The medicine wheel.

A few years ago, I was listening to a Native American medicine man give a teaching on the Medicine Wheel. After his presentation, I shared with him some of the work I was doing in Revelation, and showed him how the medicine wheel was a perfect diagram of the scene in chapters four and five of Revelation.

He has ever since incorporated chapters four and five of Revelation in his Medicine Wheel teaching, and has recently published a book containing it.

The Medicine Wheel is often portrayed as twelve eagle feathers arranged in a circle, with four arrows pointing inward toward the center at the four points of the compass. The arrows are red, yellow, black and white. Immediately, we can see that it is a variation of the quartered circle symbol of creation.

Some of the teachings of the Medicine Wheel are that the four arrows represent the four directions, north, south, east and west, and their colors represent the four races of humans. The Medicine Wheel is the world, and as we stand on the earth, we experience six directions, plus one. The six directions are before us, behind us, to the left, to the right, up and down. The seventh direction is within. Sound familiar?

If we extend the arrows all the way to the center of the circle, the heads of the arrows form an "X" at the center of the circle. Each eagle feather is very definitely two-toned, about half dark and half light, representing twenty-four realities around the edge of the circle. Sound even more familiar?

All that is missing is the Lamb, and that is yet another similarity. Remember when we were diagraming the scene? We didn't know where to place the Lamb in the scene. He was at once on the throne, among the living creatures, and among the elders.

The Lamb can't be diagramed on the Medicine Wheel, because it is two- dimensional. Up and down can't be portrayed at the same time as before and behind. "Within" can be portrayed, though. Symbolically, with an "X" at the center of the circle.

As the human stands on the earth, facing west, consciously aware that there are myriad kinds of relationships at work in human existence, and at one with them, she is on the Medicine Wheel. That's very much how I feel about the kingdom of God.

I hope this has been interesting.

There is more - much more.

FOREWORD || INTRODUCTION || CHAPTER 1 || CHAPTER 2 || CHAPTER 3 || CHAPTER 4 || CHAPTER 5 || CHAPTER 6 || CHAPTER 7 || CHAPTER 8 || CHAPTER 9 || CHAPTER 10 || CHAPTER 11 || CHAPTER 12 || APPENDIX A, 777 || APPENDIX B - The Medicine Wheel || REVELATION STUDY MAIN PAGE || Return to the Revelation Geek Homepage