The circle, without beginning or end, represents infinity, perfection, and eternity. Often a symbol in our lives and our different cultures, the circle is marked in many symbolic ways:
- Universal symbol of a wedding ring as a sacred bond of protection and unity.
- Hindus represent the great Wheel of existence in a circle.
- The Yin Yang symbol in Eastern philosophy is based on the interrelation of the balance of energies represented in a circle.
- Tibetan Buddhism represents many of its paths to enlightenment in the symbolic art of mandalas, represented as artwork and in the form of sand paintings.
- The ancient labyrinths were based on a circle with a center representing the Universe, or a “Creator-God” reflected in culture, with paths leading to the center representing a form of pilgrimage to God (Christian labyrinths).
- The culture of Native Americans remembered the sacred hoop and circle, explaining their relationship with the cosmos and the Creator.
For the Native Americans and tribes of Lower Canada, the circle of the universe served as a sacred model for all human activity. All life was given a ritual sense by including a circle in everyday tasks and behavior. The gatherings for ceremonies, food, dance, and their living quarters in the form of tipi (plain of the Indians) were round.
Native Americans considered this circle to be a symbol of not only the concept of space, but also represent the cycles of growth, death and rebirth in the sunrises and meadows of the sun and moon, planting and harvesting, and the birth and death of each person.
Thus, the wheel of medicine has become an instrument to focus honor and celebration of nature’s cycles through ritual, song, dance, and sentence making.
Indian culture was imbued with a ceremony in all aspects of life. The ordinary acts of daily life were in a certain way, performed in a ritual manner in order to observe the cycles of nature.
Everyday life has become a sacred act, since every inhabitant of Mother Earth cherished that which was provided with abundant food, cultures, water and coexistence with Nature.
Their relationship with the Earth was associated with a person who had spiritual experience with the Earth itself, and therefore wherever they went, ate and slept, it became a sacred space for which they developed ceremonies and rituals to honor and respect.
The sacred circle was used as a stylized pattern to illustrate the cosmos and how the various components were interconnected, including the four main directions and the corresponding elements. Animal totems serve as guardians for each of the four directions.
Since the ancient medicines did not leave clear the purpose of their use, archaeologists and historians widely speculated about the ritual and ceremonial use of the wheels of medicine, especially designated areas of animal totems.
This illuminating guide to the Native American ritual of the Wheel of Medicine makes for all ancient spiritual practice.
Roy Wilson, head of Cowlitz and spiritual leader in Washington, is battling the Sun Bear zodiac system (outer circle) and his own vision:
Four ways are used to experience God within. It is important to note that all the Paths pass through the Creator, which includes the Creator in the center, surrounded by seven messengers of the Spirit: Cougar, Hawk, Coyote, Wolf, Bear, Raven and Owl; four gatekeepers: Buffalo in the East, Bear in the south; Eagle in the West; and Cougar in the North; Twelve Spirit Helpers: Turkey, the Turtle and the Owl on the Eastern Path; Beaver, Ant and Squirrel on the Southern Route; Butterfly, Bath and Groz on the Western Route; and, Hawk, Goose and Wolf on the Northern Path. "
In the Medical Wheel of the Hopi prophecy of the four peoples of the earth, the cardinal direction of the North represents the body, plants and animals, the color of white and white people with skin and Childhood. The East was designed to represent the mind, air, color yellow and yellow skin of people and adolescents. The south holds the heart, fire, red and red rind. people and adulthood. Finally, the West holds the spirit, the water, the color blue or black, and black peoples, and an elderly hood.
The West also represents the final stage of life in the wheel, being older and passing on knowledge to the next generation, so that the wheel can start again, like the circle that is required afterwards.
A circle with four directions, corresponding to the four elements of nature and four original tribes, was given by the Creator to all nations, originating from four different directions.
Each culture developed its own rituals and methods for representing the circle as an expression of how they viewed their relationship with the Universe. They used medicines, mandalas, teachings about the sacred circle, labyrinths, stone megaliths, etc., to learn and express their relationships and link them with the cosmos or their Creator.
Gardening refers to this concept of a sacred circle outside the physical form. A circle is a cycle of life. Just as directions correspond to birth, adolescence, adulthood, and death, plants and flowers experience the same cycle.
From seeds germination occurs, then growth, bloom / bloom, seed development and plant mortality. Of course, some plants live a very long time, but the cycle of nature is more noticeable in the annual flowers, which are stored only during the season.
The wheel of medicine can be adapted for use in the garden without traditional and sacred ritual and ceremony. To call your garden "The Garden of the Drug Wheel", you follow sacred traditions. This can only complicate the design and use process.
A garden that is designed with a strong circular shape so that you can follow the basic directions, so that you can use animal totems in the form of stones or boulders similar to animals, and which have four main needles that cross the center to revive the movement of the spirit that you incarnate, can serve to create a unique, personal sacred garden space.
Customizing it to suit your needs and belief systems will make it sacred. Sharing a vision of the sacred form of a circle and including four quadrants form the basic structure on which you can add other elements that will make it powerful.
Therefore, I propose that we do not try to imitate or recreate the wheels of traditional medicine and call them that, but rather take the Universal Sacred circle shape and embellish it with meaning, using the earth, elements of nature and other symbols to develop the holy place.
This can be done using the accessory of your sacred circle, using objects such as crystals, feathers, flowers, spheres, garden art, etc. In addition, you can create a sacred circle to fit the space of your garden, so you do not have go through it or through it, violating its holiness. You create the rules!
