Medicine Wheel and Loyalty

This is definitely going to be one of many. However I would like to share my first encounter with the medicine wheel. If one goes up the slope of a certain ranch just on the outskirts of San Francisco you can find a gateway into the old world.

This morning I was led along the path by my dear friend Tam. I thought it might have been a long climb but it wasn’t and only some twenty minutes later we were at the entrance. Of course I had my dowsing rods with me and (as a demonstration to Tam and)  for my own curiosity I dowsed whether a gateway actually existed by the tree. It did, there was one there. I don’t think that Gwas and I have ever dowsed the breadth of a gateway so I thought I would have ago. I was surprised that it was quite wide, about 5/6 feet I would say.

As I approached the sacred wheel, following the trusted dowsing rods, I was taken to a little bush some 2 feet away from the stones that made the wheel. Of course it was a place to prepare. I spent a few minutes by the tree and then moved away (surely that was enough time to prepare?) I asked the rods and they took a little blip of a trail and brought me right back to the young bush. Okay…some more time was needed. But was it? As I stood there I got a sense that, on this first occasion I should not take my dowsing rods in with me. Ah…was that why I was back at the sapling? Yes. Okay, all was well, I took a step towards the huge tree that marked the entrance and (leaving my rods behind) stepped in.

On the inside I lent back against the entrance tree and felt for what to do. You need to turn the wheel is the intuitive thought that flashed into my head. So I walked around the stones that marked the wheel. Stopping at each spoke, facing in and expressing my desire to be of service and to mean no harm. When I had returned to my starting point I felt that the Genius Loci was accepting of me and was allowing me into the heart.

What a feeling. Deep earth wisdom is the sense I got from that magnificent spirit. Wow! I took a few deep breaths and opened myself up to commune. Gifts? Was the first thought that entered my mind. Hmmm was the spirit asking me for a gift or was it me thinking “I haven’t brought a gift?” either way I was in an immediate bind, until I recalled how Gwas, on a visit to Canada had gifted a spirit with stories. Could I do the same here? I opened my palms in front of me and held all the shining memories for it to choose from.

It’s funny because as I held both hands out, it felt as if the spirit had taken control of one of my hands and used it to lift a memory from the other hand. It seemed to hover around various stories and tales and finally, as if finding a juicy one, dropped my fingers on it.

The memory that it picked? Well, it was the one where my Knights Quest had begun. Where I was at St Helens well I believe. I offered up the memory and felt that it was accepted. Commune really began then. Talk about an ancient source of wisdom. Deep Earth wisdom is what it felt like. I would liken it to Ye Ancient Yew except for one difference. This wisdom was entwined with a depth of magical knowledge too. The Genius Loci entered into a conversation of sorts, more like thoughts pushed my way. I felt that it offered to teach me some of its ancient wisdom and knowledge, if I were amenable to becoming its student.

I stood, transfixed, within the circle taking in the vista that was on offer. What a gift it would be, what an experience. Then my mind felt a jolt and I recalled that I already had a teacher (of sorts), Cailleach. As the thought entered my consciousness, I felt a rather disdainful flick from the Genius Loci, “She is a mere distraction, a being that flits hither and thither.”

Okay, it’s not my fault, yes it did say “hither and thither” thank your stars it wasn’t “thee-ing” and “thou-ing”!

I felt, rather than saw, the Genius Loci, flick a speck of dust of its ancient shoulder. “We are incomparable,” It pushed at me. “Would you turn aside from that which is me, for one such as her?” Talk about being offered the One Ring, is the thought that came across my mind. It did, honestly. And with it came the vision of Galadriel…

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spHEw2n9LwE

A test! It came to me from where I don’t know. Cailleach? But I knew it immediately. A test. I thought for a minute and responded. “…and what if another being comes along later and offers me another deal, what then? What does it say of me?” I knew as soon as I said it that this was the response that the sacred being before me had looked for. I could sense its pleasure. It turned away, not to ignore me, but to say, “come back later, you are welcome.”

I was done. Stick and stone, I was done. I rewound my path through the medicine wheel and exited, knowing that I would be back soon.

Kal Malik – Passed!