THE NORTH OF THE MEDICINE WHEEL

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Clear thinking is not a quality that seems particularly valued in the Shamanic World. If anything, it has become the shadow of the emotionality that was rightly reclaimed in the 1960s from a society that was excessively rationalistic and materialistic.

One consequence of this is that many of us are easily hoodwinked by claims that have the appearance of rationality, but are in fact emotionally manipulative. I soldier on amidst this foolishness, I put my head in my hands and I pray that we can collectively have more wisdom, so that we can be apart from, instead of contributing to, the various madnesses that will always possess the world.

I've just been watching one of those pieces, shared by shamanic people, that purport to show a conspiracy around Covid 19. I won't say which conspiracy, because I don't want to get into a Punch and Judy Show over it.

What to watch closely for is sourced FACTS out of which you can form an opinion. What you usually get instead is an assertion of fact, or an appearance of fact, quickly overlaid with an emotional appeal about how someone is being bullied, or denied free speech etc. And you have protagonists who know how to appear sincere and truthful. If you don't know how to spot proper facts and their lack - if your strengths lie elsewhere than rationality - then you may well be taken in and take sides. 

Snopes does a good job of fact checking, please do this before you press share and pass on the delusions - it is the opposite of what we are meant to be doing.

The North of the Medicine Wheel is the place of the Mind. It is the last point we reach in the journey of life, which shows how difficult most of us find this place. It is NOT about flashy logic and being good at schoolwork. That does not teach you the North. It is a place any of us can cultivate, and it concerns disinterested judgement. By that I do not mean cold: you find passion here, a passion for truthfulness and fairness that will on principle always try to look at all sides of a question, out of which comes the good judgement of the Elder, who also lives in the North.

A slightly sharper way of making my point is to say that so many people are not interested in truth, they are far more interested in positions that support their emotional biases, such as that the world is really ruled by such and such a dark force that is out to oppress them, and maybe they can see themselves as a warrior for standing up to this.

The opposite point of the Wheel, the South, also needs to be addressed, the child that feels powerless, that, to an irrational degree, feels more acted upon than acting. The emotionality of the South is a remedy for the cold rationality of the wounded North that you find in our culture; and the disinterestedness and desire for truth of the North is a remedy for the wounded or childish emotionality of the South, which thinks that because they feel something is so, it therefore is so.