Medicine Wheel with Hyemeyohsts Storm

The 'Seated Ones'

I remember opening an Atlanta paper one day and seeing a headline that caught my attention. Medicine Wheel Ceremony with Hyemeyohsts Storm.

I had no idea who he was or what a medicine wheel was, but the words jumped off the page as though a bright spotlight was shining on them. The headline fairly shouted at me. On reading the article, it seemed to be some new age thing…yet another of the kind of thing that we were inundated with at the time.

Laying it aside, I moved on, but over the next several days, I kept being reminded and drawn back to it. Why was it calling to me?

Finally, I made the call to the organizers. They gave me the general rundown…location and time and what to expect. They said to bring a pillow for sitting on the ground. There was a small catch for me, as I had just had knee surgery and could not sit on the ground. When I told them that, I was met with a curt reply…

”Those are the rules. Come or don’t come.” It was a bit off-putting…

I wrestled with that on two counts. First, I didn’t want to get mixed up with some strange New Age stuff, nor could I meet their requirements.

Then something unexpected happened. A business associate and new friend invited me to her church in Tennessee. There was a healer coming from California that she wanted me to see. I’m not a big church-goer, but she was practically insistent.

It was a 2 hour drive…plenty of time to think. I wondered if he was all he was cracked up to be. And then I thought I was much more in the mood for the gift of prophecy.

I arrived and settled into a pew with her and her family. The congregation sang a few hymns and then they introduced their guest speaker.

He was a diminutive man, not flashy by any means. He struck me as sincere.

He told the story of his becoming a Christian. He wanted to be in close proximity to the church so he could grow. He had asked for a job cleaning the toilets…church janitor. From that humble start, he studied, he grew in the word…and in the gifts.

Then he started his work with the unexpected remark, that although he had been brought there to do a healing service, he felt inclined to do prophetic work instead. Just what I had hoped for.

I watched as he gave a few messages to the congregation. I was in no position to judge the caliber of his work, so I simply observed, but he seemed to be real. He would give a message and several hands would go up to claim it. He would scan the raised hands and direct the message to one person, adding further detail.

Then he started to give a message about a big wheel. When I heard the words, I started to tremble involuntarily…in front of my startled friends. I tried to quell the shaking and I kept silent. Surely several people would raise their hands for the message. But no hands were raised…very unusual in these settings. He elaborated a bit more and searched the crowd again. I couldn’t contain the shaking. And by now, I was feeling guilt-ridden over my medicine wheel venture. No hands were raised. He tried a third time.

I thought to myself, I’m sitting in a church full of Tennessee farmers with big tractors…with big wheels! Surely someone will take this message. Still no takers! Then he added more details…I knew without a doubt that the message was meant for me. He asked me to step into the aisle. I was so mortified, but I climbed over several people, crutches, and leg in a cast and stood there trembling.

In the most delicate and discreet way, he described my struggle around attending the medicine wheel ceremony and assured me that I was indeed supposed to go…

It was likely that no one else that was gathered there would have approved of such a thing. His message cut through the paradox. It was the final confirmation I needed.

I drove back to Atlanta in the most dazzling lightning storm. I have a thing for lightning… It is a totem for me…an indicator. I have history with it. This storm was breathtaking… As I followed the storm, I missed my exit and found myself halfway to Alabama. I turned around to retrace my steps. It was a magical night in so many ways!

As I drove, I began to feel an urge to look up my name in a concordance…Deborah. I had already done that and had memorized the few lines that it contained. But the urge kept coming. I got back home just before dawn, so tired that I nearly forgot to do it, but there it was again. I pored over the few familiar lines without any new insight.

“Deborah, wife of Lapidoth…..”

Then it dawned on me that I had never translated his name. I always enjoy that sort of thing. Let’s see what comes of it!

“Lapidoth…Lightning” Deborah was wife of Lightning.

************

A week later, I hobbled into the school auditorium and signed in for the medicine wheel ceremony. Once inside, I saw about 60 mostly young people sitting on the floor in the center of the room. I glanced around the perimeter and saw one elderly couple sitting in folding chairs on one wall, a wheelchair-bound man on the opposite wall, and two folding chairs on the right hand wall. I took a chance and headed to the right. ‘What’s the worst thing that can happen to me? They can kick me out..’ I felt terribly conspicuous, but I had to take the chance.

I watched as people entered and took their spots on the floor in the center. Mostly young, a few middle-aged, and a couple of older folks. There was an older man in blue jeans and an old plaid work shirt. He had a simple white ponytail. He paced slowly around the circle, hands clasped behind his back. I thought to myself that he was going to delay sitting on the floor for as long as possible. No one paid much attention to him.

After some time, he lifted his head and raised his voice and began to speak softly as he paced. This was Hyemeyohsts himself…

All talking ceased as the participants focused their attention on him. He continued circling.

His first words…”I would like those of you in the center of the room to take special notice of the people sitting at the edges…

These are the most important people in this room. In our tradition, we call them the “Seated Ones”.

I was red-faced as everyone turned to face us.

He continued…”You will see that some of them are old and that some of them are infirm, while yet another is young.

