NIARI Curriculum Project

Gifts Of The Four Directions

East	South	West	North
light	youth	darkness	elders
beginnings	fullness	the unknown	wisdom
renewal	summer	going within	thinking
innocence	the heart	dreams	analyzing
guilelessness	generosity	deep inner thoughts	understanding
spontaneity	sensitivity	testing of the will	speculating
joy	loyalty	perseverance	calculation
believe in unseen	noble passions	stick-to-it-iveness	prediction
warmth of spirit	love for another	consolidation of power	organizing
purity	physical balance	management of power	categorizing
trust	control of appetites	spiritual insight	discriminating
hope	determination	daily prayer	criticizing
acceptance of others	goal setting	meditation	problem-solve
unquestioning love	senses training	fasting	imagining
courage	music development	reflection	interpreting
truthfulness	gracefulness	contemplation	intellectual
birth	art appreciation	silence	completion
rebirth	sense discrimination	retrospectiveness	fulfillment
childhood	passionately involved	respect for elders	end of lessons
illumination	idealism	and spiritual struggles	finishing
guidance	attraction to good	and others' beliefs	detachment
leadership	repulsion to bad	spiritual awareness	freedom from
beautiful speech	compassion	sacrifice	-fear
vulnerability	kindness	humility	-hate
clearly seeing	anger at injustice	love of Creator	-love
-complex situations	repulsion of violence	commitment to self	-knowledge
watching over others	feelings	-higher knowledge	holistic
guiding others	refinement	-moral code	insight
perspective	develop & control	-struggle for others	consciousness
hope for the people	ability to expression	ceremony	balanced life
trust in own vision	-of good & bad feelings	clear self-knowledge	being centered
focused attention	-to set aside feelings	vision (possibilities)	moderation
concentration	-to serve others& potentialities	justice	serving others

Adapted from The Sacred Tree: Reflections on Native American Spirituality - Four Worlds Development Press, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada