THE FOUR RED ROADS MEDICINE WHEEL

My Wheel

The Wheel of my Life I Call "The Four Red Roads Medicine Wheel"

            My Wheel is finished - almost finished - I am not dead yet and there may be things I have yet to discover.  For now, all the parts I have are finally together. I did not set out to invent a wheel for my life.  I discovered it and as I went, I picked up the pieces. It has been like putting together the pieces of a jig-puzzle.  Bit by bit - Line upon line.  In my wheel is the history of my spirit journey and the history of world religions I discovered as I went my way.  This History has shown me that "ALL TRUTH" has come from the same source.  It is sad to me to see that the expression of that same universal truth has lead to so much discord and civil strife. 

The Hub

         At the hub of this wheel are the principals of walking a path of Prayer and Study with Selfless Sacrifice in Service, Surrendering to the Peace or Will of God.  To represent these principals is the Native American Sundance Medicine Wheel.  The Sundance Medicine Wheel has shown me (I think you could see it also if you looked) the path to know the "God With In" and it also contains many more principals of the Gospel of Jesus the Christ. I have found it a marvel as I have looked around The Sundance Medicine Wheel and saw the scriptures jumping out at me.

The Rim

            The rim of my wheel is the world I see around me. To illustrate this I have used the twenty two cards of the Major Arcana of the Tarot.  Following the Path of the Fool, as The Spirit Unmanifest, around my wheel, I find the journey of this temporal life.  This journey is about becoming and about those we meet along the way.  From Birth, represented by the pregnant woman in meditation, the journey begins with the Magician who takes the inspired knowledge from above and applies it below.  One example of this magic is the Black Smith as he controls, with his magic, the Earth, Fire, Air and Water to forge a tool of steel.  Another example of this magic is in the hands of the Potter who forms from the soft wet clay a hard vessel that will hold water.  Around us we can find many examples of the tricks of magic in our modern world.  With Edison, the trick was in finding out how to keep the lamp burning.

           For those who understand the principles of the Restored Gospel, you will find at the end of this journey of the Fool: Death - Temperance - The Three Degrees of Glory in the Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:38-44), The Judgment and the Inheritance of this World, in all it's glory, where you also will find the same Faces of an Eagle, Lion, Calf, and Man that are found in Ezekiel (1:10), John's Revelation (4:7) as well as in The Sundance Medicine Wheel.

The Spokes

            The Spokes in a Wheel of Life are like a ladder.  The Spokes of the Sundance Medicine Wheel as a Wheel of Life are Prayer, Study, Sacrifice, and Service.  The faster a wheel spins the harder it is to knock out of balance and the truer it holds to the road straight ahead.  In my Four Red Roads Medicine Wheel the spokes are more like roads, rather than rungs of a ladder, roads between the World of the Spirit With In and the Physical World around me.

Four Roads Coming From the Center

           From the center the cards of the Minor Arcana are use to show that all things come from God.

Four Red Roads Coming Towards The Center

         On the Four Red (Good or Balanced - Void of Strife) Roads I use the symbols for a few of the various paths that men have devised or that have been revealed in some manner to teach the children.  All these paths in the beginning had the same basic message to follow in order to lead a good balanced life.  I find this same message illustrated in the Sundance Medicine Wheel.  I see that these various roads are not separate roads, but rather One Long Road that has been renewed time after time.  Each time of renewal "To Again Make Straight the Way" those who will not change continue to follow the ways of their fathers leaving those who change and go back to the original path are condemned, to be labeled a new or false path.  How many times has this happened? I can only guess for how can I know what was written and stored in the library at Alexandria.

Who Destroyed Alexandria's Famous Library?

            The Library of Alexandria was one of the best-known of the libraries of the ancient world. One of the interesting facts about the ancient world that seems to be missing from many history books is that there were many great collections of books and literature in ancient times and most were open to any scholar from anywhere in the world.

         The library at Alexandria actually competed with that at Pergamum in amassing the most complete collection of books in the world. This went on in the 200's B. C., and it is interesting to note that there were already so many works in existence that obtaining a copy of each would have been an impossible undertaking even then. The destruction of this priceless treasure was a stroke of the most unimaginable bad luck. If Byzantine Egypt had been taken by one of the later Islamic conquerors, this irreplaceable collection would have been counted amongst the finest of the spoils of war to fall into a victor's hands.

