The three parts of the ceremony

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

A medicine walk, just like a full-length vision quest, has three parts to the ceremony: severance, threshold, and reincorporation. The time spent mirroring my intention was part of the severance phase, during which I was preparing to leave my people and go out into the wild. This time also included packing ...

The medicine walk: hiking up the canyon and the ceremony of fire

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

I have been writing about the medicine walk I went on in the Eureka Valley in California, east of the Sierra Mountains. So far I've described the process of mirroring for intention. The intention I formed was "I am mother and father to myself. I have the strength and take ...

Vision quest—background

Sunday, September 7th, 2008

A rite of passage Peoples of many cultures have created traditions and ceremonies involving solo time in wild nature. In North America, the plains peoples are the most well-known groups to use the ancient practice of the vision quest. John Murray recounts, in editors Michael Tobias and Georgianne Cowan's The Soul ...