Wheel of Life summary meditation

I am pasting the class notes for the Wheel of Life Class 1, principally so that those attending later classes can consult it as a point of reference:


July 7th Class1: Introduction and Overview of the Planetary, Lunar and Solar Wheel of Life, Finding the center of our own Wheel of Life.

The main content of the talk of the class was a review of the diagrams that were handed out in class, if you have the time to review the diagrams before the next class, just to get a little bit more familiarity with the constitution of the wheel of life it will pay some dividends! (pdf copies of the diagram attached)

One basic point about the Wheel of Life is that it has evolved out of received ancestral wisdom, rather than being a revealed teaching from one particular master.
Received ancestral wisdom is really an organic body of ever-evolving wisdom that we inherit and build upon.
Revealed teachings are where a teacher such as a Jesus or a Buddha makes some form of revelatory format for a new spiritual path, and then his or her followers create a path or religion based around that approach.

The meditation:
This is the basic format for meditation work on the Wheel of Life, it can be done as a 5 minute exercise (once familiar with it), or as a longer more contemplative meditation.

Awen and Ioho
Use of the Awen (pron: AA-OO-EN) and the Ioho fo activate the directions.
Awen is the ancient Celtic (and pre-Celtic) invocation meaning ''fluid inspiration'', or ''blessings of God/the Goddess.
As we focused on the ''Aa'' we focused our energy on the sky and stars above. As we changed to the ''Oo'' we sent our energy down into the earth and land below. As we changed to the ''En'' we focused our attention on our inner center. We did this three times and then just felt the flow of energy activated between above, below and our own inner center.
Ioho is the word for the Yew tree, and invokes the mysteries of life, death and rebirth/regeneration.
We focused our attention on awareness of the 4 directions (NSEW) stretching across the planet around us, awareness of the movement of nature and the seasons and ourself as the center. With this awareness we then recited the Io-ho three times. We then sat in silence and felt the flow of directional energy activated by our chant.

Within the context of the 7 directions (invoked above), we then saw two intersecting, moving circles of light in the center of our meditation space, one embodying time (past, present, future, the cycle of the 4 seasons and 4 times of day, 4 stages of life), the other embodying energy (4 elements, 4 states of consciousness, 4 energies of creation).
These two circles expanded to enclose us, we then focused on placing our energy in the center of the still point in at the middle of this cycle of time, space and energy.
(Note: If we are doing this meditation by ourself the center of our circle/wheel of life is our own center (within our heart center), if in a group we can feel the center to be the central point within the space that we are working in).
We held our awareness in this center, and moved our mind gradually and without hurrying into a state of stillness.

After staying with this state for a while we then visualized 4 gateways around us. In the north was earth, night, winter. In the east air, dawn, spring. In the south fire, noon day, summer. In the west water, evening, autumn. We felt the energies of each of these gateways, and the effect of the interaction of these 4 directions when visualized together.
In the intermediate directions we then visualized the 4 stages of life, and the 4 stages of manifestation.
NW: Old age, death completion.
NE: Birth, childhood, new creation
SE: Young adult, formulation
SW: Maturity, manifestation
Again we felt the effect of these energies in our space for a while.

We then moved back into the center of the wheel, back into silence and stillness for a short while.

Without hurrying we then moved out of the meditation and back into full awareness of our physical being.