Moon of the Crusted Snow
A northern Anishinaabe community after the grid fails.
The nations whose medicine wheels and four-directions teachings carry the circular story: the Crow (Apsáalooke), whose Burnt Face is told with the Bighorn Medicine Wheel; the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi), whose elders carry the teachings of the four directions; and the Plains and Woodland Cree. Each nation holds its own teachings. Cyclical · World Story Plot Architecture
The cultural ground of a GriotsWell World Story World, built from this people’s stories, mythology and history.
Cosmological / Narrative Structure. A world storied as a circle — the narrative moving through the four directions (East: new beginnings; South: growth and action; West: introspection and release; North: wisdom and completion) to the Sacred Center where the circle is complete. The story itself travels the circle, each direction a movement of the narrative, returning to wholeness at the center.
Time. Cyclical — the story travels the circle through the directions and completes it at the center, a narrative turning toward wholeness.
The Valued. The completed circle of the story. The movement through the directions as narrative stages. The sacred center where the circle closes. Wholeness and return.
Approached with respect and restraint. The medicine wheel and the four directions are sacred within living traditions. Only the shape of the circular story is described here; ceremonies and restricted teachings stay with their keepers.
The World Mythology Catalog → the world’s stories by people and by source.
The medicine wheel story is inherently circular: the narrative travels the four directions and closes the circle at the center. Each direction is a movement of the story, and the arc is the completed circle — a turning toward wholeness and return. It is cyclical architecture in its circular-narrative form: the story coming round to wholeness at the sacred center.
East (new beginnings — the story opens) → South (growth and action — the story develops) → West (introspection and release — the story turns inward) → North (wisdom and completion — the story gathers its meaning) → Sacred Center (the circle complete — the story comes round to wholeness).
Speculative fiction that draws on this tradition, from the World Sci-Fi Catalog.
A northern Anishinaabe community after the grid fails.