For Native Americans, the medicine wheel represents four directions (East, South, West, and North). For generations, this sacred hoop has been used by various tribes for health and healing. It allows you to make the most of your life and ultimately find your true purpose.
Some tribes believe that long ago the great spirit sent the people in four directions and over time changed the people to four colors. These directions come with teachings so you can live and have peace on earth.
To the east the spirit gave the red (the Americas) people guardianship of earth, to learn the teachings of the earth, the plants that grow and the food that is harvested.
To the south, the spirit gave the yellow (Asian) people guardianship of air, to learn about the sky for spiritual advancement.
To the west, the spirit gave the black (Africans) people guardianship of water, to learn the teachings of the water, the most powerful element.
To the north the spirit gave the white (European) people guardianship of fire, to learn the teachings of fire and its uses.
These four elements need to work together in order to create and maintain a great civilization. People from the four directions also blended together to form other groups, such as Latinos. Native Americans saw the earth as one country with many civilizations.
Since the gifts from the spirit are connected by a circle, mistreating one of the elements can have consequences for the other elements. For example, destroying the rain forests to the south can affect the air to the north.
The most basic part of medicine in the medicine wheel is understanding what a person is. To the east is the spiritual aspect; to the north, the mental aspect; to the west, the physical aspect, and to the south, the emotional aspect. A complete person will be in control of all four aspects.
Another way to look at the medicine wheel is with the mind, heart, body and soul. The spiritual nature is in the soul. Mental nature is in the mind, physical nature is the body, and heart is used as a symbol for emotions.
The medicine wheel can also represent values, decisions, actions, and reactions in the four directions. What a person does from the spiritual realm is interpret their values into decisions, which correlates with the mental aspect. Then, someone’s mental decisions turn into actions, which is the physical aspect. The actions produce feelings, either positive or negative. This gives way to reactions, which is the emotional aspect. The emotions provide feedback back into the value system.
The medicine wheel is a closed system with actions occurring within the circle. Many people have an innate understanding of this cycle because many of the sayings used to describe people fit this model. For example: “this is a well-rounded person” or “this person needs direction.”
As you can see, the circle part of the medicine wheel plays an important role in many Native American beliefs and traditions, going back many centuries.
At Southwest Arts and Design, we have several medicine wheels for sale to our wholesale distributors. These medicine wheels are not made by Native Americans, but are hand crafted by artists in Mexico.
Medicine Wheel Cross 
Small Medicine Wheel Stick 
Large Medicine Wheel Stick