by Shaman Elder Maggie Wahls
Due to time limitations and other obligations, Shaman Elder Maggie can only do a maximum of 35 vision quests with visitors in 2008.
Write today to reserve your vision quest! shaman@shamanelder.com
You are most welcome to do a vision quest with me, Shaman Elder Maggie at the Life Healing Community. Many people have heard of vision quests but not many people know what the purpose really is or what is accomplished in a vision quest. Shaman Elder Maggie will personally assist you throughout your vision quest.
The first night of the day you arrive we will do ceremony for cleansing and removing anything negative that you would be carrying within your self. We will thank Creator for allowing you the time and space to experience this life changing ceremony and ask for blessings of strength and protection as you do this quest.
Day two would be preparation, working on clearing yourself so that you can listen clearly, getting rid of any negative emotions or thoughts that might stand in the way of your vision quest. We will have a counseling session together. Taking a nap during the day, gathering fire wood for your fire, eating well and good fruits and veggies, drinking lots of water, all in preparation to allow your four body system to experience a good vision quest, preparing your heart to be humble and open to receiving. The second night we would do the vision quest.
It is not a good idea to travel here and do the vision quest all in the same day. You would be too tired from travel to stay up all that night. The same for the day after your vision quest. You will have stayed up all night and will not be in good shape to travel home on that day.
At sundown we would build a fire that we will keep lit all night long, We will open with prayers and ceremony to protect you and ask for the best possible experience for you personally. You will stay in this circle except for potty breaks in the woods when necessary, with your rattle or drum and lots of water. You will stay in this circle all night long, awake and in a state of prayer and humble receiving.
You will go through lots of uncomfortably in all ways. You will get tired and have to fight to stay awake. You will get cold and have to fight the cold. You will get grumpy and have to fight off the grumpies to stay in an open and humble frame of mind to receive. You may remember lots of memories that will hurt or make you angry and you have to fight to maintain this attitude of humility and openness to receive. Some people start a vision quest and get so into all these thoughts and feelings that they never are able to get into that place of humble submission and openness to receive their vision. They end up choosing not to have a vision quest even though they did all this work because they were too attached to things in their life and they dwelled on those rather than letting them go, to be open and receive.
So its about giving up attachment to physical things, to emotional thoughts, to judgments, to attitudes and perceptions and constantly working through the night to remove these things, to take them off, to get naked with yourself spiritually. You will see where you have done good things in your life and where you have failed. You will see what you have in this life and what you don't have. You will see where you have progressed and where you have failed to progress. And the whole time you need to keep an attitude of gratitude for being shown these things, be grateful for any chastisement you may receive, be glad that you are showing yourself these things and remember them as things you can work on. Be glad for the cold and the hunger and the physical uncomfortably of staying awake outside all night. Be even grateful for your very life. This attitude of humility and gratefulness for even those things that you hate.
When you finally allow yourself to become completely naked with yourself, when in this process you have been shown a clear picture of what you are and what you are not, of your faults, and misgivings, of how other people have persecuted you, and found a way to be OK with even these things, then when there is nothing else to take off of yourself, no more layers to look at because you have taken a look at all the layers and accepted them with humility and gratitude, there comes a silence in your heart and you are no longer thinking about anything because you have already thought about everything, there comes a silence in your emotional body because you have already felt just about every emotion within you and stripped them away. There comes a spiritual silence because you have spent the night wrenching your soul through all its traumas past and present and you have accepted your soul for its flawed human little self. There comes a silence, like, "OK I am completely naked now mentally and spiritually. I am just a little flawed human sitting here in the woods alone at night with only this fire. There is no part of me that has not been picked apart and shown to me in truth. I sit still and quiet now being just this little flawed self in this great big huge world around me and I observe how this feels. I observe." And then with open heart and cleansed mind and peace and stillness you may receive a vision or a guide will come forward and teach you something that will benefit your life from this time forward. It may be a picture of how you can accomplish your mission, a picture of the future, a possible path you can take, a message for you personally, a key to your continued growth, a word that will have a spiritual meaning for you to help you grow and progress.
What ever the vision might be, its personal to you and has to do with your personal growth. If you are not interested in growing and becoming all that Creator intends for you, then don't do a vision quest. If you have your mind made up already what this vision quest is going to accomplish for you, then you have already defeated the purpose and will waste your time sitting up all night. If you are not willing to get completely naked with yourself, to accept responsibility for what you have done and what you have failed to do in your life, then do not waste your time with a vision quest.
A vision quest is for the true seeker. What do we seek? How to become what we must become to accomplish our mission in this lifetime. A key to the next step in our path. We do not come and sit up all night without truly wanting the answer to this question. We must be ready to get slapped across the face if that is what it takes to teach us how to become what we must become to accomplish our mission in this life.
The true seeker does not come to a vision quest with any ego. The true seeker does not come to a vision quest to hear what they want to hear or to see some grand vision of a beautiful future time in which they are honored or praised or rich or famous. This would be a fantasy and you can create a fantasy at home anytime. A vision quest is about getting naked with yourself, not physically, but spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. It is hard to face certain things within ourselves. It is hard to relive some of those traumatic moments we have not fully dealt with but need to in order to be spiritually naked with ourselves. If you are not ready to do the work on yourself, do not waste your time with a vision quest.
I stay up with you to watch over you and to keep your fire going for you if you are unable to at any point, during the night. I make sure the coyotes don't bother you. I may drum for you if I am instructed to and I do pray for you all night long, that you may accomplish this fully. I start your vision quest with prayers and smudging when we first light your fire and I prepare a breakfast for you in the morning after the sun rises and you are finished.