When Creator sits a person down, it is for a purpose. And that purpose is prayer.

Why are they the most important people in this room? It is because they are praying your future into existence. You may think that you are creating your future, but they are praying your future into existence.”

“When Spirit sits someone down, they are embarking on the most important work of their entire lives…that of praying the future into existence.”

I was stunned by his teaching.

I knew that I had been recently ‘sat down by God’….first to get my attention, to stop me in my tracks, so I could hear. I had been racing through life for a long time. He had been trying to get my attention…to get me to slow down…for a couple of years. I had treated Spirit like a state trooper. I would slow down for a bit until He was so- called ‘out of sight’ and then I would speed up again. Finally, He had to knock a leg out from under me quite literally and bring me to stillness…and to prayer.

It was exactly how I had described my experience to my close people.

I had already been shown that prayer was my primary calling….and that it was the most substantive work that one could do.. That story is told in my book “Grandma in the Sky with Diamonds”.

With that experience of being ‘sat down’, a lot of much-needed deep personal healing took place. My old life was stripped away and I was redirected…to prayer and healing.

Up until I heard this teaching, I hadn’t known that there was a context for this experience.

It wasn’t a punishment…it wasn’t an ending. It was an important new phase of life.

In the light of this teaching, it was an honor, a responsibility…with important purpose. I had just stepped through the doorway of my future.

There was some more teaching in preparation for the actual medicine wheel ceremony. Hyemeyohsts had been invited by several governments around the world to create medicine wheels for peace. This was one stop on that journey.

When he opened the ceremony, he beat the drums, acknowledging the four directions and the four elements…wind, fire, earth and water.

It was a clear, calm sunlit afternoon. When Hyemeyohsts was about to strike the drum for the fire direction, there was a sharp crack of thunder and a bolt of lightning that preceeded his strike!

There was a sudden hush as we all felt the Power and the Presence.. This was not an idle ritual. This was real….palpable connection. It was the Answer of Power…clear and precise.

At one point, Hyemeyohsts invited us to sense which of the directions we were allied with. Most of those gathered chose the three elements of earth, wind and water. Only a scant handful of us chose fire.

In that very small group, I met three people who had been struck by lightning!

One of the most poweful and endearing stories I have ever encountered came from one of those people.

This young man had been struck…twice! The second strike left him so injured that he became disabled…and eventually homeless. After some very difficult years, he was given a cot at a shelter that was connected to a used clothing store. He very slowly got onto his feet. Then he took a small job working at the store.

There was an older worker who saw his struggles. He befriended the young man and started helping him. This went on for several years. They had an unusual rapport.. a close bond.

And here is where the story gets interesting…

The old man had a secret. He was an ex-con who had served prison time for murdering his young wife. They had a four month old son. He murdered his wife and put her body and the baby in a stolen car. He drove the car to the airport and abandoned it. Then he went on the run. At the airport, someone heard the baby’s cry and the dead mother was discovered.

It was several years before her husband was found and convicted. He served his time, was released and he became homeless. In the rescue mission, he got a job. Years later, the young man came. The older man took him under his wing and helped him through life. In a chance incident, they eventually discovered that they were father and son.

Two shattered lives brought together for healing and restoration…

***************

In the Medicine Wheel teaching, old age is regarded so differently than in our culture. Instead of being a time of decline, it becomes a time of greatest responsibility, fruition and power.

We are heavily programmed throughout our lives for sickness, aging, decay, and death. Our lives are laid out before us in relentless and ruthless detail…and the body follows the mind.

In my travels, I have discovered that Americans have the worst expectations on aging…and then we go on to fulfill them! I had the opportunity to taste life outside the confines of America and it opened my eyes to better possibilities.

There is a part of me that has always rejected our sour outlook.

Death and taxes..inevitable they cry! Alright…so I pay taxes, but I really think that fallen society gets it wrong.

The Easter message says that death is the final enemy… It says also that ‘death could not hold him’.

The great Teacher and Way-shower inviting us into Sonship…into our full potential.

(you see how the message was hi-jacked)

Medicine Wheel teaching is more aligned with those ideas…

I have written recently about the experiences of evil on Cape Breton…”eyes at the window” and “things that go bump in the bed”. Here is another unexpected event of that time…

My house was a hangout for the young people there. I was the safe stranger that they could tell their troubles to. I was in the early stages of my own spiritual awakening experiences and it was naturally shared with them.

Nearing Easter,I read aloud the passages about the last supper, the crucifixion and the resurrection to the 15 or so young people gathered in my living room.

As I began to read about Jesus’ resurrection, I suddenly felt invisible hands tightening around my throat. They were murderous hands. There is no other way to put it.

It was then that I began to understand the importance and the reality of the Resurrection. That the fight between good and evil is more real than we can imagine in our ordinary consciousness...

I started out to write about Hyemeyohsts and the Medicine Wheel today…

It was not intended, but it is nearing Easter, so on this note, I will stop for today and continue this in the coming days…

As always, thanks for reading…

When God Knocks a Leg Out from Under YouDebra Robinson·May 10, 2025Read full story

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