Yearly Archives: 2017

Dreaming Your Life

Dreaming Your Life

In our current worldview, dreams are considered nonsensical and irrational. They don’t satisfy our requirements for “reality” and are judged as irrelevant to our daily lives. But in the view of many peoples throughout history, we’re dreaming all the time. Unaware that we might be dreaming, we call our dream “reality,” and in so doing, consign other states of awareness — the “realities” of primal peoples, the ecstatic journeys of… Read More »


Thoughts on Vision and Mission

Thoughts on Vision and Mission

When people ask the meaning of the name, Circles of Air and Stone, we answer with a poem.

Circles of Air, Circles of Stone…
The Earth circles, and night follows day.
We bury our seeds; we bury our bones;
While sacred birds circle and prey.

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Living in Imaginary Realities

Living in Imaginary Realities

“All large scale human cooperation is based on… sets of rules that, despite existing only in our imagination, we believe to be as real and inviolable as gravity.” **

Vision quests nearly always include a profound encounter with different orders of “reality,” as one’s current dreams and stories – often separating us from the earth, ourselves, and each other – encounter that primal reality which gave birth to humans in… Read More »


Tradition and Non-Traditional Times

Tradition and non-traditional times

Over the years, many people (who may not have thought it through) have said to me, “I’d like to do a traditional vision quest.” The obvious response, “Traditional to who?” usually elicits the reply, “You know, a Native American vision quest.”

In the year 1500 AD, 15-20 million people in North America lived in 200 separate nations with a wide range of languages, traditions, and cultural practices. Given that diversity,… Read More »


Having a Purpose

Having a purpose

This marks the beginning of my 30th year leading vision quests. During this time, I’ve witnessed remarkable changes in many people. But beyond the particular individuals, I’ve seen how life and lives can be transformed by a sense of purpose and direction… transformed in ways that can seem almost unimaginable, ways that can make all the difference in the world.

Many people are upset by recent events, at a loss… Read More »


Circles of Air & Stone • Putney, Vermont