Purple Healing

Forget ‘Black Friday’! Grim, grim, grim! If someone were dragging me off to the shopping mall this weekend, I suppose I’d be feeling a little on the dark side myself. Let’s focus on something more cheerful…the color Purple.

Many are familiar with the four colors of the Medicine Wheel, or the four cardinal directions..also known as the ‘Four Winds’.

Did you know there are actually seven directions?

The Medicine Wheel is the circle of life. The four directions are the four stages, or the four seasons of  life. These stages have also been compared to four distinct hills on the journey.

Starting in the East where the sun rises,  is the first direction represented by the color Yellow. The east is birth and enlightenment. It is the first hill that is childhood. It is the springtime of new vulnerable life protected by the spirit. It is a time of magic and innocence.

Red is the color of the south wind. It is the warmth of summer. Growing and learning, it is the hill that is adolescence. The journey between these hills is said to be a gradual one. We are cared for and nurtured as we approach the third hill. We are taught the skills we will need to survive the third act of the play.

Between the second and third hill is a great gulf. It is the place of vision quest when we set out on our own. It is a spiritual journey where we must confront peril and face our own death before we arrive in the West as adults. We have become fully realized on the journey and are now our own protectors. Not everyone successfully makes this journey.  Some never attempt it.  It is the autumn of our lives represented by the color Black.

Gradual again is the journey to the fourth hill. Getting on with the business of life while possibly ushering in a new generation, the years seem to fly by. A grey hair here, another there. When did our children start having children? In the winter of your life, represented by the color White on the wheel, you have almost come full circle. You’ve become one of the ‘Elders’. Hopefully, you will have some wisdom to impart before you return to the spirit.

Above and below the wheel are the fifth and sixth directions. Below is our Mother Earth who nourishes and sustains us. She is the color Green representing the physical, nature. The four are entirely dependent upon her. Above the wheel is Father Sky, the sixth direction, the color Blue. He is the spirit who hears our prayers. He is the air we breath. The four are entirely dependent upon him as well.

In the center of it all is you! You are the seventh direction. You are the hub of the wheel because when all is said and done, your experience here is completely subjective. You are the awareness and perception of all that exists. Only you. Maybe, you’ve dreamed the whole thing up. Right?  The seventh direction is the color Purple.  Tradition says that purple is also the color of healing.

Ok…so back to the Purple Saturday thing. Maybe it’s Sunday…somewhere between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. If there were a long line to get on any bandwagons, I’m sure I’d be the last one in it. But someone once suggested making hay while the sun was shining, so I’m having another 15% off sale from Friday till Monday. Just send me an email.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.