Wilderness Rites of Passage

When hunger and thirst come
don't fill it- be with it.
When discomfort comes
don't move to fix it- sit with it.
When darkness comes
don't turn on false light- stay in it.
When desire comes
don't step forward
When aversion comes
don't step away
Be rooted and naked through a dark stormy night.
And if you can sit through its story to completion
without anticipating sunrise-
Then Illumination will be yours.

- Audette Sophia

Great Article- Myths & Symbols on the Quest for Vision, by Steve Beyer

The following description is from http://www.visionssuche-heiten.de/Home_EN/The_Vision_Quest/the_vision_quest.html

An ancient rite of passage for modern people
Vision Quest: What is it ?

Throughout life, there come times of transition, times when there is a need to mark a change from one's former life. Vision Quest is a journey to guide and support you during these times, as you leave your old life behind and step into the new and unknown. It is about leaving behind every possible distraction and becoming empty.
You will journey alone, with no food and a bare minimum of equipment, into the heart of the wilderness, for four days and nights. There you will live with yourself in wild solitude as you surrender to the influences of the soul of nature and discover it to be a true mirror of your self. Everything unimportant falls away and your emptiness invites the vision of the work that must be done.

Vision Quest: What for?

Life is filled with transitions, growth is characterized by change. Humans must pass from one life stage to another.
Starting from our birth, we are weaned from infancy and brought into the world of childhood. We pass from childhood into adolescence, from adolescence into adulthood. If we marry, we leave the world of single adulthood behind. If we divorce, we return to the single state. We make our way through the adult passages, facing predictable crises at middle age and "retirement". With aging comes preparation for dying, and finally, the ultimate passage of death.
Moving to another town, changing or losing our job, becoming seriously ill, mourning the death of a loved one, all these things cause transition, bringing us into situations in which old structures no longer apply and a new structure, a new sense, a new direction hasn't yet appeared. This is the nature of a growth-crisis. In all cultures and eras, such transitions were celebrated by rites of passage and ceremonies of initiation. Without these ceremonies, individuals could not have understood or interpreted their life experiences, nor could they have been capable of assuming the social responsibilities and privileges required by their changes in station. Nowadays, traditional life passage ceremonies are no longer part of the normal spiritual and cultural life in the western world.
         In the information-focused society of today, the wall between humans and their natural environment is growing, the basic social unit of the family is breaking down and individuals are expected to be efficient and fit. We often stumble painfully through our life passages like victims, a burden to ourselves and others. This is why people often feel ashamed, suppressing the symptoms of their crises, and with them their deeper meaning and the opportunity to heal. This is a precursor to a long-term crisis. The coping strategies we are usually taught are about consumption. Particularly when we are in a phase of transition, we often feel we need something, some medicine, a new book, a car, chocolate, or drugs.
     Passage ceremonies, even in their modern form, offer something totally different.
They offer us the chance to become empty, to stop our mindless over-consumption. One must become empty and say goodbye to the old, to what we already know, in order to become open to the new, to what we don't yet know about ourselves.


The process of a Vision Quest

This rite of passage is an experience of symbolically passing from one life stage to the next. The quester moves from the stage of "letting go" to the state of "beginning". Ancient peoples often referred to this passage between the two worlds as a womb or a grave. The rites and ceremonies included in this passage were many and varied, depending upon the culture. Invariably, they provided for the growth and preservation of the social order among the people or nation.
Like all rites of passage, this ceremony is arranged according to the natural dynamic of a human life crisis. Thus it provides a basic framework for understanding and living your life. Despite the variety of rites that have evolved over thousands of years by diverse cultures, this framework is common to all such passage ceremonies.

The first stage is called "severance".

The second phase is called the "threshold“, or the "sacred world".

The third phase, is called "incorporation."

LINKS

www.wildernessrites.com- My teacher, Anne Stein- offers trips & apprenticeships
www.wildernessreflections.com - Offer quests for youth & adults
www.schooloflostborders.com - The central training school of modern rites of passage.