Blog

Jacquelyn Le Messurier-Ritchie

27th July 2018

SOUTH

EMOTIONS and WATER

The element of South is water which signifies emotions. Our emotions are rooted at the very beginning of our life in our childhood and the moulding that took place as we grew up. All things good and bad will have had  a direct effect on our emotions, our self knowledge and view. We would have partaken in false evidence gathering in order to justify the story we told our selves - our truth as we saw it and as it suited us to believe. When bad things happened. Frightening things, upsetting and painful things. Betrayal of trust and so on, this would have created very real and deep wounds alongside the false narrative we were creating and would have compounded our beliefs. As we get older and these wounds are not healed they will rule us through our emotions. Our view of the world will be totally skewed by them.  If they are not healed one will never move on from the emotional trap this forms and it will forever frame our view of others, ourselves, our relationships and the world.   It will dictate our terms.   So in the south we are asked to face full on and honestly these wounds and find ways of healing them.

Emotions do need to be felt and expressed fully and wholeheartedly, but in balance.  They can legitimately be the first reaction  and magnificently so, but not fearful, name calling and not an attempt to assert power or take power from another.  The expression of emotion should be pure and have integrity to both the expressor and the reciever, if there indeed is one. Expressing emotion can be a solo experience.

Water,  represented in my medicine wheel in the South,  forms a close relationship with emotions. Water can run deep, be turbulent, crystal clear and calm.  It can be hot or cold.  It can transform into ice and be simply amazing or ugly and deadly. It can cause great damage in turbulent volume when it goes where it’s not wanted and so on.  I could also be talking about emotions. So there is a real parallel. So is it the cure to emotional wounds?  Well on a spiritual or philosophical level, yes  according to the teachings its is one of them to some degree.  It shows you the way. Water when balanced in its environment is incredibly flexible, powerful and nurturing. It is able to get over, under and through virtually all obstacles.  It is the fountain to life.  Water cleanses and purifies.  It’s what we wash in to clean away what we don’t want, to make things pure.   Water cleanses energies as well as physical objects. Lying in a bath, standing under a waterfall or wild swimming are all some of many ways of cleaning not only our bodies but our energies in water.  South provides the healing power of water. South opens your eyes to recognise your wounds as a wounded child and then water offers up an understanding and therefore access to a path of healing.

Emotions are fundamental but not the whole picture. We can learn to see the whole picture by following the map of the medicine wheel and it’s cycles.

Transformation

The South is a place of transformation.  Snake is it’s totem in the map I follow.  It sheds its old skin and for a little while goes blind during this process, relying totally on its other senses. It’s prioritising and trusting. It renews it’s self.  In this we can see the metaphor for renewal emotionally and spiritually, shedding of old or no belief systems, habits, lifestyles and so on to be our best selves, to be wondrous in our own eyes, to be full, awakened to your senses and the full world around you. Frog comes from a tadpole, butterflies from caterpillars etc. Emotionally we need to transform from the wounded child to the healed adult.  The snake is a healer, so through our desire to be healed, to regain lost innocence and enjoy a carefree existence we embrace snake and the healing it offers.  This medicine touches our very life force and will help us to become whole full and well.

Summer

The time of year represented in South is summer where nature is abundant with summer flowers, verdant plant life, animals are in abundance, fruit are forming.  It’s full of colour and life, lush with vibrancy. A time for celebration of the joys of life in all its forms

It’s the summer of our lives. A time for being carefree and following our instincts to behave naturally like a child, innocent and un touched as yet.

Red

The colour of the South is red. Red ochre was found easily by our ancestors as where the other four colours of the medicine wheel. ( black, yellow and white). Red is the colour of blood. In a little ritualistic shamanic song, a line is “ water my blood “.  Red is often associated with passion and anger. Both extreme emotions and expressions of personality.

Plants

Plants live in the South. Mother earths verdant summer forests, lush mountains, and jungle canopies and floors. Plants blooming in healthy full growth. It’s a celebration of the beauty of life. Plants also give life.  South is giving.  All the plant eating animals on earth owe their very existence to plants. Plants give oxygen into the air. Nutrition into the earth. They can live again with vitality after fire. They inhabit our oceans giving nourishment to aquatic creatures. They live in harmony with water, air, earth and living creatures. They are an exemplary example of balance.

Fear

South is mostly the place where your fears are rooted. Fear is rarely logical.  It’s based on a past which is gone and a future which hasn’t happened. Fear is the enemy of the south.  Most fears are rooted in emotions.  Emotions that until healed are wounded and so the fear will mostly be  irrational. It will still feel very real to us until the original wounds are healed and then we can hope and endeavour to turn away from the fears and become more powerful.  Of course some types of fear are very necessary.  The fear of the big predators that are about to eat you or falling off a high cliff as that would undoubtedly kill you also.  But other fears that are “phantom fears” cause trust issues, paranoia, insecurity, relationship difficulties, life issues!    If one moves through and experiences a life based on fear it will never be fulfilling, vital or full.

Past

The past is in the South of the medicine wheel. Our past in this life and past lives. This is what has formed us, our belief systems, our personalities, our lives, even our body’s shape, texture and posture. The lines around our eyes and face as we age.  We are the product of our past.  It’s inevitable, but we can choose our perception of our past which reflects on how we behave, think and feel in the present which can change our path into the future and sometimes we can do this magnificently.

As a child we are conformed as if by cookie cutters. We learn to be predictable. The same as everyone else. To conform to expectations and to fear being different. To fear the resulting judgement by the conformed others. Not belonging. Being the black sheep. When we start our lives squeaky clean we are beautiful, uncluttered, undamaged or groomed.  We are perfect individuals.  We shine our lights individually with joy. But sadly non of this is allowed.  Slowly and definitely we are boxed into conformity. Not to stand out. To disappear neatly and quietly into the crowd.  So the child becomes a wounded child and is filled with fear. It’s this fear that then forms the basis of behaviour for the resulting wounded adult. These fears must be faced, addressed and healed.

Shield

The shields for the four directions are not protective but a declaration. A coat of arms. So the South shield declares the history of our childhood. The loss of individualisation, trust and innocence are declared here.  We can spend our lives trying to get the approval of our parents or even disapproval due to their negative reactions or behaviour to or around us as children.  This is often projected onto partners and can dictate the type of relationships we look for and create. A type of self fulfilling prophesy.

So through understanding South we can find healing. This is the first and most important step on the medicine wheel. We can cycle around the wheel connecting directions and what they represent to improve our understanding through healing and add other dimensions of understanding that can change our inner voice and subsequent narrative.  But the root is always firmly planted in the child, our past and our wounds and the need for these wounds to be healed. It’s the first, biggest and probably hardest step to take.