Four Days and Nights Vision Quest Ceremony
“During the thresholds of my own youth I found solace playing in the creeks and canyons near my home. The land around me offered space to explore the joys, frustrations and questions I carried into adolescence. I remember longing for someone to guide me into the wilderness and assist me in finding who I was, where I was going and what gifts I had to offer.
Now, I understand that in each of us there is a calling, often awakened during adolescence, to become initiated into the mysteries of healthy masculinity or healthy femininity and to have mirrored back to us words that help answer the question, “Who am I?”” – Kedar S. Brown
Throughout indigenous cultures spending time in nature with the guidance of an ‘initiated elder’ was understood as a way of nourishing this growth. In our culture today it is often understood that to learn who you are is a process of being infused with enough information so that you might one day decide what you will do. Interestingly enough, the word education comes from the Latin word ‘educare’ meaning to draw forth from within.
Answering the question, “Who am I?” is not something you will learn with enough new information. It is something you must remember! You will step through the threshold circle into the natural world for four days and nights to pray for your people; seek your vision and remember who you are.
Following the ancient ways of initiation rites from around the world, you will go alone into the wilderness with minimal provisions to fast on the land and pray for vision. Nature will reflect both shadow and light aspects of your life and the mysteries of your personal medicine.