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Medicine Wheel

(or The Cycle of Life)

By Brijit ReedPublished 2 years ago 4 min read
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Chapter One: In Which Our Hero Leaves the Barn

he woke, a snowy white owl with fluffy silken feathers speckled in the colors of earth and soil. he leapt from his perch and flew through the jagged boards composing the barn, landing in an inch of watery snow. he shook his wings and settled them, letting them fall to his sides in tranquil surrender.

Chapter Two: In Which Our Hero Takes Human Shape

he closed his bright golden eyes and then opened them, finding himself in his Mother's arms once more, her small human son, cradled in her love and devotion. he crawled in the soil, and it produced grass and flowers in his wake. he basked in his father's delight at his antics, and he thrived.

Chapter Three: In Which Our Hero Loved the Crows

he grew and planted just the seeds needed for Life, offering the rest to the starving crows whenever he saw them. he didn't know that the seeds sprouted wings inside their hearts and turned them into doves, but he learned this fact on the day that he found himself sowing his Love and appreciation for the crows just as they were-- with their harsh shrieks, foreboding appearance, and tendency to play tricks on him. he accepted and forgave them.

Chapter Four: In Which Our Heroine Appears for the First Time

when he was still a young man, he met a dove in his garden. she was sitting in a tree, eating all the apples, and peacefully watching him. she closed her soft brown eyes, and when she opened them, she’d shed her velvet feathers and become a beautiful young woman. her bright copper skin shined, and her walnut-stained hair streamed behind her as she unfolded her limbs and flew down to the ground, taking her rightful place at his side.

Chapter Five: In Which Our Heroes Thrive in Harmony

he draped her in jewels, silks, and gold, feeding her figs and almonds, honey and wine. she feathered their nest with her Beauty inside, helping it flourish and thrive with the care of the buzzing, loving creatures they made together for Life.

Chapter Six: In Which Beauty is the Majority

they produced offspring borne primarily of owls and doves; the crows and vultures were scanty. they drank nectar and ate manna. they built exquisite structures and shelters, harnessing Beauty and Light within them.

Chapter Seven: In Which Our Heroes Create Worlds for their Offspring to Explore

they painted electric landscapes of brilliant colors onto the skins and walled membranes and boundaries of the field surrounding them. they watched as the creatures they made broke away from them in order to explore the world they'd constructed. their creatures were free-- it was their choice to flee, but most of them wandered too far and lost their way home.

Chapter Eight: In Which the Offspring are Lost

later, many generations of offspring forgot how to fly, so they walked through the blistering heat and dark dreadful nights. they bore world-carved wounds in their fleshy hearts along all their journeys, while the wolves howled in the shadows around them. those generations locked their broken hearts in rattling, echoing chambers, occasionally disposing of the keys, and wandering, lost for lifetimes.

Chapter Nine: In Which the Offspring Degenerate

in their despair, the creatures turned on themselves and each other, falling into decay as their hearts hardened in hatred, greed, and violence. the vultures and the crows pecked each other and even shredded their own flesh. they bit at the owls and tore at the doves that attempted to feed them, using the wounds they made to create more vultures and crows from the bloodshed of the more soft-hearted fowl. when the majority of creatures were sufficiently enraged, each feasted on the other, expediting the extinguishment of Life already fading within them.

Chapter Ten: In Which the Vultures Depart

when it was over, the vultures abandoned the living. their leaving signaled that the surviving owls and doves could thrive and create new Life once more, springing the earth eternally green, and flourishing in the Truth of Love in Life, because that’s all there ever really was to begin with.

Chapter Eleven: In Which the Vultures are Returned to Life

and so the vultures winged it back into the barn and settled into the cold, hard, long, and lonely night. there they withered and died, closing their raging, seething eyes, and opening them once more upon their emergence from the barn as the snowy white owls they Truly were, landing in the watery snow, and being reborn as Mother's human son.

Chapter Twelve: In Which the Shamans Know the Truth

few remained ignorant of the many shamans who shook their glossy coal-black feathers and looked to the sun, their hearts bursting with compassion, knowing that vulture’s demons have always been illusions. few remained ignorant of the many shamans who knew that doves become crows when they're wounded, and that it takes a wounded crow (who's Truly a dove) to point the heartbroken boy back to his Home, for she is vulture’s loving Mothers and Daughters. few remained ignorant that we all spin the medicine wheel together forever.

Humanity
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About the Creator

Brijit Reed

Freelance ghostwriter, editor, and screenwriter striving to create a better world. Words and images are just the beginning.

https://www.instagram.com/brijitreed/

https://twitter.com/BrijitReed

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