Labyrinth Wisdom

Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 14

"It is a native tradition to sit in a circle and talk--to share what is in your heart."

--John Peters (Slow Turtle), WAMPANOAG

The talking circle is also a listening circle. The talking circle allows one person to talk at a time for as long as they need to talk. So much can be gained by listening. Is it a coincidence that the Creator gave us one mouth and two ears? The power of the circle allows the heart to be shared with each other. What we share with each other also heals each other. When we talk about our pain in the circle, it is distributed to the circle, and we are free of the pain. The talking circle works because when the people form a circle, the Great Mystery is in the center.

(from the website: www.whitebison.org)

I especially like today's Elder Wisdom. One reason is the concept that a talking circle is, as well, a listening circle. There's also the reminder that Great Spirit is always at the center.

It reminds me that, while we typically refer to the formation as a circle, this is an illusion, or at least an inadequate description.

For in a fuller, truer image, the circle is an ascending spiral, formed as the Talking Stick is handed from speaker to speaker.

Each person, in responding to those who have come before her, creates a heightening of the conversation, raising the two-dimensional line of the circle to a new, higher level. Each speaker in turn--whether going from oneself to ones immediate neighbor, or skipping across to the neighbor on the far side of the circle--raises the consciousness of the gathering to ever-ascending new levels, forming a vertical vortex of conversation, an arising spiral, a living labyrinth with Great Spirit at its Center.

And the seven-fold ascending paths are created by the heart-messages, -thoughts and -intentions of those sitting around the circle.