How to Use the Sacred Wheel As a Learning Tool

I love beautiful questions. Beautiful questions lead to interesting conversations, connection, and new discoveries, and I’ve got one that I want to share. On that note, before I forget, I have started using the Youtube shorts as a way to answer questions. So, if you have something that you want to know, or are just interested in what other people want to know, check it out on the Youtube channel where you will find short answers to questions about the sacred wheel. The link is in the show notes.

Sorry for the segue, didn’t want to forget that. The beautiful questions that prompted this podcast was “How do I use the sacred wheel as a learning tool.” 

I don’t think as a way to worry. Most of the time, I’m not really thinking at all, but the most fun type of thinking comes from a question like this. It’s like an octopus trying to wrap all its tentacles around a bubble. It doesn’t really work so well because you can’t really pin the wheel down. It’s always changing, and yet parts of it are constant. That’s why we refer to it as a wheel. It moves.

If we go to the basic creation story found in many cultures, it goes something like this. In the beginning was the Void. It was formless until it had the impulse to create. So it created light and dark, or yin and yang, or day and night. So the masculine and the feminine. And we went from the indescribable and indivisible to something separate that had polarity. And from yin and yang came everything else. So the Void plus the masculine and feminine formed the basis of everything else and everything contains all three.

The wheel is the force that keeps it all in motion. It’s Nature herself. It’s so all encompassing that it’s hard to talk about it without contradicting oneself. She is dry and wet. He is hot and cold. It is happy and sad. It is all things at certain times while also being now and no time. So how do you learn from something so indefinable as that?

But we try to dumb it down and simplify it and there is a line from the Dao De Jing that says, “The Dao that can be told is not the eternal Dao.” And another line, I think from The Little Prince that says, “Word are the source of misunderstandings.” Keeping both of those thing in mind, because I think they apply 100%, what I am about to tell you won’t tell you what the Sacred Wheel is anymore than me telling you my name is Laura Giles. I live in Virginia and help people find themselves” tells you who I am. It can only point to it. You have to discover it for yourself through the path of the heart.

That said, the sacred wheel is path that nature herself follows through life. So as we follow the Sacred Wheel, we’re following her example. When she rests, we rest. When she’s active, we’re active. She’s always in the act of balancing herself so that all the creatures that inhabit her domain can survive. And following her path is a way to be our natural, authentic selves because she is within us.

She doesn’t judge. She’s is impartial. She’s bountiful at times and other times is harsh. But she always balances eventually. So following the sacred wheel is a way to learn about yourself because you are nature, too. I can think of only one other thing to spend your life on that is as worthy as discovering and living your true nature, and that is sharing it with others. 

When we go to school, we eventually graduate and we’re done, but with the sacred wheel, the journey is always unfolding. The sacred wheel isn’t codified or written down because it’s always evolving. We’re creating it. It has the same framework that it’s always had since the light and dark came into being, but it’s ever evolving. So, if someone says, “it’s this,” you can best believe that they don’t understand it. Not completely.

So, if it can’t be pinned down, how do you use it as a guide? 

Well, humans are liminal creatures, too. We live between heaven and earth. We are physical beings, but we are also spiritual ones and I think that is the most challenging and exciting thing to be because it’s just like nature, squirrely and hard to pin down. 

As soon as we think we have it figured out, it gets out of balance because we’ve become too left brained. We’ve started to form something that is formless. That’s the trap to avoid. So to flow with all the uncertainty when we are hard-wired for survival and that makes us oh, so anxious and hungry for a stockpile of food, fences, security, and money, we have to learn to flow like water. Those are our feminine elements of earth and water.

But we can’t just abandon our well being, so we’re going to have to take some action to see to our well-being and think things through. Those are the masculine elements of fire and air.

So, you see how they all blend to create wholeness? When they are balanced and are not competing, we can be in a space of completeness. That’s what the wheel teaches us.

