Duncan Wordley - Medicine Wheel Shamanism

[ShadowDancer]

Discovered Duncan Wordley, a Medicine Wheel Shaman, in the UK.  He is so esoteric that it makes my head hurt as I read his site.

His website is Medicine Wheel Shamanism

His teachers include many who have been discussed in this forum:

Donald Ford
L.C.C. Chairman Chairman of Inner London Magistrates Writer and Poet.
My first mentor and poetic midwife
who taught me to believe in myself and embrace challenge

The Mythical Don Juan
Shamanic Awakener and planter of seeds

Petrushka Clarkson
Sue Fish
Maria Gilbert
and fellow therapist travelers at Metanoia 84 - 87

Robert Bly
Midwife of Brotherhood

Jose Argeuelles
mystic and time lord
(through your books only)

Heather Campbell & Leo Rutherford
Medicine Way showers

Harley SwiftDeer(Thunder Strikes)
Mysterious Character Nagual and Master of the Matrix

Gabrielle Roth
Initiator of Re-membrance Spiritual Midwife and Mistress of the Moving Matrix
fellow teachers and the dancing tribe

Batti ThunderBear & Rose ThunderEagle
and the apprentice tribe
friends and teachers

Arwyn Dreamwalker
dreamer and sorceress
and fellow Dreamweavers

Wallace Black Elk
Traditional Elder and Linage Carrier

Joseph Rael (Beautiful Painted Arrow)
Visionary and Sundancer

Hyemeyohsts Storm
Zero Chief and Nagual

Victor Sanchez
Shamanic Re-Awakener
(through your books only)

Don Miguel Ruiz
Toltec Master Nagual and Teacher of Heart
and the modern Toltec's

He has this to say about his teaching of the Medicine Wheel.  At least he doesn't claim to be an NDN.

As a European not a Native American, my understanding of the Medicine Wheel comes within its own cultural context and has been integrated with my own understanding of matters sacred. The main teachers I have studied with have been Métis, which means mixed blood. These are people who have both native American and European blood. They have in the presentation of their teachings, translated what they have received into a more contemporary idiom. In some cases drawing from western esoteric and psychological knowledge to engender understanding.

As someone from Britain I have integrated these teaching with remnants of knowledge from my own cultural pagan traditions, which share some similarities with this new knowledge coming from America. My Celtic ancestors would have been familiar with circles of power, as this way of holding and using knowledge as it is a universal feature appearing in many cultures. For me there is no question of trying to become a Native American Indian. The study of the Medicine Wheel has helped me reinvigorate aspects of my own spiritual heritage, which has over thousands of years suffered the same fate as them, being crushed and persecuted by similar colonial forces and subjected to the spread of Christianity which actively sort to replace our own indigenous spirituality and beliefs.

The simplicity and enduring power of what they teach has helped me to develop my own understanding of them which honours their ancient and sacred roots whilst utilising them in a modern European context. In the end I feel strongly that all spiritual knowledge is there to benefit all the people of the world, no matter what their race colour or creed. In this time of the reckless destruction of the planet all the people of the earth need to use the knowledge preserved within the Medicine Wheels as a catalyst for change and to create new contemporary understandings upon which to base future actions.

He also connects the Mayan, Celts, Vikings, the Sundance, Medicine Wheel, etc. all together.

There is an obvious connection between the Celtic or Keltic traditions of Europe and the Medicine Wheel path of the Americas, in that the circle was a significant and powerful organising principle used within their spiritual cosmologies. As well as a great reverence for the natural world and organic magic and in this respect they share a similar spiritual alchemy.

But the connection between these traditions goes far deeper and a study of one can inform and expand the knowledge of the other. Without doubt the Celts and the original inhabitants of the British Isles, had a vast and complex knowledge of the spiritual nature of reality and how to work with the natural and elemental forces of nature. It must be remembered that the Celts were not the original inhabitants of these Islands, both Stonehenge and Newgrange predated the arrival of the Celts by over nearly 3,000 years and it is very likely that these original people like the Maya were the remnants of a previous maritime civilization possibly related to the mythical Atlantis...

...After working with Hyemeyohsts Storm and reading his book 'Lightningbolt' I discovered that there was direct contact between the Medicine Wheel tradition and the traditions of these islands. He suggests that the Medicine Wheel was brought to North America by the Mayans during one of their large migrations from Central Mexico.

They settled in Arizona in the Chaco Canyon area and there they came into conflict with a large land army of European's who were a formidable military force possessing 'iron shirts'. The conflict between these peoples threatened to annihilate both and it was only the secret meeting between the medicine people of both that stopped the conflict. They found though their dialogue that they shared many values, in particular both had strong inhibitions against human sacrifice and slavery.

Eventually both groups decided to join together and become one people, which they did after assassinating those leaders that argued for war. Hyemeyohsts Storm states clearly that these peoples brought with them a substantial body of knowledge which he calls the 'Earth Lodge Sun Dance Teachings' and that this knowledge was integrated into the Medicine Wheel tradition. My understanding of this is that these teachings informed and created the Native American Sun Dance and the sweat lodge ceremonies. 

Although our history has not recorded the Sundance as part of our culture or any large migrations of our people to the Americas before Columbus, it is fact that the Vikings created colonies in Newfoundland and that both the Runes and Celtic Ogham have been discovered. Interestingly when early Welsh settlers in the Americas encountered a tribe of Native Americans, known as the Mandan who grew beards, they had blond hair and blue eyes among them, and spoke a defendable form of Welsh. Unfortunately this tribe which when first encountered numbered over 7000 individuals was quickly reduced to a few hundred by the ravages of disease brought from Europe, to which they had no immunity. Thus much of there history died with the tribe.

