The Sacred Circle

The sacred circle or mandala can be found as a prominent symbol in all forms of worship. Circles painted and etched into stone and created by stones have been found in the caves of our earliest ancestors, for indigenous people pray and celebrate using the sacred circle. Perhaps the first Medicine Wheel dates back to the time that humanity was given the gift of fire, for as long as we have been sitting around the fire and telling our stories, we have acknowledged universal truths and our part in the great circle of life.

 

Rose Window, Chartre, France

Rose Window, Chartre, France

The circle is a universal symbol of wholeness and unity since the circle has no beginning and no end. The turning and returning cycles of life, death and rebirth, the movement of the sun, the moon, the seasons, the stages of our lives; reminds us how everything we do, and everything we are, is interconnected in a perpetually revolving cycle.

Everything the power of the world does is done in a circle. The sky is round and I have heard 51nzxmgQyBL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_that the earth is round and so are all the stars. The wind in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing and always come back again to where they were. Life is a circle from childhood to childhood and so it is in everything where power moves. Our teepees are round like the nests of birds and these are always set in a circle, a nest of many nests, where the Great Spirit meant for us to love our children.” — Black Elk, Black Elk Speaks

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