Pagan, Shinto & Spiritual Book Reviews February 2017

Leo Rutherford, The View Through the Medicine Wheel:

Shamanic Maps of How the Universe Works
(Moon Books, 2008)

I know little about Native American spirituality and have not read much about it, so seeing that Moon Books had a book on the Shamanic concept of the Medicine Wheel in the collection, I thought I’d give it a go.

I’ll be honest. I finished The View Through The Medicine Wheel still rather in the dark about the whole concept. This book is not a straight introduction to the subject of Medicine Wheels, as found in Native American culture. Instead, it takes a personal approach, outlining Leo Rutherford’s personal ideas about the Medicine Wheel and its application to daily life. There’s lots of diagrams of circles with each compass point representing a different idea according to an overall theme – similar to the idea of each of the quarters in Wicca being associated with different elements and qualities. But I didn’t really understand what was going on here. This book felt less of an instruction on the Medicine Wheel, and more of a criticism of modern Western society. Like many Pagan writers, Rutherford seems thoroughly disillusioned with modern capitalist ideas and promotes a more spiritual approach to life as an antidote. The View Through The Medicine Wheel therefore has an overall pessimistic, and at times even angry, tone. Especially the parts later in the book where Ruthford uses increasing amounts of capital letters.

If you too feel angry and upset with modern society, you may find solidarity in Ruthford’s writing. Personally, this medicine left me disorientated and with a rather bitter aftertaste.