How do you make a medicine wheel?

A medicine wheel is a system to remember things and a means to pass that knowledge on. Basically it’s a teaching tool.

It’s only one of the many systems which the various indigenous people used to remember their cultural knowledge.

The medicine wheel is oriented to the four cardinal directions, East, South, West and North; in that order. East is where the sun rises and the day begins. So that’s where we begin.

In relationship to a person then the beginning is infancy/childhood (east), youth/adolescence (south), Adulthood (west), and elder/old age (north).

In regard to a person; the various tribes then related other information based on those cardinal directions and stages of life, such as, one’s Emotional self, Physical self, Mental self, and Spiritual self.

For an assignment like this they would have already discussed the information that is prevalent in their tribal area so that’s your guideline.

So depending on where you are in your life you could talk about your childhood, your adolescence etc. the influences (the people and experiences) that brought you to this point in your life. You could talk about your goals and plans for the future.

The medicine wheel simply provides a standardized structure to relate information. There is nothing mystical about it. It’s just the same as if you sat down and created an outline. What comes first, second, third and a conclusion.

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A medicine wheel is a large monument, @50 ft in diameter, made by placing stones in a circle with spokes.

As to what they mean, don't trust anything written in books or on the internet. They are written by non-natives who have either a very superficial or very false understanding of them.

You could spend the next 20 years learning what it means.

Why on earth do they want you to build one? If you are supposed to make it about yourself, I guess that means they want you to stand in the center as you make it?

I don't understand the point of the assignment. I guess I need to take a "Caucasian awareness class".

edit..............well, this is what one looks like: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91...

If, on the other hand, they are expecting something like this: http://medicinewheelastrology.com/wordpress/wp-con...

then explain to them that this isn't remotely native American, that it is a perversion and misappropriation of our teachings, and that it is 100% new age, NOT native American.

I honestly don't know how they expect you to figure out the teachings of the medicine wheel, which we don't share with outsiders, and takes an average of 7 years to fully understand. Ask them THAT. On the other hand, I suspect they are looking for the new age version of the medicine wheel, which, as I've said, is nothing more than a stolen parody of the truth. It has nothing to do with us.