The Great Round of Life

[Animal Teachers (Va. Carper)]

A glimpse into my class in October at Sticks and Stones: Riding the Medicine Wheel

The Great Round

Ancient peoples perceived the world as the Great Round. Observing the cycles of the sun and moon, they viewed time as a circle. In fact the ancient Greeks called the changing stars of the sky: "The Circle of Animals", commonly known today as the Zodiac.

In the Great Round, there is the coming of Heroes and the aging of Kings. Cyclical time is endless, offering a moral dimension that linear time lacks. People repeat the cycle at different points and experience the same things from different perspectives.

An outward manifestation of the reverence for circles is sacred places in nature. Circles of stones dot the European and North American landscape. Another manifestation is stories of beings traveling in and out of connecting worlds. Myths of dragons and fairies are actually stories of interactions between various circles of existence.


Circles of Animals

Many cultures saw the passing of time in terms of animals. The Greeks saw animals in the stars. The animal signs of the Zodiac are Ares the Ram and Taurus the Bull of spring, Cancer the Crab and Leo the Lion of the summer, Scorpio the Scorpion of the fall, and Capricorn the Goat and Pisces the Fish of the winter. (These animals feature prominently in Greek and later Roman mythology.)

Native American Medicine Wheel

In the western areas of North America are large stone wheels, formed in prehistory. Called "medicine wheels", they reflect the Native Americans reverence for the Four Directions. Although many Indian Nations have different interpretations of the Medicine Wheels, they do agree that the Four Directions are governed by various animals.