What do the four directions mean?

What do the four directions mean in shamanic traditions? #

Each direction is usually understood as a kind of energy or power, used in ritual and in making sacred space. The shamanic teacher and writer Christina Pratt describes six directional energies, east, south, west, north, above and below, which together define a seventh point, the centre; staying aware of that centre is what keeps a shaman from getting lost in the boundless realms of non-ordinary reality. Each direction is linked with an element, a season, a time of day, a colour, an animal and so on, and in her account these links show both consistency and variation across cultures. For many cultures, though not all, the north is linked with earth, winter and night.¹ She also describes the circled cross, a symbol found carved and painted in many parts of the world, as a shorthand for the shaman’s universe, in which the crossed lines are the four directions of the physical world, and the point where they meet is the Tree of Life, the central axis.² See What is the World Tree?

Is there one Native American meaning for the directions? #

No. Many Native American peoples use the medicine wheel as an organising structure in their lives, and different nations and teachers place the colours of the directions differently, whilst sharing the principle that everything is interrelated.³ One example is the teaching of Joseph Rael (Beautiful Painted Arrow), who grew up on the Southern Ute and Picuris Pueblo reservations. He makes clear that he is not teaching traditional tribal practices or secrets but his own visions, and in his medicine wheel the north is spiritual energy, the east mental energy, the south emotional energy and the west physical energy, none able to exist without the others.⁴

These teachings belong to the peoples and teachers who carry them. They are explained here with respect, and Therapeutic Shamanism does not take them over. Adopting the customs and practices of an oppressed culture without its permission, acknowledgement, respect or real understanding is cultural appropriation, a highly sensitive issue in the shamanic community, and rightly so.⁵ See Is Western shamanism cultural appropriation?

What part do the directions play in Therapeutic Shamanism? #

A modest and practical one. A medicine wheel, in the sense the books use, is a sacred space to do shamanic work in, usually aligned to the four directions and made with an understanding of their significance, affinities and power.⁶ Before a journey some practitioners ‘open the circle’, facing each of the four directions of the compass in turn and inviting in the GuidesGuides. The Lower-World and Upper-World beings a practitioner works with and learns from, of whom the Power Animal is the first and foremost. True Guides are ethical to their core; the shaman’s power comes from the depth of these bonds, not from the shaman. More about this and helpful spirits. This is one pre-journey ritual among many, alongside smudging, drumming or simply lying on a favourite blanket. Its only purpose is to signal the move from ordinary consciousness towards shamanic consciousness. Some practitioners insist that it must be done; in Therapeutic Shamanism it does not have to be, and there are no rules about it.⁷ Paul Francis rarely feels the need to open the circle himself. See What part do ritual and ceremony play in Therapeutic Shamanism?

What the directions themselves mean is taught through the Wheel of Life, Therapeutic Shamanism’s own teaching on cycles and seasons, which brings together the outer cycles of nature, such as the seasons, and the inner cycles of our own lives. It is taught on the courses. See What is the Wheel of Life?

What about above and below? #

They are the shamanic realms. Whether or not it is an objective reality, people journeying very commonly experience shamanic reality as divided into three realmsThree realms. The Upper-World, the middle-world and the Lower-World: the cosmological map of shamanic reality. Rooted first in the Lower-World, then the Upper-World, and only then the middle-world. Read the full answer: an Upper-WorldUpper-World. The realm of Father Sky and of Spirit: spacious, rarefied and clear, layered in tiers, offering not escape but perspective. Not better than the Lower-World: we ascend rooted, and bring the gifts back down. Read the full answer above, the middle-worldMiddle-world. Ordinary physical reality together with its energetic layers: the realm of individuality, separation and mixed intentions, and the only realm where harm is possible. “If there is a hell, then it is the middle-world.” Read the full answer we live in, and a Lower-WorldLower-World. The realm of Mother Earth: pure, unspoilt, wild nature, with no technology and no agriculture. Home of the Peoples and of our own Soul, and completely safe: feeling threatened in a journey is a reliable sign of not having reached it. Read the full answer below.⁸ The direction of a realm says nothing about its worth. The idea that ‘up is good and down is bad’ is a value judgement soaked deep into our culture, a kind of spell, and one that has shaped our relationship with the natural world and with the Lower-World itself.⁹ See What are the three shamanic realms?

The centre has its place too. In Therapeutic Shamanism it is the axis mundiAxis mundi. A real, physical place in nature where the veils between the worlds are thin; the world-axis (World Tree) from which a shamanic journey is entered. Read the full answer, the centre of the worlds, where all the worlds connect and from which a journey sets out.¹⁰ See What is an axis mundi and why does place matter?