This is an excerpt from my book, “Unity Begins Within: Spiritual Healing Meets the Four-Petaled Flower.”

I was a practicing Spiritual Healer for fifteen years before I traveled to the ruins of Teotihuacan, Mexico, in 2006 and encountered the Four-Petaled Flower. In a flash, this mysterious ancient symbol activated something deep within my soul and became an image I couldn’t get enough of. A few years later, as I was co-leading a group journey at the ruins with my artist friend, Emily—whose visions grace this book—I met Sarayna, my Teotihuacana spirit teacher. She shed light on what the symbol meant in ancient times:

The Four-Petaled Flower is a symbol of the Unity of All Life. It is Wholeness, Beauty, Fragrance, Bounty, Harvest, and Union. The energy of each petal imparts its own unique quality, and the center of the flower is a fusion of all four petals and creates the energy of the entire flower, which is Unity.

Receiving this teaching enhanced my preoccupation with the Four-Petaled Flower, which by then, I was unable to imagine living without. Then, eleven years after that first sighting and energetic infusion, as I was in the process of writing this book, its presence took me by surprise— it felt like a sudden visitation. Images from the Temple of the Feathered Conches began dancing in my mind, and Sarayna’s words became a constant chant. A few days later, while walking with Apu (my corgi-mix companion) one hot, sunny morning, the Four-Petaled Flower showed me what it wanted. I rushed home, immediately found a large sheet of white paper, and with brightly colored markers, drew what became a Medicine Wheel!

Medicine Wheels are sacred symbols of Native American culture. Each wheel is divided into quadrants that embody the special energies of the four directions (East, South, West, North) and their relationship to the four stages of life (birth, youth, adulthood, death) as well as states of being (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual). Indigenous peoples create and interpret the Medicine Wheel in their traditional ways, determining the colors, elements, animals, and plants associated with each direction. The emphasis of all Medicine Wheels is balance within the self and interconnection with Mother Nature.

Jamie Sams, a Native American author of Cherokee and Seneca descent and respected member of the Wolf Clan, wrote several books about Native American spirituality. In The Sacred Path Cards, she says, “The Stone Circle of the Medicine Wheel is a symbol of Sacred Ceremonial Space that has been honored by our people for centuries as a place to come and experience the beauty of the cycles of physical life. These cycles of planting, gestation, birth, growth, change, death, and rebirth are the life lessons of the Sacred Hoop.”

Like the Native American Medicine Wheel, the Four-Petaled Flower is not a time-fixed idea or experience. Both are life-long (and beyond) processes. We can step into the East at any time, walk around the petals all the way to the North, enter the Center, look up and notice another flowered wheel awaiting our feet. And then another…

Join me on a journey to—as Jamie Sams states—“experience the beauty of the cycles of physical life.” It begins pre-birth, in the pure Spirit Realm of Unity and Oneness, travels to Earth, where duality and suffering are commonplace, and returns full circle, at death, to the Unity of spirit. This four-petaled exploration seeks to awaken—person by person—the collective amnesia of the Oneness of our spiritual roots. Each petal along the way offers opportunities to rouse from the slumber of spiritual separation, rediscover our primal legacy, and recognize and heal inner disunity. The union of Spiritual Healing with the Four-Petaled Flower creates a mystical alchemy that has the potential to move us out of exclusive emptiness and into inclusive Unity.

Imagine yourself sitting on a cozy couch or chair in my living room surrounded by like- minded spiritual seekers. There’s a wooden table in the center of our circle—a group altar that’s covered with a beige-and-brown, handwoven alpaca Peruvian cloth—filled with items you and the rest of the group have brought from home. A crystal that someone’s deceased mother gave her. A photo of another person’s young son. A rock from a sacred mountain that the owner carries in her purse. An owl feather. Your special object.

A white, unlit candle sits in the middle. Let’s light it. Open our ceremony. And step into the Four-Petaled Flower together.

We’ll enter in the traditional starting place of all Medicine Wheels—the East, where Grandfather Sun rises every day—and explore Unity in a circular fashion, the style in which I teach and the shape of the petaled path. Allow the teachings, stories, explorations, and paintings within each petal to broaden your awareness and free you from whatever might be keeping you from living your uniquely unified Four-Petaled-Flower potential.

And even though we’re exploring collectively, make sure to take all the individual time you need. There’s no rush. A petal might take you by surprise, and you may linger. Then, when you reach the Center, sit down for a while, and enjoy a cup of hot tea or a glass of your favorite wine. Receive. Integrate. And most important, honor yourself for the commitment and work it took to arrive there.