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The Knowledge of the Medicine Wheels

By Hyemeyohsts Storm

1. Hyemeyohsts Storm

Hyemeyohsts Storm was born and raised on the Northern Cheyenne and Crow Reservations of Montana. He is an enrolled Indian, and he is a Breed, which means a mixed blood person.

His first book, SEVEN ARROWS, introduced the Medicine Wheels to the world, for the first time. It also revealed, to our modern world what the Indian wars were like from the Indian and Breed perspective. After SEVEN ARROWS was published, Hyemeyohsts travelled extensively, lectured, and was a guest teacher at a few Universities in the United States and Germany. Beginning in his youth, he had the greatest fortune to become the apprentice of the brilliant and powerful Zero Chief, and Holy Woman, Estcheemah. She was a Mayan Breed Indian who was born during the bloody and sorrowful Indian

Wars of the late 1800's. She was one of the wisest and most powerful Medicine Chiefs of her time, and a Carrier and teacher of the Medicine Wheels. She taught of the histories and sophisticated knowledge of the Zero Chiefs. It took Hyemeyohsts years to prepare himself and discover how to share with the world, in his writing and teaching the Knowledge of the Medicine Wheels and the story of his most precious teacher, Estcheemah. He needed time to mature, to contemplate the true face of Greatness that Estcheemah revealed to him. For many years he has travelled extensively sharing the Medicine Wheel knowledge with our world's people. Hyemeyohsts is an artist and teacher, as well as a writer. He strives to teach how we all can treasure our Living Earth and look to Her for the symbols and meaning in our lives. Consequently, all of his art is, in some way, an honouring of our Living Planet and also a celebration of the many diverse cultures and peoples, throughout human history, who have loved and cherished our Mother Earth. In this way we can find our common ground, our Earth heritage, which bridges across race, gender, culture, religion, and all other human invented boundaries. The responsibility and care of our Earth is in our hands, as Earth Citizens. His books: SEVEN ARROWS, THE SONG OF HEYOEHKAH and LIGHTNINGBOLT are very direct in what they have to tell about Life and Learning. In Seven Arrows he shares these words from his teachers: "The Universe is a Mirror of the people, and each person is a mirror of every other person." He invites the reader to look into the ancient Mirror of our Medicine Wheels, revealed in his books, and discover the timeless reflection of your own Self and Life.

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Hyemeyohsts and Swan Storm

2. The Teachings of the Zero Chiefs Lightningbold talks about the story of Hyemeyohsts Storm’s life and the knowledge he learned from Estcheemah, a wise woman and Zero Chief. She chose him because she wanted him to spread her teachings in the world of the white man. It is impossible to talk about Zero Chiefs in just a few words. To be as brief as possible, they were and still are the carriers of knowledge about the Medicine Wheel. Zero Chiefs are the people who first discovered the Medicine Wheel and the relationship between the science of the Earth and our Universe. They had a sophisticated knowledge of Mathematics and the Medicine Wheel helped them discover a great deal of extremely important information about the human mind. The ancient teachings of the Zero Chiefs are 10.000 years old and as valid today as ever. 2.1 The Medicine wheels The Medicine Wheel can best be understood if you think of it as a mirror in which everything is reflected. In the next paragraphs I will give a brief description of the basics of a few of the Medicine Wheels. If you want to learn more about the knowledge of the Zero Chiefs and the Medicine Wheels I refer to the books of Hyemeyohsts Storm. There are different Medicine Wheels. A few examples are: - The Children’s Earth Count - The Medicine Wheel of the Elements - The Medicine Wheel of the Four Powers of the Human Self - The Powers of the Four Directions - The Earth Count - The Mathematics Wheel

A Medicine Wheel constructed at Marcus Whitman High School, Rushville, New York

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2.2 The Medicine Wheel of the Children’s Earth Count The Zero

The Medicine Wheel is the Shape of the Zero. The Zero is the symbol and fact of creation. The Zero Chiefs say that the Zero is nothing, but instead everything. All of Creation’s Children were designed and born from the Sacred Zero and exist as part of the Zero. All of Creation’s Children exist as numbers within the Medicine Wheel. This is the Children’s Count of the Earth Count. In the beginning was WahKahn. She is the Creatress Mother and the Great Zero, the womb that births all of existence. Within instantaneous being was born the SsKwan. He is the Creator Father and is the dividing of the Zero. Creation, the Zero, is perfectly balanced. The Zero is female and male and has designed and birthed all of Life. The One

The first born from the Sacred Zero – the marriage of WahKahn, the Creatress Mother and SsKwan, the Creator Father – was One. The east is the dancer called Sun. ONE is the Sun.

