White Sage Medicine Wheel

Color Symbolism - The Circle Of Life

For those whose careers are intimately bound up with the gorgeous landscape of our American Southwest, medicine wheel color symbolism gradually evolves into much more than a sterile anthropological exercise. At Lucky Six Farms, we are acutely aware of how the high desert home of our White Sage products reveals wonders and mysteries inherent in these key hues at every turn. There is good reason for this, of course. In one form or another the medicine wheel is respected by virtually every indigenous Native American culture simply because it is a concrete manifestation of the circle of life itself and thus embodies inescapable aspects of human existence. The wheel assigns color symbolism to each of the four cardinal directions, embracing the entire spectrum of both individual and societal concerns.

Color Symbolism - Growth And Balance

While medicine wheel correspondences between directions and shades may vary somewhat from Tribe to Tribe, the colors themselves have remained constant for centuries along with their principal attributions. Progress along or through the quadrants parallels life’s journey and our concomitant growth in specific facets of vital wisdom. In addition, each section illuminates the kind of balance necessary for us to reach maturity in that specific regard. We usually commence the medicine wheel cycle with the color red, symbolizing birth. Interestingly, this hue also stands for the spiritual per se, without which life itself could not unfold. The staff at Lucky Six Farms often sees this color glowing on the eastern horizon just at dawn, heralding arrival of our characteristically brilliant sun.

The color yellow is usually associated with burgeoning youth, the period of quickest and most evident development for our bodies and minds. Yellow also represents emotion, which is at its most volatile and intense at this stage, stamping indelible marks on our personalities. Many new shoots, including White Sage, show brief bursts of yellow as they push their way up from the dark soil into the light of day.

Color Symbolism - Metaphysics At Work

Full maturation is symbolized through black. As science observes, all the colors of the spectrum are fully absorbed by black, just as authentic maturity implies that we have assimilated and understood all the variegated lessons taught through the classroom of personal experience. In addition, black embodies physicality since it is the most stolid and uncompromising of all. Black shows absolute fullness, a state of perfect balance unmoved throughout even the greatest challenges.

Last but certainly not least is white, color of both death and the intellect. Our discriminating faculties abstract and denature isolated aspects of life even as they enable manipulative understanding of them. Just because death is an inevitable part of living, intellect should never be employed obsessively or exclusively. At Lucky Six Farms, we observe that most plants assume a plain white hue when their vivifying juices have departed for the last time. It is fascinating to note that White Sage leaves, at the peak of its their life cycle display none of these colors. Instead, they assume a luminous blue-green, hues traditionally assigned to transcendent wisdom and perfect harmony. We fervently hope our White Sage products - essential oil, hydrosol, smudge bundles, cones, and whole leaves - convey those properties wherever they are dispatched across the face of our Mother Earth.

By Alan Beck