Medicine Wheel Sharing
The following is from the personal journal of Mahad’ yuni (Evelyn Eaton), a woman of white and Indian ancestry. She is a Metis Medicine Woman of the Bear Medicine Tribe and the Deer Tribe.
She took groups of people to this ancient, sacred highly charged region, for fasts, vision quests, pipe ceremonies and rituals around the Medicine Wheel.
The journal says:
“We started tonight on a vision quest. We went first for a purifying swim in Manzanar. It was very full and we had it to ourselves. Icy cold, refreshing. Then to the place away from the water, we laid out a big Medicine Wheel. We danced, we sang songs, and we smoked our pipes, each in place on the circumference of the wheel. Meditation began as darkness fell and the stars appeared, luminously brilliant in these wide clear skies.”
“After a long silence of contemplation, one played the flute, another the drum. Some spoke softly, and some sang and sang. The others attended them in silence. Then we ‘traveled’ along the stones in front t of us into the Center, and after a timeless time returned to the circumference, to lie in our bags and blankets, feet toward the Hub, watching the Cosmic Wheel turn above us. There are two Medicine Wheels, the one laid out below, the one made manifest above….
When the first glimmer of the pre-dawn light outlined the ring of worshipping boulders, we rose to greet the sun. In this reminiscent setting the song of the ancient Egyptian greeting returned to our minds. – ‘Hail Ra in They rising!’ Then we smoked the morning Pipe to Wakan-Tanka, dismantled the Medicine Wheel, left an offering among the rocks, and proceeded to another place some miles away to make ready individual shelters for a two-night fast.
