Everyone has fear when approaching a vision fast, even those of us who have gone out twenty times or more.
Remember that you do not do it all at once. From our living room it seems an enormous leap, but it is in fact many smaller steps, each one do-able. We write a letter of intent, arrange our schedule, make travel plans, pack. We arrive in a new place, meet our guide and companions, and tell our stories. In a small group we share our fears, address physical and safety needs, learn about ceremony and what to expect, practice sleeping out under the stars. By the time we walk alone out of base camp, we have already left behind most of the fears and questions that seem so imposing to us now.
That question is between you and your physician. There are some medications that it may make sense to lower the dosage or do without during the fasting phase. For some conditions that is out of the question, and many of these medicines should not be taken on an empty stomach.
Many people who have to take medication have undergone vision quests, bringing with them small amounts of crackers, juice, or other supplements to allow them to continue a healing regimen.
Medicine is about becoming whole: physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Taking care of you physical health is important. It is not ‘cheating.’ A vision quest contains many kinds of ‘medicine,’ for healing the heart, soul, and spirit. Remember that you will be alone, in wilderness without books, conversation, electric lights, hot showers, and entertainment. You will be ‘fasting’ in many other ways.
In thinking about a vision quest, you might consider it as an interaction between ‘set’ and ‘setting.’ ‘Set’ encompasses what you bring to the experience – emotions, expectations, motivations, intentions, etc. – while setting is what appears to be outside – landscape, climate and weather, animals, etc.
Your set, whether positive or challenging (desires and demons, purposes and fears) will likely be the same regardless of where you undertake a vision quest, while the settings can vary widely in different locations and different times of the year.
Particular settings do have unique qualities and differing energies. Death Valley is a land of grand vistas and immense space, is dominated by the elements of air and fire, while, Vermont, and with its wildlife, streams, and lakes embodies the elements of earth and water. (A more detailed description of sites is provided on the website www.questforvision.com)
Some people consider it important to quest within the area and ecology closest to where they live, while others feel drawn to go outside of what is familiar to them. However, a quest always involves the encounter between the known and unknown, and the desire to discover what is unknown and wanting to emerge in ourselves will lead us to approach even the most familiar settings in new and unusual ways.
Yes, you could, but it would be very different. Although the core of the vision questing process is solitary, traditionally this activity was never done alone. There have always been guides, mentors, and shamans who prepared the initiate to cross the threshold into the sacred world. These same guides were there when the initiate returned, to help him/her make sense of the journey and translate vision into the forms and terms of social and everyday life.
If our intention is to journey beyond the self we know and are familiar with, leaving the preparation in the hands of that self is poor strategy. “Old tapes,” habits, and repetitious ways of looking at the world can easily accompany us into the wilderness and back. There are important teachings about ritual, ceremony, physical preparation, and the methodology of the questing process that we would not get if we were doing this alone. And the presence of guides and companions who provide different perspectives, compassionate mirroring, honest feedback, and stories in which we see ourselves in new ways is an invaluable resource.
Going it alone can be powerful. Fasting, solitude, and the contact with the spirit in nature are excellent teachers. But the instruction involved in the preparation phase and the emotional support and help in integrating one’s story make it a qualitatively different experience.
Many people have undergone a vision fast with little or no camping experience. You will be sent an equipment list long before you leave home and be well-instructed in safety procedures and shelter techniques during the preparation phase. The basics, such as backpack, sleeping bag, etc., can often be borrowed from a friend or rented from camping equipment stores if you don’t have them. We can sometimes be of help (especially in Vermont programs) recommending or providing equipment.
If you can walk for a mile and a half with a backpack on, you are likely in good enough physical condition to participate in a quest. Since people often enroll months in advance, you can practice walking with a pack and build endurance if you are in doubt. Over the years people with various physical disabilities and conditions have been able to successfully undertake vision quests.
During the solo time, your activity level will be up to you. Some questers are very active while fasting, undertaking long walks, performing ceremonies, or staying up through the night, while others are quiet or contemplative, staying in a relatively small area.
Surprisingly, fasting is rarely a problem for anyone. Eating is highly conditioned by routines, schedules, or stimuli such as the smell of food. Or it can often be driven by unconscious emotions, such as escaping from stress. Away from the everyday patterns and habits of our lives, it is a much different experience.
