Archetypal Medicine Wheel
A universal map of the cycles of nature.
Guess what? I’m teaching on the medicine wheel in March! It’s a deep way of working with personality archetypes that pairs with your love of nature. This class sold out the first two times I offered it. Sign up now to reserve your spot! I offer payment plans. Email me for more info.
The Archetypal Medicine Wheel
The medicine wheel is an archetypal way of working with the cycles and seasons of nature. It is a circle. The compass directions (east, south, west, north) and the center point are mapped on it. The medicine wheel is a compass, a map, that carries symbolic meaning. It represents the myriad expressions of birth, life, death, and rebirth in the world.
The medicine wheel is a system that is recognized and utilized around the world by a vast number of cultures. It developed independently in different cultures in disconnected geographic regions. It is ancient and goes back to prehistory. All of these factors show it fits the definition of an archetype.
In Buddhism , the medicine wheel is called a “mandala” and in Tibetan Buddhism there is more specifically the “5-Buddha family mandala” which orients five families of Buddhas with the cardinal directions. In Hinduism, the medicine wheel is called the “mandala” or “yantra”.
In Celtic tradition, it is called the “wheel of the year”. Peruvian shamanism works with the medicine wheel in the Pachakúti Mesa tradition. In Feng Shui, it is called the “bagua” and appears as an octagon that is oriented to the compass directions. North American indigenous people use many names including “medicine wheel”, “sacred wheel”, and “sacred hoop”. *
The astrological wheel is another form of medicine wheel in that it is oriented to the directions, seasons, and diurnal cycles. In the Golden Dawn tradition of tarot, the tarot cards are associated with the astrological houses and, thus, seasons.
In short, medicine wheels are everywhere!
Directions of the Medicine Wheel
The medicine wheel can be broken into five or seven parts, but always contains the four primary directions: east, south, west and north and a central point or axis.
"Above" and "Below" can also be recognized individually or not because the central axis is seen as inherently connected to these two spaces. Here are the main cycles in nature that are mapped by the medicine wheel:
Path of the Sun: The medicine wheel corresponds to the path of the sun and the diurnal cycle. The east is the place of dawn (beginnings) and the west is the place of dusk with the south as midday and the north as midnight (endings).
Seasonality: The medicine wheel follows the seasons. This has to do with where the sun is in the sky on the south/north axis, the length of day, and the weather.
For those of you in a four-season climate, you can work with spring in the east, summer in the south, fall in the west, and winter in the orth. (Note that these will be different dates in the calendar year depending on which hemisphere you are in. In the Northern Hemisphere, the north corresponds to December because that’s when the Winter Solstice is. In the Southern Hemisphere, the north is associated with the month of June when the Winter Solstice is there).
If you live at the equator you may only recognize two main seasons, rainy and dry. Here the south is the dry season, and the north is the wet season with the east being the time transitioning from wet to dry, and the west being the move from dry to wet.
If you live close to the poles you may recognize light and dark seasons. The south corresponds to the longest days and north with the longest nights, with the east being the movement towards more light and the west being the waning of the light.
Life Stages: The wheel correlates to the stages of life. For humans, this means that the spring is the place of birth, the south corresponds to adolescence, the west is adulthood, and the north is the elder years and death. When working with a plant’s life cycles (which is my preferred method), you have sprouting in the east, flowering and fruiting in the south, seeding and defoliation in the west, and death or dormancy in the north.
Moon Phases: The medicine wheel pairs with the lunar cycles. The new moon is in the east, the waxing moon is in the south, the full moon is in the west, and the waning moon is in the north. There are other ways to orient the lunar cycles, but this is the most straight-forward and intuitive so I recommend starting here.
Qualities of the Directions
Here is a summary a simple and universal framework of the qualities and symbolism of each direction. These associations come from my studies of nature and years of teaching on the medicine wheel. This information also comes from my synthesis of many systems across the globe.
Qualities of the East: dawn/sunrise, spring, birth/re-birth, infancy, new beginnings, fresh start, sprouting plants, innocence, play, pentacles tarot suit, astrological houses 1-3.
Qualities of the South: midday, summer, adolescence, abundance, passion, vitality, flowering, ripening, fullness, maturation, self-actualization, wands tarot suit, astrological houses 4-6.
Qualities of the West: dusk/sunset, fall, adulthood, defoliation, releasing seeds, letting go/surrender/renunciation, gathering resources inward, discernment, the void/mystery, cups tarot suit, astrological houses 7-9.
