The Four Winds or Directions have a spirit and power lessons for us to learn from.  Each Wind or Direction is associated with a season or a changing in the rhythms and tides of Mother Earth.  There is  an animal totem and a color that represents  each of the directions that the Four Winds travel across Father Sky.

In the case of the Directions or Four Winds of the Medicine Wheel the Chief animal totem is actually called a Spirit Keeper because the totem of the Directions is a power totem, if you will.  These  Spirit Keepers are Beings responsible for teaching us about the power of the direction of the wind they represent.  When we are born we are given one of these Spirit Keepers by the Great Spirit.  These power totems from the Four Winds  are much  like a Guardian Angel, if you will.  They are given to us to guide us, teach us, and protect us.  We can think of them as the Team Leader over the team of  the Spirit Helpers (our birth totems) that watch over us and give us the medicine lessons during our lives.

Although we have one Direction and Spirit Keeper who particularly watch over us, we can always learn much from each of the Four Winds.  The next series of posts will explain what we can learn from each Direction of the Four Winds and the Spirit Keeper who is the Chief of that direction. We will learn about the winds of North, East, South, and West along with the Spirit Keepers Waboose (White Buffalo), Wabun (Eagle), Shawnodese (Coyote), and Mudjekeewis (Grizzly Bear).

~Mitakuye Oyasin~ We are all related