Ezekiel 1: Wheels within Wheels
--------
I saw a huge ball of fire glowing like bronze. Within the fire were four creatures vibrant with life. All four had both faces and wings. In front a human face, on the right side the face of a lion, on the left the face of an ox, and in back the face of an eagle. The four creatures looked like a blazing fire, or like fiery torches. Tongues of fire shot back and forth between the creatures, and out of the fire, bolts of lightning.
As I watched the four creatures, I saw something that looked like a wheel on the ground beside each of the four-faced creatures, sparkling like diamonds in the sun. It looked like they were wheels within wheels. Wherever the spirit went, they went, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. Over the heads of the living creatures was something like a dome, shimmering like a sky full of cut glass, vaulted over their heads. When they moved I heard their wings—it was like the roar of a great waterfall, like the voice of The Strong God.
------
Ezekiel's vision is somewhat bewildering. Some folks have claimed he was being visited by aliens in spacecraft. But Native people see the Medicine Wheel. His vision is about wheels intersecting, wheels within wheels, and all the forces of nature. Earth, Sky, Fire, Wind, Lightning, Water, and the faces of God's most powerful creatures.
The Medicine Wheel is about the Seasons of the Soul, intersecting circles of life, wheels within wheels. It points to God's Creation as the Creator's way of teaching us our place within those circles.
Every lifetime is a circle of life. Within that circle are many years. Each one is a complete cycle of life. Within each year are 365 daily circles. Wheels within wheels.
Ezekiel was right. All those wheels are bewildering. All the voices just add to the confusion. But God is at the center of every circle. The Creator is the still point of the turning world.
Today, look at the Medicine Wheel of your life. Come into the circle. There is peace at the center.