Hunger itself is usually momentary and fleeting during the first two days of a fast. Later, it often disappears altogether. The main purpose and effect of fasting is the expansion of awareness and the change of consciousness it engenders. There can be physical challenges to not eating, such as a lower level of energy, but hunger is unlikely to be one of them.
These FAQ’s cannot truly describe the feeling of community that forms around the experience of a vision quest: the sense of belonging, being heard, and making a difference. This can be unexpected, as our pre-arrival time is focused on our personal intentions. These communities often stay in touch for years after a quest, writing, providing support, and sometimes getting together for reunions and further journeys.
Participation in a vision quest starts long before one walks into the wilderness. The seeds may have been planted long ago, and your arrival may seem part of a process unfolding steadily and naturally. Or the decision may be sudden, a crisis or transition causing something long hidden to burst forth with a compelling force, one cannot deny or refuse. It may just seem “the right thing to do,” an affirmative way to answer a question, mark a change, or renew the spirit.
Whatever path brings you here, whether you feel called or driven, you enter a process that is solitary, unique, and universal. We stand alone before our mother, the Earth; we stand before our gods and goddesses; we stand in our authentic selves. As kindred souls have done for millennia, we come to experience a dying and rebirth.
Good preparation is important, and you will begin well before leaving home. You will be asked to write a letter of intent, responding to questions designed to help the process of focusing and clarifying your purpose. You will undertake a medicine walk in the month before you arrive and read The Trail to the Sacred Mountain (provided in your welcome pack), a handbook giving detailed information about the concrete, mythical, and allegorical structure of the quest experience.
Upon your arrival, we will establish our preparation or base camp. Having said good-bye to friends and family, having left home and packed the equipment and belongings deemed necessary, one’s purpose becomes focused and clarified. Four days of council are devoted to completing your preparation. Others may be preparing with you and, though focused on their own solitary quest; their presence lends support and provides insight. Friendships and a deep sense of spiritual community are unexpected blessings.
The days will pass quickly and there is much to be done. Our meetings will focus on creating physical and emotional balance; refining and clarifying one’s myths, goals, and life story, and how these relate to your purpose. You will receive instruction on traditional forms and vision quest “events:” creating ceremony and ritual, the mirroring aspects of nature; myths, and allegories of the vision quest; the dynamics of fasting; safety procedures; medicine wheel teachings, and ritual forms of purification and attunement. You will be helped to integrate these teachings into your personal worldview and situation.
We then journey to an area where you will find your place of power, where you will live alone for four days and nights. In sunrise ceremony you will take your leave and cross the threshold into the Sacred World. During this time you will be completely alone, but close enough to base camp to receive aid, should you need it. Once a day you will visit a designated place (your stone pile), leaving a sign that communicates your safety. Other than this minimal requirement, your time is yours to be in intimate contact with nature in its many forms, with yourself and the Spirit-in-all-things.
Returning to base camp marks the beginning of incorporation. There you will be welcomed with simple ceremony and the sharing of food. With reflection and celebration, we begin the journey back into the human world. The work of incorporation is to again take on the cloak of our civilized life and to wear it lightly and gracefully.
This phase of the program lasts three days. After washing off the dirt and dust of wilderness we will feast together, observing the fast-paced world we left behind. We will participate in an Elder’s Council, sharing stories of our time in the “Sacred World.” Your story will be attentively witnessed and listened to, and you will be assisted in finding your truths and meanings, owning your gifts, and claiming your power.
How are the seeds we bring back to be planted in the daily world with its dysfunction and distraction? How can we protect what is important and sacred, nurture it, and make it grow? What gifts do we have to give to our people? We must ask and answer these questions if our vision is to guide us in daily life. We must find a way to say, “Yes!” to life as it is to be effective and give thanks for the gifts we’ve been given.
After we have held our councils, had our feasts, and shared our ceremonies we must part. With renewed commitment and gratitude for the insight, rich experience, and friendship we have shared, it is time to walk our “path with heart,” re-entering the world we left behind to make real our vision. There the living work of the vision quest awaits us.
