Vision Quest Guide Training

Training & Initiation in the Art of ‘Guiding’ Ceremonial Wilderness Rites of Passage​

Kedar offers this Training through Rites of Passage Council.

The Rites Of Passage Council is a 501c3 non profit organization dedicated to supporting personal growth and professional development, providing core training in eco-psychology, ritual process healing, ceremonial initiation, teaching leadership skills, and supporting the creation of sustainable and environmentally responsible communities. We advance no singular spiritual belief system. We support the opening of compassion and a trust in the Spirit of ones own understanding. 

Logo for Rites of Passage Council featuring stylized turtle line drawing

Our 2021-2022 program is full and underway. The 2022-2023 training cycle kicks off July 20, 2022, and runs (in six sessions) thru early November, 2023.

About Vision Quest Guide Training

“Almost every culture throughout history has traditions involving the initiations or rites of passage in the wilderness by which individuals confirm the attainment of new life stations i.e.: manhood, womanhood, or elder years and other important life decisions. The wonder year, the pilgrimage, the vision quest and the underworld journey are typical of such initiatory experiences. Rites of passage are deeply embedded in mythological consciousness as well the fasting prophets of Judaeo-Christianity, the questing ancestors of the Aboriginal Dreamtime, the pilgrimages of the Buddha and Mohammed, the medieval knights and their quest for the holy grail, the underworld journey of the great matriarchal deities, and Native Americans such as Crazy Horse, Black Elk and countless others.” (Foster and Little, Book of Vision Quest).

Over the ages we have experienced a decline in many of the meaningful rites of passage and initiation practices for our people. The once sacred and transformative ceremonies and rituals that informed early cultures with a sense of personal vision, community responsibility and deeply rooted connection to earth and spirit have often been replaced by “pseudo initiations” that do not facilitate or support the needed shift in consciousness required to enter into new life stations and responsibilities such as conception, graduation, baptism, confirmation,marriage, divorce, change in career, times of psychological or spiritual crisis, and developmental life passages. 

This training is for those choosing to become ceremonial rites of passage guides. It is not for everyone nor is it for those seeking therapy. This is an initiation and will it challenge you to move beyond out grown patterns of belief. Each training module will cover various aspects of the pan cultural form and process of vision quest passage rites. This training will also expand your awareness of indigenous shamanic wisdom teachings as they relate to working with the other than human world and safely guiding others through the initiatory passage of a soul descent. We will meet for six sessions over a sixteen month period. All sessions (except session five) will be near Asheville, NC. Session 6 location somewhere else in the USA is TBA. This training does lead to certification by Rites of Passage Council. 

Awakening Evolutionary Leadership

Indigenous Wisdom & Heart-full Attention in an Ever-Changing World

The following videos were recorded from the Awakening Evolutionary Leadership webinar. 

The six intensive sessions of the Vision Quest Training cover, in-depths, these concepts and practices:

1. Historical & Cultural Context

Modern day & history of rites of passage ceremonies
Cultural vs. Pan Cultural Rites of Passage Ceremonies
Integrity, Impeccability, Appropriation & Ethics

2. The Calling

Indigenous wisdom vs. modernity’s distractions
Bone memory and ancient mythology
Various forms of the calling
Refusing the call vs. accepting the call What next… 

3. Severance Phase

Death Lodge Work / Shadow Work / Dream Work
Medicine Wheel: Tracking & the Four Shields of Initiation
Learning to offer accurate ritual prescriptions
Creating a strong container for ceremony
Ceremonies of preparation
Bundling up the prayers of your people
Use of story telling, poetry & song
The gate-keepers at the threshold
Knowing your terrain 

4. Threshold Phase

Threshold ceremonies of departure
Fasting and wilderness safety
4 day & 4 night vision fast 
Common elements of the threshold phase
What to do if…
Circle of purpose: The tomb and the womb
To cry for a vision so that your people may live
Medicine names: “Follow Your Name”4

5. Return Phase

Threshold ceremony of return
The way of council: story telling & personal myth making
Give a-way ceremony
Deflation stories & preparation for return
Closing ceremonies 

6. Incorporation Phase

Boundaries, Power Differential & your students
Various Models of Rites of Passage Ceremonies
Nuts and bolts of base camp logistics, set up and needs
Site selection: knowing your terrain.
Ways to track the psyche of your participants
Screening participants before they are accepted
Taking this work to your community
Where to go from here…

7. The Other Than Human World

Not just a metaphor or projection
Intuitive awareness, mindfulness, tracking & discernment
The realm of the Dead vs. Ancestral Helping Spirits
Our Elemental Ancestors: Earth my body, Water my blood, Air my breath & Fire my spirit
Deep listening & honoring the Spirits of the land
Making offerings, asking permission & offering gratitude
Prescriptive Rituals: Fire, Water, Earth, Mineral and Nature
Working with your Helping Spirits Energy awareness & paying attention
Shamanic journeying and remote viewing 

I have known Kedar for a long time as a man of spirit with remarkable devotion to healing. He tends to this duty with royalty and ferocious commitment. As a man who hears the call of Earth and Nature, Kedar extends his hand to those in quest of change and transformation, and is always willing to lead them into and guide them through, a deep sense of communion with themselves..
Having worked with him in a number of rituals and ceremonies, and watched carefully the way he gives of himself to spirit, I have come to respect his priestly devotion to the sacred in Nature and in every human. His work deserves respect and reverence.”
Malidoma Some` PhD. World renown author, teacher, initiated elder & West African Shaman

Our 2021-2022 program is full and underway. The 2022-2023 training cycle kicks off July 20, 2022, and runs (in six sessions) thru early November, 2023.

Registration, Tuition and Dates

PREREQUISITE TO TRAINING: Completion of the 11 Day Village Encampment & Vision Quest Ceremony is a prerequisite to enrollment in the training.

This 16 month training program is comprised of 6 sessions. Sessions 1,2,3,4 and 6 are five-day encampments beginning on a Wednesday evening and ending on Sunday at 12p near Asheville, NC. Session 5 is a 8-day session in another location (TBD) that will include a 4-day and 4-night Vision Quest Ceremony.

Please visit Rites of Passage Council for the most up-to-date information on Guide Training tuition, dates and more.

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