In nature based cultures like the Seneca and the Chinese, wisdom is passed from one generation to the next in teaching stories, sometimes called medicine stories. They are called “medicine” stories because their purpose is to help the listener heal themselves within the structure of their environment – the nature around them. These stories carry multiple messages depending on what the listener is facing in he or her life at the moment.
As we begin to discover ourselves through the medicine wheels, we’ll see the story they tell in different ways. Each time we revisit each stepping stone of the three medicine wheels, it is like visiting an old friend. We already know a lot about them, but there is always something new to learn. Keeping this in mind we can gain the wisdom we are seeking with an open heart and willing hands.
Our story of the three medicine wheels begins with the Body Wisdom Wheel. According to Chinese medicine our Shen enters our body with our first breath and is then housed in our hearts. The story of the Body Wisdom Wheel is the story of our body, its energy and its purpose in manifesting as “our” body. It is the story of the Temple that houses all our inner desires, all our thoughts and all our emotions.
The Body Wisdom Wheel is the love story between yin and yang within the limits of our physical vehicle. It is here in the cauldron of chemicals that we call a body that we have the most - indeed the only – control over our environment. For the purpose of having a body is to draw the Yang – Sky Energy down into the earth as we draw the Yin Earth Energy up into the Sky. This is the exact same purpose that all of nature has.
In this process, as with any machine, energy in the forms of heat and light are released. There the work of the body ends. It has transformed yang into yin and yin into yang. Now it is up to the mind and the emotions to determine what to do with the by products of heat and light that our bodies have produced.
The Mind and Emotions in the natural worlds of the Seneca and the Chinese are housed in the heart, not in the brain. They both gain information about the world around them through our senses. They are accessed through chemical reactions throughout the body and they are very powerful. However, they differ in their approach to change.
The Mind, represented by the Pathway of Peace looks at the world in a logical, rational manner. It thinks. If there is this, this and that, what can we do with them? It is concerned with the future. The favorite question if Mind is: What does the future hold in store for me?
Emotion determines its position in the world through relationships. It is concerned with survival. The future is a dream beyond its ken. Emotion keeps track: What happened the last time these energies combined? Emotion’s favorite question is: Who am I right now?
In the past we have seen Mind and Emotions as enemies… a battle between instinct and intuition while our bodies, the starving child, is caught between them. It’s no wonder that so many of the world’s problems revolve around hunger, and its sister – greed and the whole issue of scarcity and abundance.
We are at a critical point, as a species and
as a planet.
Our Minds and Emotions are asking:
Who are we and what future are we going to create?
We are at the point where our mere survival not only depends on following our instincts, our ability to get food, shelter and clothe ourselves, but also on our ability to recognize the direction our logical, rational minds are taking us and make the changes necessary to let our planet heal and all on her not only survive but thrive.
Through our struggle we have earned the ability to create. Now we need to learn to create from resonance so no energy is wasted in maintaining destructive postures.