What does Honouring your Four Sacred Bodies mean?

In my training content through the Sacred Feminine Learning Lodge, I offer many medicine wheel teachings. They are wrapped in various packages that reflect how I see the world. The way the wisdom has been translated though me is unique and sometimes needs unpacking. The questions I get most when clients discover my “Honouring the Four Sacred Bodies” course are: “What does honouring mean from an Indigenous perspective?” or “What are my four bodies and why do I need to honour them?”

Great questions!

Today, I’m breaking down Honouring the Four Sacred Bodies.

In Indigenous teachings, we see the world through a wholistic lens where all things are interconnected. We are connected to the waters, to the land, to the stars, to each other. Something affecting one aspect of life always affects the rest in direct or indirect ways. It’s a comforting perspective if you focus on the fact that through this lens, everything matters. You matter. Your life and your choices are not small. They affect the whole of Creation.

A wonderful tool to help contextualize this wholistic lens is the medicine wheel.

It is a circle with four equal parts. Although the medicine wheel isn’t a pan-Indigenous symbol that spans Turtle Island, it is very useful in representing the Indigenous way of thinking. All of life is contained in a giant circle, with no parts bigger or more important than any other.

Some common references used in Indigenous medicine wheel teachings from the plains are terms like:

the four directions, (east, south, west and north)
the four medicines, (sage, sweetgrass, tobacco, and cedar)
the four bodies (physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual)
the four phases of life (infancy, youth, adult, elder)
the four elements, (earth, fire, water and air)

These various four aspects are used in ceremonial teachings of all kinds. I use them all the time. I have been taught that when we stand at the centre of the medicine wheel, we have the capacity to encompass the entire teaching and wisdom contained in each aspect all at once.

This is deep work.

Ways of honouring

I have discovered that ways of honouring have cultural significance, and are understood through varying definitions and practises. Although many of us believe that honour involves bestowing high esteem on someone or something, there are different cultural understandings.

Many western populations believe honour is given to and practised by those who adhere to an accepted code of conduct or to those who have done military service of some kind. There are medals and awards ceremonies to show honour to deserving recipients.

Indigenous ways of honouring are a little different. We tend to make the ordinary, sacred. We elevate the status of something or someone in a way that surpasses respect and lives more in the land of reverence. The one giving the honour focuses on lifting up and admiring the qualities, behaviours, and sacred nature of the subject being honoured. Honouring, in this way, is an act of love. One can bestow honour with gifts, words, recognition, love, songs, and ceremonies. For example, to show our gratitude for the gift of life, we honour the Earth. Or we honour a young woman as a Lifegiver, when she starts her moon time.

When we honour something, our regard for that thing changes. Our hearts lift in appreciation and our very countenance softens. When we honour ourselves, we soften and transform the dysfunctional ways we’ve rejected our very natures. Honouring is good medicine.

Communicating with the four bodies

The four sacred bodies are the physical body, the emotional body, the mental body, and the spiritual body. Other traditions or philosophies may have five bodies, or seven bodies, but I keep to the four parts of the circle. Every single human being has four sacred bodies operating in their lives.

Most of us have a dominant body that tends to be our fallback operating system, but all four bodies are available to us if we develop our awareness. For instance, a person with a dominant mental body may not be aware that they get injured a lot. Or a person with a dominant emotional body may not notice that their thoughts are the root cause of their painful reactions. All four bodies affect us, and it is up to us to develop a relationship with each one.

Dealing with trauma

If you are a human living in this world today, you have most likely experienced trauma. This has caused fragmentation from our knowledge of our sacred nature. Whether that fragmentation came from histories of colonization, war, poverty, or catastrophe, chances are you have been shaped from lineages of trauma.

We may not necessarily be operating as a healed and wholistic being, but we can learn to be. We are all capable of being whole. And one of the many ways is though the honouring of the four sacred bodies. Learning to listen to your physical body, emotional body, mental body, and spiritual body is a valuable step in becoming whole. There are gems that these bodies want to teach you.

There are ways your four bodies are trying to communicate with you.

All you have to do is listen.

Acknowledge.

And honour.

Remember, honouring is making the ordinary, sacred. In the act of honouring your four sacred bodies, you change your regard for your body’s reactions and sensations. A sore back or a tendency to weep, may have been seen as everyday boring, or banal and ordinary. But when bestowed with honour and respect, suddenly, those signals mean something, and are worthy of your attention.

So, find out how your body wants to communicate with you.

Find out how to honour your self.

Sit down and have a chat with each of the bodies and see what they have to say. I know you will find that they have a lot to say.