Monday, December 16, 2013

Medicine Wheel Walk

On Saturday, Dec. 7, I walked from my house on Block Island's east side all the way to Dories Cove on the West Side. I began by standing in a small circle of stones in my front yard--a Medicine Wheel where I go to center myself and connect with the spirit world. The elementals are still vibrant on Block Island, and the presence of ancestor spirits is very strong. My intent was for my walk to follow the wheel's rim through the Golden Door of the East, heading south where spirit manifests physically, on to the west, where we go to die and be reborn, ending in the north in the hopes that the island would give me a vision. As I walked the directions, I was amazed to see how the colors of the wheel--yellow, red, black, and white, had messages for me the entire way. I am working on an essay about the walk, but would like to share some pictures with you now.

First message from the spirits as soon as I walked onto the East Beach.


Petroglyphs in the Sand

A detour onto the road showed me I was on the right track, as did the red sign below, encountered when I turned South at the ferry parking lot.



Bird pellet (Regurgitated food. Probably from a crow.)

Red buoy points the way south.

Ballast brick tossed overboard long ago.

Rusty shipwreck at SE Point.


Turtle joins me on the walk.

Normally I would be dismayed that people had graffitied a rock, but I was delighted by the red letters.



This red balloon reminded me of the entheogen amanita muscaria, further enhancing the visionary aspect of this trip.

Bluff guardians.

I read later that a forked tree is a part of the Sun Dance ritual.

Following deer tracks on the beach.

South side. My legs really hurt by now.

Fallen World War II watchtower.

Cormorants explode from their guano coated rookery just beneath the bluff's edge.
This black stone greeted me when I rounded SW Point to the West Side.

Dead seal. Seals are the totem of lucid dreamers.


I was tempted to spend the night here as the sun set.

Someone picked up these black stones from the beach and left them on this boulder for me to find.

Goose is the totem of storytellers.

It was dark when I entered the domain of the North, ruled by the color white, so I don't have any photos. Rest assured, I did receive confirmation that my prayers were answered from the ancestors. You will have to read the essay when it is finished to discover what happened. In the meantime, thank you for accompanying me on this walk to re-weave us back into the hoop of life.