The Two

The second born from the Sacred Zero was Two. The Two exists in the west of the Medicine Wheel, the place of the coloring of time. The west is the dancer called Earth. TWO is the number for EARTH. The Three

The first children of the Sacred Zero were the Sun and the Earth. One, the Sun and Two, the Earth, joined together and from this union Three was born. The grasses are ever singing with the trees, the corn dancers and flowers. THREE is the number for all PLANTS. The Four

Time turned Earth and the Plants turned the Wheel within shadow and light. One, the Sun, married Three, all Plants and the first Animals were born on the Earth. Animals are in circles ever moving with Life. FOUR is the umber for all ANIMALS. Creation now had created the First Circle.

East, ONE, the Sun.

West, TWO, the Earth.

South, THREE, the Plants.

North, FOUR, the Animals.

The Five

The Five are all HUMANS. The Five were born of the First Circle and exist in its Centre. The Humans are sending their voices into the hearts of the Four Directions in celebration of their Lives.

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The Circles of this Medicine Wheel go up to Twenty. TWENTY is COMPLETION. This is the return to the Great Zero where all things were born. The return to WahKahn and SsKwan. 2.3 The Medicine Wheel of the Elements As Ka Huna Bodyworkers we work with the four elements Water, Earth, Air and Fire. In Lightningbold Hyemeyohsts talks about these elements in the Powers of the Four Directions. The Four Directions stand for the four elements, Water, the Earth, Air and Fire (Morealah, Ehahmah, Wehomah and Cheemah) from which everything is born. South is Water which represents the world of emotion containing innocence and trust. West is the Earth and represents substance with introspection and intuition. North is Air and represents the mind where we can find wisdom and understanding. East is Fire that represents the Spirit and contains illumination. All this forms a Sacred Circle that is in continuous movement.

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4 - Animals

1 - Sun

3 - Plants

2 - Earth 5 - Humans

The Medicine Wheel of the Children’s Earth Count

Wehomah - Air

Cheemah - Fire Ehahama - Earth Beauty

Earth Mother/Father

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Morealah - Water

The Medicine Wheel of the Elements

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2.4 The Medicine Wheel of the Four Powers of the Human Self 2.5 The Powers of the Four Directions Among the People, a child's first Teaching is of the Four Great Powers of the Medicine Wheel. To the North on the Medicine Wheel is found wisdom. The colour of the wisdom of the North is white and its medicine animal is the Buffalo. The South is represented by the sign of the Mouse and its medicine colour is Green. The South is a place of innocence and trust and is for perceiving closely our nature of heart. In the West is the sign of the Bear. The west is the looks-within place, which speaks of the introspective nature of man. The colour of this place is Black. The East is marked by the sign of the Eagle. It is the place of illumination, where we can see things clearly far and wide. Its colour is the Gold of the morning star. At birth, each of us given a particular beginning place within these four great directions on the Medicine Wheel. This starting place gives us our first way of perceiving things, which will then be our easiest and more natural way throughout our lives. But any person who perceives from only one of these four great directions will remain just a partial man. For example, a man who possesses only the gift of the North will be wise. But he will be a cold man, a man without feeling. And the man who lives only in the East will have the clear, far sighted vision of the Eagle, but he will never be close to things. This man will feel separated, high above life, and will never understand or believe that he can be touched by anything.

Mind

Emotions

Spirit Body Self

The Medicine Wheel of the Four Powers of the Human Self

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A man or woman who perceives only from the West will go over the same thought again and again in their mind, and will always be undecided. And if a person has only the gift of the south, he will see everything with the eyes of a Mouse. He will be too close to the ground and too near sighted to see anything except whatever is right in front of him, touching his whiskers. There are many people who have two or three of these gifts, but these people still are not Whole. A man might be a Bear person from the East, or an Eagle person from the South. The first of these men would have the Gift of seeing introspectively within Illumination, but he would lack the gifts of touching and Wisdom. The second would be able to see clearly and far, like the Eagle, within trust and innocence. But he would still not know of the things of the North, nor of the looks-within place. In this same way, a person might also be a Golden Bear of the North, or a Black Eagle of the South. But none of these people would yet be Whole. After each of us has learned of our beginning gift, our first place on the Medicine Wheel, we then must grow by seeking understanding in each of the four great ways. Only in this way can we become full, capable of balance and decision in what we do.

Wisdom and Knowledge

Trust and Innocence

Illumination

and Enlightenment

Introspection

and Intuition Learning

The Powers of the Four Directions

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