NORTHWEST

Color- Blue or Brown

Teaching- Patterns and Cycles of Natural and Physical Rules and Laws

The Northwest direction is one of the non-cardinal directions. It teaches us to learn to live in harmony with the rhythm of Life. Our lives work best when we recognize and function with these rhythms rather than against them.

For example, when we are tired we rest. The body rejuvenates, and the mind changes its state of dreaming from the conscious to the sub-conscious. The seasons change and Nature reflects these changes.

Humans often create rules for themselves that they treat as laws. These laws are different from the ones that Nature has given to us in that they can be harmful and are suspect to being broken. You cannot break the law of gravity, yet you can break a man-made law. The responsible medicine person must always question the laws they have created for themselves and evaluate their truth in light of the balance taught by the Medicine Wheel. When a human being makes a law for themselves, for example, that they must have a drink of alcohol every day in order to "wind down", they may be creating a law that can be very harmful for them in the long run. When a person makes the law for themselves that they will never be happy until "Mr. or Miss Right" comes along to complete their life, they have made a law that guarantees they will never completely own their Circle of Being. They can never be happy being an incomplete person seeking another person, place, or thing to make them whole. This is a dangerous and unhealthy law for them.

The Northwest teaches us to observe the laws of Nature, of the physical world, and to appreciate the Beauty of how the choreography of Life flows through them. In the Spiritual sense, this direction asks us to pay attention to our deeds and actions that we may better live with the patterns and cycles of all of our lifetimes. The Northwest requires us to take stock of our own personal rules and laws, and asks us to look and see if we are governing ourselves in a balanced and Beauty Way.

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