In September 2011 he will be hosting workshops Holographic Software For The Human Mind and Shamanic 5Rhythms Ecstatic Dance & Movement Work for:

COST Residential £130 – Inc. camping @ Mellowcroft (Sat evening) Evening meal, Breakfast & Lunch, drinks during the workshop. Non- residential - £110

Saturday 10th & Sunday 11th September 2011
with Duncan Wordley
In this dynamic 2 day workshop we explore the history behind The Medicine Wheel, its true power as a tool for gaining self knowledge and how it acts as a catalyst for personal transformation.


Day one of the workshop will focus upon a variety of Medicine Wheels showing how this system of knowledge is constructed , how this relates to your life and how it provides us with a series of organic holographic maps that function as templates for exploring the true nature of the self and others.

Day two will focus on the Twenty Count, a profound shamanic device that demonstrates interconnectedness of all things as a mathematic sequence of evolution and a geometrical expansion of the conscious intent of the Great Spirit. This will help you understand your place and soul purpose and can be used to empower and enhance your life.

For people who are unable to attend workshops in person, he offers a thirteen unit online course The Cartography of the Invisible which teaches Medicine Wheel, Shamanism, Spiritual Alchemy and Toltec Related Practices.

This is a one year online course consisting of 13 units that takes you on a journey of discovery through a fascinating web of the Medicine Wheel Teachings, Contemporary Shamanism and Toltec perspectives, bringing to life the invisible structure of the spiritual world, in a practical down to earth way.

[ShadowDancer]

He has a Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/duncan.wordley

A Linked-In page

http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/duncan-wordley/21/bb/271

He is connected with The Rainbow Serpent project where the page has this to say about him:

Profile Information

Hometown? Country?
    welshpool powys

Do you have a connection with The Rainbow Serpent and/or what is your interest in the Rainbow Serpent Project?
    I have a connection to the Rainbow Serpent through shamanism and the mayan and hopi prophecy's.

Talents, Abilities, Passions:
    Healer teacher dancer and ceremonialist catalyst for individual and collective change a weaver of the web.

Tell us all about you...
    I am the director of ann organistion called The Circle Of Flowers
    which honours the transformational process we are in and what the Maysns call the Sun Of Flowers, we specialise in teaching shamanism, medicine wheel, toltec perspectives, Mayan calendar, dreamspell spiritual life coaching and self development for the new era. i have worked in the arena of shamanism and medicine wheel and 5 rhythms for the last 22 years and have previously done serious apprenticeships with shamans and medicine people.

What Year were you born?
    May 9, 1954

A search on Youtube brings up a list of videos  of him presenting the Mayans, Medicine Wheel, Atlantis and the Celtic Connection filmed at TruthJuice (oh... the irony of that name  ::)). 

[educatedindian]

As a European not a Native American, my understanding of the Medicine Wheel comes within its own cultural context and has been integrated with my own understanding of matters sacred. The main teachers I have studied with have been Métis, which means mixed blood. These are people who have both native American and European blood. They have in the presentation of their teachings, translated what they have received into a more contemporary idiom. In some cases drawing from western esoteric and psychological knowledge to engender understanding.

...After working with Hyemeyohsts Storm and reading his book 'Lightningbolt' I discovered that there was direct contact between the Medicine Wheel tradition and the traditions of these islands. He suggests that the Medicine Wheel was brought to North America by the Mayans during one of their large migrations from Central Mexico.

They settled in Arizona in the Chaco Canyon area and there they came into conflict with a large land army of European's who were a formidable military force possessing 'iron shirts'. The conflict between these peoples threatened to annihilate both and it was only the secret meeting between the medicine people of both that stopped the conflict. They found though their dialogue that they shared many values, in particular both had strong inhibitions against human sacrifice and slavery.

Eventually both groups decided to join together and become one people, which they did after assassinating those leaders that argued for war. Hyemeyohsts Storm states clearly that these peoples brought with them a substantial body of knowledge which he calls the 'Earth Lodge Sun Dance Teachings' and that this knowledge was integrated into the Medicine Wheel tradition. My understanding of this is that these teachings informed and created the Native American Sun Dance and the sweat lodge ceremonies.  

That first quote I bolded comes across as pretty racist. He's claiming NDNs and NDN ways are in the past, and only the Nuage are supposedly contemporary/advanced.

That second mishmash of pseudo history, what can one say...It's wrong in so many obvious ways.

He (and Heywhatever Storm) confuses Chaco Canyon with the Pueblos, obviously. Spaniards came to the Pueblos and conquered them. Spanish priest were extremely brutal and intolerent. This provoked the Pueblo Revolt, when Pueblo people killed many of the priests who had been persecuting them. Finally after a couple decades the Spaniards agreed to leave Pueblo beliefs and practices alone if the Pueblos would accept Spanish authority again.

There was no mutal agreement to kill each others priests. Storm and Wordley are blaming the victims. They are outright claiming it's a good thing to kill NDN medicine people as they were supposedly intolerant and the cause of wars. Lying bastards, both of them.

And except for WBE and Rael (who were both fullblood exploiters) there's not a single NDN in this bunch of supposed Metis teachers. All the Deer Tribe people, except for H Reagan, don't even claim to be NDNs, just take wannabe names.

This one's no contest. Moved to Frauds.