            Early in the year A. D. 642, Alexandria surrendered to Amrou, the Islamic general leading the armies of Omar, Caliph of Baghdad. Long one of the most important cities of the ancient world and capital of Byzantine Egypt, Alexandria surrendered only after a long siege and attempts to rescue the city by the Byzantines. On the orders of Omar, Caliph of Baghdad, the entire collection of books (except for the works of Aristotle) stored at the Library of Alexandria were removed and used as fuel to heat water for the city's public baths.

            This is not the first time the library was damaged or destroyed. Originally built to house the massive collection of books accumulated by the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt, the library had been devastated by fire several times. During Julius Caesar's Alexandrian campaign in 47 B. C., Caesar set fire to ships in the port. The fire spread to the library, which was called the Museum at that time.

In A. D. 391, riots instigated by fanatical Christians damaged the collection heavily. During the years between disastrous events, the library collection had been gradually restored. In 641, the Caliph of Baghdad exhibited the same spirit of religious fanaticism in ordering Amrou to burn the books stored there. The loss of the library at Alexandria was a particularly grievous blow because the works of so many Roman scholars. literary geniuses, and historians were destroyed. - Source: (San Jose State University)

Edward Running Bear

             I am Edward Running Bear, of the blood of many nation, I am where the Four Red Roads meet and one becomes the other.  In the Words of Al-Quran: "God made you one nation with one God and it is only you who make distinctions among your selves.  Why do you make distinctions because of dead Prophets, when you have a living prophet."

        Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.  But they said, We will not walk therein.

       Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet.  But they said, We will not hearken.

         Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them.

Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it. Jeremiah (6:16-19)

            It is written that the meek shall inherit the earth.  I do not see much hope for any one else.  I will leave you with my testimony that there has been a restoration beginning in 1830, that once again the voice of heaven is guiding those who listen.  I have walked the Four Red Roads and all the signs only have added to this testimony.

Edward Running Bear

THE SUNDANCE MEDICINE WHEEL AS A ROSETTA STONE

A ROSETTA STONE

The Rosetta Stone is a black basalt stone found in 1799 that bears an inscription in hieroglyphics demonic characters and in Greek and it is celebrated for having given the first clue to the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphics. The Medicine Wheel as a Rosetta Stone gives many clues to the universal nature of the philosophies of world religions.

EARTH, AIR, FIRE, & WATER

     The concept that the Medicine Wheel as a Rosetta stone came to me as I sat in a Buddhist temple where I noticed a Medicine Wheel on the floor. In the East was the element of air, enlightenment and knowledge symbolized by a pile of books. In the South was Sage, used by the Native Americans with fire, as a burnt offering for spirit cleansing? In the West was a large bowl shaped bell, a symbol for water. In the north was a great altar and the teachers, of old, were memorialized there in red as in the Red Road, for the blood of the elders buried in the earth in North of the Medicine Wheel.

PRAYER, STUDY, SACRIFICE & SERVICE

            In  the Biblical text, shared elements of The Sundance Medicine Wheel are describe in the visions of Ezskiel Chapter One:

5  Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures.  And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.6  And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings.7  And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass.8  And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings.9  Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward.10  As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.

And again in the revelations of John Chapter Four:

2  And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.3  And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. 4  And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.5  And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.
6  And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.7  And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.8  And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.9  And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever,10  The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,11  Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hastThere are wheels in every Scripture. The same for teachings for finding or knowing God are also universal themes namely, prayer and/or meditation, study, sacrifice in the forms of fasting and prayer and as well as selfless sacrifice in service.

This brings me to first Corinthians 9:20 – 23.

18  What is my reward then?  Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel.19  For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.20  And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;21  To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.22  To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.23  And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.

        "Onto the Jews I became A Jew" and I would add onto the Muslims I became a Muslim, and onto the Native Americans I became a Native American.

        You'll find it hard to go, as you would to a Christian with the Bible and the Book of Mormon to bring the Native Americans to Christ without a knowledge of the Medicine Wheel. The Medicine Wheel has already been used to bring the Native Americans to Christ though it was to the Methodist faith. How much more powerful a tool would it be if used with the Book of Mormon. 