And the way to learn that is through mindful living. I used to be a part of this really inspiring spiritual group that talked about animism and the wheel of life, the elements, and that sort of thing, but I ended up leaving because for one thing, it was all talk and ideas. So, after a while, it became unsatisfying. It was lopsided. There was not heart or feeling or mystery. It was all intellectual and the wheel isn’t that. But the big push out the door was the pressure to conform to a few social and political positions.

It wasn’t even that I was against those positions as much as I didn’t want to be pressured into thinking anything. Nature isn’t like that. Remember, she has no rule book. She doesn’t judge or condemn. She only allows. Everyone is a free agent. That means win, lose, or draw, it’s up to you. You have to be responsible for you and your choices.

You can be the grasshopper who plays all summer and suffers or even dies in the winter or the industrious ant. Nature doesn’t care. She doesn’t play favorites.

I know human compassion says we should help those who are unfortunate and suffering, and I don’t like to see anyone suffer, but I also know that charity won’t overcome a mindset of, I am not sure what to call that, but someone who isn’t willing to take responsibility for who they are and what shows up in their life.

Now, I am not going to say that when negative things happen, someone created that or deserved that. Lots of unpleasant things happen to everyone in life. But the people who say, “here’s my situation. How can I adapt to this” get it. They understand the sacred wheel. We roll with what shows up, adapt, and keep on going.

In animist cultures, it’s traditional for someone to wait until they are asked to try to teach you something. If you never ask, that’s on you. You don’t grow or adapt. It’s a way of having healthy boundaries. I may think you really need to learn how to fish, but if you don’t think so, you’re in control. It’s about respecting your sovereignty.

Let’s look at how nature teaches, okay? So today the sun was out. It’s a gorgeous day after many grey days, so the sunshine is particularly inviting - except that it’s not because the wind is pretty fierce and even though it is in the 40s, it’s a damp cold that feels like it’s in the 30s or even colder. 

I want to go outside and do some earthing, but I end up bundled up on the front porch to do my breath work because I want to be as close to the earth as I can without exposing myself. Nature isn’t trying to trick me. She is teaching me. And what might I have learned from that?

Well, I might have learned that appearances can be deceiving. I could learn to balance desire with practicality. I could also learn to prepare for the conditions that I actually have vs. the one I want to have. Or maybe I don’t think anything at all. Perhaps I just enjoy the time for what it is and sit in gratitude for the sunshine and don’t see anything is amiss, so there is nothing to learn. 

Embracing the sacred wheel is an intention to remember the sacredness of life. Life isn’t out to harm or trick us. We are sacred beings. Everything else is too. If we view it through that lens, it becomes insanely beautiful.

Last week or maybe the week before, I briefly talked about the difference between what is sacred, mundane, and profane. Most of us live an either mundane or profane life. If we go through life dissociated, tired, and overwhelmed, it’s pretty mundane. If we complain, are defensive, angry, and that sort of thing, it’s probably profane. Everything is out to get you and it’s a dog eat dog existence. 

The sacred wheel offers us a chance to see the light within everything. It all came from source. 

When we go around today virtue signaling that we’re vegetarian or vegan and putting others down for eating meat or processed foods, that’s not sacred. The other day I heard a woman dressing another woman down for eating quote, “low energy food” unquote, without realizing that her harassment and judgment was a low energy thing to do. 

When our ancestors had rituals before the hunt to speak to the spirit of the deer or the bison to find it and thank it for its sacrifice, that was a way of honoring the circle of life. They understood that one thing eats another to survive. And we’re all interdependent upon each other. In honoring the animal after death, they assured its resurrection so that the circle of life could continue. That’s what I’m talking about. I’m holy, you’re holy.

It’s the same for wheat or corn or whatever the staple of choice was for a group of people. Whether it’s a hunting culture or an agricultural one, people understood the relationship between life and death. Beings die so other beings can live. Through gratitude, ritual, and honoring the sacrifice, life is resurrected and returns, so the wheel keeps going.

It’s not about what you eat or being what we think of as virtuous or good. It’s about honoring all of life and seeing the connections between life. It’s about following the example of nature so that we feel like we belong to the earth. We’re One with the earth and the creatures we share this life with. It’s hard to do that when we are so far removed from our food and the earth, so if you want that connection, you’re going to have to be really intentional about it.

