Around the Medicine Wheel with Jim Frank

I am often asked to suggest a book about the Medicine Wheel. I have not yet found a book that gives a good treatment to the Medicine Wheel as I understand it. I have been doing some writing myself and this blog offers a little taste of what I hope will grow into a book. While Joseph Rael, a.k.a. Beautiful Painted Arrow, has been my teacher and inspiration, much of what I know now has come to me from the Mother Earth as I have sat in the almost one thousand sweat lodges that I have poured or attended, as well as the many dances I have participated in. Joseph taught me about the Wheel as he understands it from growing up on Picuris Pueblo much as his people have lived for thousands of years. But he also taught me to see my world from the perspective of the Medicine Wheel. Much of what I teach is a from my personal vision which has been effected by seeing things from the Wheel, as well as an interpretation of what Joseph taught me. And this is what Joseph taught me to do, he taught that we should make his teachings our own and in turn teach it to others. I was fascinated to recently learn that in the business of translation, as in making a book authored in Spanish available in English, the final translation is always made by a person whose native language is the target language. This affirmed my teaching of Joseph’s Medicine Wheel using the language that I learned living my life here in the modern American culture. Until I get a book finished, the best way to learn what I have to teach is to attend ceremony with me and to augment that by attending my Medicine Wheel Teachings workshop.

Joseph has written a quite few books and while I recommend any of them two stand out:
Being and Vibration http://www.amazon.com/Being-Vibration-Joseph-Rael/dp/1571781196/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281194749&sr=1-3
Sound: Native Teachings and Visionary Art of Josepha Rael http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Native-Teachings-Visionary-Joseph/dp/1571781862/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281194749&sr=1-1

I reread what I just wrote and it feels a little bit like a sale pitch but that is not my intention. I am not a very good salesman, I just don’t believe in the consumer paradigm that is leading to the destruction of the Earth. My intention is to merely answer the question about a good book to read about the Medicine Wheel.

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This entry was posted by Jim Frank on Saturday, August 7th, 2010 at 11:25 am and is filed under Medicine Wheel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.