For centuries westerners have lived in a society dominated by the masculine archetype — the power of thought, rationality, and the predominance of the material world. Our rational mindset is also rule-based: We believe that we must change legislation to change the world.
 
Indigenous people, however, believe in the power of perception — that by making perceptual shifts, we can change the nature of reality. They also honor the sacred feminine, beginning with our mother, the Earth, and continuing up through the first four chakras, which link us to the Earth and culminate in the heart, the realm of feeling.
 
The Laika shamans of Peru teach that by cleansing our chakras — purifying our connection to both the Earth and the spiritual realms — we balance the feminine and masculine and achieve the power to dream a new world into being.

The feminine principle is the receptive, unmanifest aspect of being encompassing all that is manifest. The masculine principle is that which is manifest. Together, these two archetypes create the expansive radiance of consciousness and self-awareness.

As we un-hook the wagon of our awareness from the little horse of the culture we grew up in, and step into the universe as co-creators, we naturally balance these.

Today humanity is in the midst of a perceptual shift of cosmic proportions. It is a shift indigenous people prophesied 500 years ago when the conquistadors drove their wisdom underground.

Awareness magazine itself is evidence of this shift: millions of individuals are awakening to our inherent oneness; our need to restore right relationship with the Earth; and our need to honor the sacred feminine and all that is creative, receptive, heart-felt, and sensual.

Fortunately, our indigenous ancestors perfected tools to assist us in making this transition. The Inka Medicine Wheel is one such tool — an ancient map of consciousness guiding us to the rediscovery of our personal and planetary soul.

Each direction of the Medicine Wheel focuses on a different healing perspective, or journey. By completing the journey through all four directions, we emerge with our masculine and feminine energies balanced and our relationship to both Heaven and Earth restored.

In the South, the Way of the Hero, we learn to shed our negative patterns. Our deepest wounds become sources of compassion, the basis of our power to heal ourselves and others. We learn to become receptive to things as they actually are, rather than “running our agenda” on them. We open up to the world around us.

In the West, the Way of the Luminous Warrior, we release karma and destructive patterns we may have carried for lifetimes. We learn the ways beyond death and perceive that no one is our enemy; everyone becomes our teacher.

In the North, the Way of the Seer, we taste Infinity — experiencing our timeless essence and dropping our limiting roles and beliefs. We live from the perspective of the mythic and embrace the epic journey into our own becoming. And in the East, the Way of the Sage, we face death and befriend it. We learn to see our world from the eagle’s perspective: the whole picture. With this accomplishment we liberate enormous power, which we can use to dream a new world into being.

For centuries, the only way to experience the Inka Medicine Wheel was to apprentice with a shaman in Peru. With the creation of the Four Winds Society, it became possible to access this ancient wisdom in the U.S. Now, the Four Winds Society has certified instructors to offer this year-long training in Ojai, California, beginning February 2012.

Dr. Alberto Villoldo, founder of the Four Winds Society, has written, “Today, we’re realizing that for all the counseling, workshops, and personal work we have done, we still feel drained by the endless battle against forces that appear to be outside of us. Collectively, we’re seeing this too.

We haven’t discovered that the way to win the war is not through resistance, but through acceptance and higher-order consciousness. The shaman disassembles his hot buttons instead of trying to get the world to stop pushing them.”

In other words, a shaman shifts her awareness and changes the world. As many of us shift our awareness together, we dream a new world into being — a world that honors both the sacred feminine and masculine; a world in balance; creation restored.

Carol Nicholson and Tomas Bostrom are both full mesa carriers in the lineage of the Laika, graduates of the Four Winds Society Light Body School, and certified trainers in The Medicine Wheel tradition. They can be reached at www.inkamedicinewheel.com