The Wheel of Life is Paul Francis’s teaching on cycles and seasons, linking the outer cycles of nature, such as the seasons, with the inner cycles of our own lives. It is taught in full on the Wheel of Life course, introduced on the Next-Steps course Exploring the 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, and will be the subject of a future book. In the published books, it is announced as “a guide to flowing with cycles and seasons in shamanism”.
What is the Wheel of Life? #
A guide to flowing with cycles and seasons. A book on it is planned, with the title Shamanism and the Wheel of Life: A GuideGuides. 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 to Seasons and Cycles, Both Inner and Outer.1 The Wheel brings together the outer cycles of nature, such as the seasons, and the inner cycles of our own lives.
How does the Wheel of Life relate to the elements? #
Not in the published books so far. They introduce four of the elements through the transformation practicesTransformation practices. The family of journey-practices in which the self is deliberately taken apart, reduced to something formless, and reformed: burials, burnings, dismemberments, sky burials, dissolvings, cocoonings, poisonings, shapeshifting. A mini death-and-rebirth: cleansing, loosening of identity, and preparation for the greatest transformation of all. Read the full answer: burials with earth, burnings with fire, sky burials with air and dissolvings with water.2 The elements, “what they are and how to work with them”, are to be covered “in great detail in later volumes in this series.” How the elements and the Wheel fit together is taught on the courses. See What are the Five Elements in Therapeutic Shamanism?
How do the elements relate to the seasons and the stages of life? #
Through the Wheel’s cycles, which are taught on the Wheel of Life course. There, students work with the seasons as they turn and with the stages of their own lives. The published books announce this teaching but do not set it out.
Is the Wheel of Life the same as a medicine wheel? #
Not in the sense the books use. There, a medicine wheel is “A sacred space to do shamanic work in. Usually aligned to the four directions (north, south, east, and west) and made with an understanding of their significance, affinities, and power.”3 The Wheel of Life is a teaching about cycles rather than a physical space. How it relates to other wheels in use today is explained on the course. See What do the four directions mean?