And if there is any lament that I hear more than any other in my coaching practice it is the sense of separation or loneliness. And in my opinion, following the path of the sacred wheel corrects that in a very global way. It’s not just connecting to a person you can snuggle up to at night or making a friend. It’s about opening your heart to the whole universe. Everything from life to death becomes a meaningful and purpose-filled event. It can feel as if life is happening for you. 

The hard places are teachers- for sure. Sometimes you have to climb a mountain to learn how strong you are. Sometimes you have to break a leg and pull yourself up off the couch to believe in yourself. There are times when you have to let yourself be carried to know that you can lean on others. 

For me one of the most fun aspects of the sacred wheel are the stories. In every culture that uses a sacred wheel, there are fables, myths, and fairy tales that teach us all kinds of things about life and our place in it. Lots of them are animals stories because animals were seen as at least equals, if not superior sometimes. Think about it. Lions are powerful hunters with really dangerous claws. Peacocks have so many eyes on their tails and can kill snakes. Vultures and condors can fly all the way up to heaven. Puny little people have no scales, no claws, no fur. We can’t fly. If it weren’t for trickster giving us fire, we would be pretty sad creatures as we’d have no advantages at all. 

That way of thinking is very different from the idea that men have dominion over the earth, isn’t it? Dominion sounds like “dominating” and that’s what we’ve done for thousands of years. That’s what’s created this society of isolation. We see people and things as commodities to be used and discarded once we’re no longer interested in them or they no longer benefit us. There is no relationship, gratitude, or reciprocity. There is no connection or sacredness.

Living in the sacred wheel corrects that. It restores the natural order and gives us back our sense of wonder. I think that’s also a really important piece of this because I absolutely saddened that children are so devoid of imagination these days. 

Have you seen the little faerie garden props in the craft stores? If I had seen that as a little kid, i’d have had a field day imagining all the adventures the faeries were having in the back yard when I wasn’t looking. I’d have been staking them out hoping to catch one frolicking.

These days you can sit a kid down in front of a pile of Tinker toys, faery garden props, a sketch pad, or Play-Doh and they don’t know what to do with it. If it’s not an electronic game, they are befuddled. Imagination, play, and fantasy are part of the wheel. 

There are tons of tv shows out now that explore the unknown, like Skinwalker Ranch and Ancient Aliens. I think that speaks to our hunger for engagement with the mystery. Finding the answer closes down the door to asking questions, and I think that shuts off creativity and expansion. 

So, I guess I am saying that the sacred wheel brings the divine feminine back into play in our lives. It balances out the patriarchy, hierarchy, and all the left brained values that we’ve been living under that I think have led to the sense of separation, competition, and general unhappiness that so many of us experience today. Not that the masculine is bad. Healthy masculinity is essential, but we haven’t had that for a while. It’s more like toxic masculinity.

So the question was how to use the sacred wheel as a path through life. Although I can’t really pin down what the sacred wheel is, I’ve pointed to what it’s like. I hope that is enough for you to start to get curious, observe, and ask questions. Don’t worry about the answers. What’s true in spring may not be true in the autumn. What works in the northern hemisphere may not work in the southern. Or what may be true when you’re 10 years old may be ridiculous when you’re 20.

I’ve talked about the elements. You have lived through many seasons. So look for those things. Be curious about them. See how what you’re observing parallels in what I’ve said. Notice what you see that I haven’t talked about. Ask yourself how your observations can be useful in your life. See how you can connect and relate to it. If it were a person, what might it say to you about what you’re experiencing right now? I have an astrologer who talks about the planets as if they are people with full fledged personalities and I have to admit that it makes it a lot easier for me to comprehend. If that works for you, do that. You might entertain the idea that everything is sacred and see how that changes things.

Be where you are. Don’t judge. Let yourself experience what you’re experiencing and be open to laughing at yourself, being wrong, and being here. If you’re vulnerable and true, you will experience what you need to experience.

