World Medicine Wheel Ceremony May 8

The Hopi called it koyaanisqatsi, a word that means "life out of balance." But Bennie LeBeau, a member of the Eastern Shoshone tribe, believes it goes beyond personal lives. He thinks the world is out of balance and he has set out to do something about it.

LeBeau, in collaboration with Native Americans and indigenous people from all over the world is planning a massive world-wide Medicine Wheel Ceremony on Saturday, May 8. The ceremony is set to take place at noon at more than 20 sacred sites in the American West, plus numerous places throughout the world, including Australia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Ireland, Germany and even the Middle East.

The ceremony is a call for not only the Native Americans, but people of all races and all creeds to join in ceremony, whether silent prayer or ritual, to set things right.

The tribes of the Western United States see the Medicine Wheel as an ancient spiritual tool for magick ritual. But instead of creating the wheel within an inner tribal circle, this one is going to be large enough to reach its spokes around the world.

The hub of the wheel will be the "Four Grandmothers," or the Grand Teton peaks of Wyoming. From there, the long spine of the Rocky Mountain range runs North and South in the wheel, with a circumference reaching from California deep into the heartland of America. From the center of the wheel, stones are set to mark the four directions, North, South, East and West.

Once the sacred space is defined, people can gather to direct thoughts, prayers and mantras in collective thought. The wheel also helps people to be physically grounded and to orient their prayers in all four directions.

Simultaneous prayer ceremonies at other sacred sites all over the world are expected to connect the web of subtle energy pathways within the Mother Earth.

"All nations, all peoples are invited to participate," LeBeau said. "All nations, all peoples are needed to work together on this -- the black, white, yellow, and red nations of Mother Earth.

"The Earth is drastically out of balance now," he said. "This Medicine Wheel ceremony will strive to re-set the basic tone -- or vibrational pattern -- of the West, and by extension help to re-attune the whole of the earth."

The ceremony has been planned not only by LaBeau, but by spiritual leaders from 21 different tribes comprising a network of indigenous people in North, Central and South America, since 1999. They began meeting at LaBeau's calling, after agreeing that the time has come for the tribes to head off a prophecy of a world crisis.

Their traditional teachings have warned of its coming. The elders from the various tribes have passed down stories about how they were instructed from the beginning to serve as keepers of the Earth. They believe it is now their duty to step forward and educate people on how to restore balance for the survival of life on Earth.

A copyright story by Steven McFadden relates a talk with Navajo elder and his wife, identified as Grandfather Martin Martinez and Grandmother Janice, about the power of the ceremonial medicine wheel.

"We need to do ceremonies continually to strengthen and cleanse and empower," Grandfather Martinez said. "It is very important to do this now. The ceremonies help to keep the negative forces at bay."

Grandmother Janíce said the ceremony would put in place another set of vibrations. "The ceremony will happen at a time in the spring when all the plants are surging with new life," she said. "If we come together in respect with the plants we can use this energy to help bring about the intention of the ceremony."

They said the medicine wheel ceremony can be a universal wake up call. "The mountain ranges have sovereignty over lines of energy that radiate around the entire earth. Thus the ceremonies we do encircling the Rocky Mountains will radiate out to other points," McFadden wrote.

The elder said he knew that many people and groups use various rituals or ceremonies to call upon forces to make change. "Thats okay," he said, "but right now Mother Earth and all the living things upon her have need of something more -- something where all the people are together and of one heart, one mind."

For the complete text of the McFadden story: Click Here