some spontaneous,
some serene, some rambunctious, all revealing a bit of the
greater truth. The most successful are unaware of audience
(indeed in some cases there may be none or few), but are
successful because they genuinely attempt to connect to
the truth—the performance is a meditation and a prayer,
connecting the artist to a higher power. Attendants become
less audience and more witness to a passage, a revelation.
Artist and audience, meditation and witness, all are enlightened.
As an artist
that the Medicine Wheel respects and believes capable of
using your art as a meditation, as a path to the truth,
we warmly invite you to share your gifts in our annual Medicine
Wheel Vigil, a 24-hour commemoration of World AIDS Day,
December 1, 2007.
Sincerely,
Michael Brown
Medicine
Wheel Board of Directors
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