The center stone of the Medicine Wheel represents the concept of the Great Mystery.  This stone is a space holder for the supreme “All,” the Unified Field of all that is which will always be a wonder and a mystery to our limited minds.  To ponder this stone is an exercise in learning how to let go of needing to understand something at this time and finding peace without clarity.  The issue at hand is much too large to fully understand.  The Great Mystery stone is a reminder that it is not in our power to ever fully understand a person or a situation.  Everyone we meet is an infinite universe.  We can explore and discover, but as we do, the Great Mystery expands before us even further.

Trying to make sense of this world is like trying to organize the ocean.  Sometimes it is helpful to recognize when a mental task is too great for us to grasp. The Great Mystery stone reminds us it is time to let go of a certain struggle and make peace with our limitations.  We seek clarity and understanding because we believe that finding clarity will bring us peace.  In small, one-on-one circumstances this is often possible.  But in relation to the whole, we can not achieve clarity of life while still living in a physical body.  

When we stand at the position of the first stone of the Medicine Wheel, we can know for certain that we are only one tiny, tiny part of an infinitely larger situation.  To have a physical body is to be inherently limited in perspective.  You have your one perspective.  I have mine.  We can expand our perceptions, but while alive we will only find peace by making peace with being limited.  The Center Stone of The Medicine Wheel reminds us that only the non-physical (energy) dimension can ever be unlimited.  It is from this dimension we came and it is to this dimension we return.  So if you are not at peace, be at peace about that.  You can not figure it all out.  And it is not necessary for you to do so.  The clarity and revelation you are seeking will come in good time and in just the right way for the structure of your unique mind and body.

The non-physical world is the realm of thought, emotion, character values… things we can not touch or see or hear overtly with our physical senses, but which hold a quality of sensations that causes us to nod our heads and say, “Yes, there is that experience I am seeking.”  The non-physical realm is an “All” field which is governed by truth.  The foundation of the cosmos is love.  The Great Mystery stone wants us to remember that we are much more than our physical bodies.  We are a vast, eternal continuum of creative, joyful, pure energy on an exciting journey of expansion and discovery.  When standing in the energy of the Great Mystery stone, we are in a time of awe and wonder outside of time and space.  When we stand here we glimpse the Whole. We register other dimensions beyond our own. We realize how we are limited and we are invited to open to the act of opening itself.

All that exists in life is included in the whole of all that is.  Nothing is excluded from the Great Mystery which is the supreme ultimate container of all that is.  But it is not a container in the traditional sense because the Great Mystery is forever expanding.  As we see this stone in the center and notice how all the other stones radiate out from it, we see a symbol indicating the observation that we live in an expanding universe.  Expansion is joy.  Learning and changing is joy.  If your journey has brought you to stand at the first stone of the Medicine Wheel, it is a time to say, “I do not understand what is going on in this situation I am currently in.  The problem or struggle I am having with this person is beyond my understanding at this time.  I am learning.  I am letting new awareness in.  I am growing.  I will always do this.  I put down all effort and let the Great Mystery carry me through this confusion towards peace and joy.”

The center stone says that it is time to keep quiet company with the small, still voice within your heart and mind which speaks the truth to you.  The wisdom of the Great Mystery will never shout and it never impose.  To hear the teachings of this center stone, we must grow quiet, lean in, and listen.  It is time to wait calmly for truth to be revealed.  What we need to know will be told to us in the perfect time just when we need to know it.  We need not strain for any more comprehension than that.  Connect to the Great Mystery, and know you are at the center of your being, in your perfect right place in the whole.  From this place on the wheel bow to the wonder of the world and say to this stone, “Dear Great Mystery, I bow to you and take my one small place in the fabric of your wholeness.  I let awe fill me now and carry me to a clarity, not of the mind, but of my heart.  My heart is clear and free when I make peace with my smallness in relation to your vastness.  I am the student, and you are the teacher.  I acknowledge now my limited capacities of comprehension.  I stop trying to figure this mystery out.  I step aside and let you lead my way, knowing that peace and joy are all that the universe wants for me.”

The universal movement of the Great Mystery knows better than you can ever know what will bring you to the peace and joy you seek.  When we let go of our misguided conclusions about a situation and realize we don’t have the whole picture, we can let ourselves be carried through a situation by the life force that DOES have the whole picture.  This takes trust and courage to give up control in order to be guided towards the natural unfolding of peace that is inherent to the nature of the Great Mystery.  My notions of what I thought would lead to happiness will always need correcting as I travel the Wheel of life.  Sometimes I will drive my journey and sometimes I will step aside and let the mysterious Life energy carry me through.  As we begin our journey of studying the Medicine Wheel, we put down our need to control and we let Creation lead the way.  When at the Great Mystery stone, it is time to become a passenger and be carried through the movement of life.  Rest assured, it will bring us to yet another stone, another teaching, another point of discovery.

Give the exercise below a try