Queer Medicine Wheel Introduction

Here at the Flaming Rose, I'm hoping to chronicle some of my experiences with Mystery, including various projects I'm working on to help bring about some wonderful, juicy transformations here in our world (and, consequently, the Multiverse at large!).

For over a year now, I've been working on Queer Medicine Wheels. Below is some introductory text on the wheels, as well as an up-to-date list of the ones I've created so far. As I continue to make them, I'll put up photographs of them.

The current photo is of one that I made out of beads and wire. Each bead has a prayer associated with it, and for almost the last year, I've been saying the prayers pretty much daily.

Enjoy!

Queer Medicine Wheels
by Greg Fletcher-Marzullo

Copyright Dec. 2007

(Last updated Feb. 2008)

I settled into a trance journey to meet up with the Queer Mysterious Ones, sitting on my couch, wrapped in a cozy blanket. I grounded, focused and began to slip between the worlds.

A big, muscley, leather-daddy type that I'll call the Queer God came to my apartment and whisked me away to an old subway station that looked as if it was in New York.

Out of the dark tunnels and dimly lit platforms came various Queer Mysterious Ones, Queer Ancestors, including the Galli (Mediterranean Queer priestesses of Kybele). Some of the beings were part-animal and part-human, others were not recognizably human or earth animals at all. I saw Ganymede, Queer One of the Modern Age, and Fifi, Drag Queen of Heaven, among the crowds.

"We've abided in the shadows for so many years, and now we're breaking through to the light," the Queer God said.

A large S&M type of wheel floated out of the crowd and came to rest in front of me. It had multiple spokes on it that met in a central hub. The Queer God wanted to tie me onto it.

"Wait a moment," I said. "What is this all about? Ineed some more information. "

"This is the Queer Medicine Wheel," said the Queer God.

I looked closer, and the spokes of the wheel were comprised of and decorated with different material. Some were encrusted with gems, others were woven of leather. Some were just energy appearing as beams of colored light.

Ganymede, whom I work with regularly, came forward to reassure me, and I decided I would hop onto the wheel so I could understand it better.

They tied me down and set it spinning. I swirled around and around, losing all sense of space and time.

I saw, heard and felt Queer history. I saw the original Galli, the Troubadours, the beginnings of the Radical Faeires and Queer Spirit movements. I saw the beginnings of HIV/AIDS and the modern age.

I saw Queer Mysterious Ones from across the Multiverse creating Queer Medicine Wheels in their own elements. Some were using stones on grassy plains; some were underwater and using currents; some were in jungles; some were in worlds I couldn't possibly describe or conceptualize.

Each Wheel energetically hooked up to one another, like the "primitive" labyrinths that connect across the globe. I came to understand that the Wheels create a nexus of Queer Power across the Multiverse.

The spokes of the wheels all return to the center hub, creating a totality of Queer Spirit. All the experiences and glories of sex return there. Love leads there. Marriage leads there. Revolution leads there. HIV/AIDS leads there. Death leads there. My understanding is that all Queer experiences can lead back to this Queer Spirit Center if we can consciously work that somehow.
In the center stand the Queer Mysterious Ones, yet they fling their arms wide, becoming the outer edge of the circle as well.

"Build Queer Medicine Wheels," the Queer God said. "We've been developing this technology for years."

They stopped the wheel from spinning, and I was back in the subway station. Ganymede led me home to my apartment and my body.

*******

Since that time, I've been working on these wheels.

The first was a chalk drawing done in one of the parking lots of my apartment complex. I cast a circle, honored the quarters/elements and called in various Queer Mysterious Ones and ancestors. Then I drew the wheel out, drawing spirit map and other symbols along each spoke which represented different portions of my life. Visually and energetically each facet of my life connected to the central hub and outer rim of Queer Mystery - home, priestess work, sex, art, gardening, body work, etc. As I was doing this, a group of children came to play football around me, running through the wheel (after asking permission politely), and I could see them picking up its energy and tracking it on their feet.
Ganesha said to me, "You will live to see this work live on."
Other children asked to contribute different drawings, and of course, I let them. One little girl (named "Ocean" no less) was drawing snakes and spirals of her own volition. Most amazing!

I created another wheel in a local park out of pine cones, dirt and sticks among four large pine trees, setting an intention down with each spoke, saying prayers over each object placed in the wheel.

With blue and yellow corn meal, I created a wheel on the National Mall.

With a dear, dear friend, we created a wheel with found natural objects in a park, on the banks of a lake. This was the first time I shared doing this with another person, and it was an absolute magickal delight to see the beautiful result.

At a Queer Men's gathering over Memorial Day weekend 2007, I shared time with a group of men interested in trying this out. We all wandered the rural land where we were staying and gathered various objects to bring back to the site where we would build our wheel. Each of the people then created beautiful spokes out of rocks, seed pods, jewelry, vines and other materials and then shared the meaning behind their choices and their spokes.

I created a wheel out of beads for my initiation last spring. I wrote prayers for each bead with a central repeated prayer being, "With every footstep, a great Queer Medicine Wheel turns to meet my feet." Each prayer was a haiku, a form I really enjoy. I say these prayers every day while walking in various places, setting the spell into my heart, body and the places where I walk - the Metro, the city sidewalks, the airport.

On the fall equinox, two other Queer men and I did a long series of sun salutations dedicating the energy to various places that needed it. I had brought the beaded wheel with me and set it out on our impromptu altar. For some of the salutations, I said a prayer and then we did the movement, melding the power of yoga, our magickal bodies, breath, words and the wheel into a beautiful communal spell.

On Halloween this year, I created another wheel for Queer ancestors in the park near my house.

At the park near Dupont Circle (lovingly called "P Street Beach" by us local types), I created a wheel of dried beans, corn meal and rose petals. Oh, I enjoyed that one!

On a cold December night, I sketched out one on a card, using primarily Spirit Map symbols (more on that in another blog) along the spokes. I've sinced framed it and am looking for the right spot in our home to hang it.

Using a pizza stone as a canvas, I painted a wheel onto it that represented various spokes of my spiritual work. After painting, I set it on the floor, turned on some music and worked some sacred dance energy into the object, setting the intention of deepening my own work as a Queer priestess into the wheel. It now rests in front of my large, working altar at the hearth.