The Vision Quest Express
A 48-hour wild solo
Apr 23 - 28, 2022
I am clearing a space
here, where the trees stand back.
I am making a circle so open
the moon will fall in love
and stroke these grasses with her silver.
I am setting stones in the four directions,
stones that have called my name
from mountaintops and riverbeds, canyons and mesas.
Here I will stand with my hands empty,
mind gaping under the moon.
I know there is another way to live.
When I find it, the angels
will cry out in rapture,
each cell of my body
will be a rose, a star.
~ Morgan Farley
Somewhere deep inside, we know when it is time for us to stop and listen. Really listen. To put down the phone, the to-do lists and the middle world concerns, and head to the wilds on our own. To put our ear to the earth, our nose to the true scent trail of our life and radically open ourselves to the kind of communication not available on google; engage in a conversation that, as Derrick Jenson suggests, is older than words. As our outer world tremors and shakes, those with the courage to heed this call are greatly needed.
Since earliest times, people from many earth-based cultures have received profound insight about themselves and their world by means of a vision fast – a multi-day solo fast within nature, seeking personal truth, emotional release and spiritual knowledge.
Stepping into the Vision Quest circle, we take pause of the day-to-day, and begin a larger conversation. What message is mystery holding for our heart, if only we had space to hear it? What wild longing is clawing for attention? What parts of us need to be welcomed home?
Our traditional Vision Quest program is 11 days, including a 4 day fast. However we know this is not possible for many including those with family responsibilities. So, this year we are offering a ‘Vision Quest Express’ - a 6 day program including a two days and two nights fasting in nature in solo ceremony. This journey will be divided into the three classic phases of a passage rite: Preparation, Threshold and Incorporation. Efficient - yes. Powerful - definitely!
The first days serve as our preparation as we come together as a community to clarify our intentions. Here we listen to each other’s stories of where we find ourselves in life and what brings us here. Specifically we explore in some depth our intention for this passage rite, what is it in our life that is asking to be honoured or marked through an initiatory journey?
The threshold phase will be a two day and night fast. Each person goes alone into the wilderness (with the support of guides at base camp), without food and minimal external trappings. The threshold time allows for one’s intention to be revealed and to be unfolded in the mirror of nature. It is a time for self-generated ceremony, for becoming intimately receptive to one’s life and for experiencing both the challenge and the beauty of taking our place amongst our relations as a simple human animal on this Earth.
The final day is devoted to incorporation. We share the stories of our threshold time and explore its gifts and implications for the life we return to. We sit in ‘story council’, sharing our stories and having them mirrored back to us by the community, offering the opportunity to see our individual narrative in a wider context. This can be one of the most touching and heartening parts of our time together: being witnessed and affirmed by those who have come to participate and create this ceremony.
Who is this program for?
This ceremony is for those who are ready to step out of their comfort zone and make space for deep listening. We offer this as an alternative to our longer Vision Quest for those who are not ready for a four day fast or are unable to take 11 days out from their other commitments.
Facilitators
Claire Dunn
Claire is passionate about connection - to earth, self, and other - and believes that a rewilding of our inner world is the key to rewilding our planet. For the last 15 years, Claire has been facilitating groups and individuals to dive deeply into their soul, through the pathways of traditional earth skills, deep ecology, dance, meditation, and contemporary wilderness rites of passage. Claire currently lives in Melbourne where she writes, facilitates rewilding workshops, offers personal mentoring, and lovingly tends her garden. Claire is the author of memoir My Year Without Matches and Rewilding the Urban Soul. Claire has received Vision Quest Protector Training through the Earth Heart Institute of Vision and Healing in the USA. This traditional sacred ceremony has been passed down through Tom Brown Jr from his mentor, a Southern Lipan Apache called Stalking Wolf. Claire is trained as a Quest Protector Trainer.
Daniel Amrein
Daniel (Dan) Amrein is a carpenter-builder and father of two living in the village of Warburton in the Yarra Valley. Dan’s first Vision Quest was at the age of 16 in the Lakota tradition, and since then the ceremony has been a powerful consistent thread and guiding principle in his life, both as Quester, and Guide. Dan is passionate about the power of earth-based ceremony in its different forms as a tool for healing and growth. You will often find him running long distances, tending his garden, baking bread, tracking the trails of his mountain home, and spending sweet time with his partner and co-guide Claire.
Program info
The program will be held on wild land near Venus Bay, 2 hours south-east of Melbourne. A reasonable level of fitness is required. Accommodation is tent camping at base camp. Previous experience with spiritual retreats and camping is not essential. A beautiful selection of whole food and mostly organic meals will be served during preparation and incorporation. An essential element to questing is both the physical and spiritual preparation, so if you feel the call to Quest, please be in touch as soon as possible to complete the application process, although late registrations are also accepted upon application. The program is limited to a maximum of 20 participants.
Cost:
The full cost of the 6 day program includes all food, accommodation, guide fees and materials. We recognise that participants come from diverse backgrounds and income capacities and so we offer a concession rate for students and unwaged.
Sliding scale: $900 (conc)/$990 (low income)/$1150 (average income)
Deposit $300
A scholarship place is available.
Cancellation Policy
Deposits are non-refundable. In the event of cancellation more than 60 days before course commencement, the program fee, minus the deposit, will be refunded. No monies will be refunded within 60 days of course commencement, unless we can fill your place.
** Gratitude to Martin Stringer for use of the beautiful photos of our venue at Venus Bay **