Shamanic Wisdom

The Medicine Wheel Explained

Walking the Medicine Wheel: How Shamanic Healing Guides Body, Mind, Soul and Spirit
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Nervous System Reset Coach. Photographer, rescue dog mom, book worm, INFJ, Enneagram 3, doing my best to be mindful, kind & help people be their most authentic, purposeful selves.

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A Shamanic Healing Journey of Body, Mind, Soul and Spirit

There are times in life when talking alone isn’t enough.

You might understand why you feel the way you do, have insight into your patterns, and still feel stuck in your body, your relationships, or your sense of direction. This is often the moment when healing asks to become experiential, embodied, and deeply human.

This is where the Medicine Wheel comes in.

The Medicine Wheel is an ancient map of transformation used in many indigenous traditions. I work primarily with an Andean-inspired wheel, guided by four archetypal animals — Serpent, Jaguar, Hummingbird, and Eagle — each representing a stage of healing, growth, and remembrance.

This isn’t a linear process. It’s a living cycle, one we move through again and again at deeper levels as life initiates us.

🐍 Serpent — Releasing the Past (Body)

The journey begins with the body.

Serpent medicine is about shedding what no longer belongs to you; old stories, inherited beliefs, survival patterns and emotional residues that the body has been holding onto for years, sometimes generations.

In my work with clients, this often shows up as:

  • Chronic tension or fatigue
  • Repeating emotional triggers
  • A sense of being “stuck” despite insight
  • Carrying responsibilities that were never truly yours

Serpent teaches us how to let go somatically, not just intellectually. This is where we slow down, listen to the body, and release what has already run its course.

Healing here is less about effort and more about giving yourself permission to feel and sit with yourself.

🐆 Jaguar — Reclaiming Power (Mind & Shadow)

Once the body softens, we meet Jaguar.

Jaguar medicine asks us to walk into the shadows not to fix or shame them, but to reclaim the energy tied up in fear, self-doubt, and outdated identities.

This is the work of:

  • Examining beliefs that quietly run your life
  • Meeting the parts of you that learned to stay small, quiet, or pleasing
  • Letting old versions of yourself die with dignity

Jaguar doesn’t rush this process. She teaches courage, presence, and discernment. With clients, this is often where deep clarity emerges, not because life suddenly becomes easy, but because it becomes honest.

Power returns when we stop fighting ourselves and start to accept what is, even if it’s not what we want.

🌸 Hummingbird — Remembering Joy (Soul)

After deep release and shadow work, something essential often needs to be restored.

Hummingbird medicine reconnects us to the soul to meaning, desire, and aliveness.

Many people reach this point and realise:

“I’ve done so much healing… but I forgot how to enjoy my life.”

Hummingbird reminds us that healing isn’t only about surviving or fixing — it’s also about living.

In sessions, this can look like:

  • Reconnecting to pleasure and creativity
  • Allowing lightness without guilt
  • Remembering what nourishes you
  • Letting joy exist without earning it

Hummingbird teaches that joy is not frivolous it is medicine, it is essential.

🦅 Eagle — Seeing the Bigger Picture (Spirit)

Finally, we rise with Eagle.

Eagle medicine brings perspective. From this height, we begin to see our lives not just through pain or personal history, but through meaning, pattern, and purpose.

This is where clients often experience:

  • A sense of trust in life again
  • Clarity about next steps or direction
  • A feeling of being guided rather than pushed
  • Connection to something greater than the personal story

Eagle doesn’t remove challenges, she changes how we relate to them. She helps us stop over-identifying with our wounds and remember who we are beyond them.

How I Guide Clients Through the Medicine Wheel

I don’t use the Medicine Wheel as a rigid framework or checklist.

Instead, I meet you where you are.

Some clients arrive deeply in Serpent or Jaguar work. Others are longing for Hummingbird after years of heaviness, or seeking Eagle’s clarity during a life transition.

Through a blend of:

we allow the wheel to reveal itself naturally.

You don’t need to believe in anything special.
You don’t need to “do it right.”
You only need to be willing to listen.

The Medicine Wheel as a Mid-Life Initiation

For many women, this work becomes especially potent in mid-life.

This is often the moment when old identities fall away, people-pleasing loses its grip, and the question shifts from “Who do I need to be?” to Who am I really?”

The Medicine Wheel doesn’t promise quick fixes.

It offers something far more enduring:

  • Wholeness instead of perfection
  • Truth instead of performance
  • Aliveness instead of coping

A Gentle Invitation

If something in this journey resonates; if you feel called to explore what your body is holding, what your soul is longing for, or what your spirit is asking of you, I’d love to walk alongside you.

You can book a free, no-pressure call HERE to explore whether this work is right for you, or step directly into a 1:1 session where we begin exactly where you are HERE.

You don’t need to have it all figured out.

The wheel meets you where you stand. 🌿🦅

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INFJ, ENNEAGRAM 3, RESCUE DOG MOM, heartmath coach, PHOTOGRAPHER, TEDX SPEAKER

Conscious Femininity Coach & Shamanic Guide

I work primarily with mid-life women who are intelligent, capable and emotionally aware, yet quietly exhausted from holding it all together.

Women who sense that there is more to life than merely coping and surviving.

Women who are ready to soften, slow down and live from embodied truth.

Book a FREE connection call to find out more about working with me.

Book a call here

Hi, I'm Emma

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