Medicine Wheel
Gatherings
Which Clan do you belong to on the Medicine Wheel?
Check your birth date on the Clans Page.
TRIBAL CLANS
There are 4 Clans of people in a tribe. They are part of the 4 Elements.
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The Turtle Clan
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The Frog Clan
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The Butterfly Clan
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The Thunderbird Clan
Medicine Wheel Gatherings
See Medicine Wheel
Chant-Lyrics below.
Buy Wind Daughter's Medicine Wheel Chants CD, so you can sing along with the Wheel.
The Medicine Wheel is a stone circle of personal power. It is used to connect your inner self to Mother Earth. By following around the wheel throughout the year, self transformation occurs.
These Medicine Wheels of stone, constructed by the original Native inhabitants, once spread across the Americas. These wheels were the ceremonial centers of earth people; powerful vortexes for both giving and receiving earth energy. Earth Peoples used the Medicine Wheel to understand and celebrate change in their own lives and in the cycles of the earth. What these ancient ones knew and practiced is knowledge sorely needed by modern men and women.
Modern Medicine Wheel Gatherings began in 1981 near Mt Rainier, Washington, the result of the vision of Sun Bear, Shaman, Teacher, Author and Founder of the Bear Tribe Medicine Society. Since 2006, 60,000 people have attended more than 72 gatherings in the United States, Canada and Europe. These gatherings have provided participants with a ceremonial center to their lives and an important sense of family and community.
As Medicine Chief of the Bear Tribe, Wind Daughter has carried forth this vision of Sun Bear's for many years after him. The Medicine Wheel is re-enacted according to Sun Bear's Vision. This ceremony is all about symbolism in accordance to his vision. The colors and animal totems may be different from those of other traditions because they had their own visions to live, but the intent of building a sacred ceremonial ground is the same.
The Medicine Wheel consists of 36 stones, each one representing a part of the universe. The people and circle are smudged. Then each person dressed as an animal dances into the circle by song and drum to make the wheel. The people make their prayers as they unite into balance with the Elements, Earth, Sky, Creator and all Living Things. The Medicine Wheel remains up for the weekend as a sacred place for the people to pray and heal.
The Medicine Wheel Gathering always includes Sacred Pipe Ceremony, Stone Peoples Lodge (sweat lodge), and so much more!
Sun Bear's Book
Dancing with the Wheel
Singing with the Wheel
CD by Wind Daughter
"Let the medicine of the Sacred Circle prevail. Let many people from across the Land come to the circle and make prayers for the healing of Mother Earth. Let the circles of the Medicine Wheel prevail."
- from Sun Bear's vision
Giveaway Ceremony
The Medicine Wheel Giveaway Ceremony is the concluding ceremony for the weekend and consists of several parts. The Bear Tribe's giveaway honors the people who made the Medicine Wheel possible. Following this is the Giveaway of the Medicine Wheel itself. The people who placed rocks around the sacred circle are asked to pick them up so they may take them home with them. The people who honored the 36 center stones then may go into the wheel and remove the stone that they honored. Then the sacred circle of cloth strip is taken down. People are encouraged to leave the sacred area in a silent, respectful way and to say their farewells to new and old friend after they have left that area.