Qualities of the North: midnight, winter, elder, death, silence, communion with Spirit, Divine union, completion, dormancy, gestation, swords tarot suit, astrological houses 10-12.
Qualities of the Center: Present moment, timeless, ageless, axis mundi, heart of the matter, openness, channel/hollow reed, grace, connection to heaven and earth, trees, mountains, rainbows.
Qualities of Above: Future, cosmic currents, collective unconscious, movement of the heavens, wisdom of planetary bodies, stars, galaxies, expanded consciousness, father archetype, the spirit.
Qualities of Below: History, the Earth, roots, planetary currents, collective history, genetic and spiritual ancestors, mythology and folklore, the cave, mother archetype, the soul.
I’ve synthesized all of the qualities of the directions into as universal system as possible. However, defining an archetype, especially one as big as the medicine wheel, is an ever evolving practice. Let me know in the comments if something doesn’t fit for you, or if you think a certain quality applies elsewhere. There are a couple different systems for assigning tarot suits to the directions, of those I’ve chosen the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn convention.
Things get especially sticky and tricky when it comes to assigning the elements (earth, air, fire and water) to the directions. This is where different cultures and traditions vary widely and it’s difficult to find a universal convention. Assigning colors and spirit animals is an even more diverse field. I am planning to write an article on this variation in the future, and share more about the medicine wheel system I’ve developed.
8-Part Medicine Wheel Workshop
Your Archetypes in Nature’s Cycles
Thursdays starting March 6th at 4:30pm Mountain
Combine the wisdom of the medicine wheel with the insight of personality archetypes in this small-group, online workshop with Spiritual Advisor and Archetype Analyst Stacey Couch. The medicine wheel is a universal map of the cycles of nature. It maps the seasons of our inner nature. The medicine wheel guides us through important life challenges and grounds us in the fabric all life. In this workshop with only five students, Stacey shares the qualities, stories, and associations with the cardinal directions that are universal to working with the medicine wheel. She guides students through the landscape of personality archetypes, helping you identify which are yours.
* A Note on Naming
In North America, the term “medicine wheel” is associated with sacred circles made by indigenous people. It was a term coined by Europeans when first encountering the Medicine Wheel/Medicine Mountain in Montana. It is not a name tribes originally used, but which some indigenous people have adopted. It is important to acknowledge that the origin of the term “medicine wheel” is place and culture specific. My use of the term is neither.
I work with the wheel using an archetypal lens, so that it is universal and not tied to a place or culture. Imbuing the wheel with cultural symbols and meaning is left up to the individual practitioner and their cultural heritage. I do not claim to teach or write on the medicine wheel specific to any one tradition.
That said, I did have to choose a name for this symbol, which is often challenging when it comes to symbols and archetypes. All names have origins and histories, but all archetypes are from the collective unconscious which has no beginning or ending.
I chose the name “medicine wheel” because it is recognizable to many of the people I work with, and it is descriptive of the healing qualities of this symbol. There is a practice of this term being applied to wheels outside of North America as well, so it seems to be evolving into a more universal term. We’ll see how it goes! Someday, I may re-write this article using a different name. The good thing is that I know the archetypal pattern of a wheel of the seasons will not change so this information will always be useful.
SAVE the DATE!
Creative Refuge Hour
Our next meetup for PAID subscribers is February 13, 2025 at 4:30pm Mountain Standard Time. Hopefully those of you in AUSTRALIA will be able to attend given that this is morning for you. And, this should be a good time for those of you who work weekdays.
We will be alternating between mornings and evenings for me to make it possible for people in different parts of the world to attend. This is an hour set aside for a contemplation, meditation, and creative pursuits such as journaling, drawing, or collaging! Stacey leads the first 15-20 minutes with a reading and guided meditation. You get to choose how to spend the rest of the time in a quiet creative space with a beautiful group of soul seekers. This is a fulfilling way to invest in your creative self.
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About the Author
Stacey Couch is a Spiritual Advisor who supports creative seekers learning as they go on the spiritual path. She serves beginner and life-long students of the soul. Her compassionate and collaborative approach honors the humanity and value of each person. Through meeting with Stacey, lost souls find refuge. Connection to the Divine is realized. Belonging comes. She is the author of Gracious Wild: A Shamanic Journey with Hawks. Learn More about working with Stacey
Wow! This is so phenomenal to interweave all of these within the four directions! Endless exploration. . . . Thank you also for explaining the ‘naming’. And yes, to connect with the elements is so varied as I’ve researched that some.