The Medicine Wheel
All of humanity is walking through the first four chakras — meaning energy truly moves through these four lower chakras until it reaches the heart, and then it continues flowing. All of humanity is walking and healing between the energy of money, the energy of sex, the energy of power, and the energy of love.
First Altar: Earth (Root Chakra)
The first altar is the altar of Earth. This is where all our ancestors are. Therefore, it is for healing and harmonizing our relationship with our ancestors — father, mother, grandparents. Mother Earth is also here at this altar. What is our relationship with Mother Earth like? What is our energy with Mother Earth like? This is what we call Aini — reciprocity. How is that? Are we exploiting Mother Earth? Are we exploiting the beings of Mother Earth — human beings, animals, plants, minerals?
In our body, this is identified as the Root Chakra. It is the first chakra. The strongest blockage of this chakra is fear: fear of not having, fear of losing what I have, fear of change — fear of changing jobs, changing what I do — fear around the energy of reciprocity. In these blockages is also the energy of money, which represents this exchange of energy. We take money as the symbol. Here live all the fears of not having, of not being capable of sustaining yourself.
Many people keep exploiting because they are afraid of not having. They don’t want to lose what they have. And they put “being” aside a little — “I am” becomes “I have,” and we forget being because of having.
From the Earth altar, or Root Chakra, the energy keeps rising. We move to the altar of water, the water chakra — the second chakra, at the navel, where a large part of the water in the body is also located, the whole intestine. This is related to emotions, and many emotional blockages are stored here: attachments, not letting go, anger, sadness, resentments — and in many ceremonies, the medicine “gifts” you with release, unblocks you, and sends you to the bathroom in the form of a purge.
Second Altar: Water (Sacral Chakra)
Here is also our biological mother — the connection from the navel that we had with our mom — and all the suffering and conflicts we experience when the umbilical cord is cut, when we come out through the birth canal. All the traumas of birth live here too.
Also here is our relationship with our sexual energy. How are we here in our sexual energy? The blockage of this chakra is guilt. And it is also about beginning to declare ourselves healthy — that we are not guilty — while taking more and more responsibility.
Third Altar: Fire (Solar Plexus Chakra)
From the Water Chakra, the energy keeps rising and we arrive at the altar of fire, the altar of power — the power to decide whether we want to change or not, the power we exercise with other human beings, with the Earth, with animals, but above all the power to decide if I want to change something: ourselves, or the habitat where we live. The power of not blaming, the power of being our own medicine.
The blockage at this altar is the ego — the power to feed the ego or to feed the being. The strongest thing here is arrogance, or lack of humility to face, for example, seeing the darkness that comes out of us and not wanting to accept it, or saying it is outside of you, or that it is not yours — here is the fire.
And the energy goes higher — it continues rising and arrives at the altar of air, the Heart Chakra, where love is. And perhaps we have already been unblocking the other chakras, so the energy that passes through the heart arrives with more flow. Of course, there is also a great opportunity to open the heart — to let this energy flow in and out — and from that point all healing is possible. From that point, I can connect with the heart of other human beings, animals, and the Earth.
Naturally, from the Heart Chakra, from love, I can connect with the three upper chakras — the throat chakra, the third eye, and the crown chakra.