South

[Note:  If you have not read yet the pages about the Circle and Directions, please consider doing that now, before you read this page. Those pages should ideally be read in this order: Circle, East.]

CIRCLEsouthIn the northern hemisphere, summer rides up on warm winds from the south during the months when the corn ripens. This is the time of fertility, maturity, and productivity. It’s warm afternoons of gathering blackberries, the long green swath of summer lushness rising in grass and leaves so slick they shine, the mature years of men and women who have settled to their lives’ tasks and to homes and families and being part of a healthy community. The color is red.

People sometimes wonder why the time of mature plants and abundant growth is represented by red on the Circle, rather than green. As it happens, in some Native traditions the color green is used for South for this very reason. But other traditions — including the one we are using here — represent South with the color red because red earth and life’s blood both pulse with the fertile creative force of the living Land.

Continue within the South, to Experiential Ways of Knowing and Learning.

Go to the next direction, West.

You may use the table below to explore the directions, their associated ways of knowing and learning, and an example of each type of learning as applied to understanding tornadoes.

Directions on the Circle Ways of Learning and Knowing Tornado Example
East Intellectual Ways of Learning and Knowing Intellectual Ways of Learning about Tornadoes
South Experiential Ways of Learning and Knowing Experiential Ways of Learning about Tornadoes
West Spiritual Ways of Learning and Knowing Spiritual Ways of Learning about Tornadoes
North Mythic Ways of Learning and Knowing Mythic Ways of Learning about Tornadoes
Center Integrated Ways of Learning and Knowing Integrated Ways of Learning about Tornadoes