I’ve seen a lot of books with titles like “Everything I Needed to Learn, I Learned From My Cat” or from gardening or sitting in a deer stand. That’s learning from the sacred wheel. It’s paying attention to life as it’s going on around you and finding the juice in every day things. We don’t have to have a miracle happen, a near death experience, or a spirit visitation to have a profound realization. It can happen by watching dust float in the air or hearing a baby cry. Magic and growth are everywhere. 

I don’t even like saying that the sacred wheel is about growth or learning because that makes it sound like things aren’t perfect right now. They are. Ultimately, you are perfect. You can’t be anything but perfect because you’re love and light inhabiting a body. Whether you understand the nature of seawater or calculus not, you’re still perfect. There is nothing to learn and nothing to do.

If you let go of the feeling that there is something wrong and just be, you will return to the Oneness with all that is. It’s really that easy. It can happen in an instant.

For most of us, it takes longer and happens in flashes of insight because the illusion of reality is  just so deeply programmed. And that’s okay too. Just remove the layers as you go, have new revelations, forgive yourself, forgive others, let people in, send love, expand your heart, and don’t hold too tightly to anything. It’s all an illusion anyway.

The more you practice being the love that you are and seeing the wholeness that you are, the more that you will be living in the sacred wheel whether we characterize the journey in the same words or not. It’s really a path of Oneness. Most find it easiest by getting grounded, learning how to cope with life’s ups and downs, figuring out who they are, then connecting with one person or a small group, and then expanding out to the whole world, but your path is your path. Do it your way.

And trust yourself. I do dreamwork and my clients will sometimes ask me to interpret a dream or they will tell me that they looked up the dream and the dream dictionary said it meant XYZ. Nobody can interpret your dreams for you. Nobody can tell you what anything in the wheel means. There are fairly common ideas about things, but your symbols are a reflection of the life you have walked so far and are personal to you, so trust your own experience. Even if 90 people out of 100 contradict you, trust yourself. Your experience was meant for you, not the 90 people who have a different opinion than you.

That said, I can tell you that it’s an easier road to walk if you’re not alone.

In my private group, we ask questions, show up, acknowledge and accept each other where we are, and sometimes have talking circles to explore things. We also sometimes have bonfires, which I always love because there is fire, stars, food, people, and nature. Having a safe place to practice is essential, I think, so consider yourself invited to join. It’s free. If you have good boundaries and a curious nature, you are welcome.

Then there is a premium group as well. There are experiences in there that can help you along your path, but I don’t call it a course or a masterclass because nature doesn’t teach that way. It’s more organic. 

When I was little, I got approval from people outside my family for being cute, and I always hated that. I didn’t value that and thought it was superficial. I got approval within my family for being curious and taking the initiative, so I learned to ask questions and take the lead. That’s what I mean by organic. Nobody sat me down and said to me, “Don’t value appearances.” That was modeled. I preferred my family’s approval and I felt more empowered by being curious and taking the initiative than being objectified, so I learned self-esteem organically.

The more that you ask questions, share yourself, and be vulnerable, the more you will see yourself reflected back to you. If you like what you see, you can learn to love it and take pride in it. If you don’t like it, you may wish to cultivate a different energy. Either way you’re participating in life and moving.

And you can always comment and ask questions here too. I really love hearing what you’re thinking and having a dialog and relationship. But the more you participate, the more you will get out of it. It’s like life. The same is true there. 

So, the community is for people who want to be the leaders in their lives and not followers. It’s for people who value sovereignty, not being told what to do and who to be. The process absolutely leads to a sense of connection, but nothing is given to you. I’ll walk beside you, not tell you every step to take. I’ve been to groups where I am love bombed at the door, and maybe it’s real and maybe it isn’t, but as an introvert, that just feels a little overwhelming. 

You’ll have a warm welcome, but it’s not a cult. I’ve also been to groups that have a step by step program for everyone. This is not that either. Every person is different. If it sounds interesting, check out the link in the show notes.

Living by the sacred wheel is not an easy path, but it can be a deeply satisfying and genuine one because you get to be you and live life on your terms while in magical connection with the universe. I appreciate you being here, guys. See you next week.