        Likewise you will find it hard to convert a Muslim by beating him over the head with a Bible and the Book of Mormon rather than to show him the word of God as found in the Qu-ran as they relate to modern revelation. By using the Qu-ran you might get his attention. The early Christians use the Bible and the threat of death with little effect but to cause hostilities that persist even until this day. In the teachings of the Medicine Wheel are many clues to the universal nature of the brotherhood of man. 

        But I am sure that, you will find many that would disagree. Namely among those who feel it is a waste of time to do as Brigham Young has asked, "That we should read of all good books" and they who themselves have not read the Holy Qu-ran or studied the teachings of the Medicine Wheel.

                                   E.R.B.

MEDICINE WHEEL TEACHINGS

MEDICINE WHEEL TEACHINGS

COURSE OVERLAY

           The following is a home study course to help you learn to read the Sundance Medicine Wheel.  This is in no way meant to replace regular scripture study, rather when this tool is placed in the mind I have found it has enhance my understanding of the ways of the elders that are found in the scriptures, by showing connections that may have other wise gone undetected.

             Many of the sheets are designed in a greeting card format.  The front face of the card gives a picture of the animal named for each of the stones in the Wheel.   The back face of the card shows where that card is in the Wheel.  On the inside of the card are a few references to help understand in a general way  what might be there to help guide ones path, and is in no way meant to represent the only way to look at things.

The best source for learning what each animal has to say is by observation.  By watching, we can learn how the animals go about their lives and can give us clues to order our own lives.  We no longer live in a wild world where the animals are our brothers and neighbors.  But we can and have learned many things about them from books.  Included in the cards are a few of the less obvious teachings that are traditional to the Native Americans. One that comes to mind is that the Bear is the leader. Another example is that the owl is the Spirit messenger of death.  See the movie "I heard the Owl call my Name", that is based on a true story about a dying priest who was sent by his Bishop to live among the native people of British Columbia.

       Stones or coins can easily replace the cards once their pattern is place in the mind.  In fact the Medicine Wheel is a set of scriptural references that can be read in the dark.  The greatest benefit I find is that the Wheel takes the scriptural teaching out of the historical context and places them in a pattern written in the heart, for ready reference, in order to guide my life step by step around the endless paths of Prayer, Study, Sacrifice and Service.

       The study of the Medicine Wheel has given me a more sure testimony of the Book of Mormon and the truth of the restored gospel.  With these Lessons on the Wheel, I hope to share that more sure testimony with you.

(2 Nephi 29:7-9.)

 "7 Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?

8 Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am God, that I remember one nation like unto another? Wherefore, I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the two nations shall run together the testimony of the two nations shall run together also.

9 And I do this that I may prove unto many that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and that I speak forth my words according to mine own pleasure. And because that I have spoken one word ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my work is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man, neither from that time henceforth and forever."

         As I ponder the Paths of the Wheel and have studied in Al Qu-ran, I am left with little room to doubt the universal nature of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Surely our Father, God, and Creator has spoken the same to each nation of his children.  So I ask you as Muhammad asked those of his time "Why do we make distinctions among ourselves because of dead prophets when we have a Living Prophet." (See 2 Nephi 29)

If I have any thing to preach it is this.

(1 Thessalonians 5:16-21.)

"16 Rejoice evermore.

17 Pray without ceasing.

18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

19 Quench not the Spirit.

20 Despise not prophesyings.

21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."

BRIGHAM YOUNG Said 

        "It is our duty and calling, as ministers of the same salvation and Gospel, to gather every item of truth and reject every error. Whether a truth be found with professed infidels, or with the Universalists, or the Church of Rome, or the Methodists, the Church of England, the Presbyterians, the Baptists, the Quakers, the Shakers, or any other of the various and numerous different sects and parties, all of whom have more or less truth, it is the business of the Elders of this Church (Jesus, their Elder Brother, being at their head) to gather up all the truths in the world pertaining to life and salvation, to the Gospel we preach, to mechanism of every kind, to the sciences, and to philosophy, wherever it may be found in every nation, kindred, tongue, and people and bring it to Zion." 7:283.

 Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, selected and arranged by John A. Widtsoe [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1954], 248.)

               

            Yours with nothing new to say, because nothing can be added to or taken from the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

                                                Edward Running Bear

What is a Medicine Wheel?

      Magic

        Some may wish to see the Medicine Wheel as A Magic Place that tapes into unseen powers between the living and the life beyond.  Medicine men of old who wish get attention went into great rituals because the people need to be wakened up and entertained.  - Magic - Slight of hand, like the Medicine man of the Amazon is able to snatch a small ember from the fire and seems to cough it out when he removes the evil that made the sickness.

    Scriptures

        There are many Medicine Wheels that are frame works for concept relationships.  I quote here from a well known writer who has written a lot of good stuff about a lot of things.

       "The Medicine Wheel is an ancient symbol used by almost all native people of North and South America. There are many different ways that this basic concept is expressed: The Four Grandfathers, the four cardinal directions, and many other relationships that can be expressed in sets of four.  Just like a mirror can be used to see things not visible (e.g. behind us or around a coroner), the medicine wheel can be used to illustrate and understand thing we can not quite see or understand because they are ideas and not physical objects."

                                                            ("Author Unknown")

     The wheel was away for the old wise ones to explain, to the next generation those same timeless teachings found in all scriptures.  Many people used a form of a wheel before there were books. There are examples in Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, and Celtic works, as well as Biblical text.  I saw the Medicine Wheel on the floor of a Buddhist Temple with similar symbols by tradition yet the meaning or teachings to the adherents, who had no explanation, had been lost or thought unimportant.

          The Medicine Wheel might be looked at as a book for people with no written language. It is a book that you can have your mind once you know the code. It is best used in its own format, (the spoken word) around the pit of hot stones in the dark of the medicine Lodge. The old ones of understanding would sit around like the Jews discussing the teachings of the Scriptures. Each knew the code of their wheel. The old ones in their prayers would allow the Raven Spirit to speak through them as they use the wheel that was laid out in their minds. It was clear to each of them what it meant when one would speak of facing the North wind. They all had to face the North Wind of adversity in their lives and knew their brother was speaking of a hard time with the trials in his life. They all knew the ways of their four-legged and winged brothers and those pictures like, quick like the deer or hard working like the ant, became the spoken words when they counseled their brother who in his life that day was facing the North Wind.

           The dark of the medicine Lodge spoke of the death of the old man inside each of them. The hot rocks and the stream spoke of cleansing of the spirit by fire and water. Leaving the darkness of the Lodge spoke of, being born of the spirit and a new creature in the site of the great God of the above, that they had found inside themselves in the Medicine Lodge, The Medicine lodge was also a medicine wheel as they came into the light of that new day they would remember the teachings of the Wheel, that was inside them. They saw the straight and narrow path of the Medicine Wheel teachings, of study, introspection, sacrifice and service, as that they needed to follow to know the way to God.

SPIRIT MEDICINE

         As Jesus brought salvation. (from the Greek word 4982 and 4991, in Strong's "the healing or to make whole".) So also the Medicine Wheel brings the teachings of the spiritual Medicine to healing or to make whole the spirit of the people.

31  ¶ Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:32  Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:33  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.34  And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.      Jeremiah 31:31-3

      In many medicine wheels, the Native American people have a record of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it was taught to them, as recorded by modern revelations of God in what is called the Book of Mormon. Believe not my words because I have spoken them, but believe my words because you have proven them by your own study and prayers. So here I begin to share with you the Native American Gospel of Jesus Christ as it is still written in their hearts, as has been shown to me in the Sundance Medicine Wheel

         To continue your understanding of the Sundance Medicine Wheel - Look to the right for Medicine Wheel Teachings Lesson One -  Introduction. What you will find is not what was taught by m teachers rather what I learned as I applied what I learned.  This is but the start and not meant in any way to be the only way to look at The Sundance Medicine Wheel.  We each are on our own Journey. Let what you will find in the Wheel to be you path and God will show you the way.

        Due to formatting constraints you will need to open each card by dragging it to your desk top before opening each page or you can print each page so you will end up with a Medicine Wheel set of cards you can place on the floor.

                       E.R.B.