Canadian Health Network

What is the Medicine Wheel?

The number four is very sacred to the Aboriginal People of North America. The Medicine Wheel is an ancient North American abstract symbol that stands for "the sacredness of four." It is used by many First Nations and Métis as a symbol of the life, health and values of an individual, community or Nation. It is generally thought to have come from the Indigenous cultures of the Great Plains but it's used by many different cultures throughout North America. However, it's not used in all the traditions of all First Nations and Métis. It isn't an Inuit concept and isn't used in Inuit cultural practices in any way.

Each Nation has its own concepts, relationships and teachings about the Medicine Wheel, but as an example, here is some information about the Medicine Wheel from the Ojibway (or Anishinaabe) perspective:

How does the number four work in the Medicine Wheel?

Usually, four spokes create four quadrants on the Wheel. The four quadrants can represent many different ideas or concepts and their relationship to each other, the universe and the individual, such as:

• the four directions
• the four seasons
• the four stages of life: childhood, youth, adulthood and Elderhood
• the four parts of a person: mental, physical, spiritual and emotional
• the four distinct colours which also have symbolic meanings.

There are also four sacred medicines that represent each colour and wind direction:

1. Wiingashk (sweetgrass) represents the hair of mother earth, so it is often braided. Wiingashk is known for its beautiful aroma when it's used for cleansing. The end of the sweetgrass braid is lit, which produces a cleansing and purifying smoke.
2. Semma (tobacco) is used to offer prayers at the Sacred Fire where people burn semma and tobacco ties. Semma is also smoked in sacred pipes.
3. Keezhik (cedar) is cleaned from the branches and used to make a smoke smudge. Keezhik is also very useful for cleansing and helping to get rid of negative or "bad" energy.
4. Shkodawabuk (sage) is also used for smudging. Sage and cedar are women's medicines. They are the only medicines that women on their moon can use to smudge with.

Additional resources

Because the Medicine Wheel has so many features, people use many different versions. Here are some examples that can be found online:

• The Rouge Valley Foundation organized a group of Ontario schoolchildren to be part of its Medicine Wheel Project. You can also read about which natural elements each of them represents.
• Find out about a Manitoba program based on the healing principles of the Medicine Wheel at the Child Family Resource Centre in Cranberry Portage, Manitoba.
• The Royal Albert Museum describes the Medicine Wheels in Alberta