Most people receive their vision just before dawn. Then they do not feel the cold any longer. They are not empty in every way but if they were successful at becoming naked with themselves and humble enough and open enough to receive the vision then they are clothed spiritually once again by Creator and feel great and warm and wonderful and ready to move into this vision in this life experience. When dawn arrives it is a time of giving thanks for this quest and all that was learned and experienced. Usually the questor drums and sings the sun up with happiness for a new day, for this new time of life for themselves, for this chance to go out into the world and try once again to become what they must become to accomplish their mission, the gratitude to have another chance at it, as each day really is. When the sun rises we put out the fire and have a meal to break the fast that was begun at sunset.
Then I recommend that the questor get some sleep and take it easy for the third day. If one chooses to leave LHC this day I suggest they leave late afternoon after a good rest. If one stays this day we will have council fire at night and bless you on your way through the next part of your life and you can leave in the morning of the fourth day. You can spend your free time the third day doing work here at LHC as a contribution and as a gentle way to offer yourself and begin to work on becoming what you must become. You will see what I mean when that time comes, you will want to do something physical.
I am always available for counseling throughout this process. I ask a donation to do this here with me at LHC because I too will stay up all night and I too need to sleep during the next day and will lose the time to teach my students by giving my time to you. There should always be a value exchange anytime someone does something for you anytime in your life. The value is $300 to $500 for this individual escorted experience anywhere else. But I will accept any donation and never withhold any healing over money. Accommodations can be a tent on the land or a motel close by. Food can be boughten if you have specific needs or share my food with me at my daily meal. Bathroom facilities and water are provided.
So you see that doing a vision quest is a very big thing in your life and it is not to be taken lightly or done half heartedly or with personal expectations or limitations. A vision quest is not even something that needs to be done more than once. Some people choose to do a vision quest yearly. I find that a vision quest is only helpful when you are in a transition stage in your life, When you have reached some kind of crossroads and don't know which way to walk, when you know you have achieved all that you were aware you needed to work on within yourself and feel you have done that, so whats next? When you are seeking direction in your life, wanting to know what more you can do now, what you need to do to progress on your path, to find your path, to move forward.
In the old days, the elders and Shamans would use the vision quest as part of a Shamanic initiation or a right of passage for the young braves. After many days of preparation and fasting and practicing public acts of humiliation to put themselves in a humble frame of mind, the young men might be led into a canyon and told to squash their bodies into crevices within the canyon walls. Often there was just enough room to squat or lie down or sit, wedged into these rocks, very claustrophobic. They went without blankets or shirts or fire and has to withstand the very cold nights you can find in desert country. And here they would be watched over by the tribal shamans or elders or priests who may have drummed or intoned for them as they had their vision quest to teach them what they must accomplish. Sometimes a boy might begin to go into an altered state and he might tumble out of his wedge in the cracks and the shamans would have to catch his body before he fell into a ravine below. Some boys lost their lives in this way.
Yes vision quests were often dangerous in the old days. Some tribes put their young men up in trees and the boy had to keep himself from falling out of the tree at all times as a practice in strength and awareness. If he fell asleep he would fall and get injured and this would be a sign to all the tribe that this boy was not ready to accept his life mission in the tribe.
Often in these canyons today you can see petroglyphs carved there or painted there by these young braves during or after their vision quests. Often when a young man had a vision he would leave a mark to represent that vision at the place where he did his vision quest. It might be a sun or a moon or a person doing something or a symbol that meant something only to him. He left it there to always remind him of what he had experienced in that place, for the rest of his life, and in some places You can still see the picture of his vision carved into rock today at places like Petroglyph National Monument in the southwest US.
You may find that you are given a symbol or choose to represent your vision quest in this way. Bring some paper or a notebook to write down all that you remember after the vision quest experience during your time of rest and recuperation on the day after that night. We also have indelible markers so that you can draw something on a rock or boulder here that represents your vision quest and reminds you of what you went through in this place when you come back and visit again. It creates a physical connection to this experience in your life and is a good thing to do.
A vision quest is not for someone who is seriously ill. This is a physically hard thing to stay up all night. To not fall asleep. Please let me know before hand if you have any medical issues whatsoever, if you have any fears that would preclude doing this, if you have any questions. In fact I would hope to know a great deal about you before you ever came to have this experience so do write me about your intentions for wanting to do a vision quest and we will customize your quest to you personally. shaman@shamanelder.com
Also bring with you if you can, your drum or rattle or both, a blanket you love that means something special to you, comforting and protective, bring a flashlight, and a water bottle. Bring warm clothes as even summer nights get chilly. Consider that you are in a national forest and all that implies; creatures, bugs, weather, etc.
I will be happy to hold the torch for you and to facilitate your vision quest for you in any way I can be of service. I will try to make it safe and secure for you. I will support you spiritually with prayer and drumming, with ceremony and song, and with healing as you do this holy and sacred act.
Please understand the seriousness and purpose of a vision quest experience. If you encounter visitors going through a vision quest on your own overnight visit, please respect what they are doing and leave them alone. Do not walk into their space as we have set them apart from the community grounds already. Pray for them that they may receive their vision quest through the purification of mind, body and soul that they are going through.
You are most welcome to visit me at Life Healing Community anytime for any reason and recieve the healing that this sacred land offers to all created things in a very personal way. I offer counseling and ceremony to all people in many ways and am always delighted to meet you and support your healing in whatever way you wish. A vision quest is just one of the services I provide here. Write me anytime.
