The vision quest is a rite of passage ceremony common to most indigenous cultures – traditionally undertaken by adolescents seeking a mythopoetic basis for a life of visionary calling. As adopted by contemporary Westerners, the experience is appropriate for anyone celebrating a transition from one phase of life to another, seeking insight into difficult challenges, or longing for a deeper, more vibrant connection to soul.
Although the particulars vary from tradition to tradition, the essence of the experience is a concentrated immersion in the wild with minimal gear, no contact with other humans, and no distraction from the demands of everyday life. Often the vision quester spends months in preparation, fasts for the experience, and spends at least one night of a 3-4 day experience in vigilant prayer. The result is a gradual quieting of the mind, an opening of the heart, and a quickening of the mythopoetic imagination – all of which contribute to a profound, frequently life-changing, dialogue with the soul.
Most vision quests are a 3-stage process. Severance is a conscious decision to leave the everyday world behind and enter sacred space. The threshold is an experience of entering sacred space and inviting dialogue with the more-than-human world, and the mythopoetic imagination. Lastly, incorporation is an opportunity to integrate what you learn and find ways to embody the learning as your gift to the world.
At Yggdrasil, vision quests will provide a point of entry into the four primary soul tasks. Tending the sacred wound, cultivating visionary calling, communing with the diverse intelligences, and courting the mythopoetic realm are all possible on a quest, and in fact, often happen simultaneously. For some, the vision quest at Yggdrasil will be an initiation into a highly personal curriculum to be pursued with guidance throughout an extended residency at the school-retreat.
