What is the Vision Fast?
This Vision Fast is a powerful nature based initiation process. It is a ceremony for all those involved and a time that creates and encourages deep connection with the sacred. It is a rite of passage - the marking and claiming of a change in a person’s life. As a rite of passage, it honours the pattern that many cultures have discovered work well, stages that we also can see in nature if we take time to look. It is about being immersed in a ‘wild’ place; where there is direct and immediate connection with nature and where she can be guide, mirror and bring forward what is needed. Questers are asked to be open to what Nature has to say, in whatever way things are said. The design grows from ancestors in many lands; it is pan-cultural, so can work for people of any faith, orientation and background. Pioneered by Meredith Little and the late Steven Foster and the School of Lost Borders in California, the Vision Fast form that I work with is also used by many people and organisations around the world. The Form it takes There are three parts to the pattern. The first is Severance, when Questers are asked to leave behind their everyday world. We do this by taking ourselves deep into the wild woods away from the everyday, and spending the first few days breaking links, gathering energy and honing intention. The second is the Threshold, when a line is crossed into the threshing-ground of change. This is the solo time, when Questers have no company, no food and no shelter. The purpose is for Questers to be alone with all-that-is, to have no distractions. We hold these three taboos as well as we each can, and there is further guidance about how to stay safe. The Third is Incorporation - coming back into the body. This is the Quester coming back to their own body and to the bigger body of the world and their life. In many ways this is the hardest part as it takes time, and there is no specific way to make it easy. We will do the first part of that, by breaking the fast, by eating together and then by spending a few days witnessing and mirroring the stories of the Threshold time. The rest is for your life. Is this personal development? No! Although it may help a person to grow and become who they really are, it is not in the league of a personal development course or training. It is definitely not therapy. It is a ceremony, it is bigger than us, and demands that a person comes ready to let go of who they currently are, and fully enter the Threshing Ground of who they are becoming. It will most likely to be very tough in places and also full joy, and everything in between. It is time of letting the seeds that are sitting inside us to see the light of day, for them to find the ground upon which they may grow. |
2020 Dates
Sept 1st-Sept 12th 2020 £550 For more details please contact me for a phone or zoom conversation. Using guidance from the School of Lost Borders and Government updates, this will be run as a very small group and based mostly at Young Wood, where there is water for hand-washing and composting toilets. |