The vision quest is a particular process which can be very intense in terms of the practicalities of participating and setting up a quest, and can appear from the outside as quite extreme, in terms of fasting for three to four days. As a ceremony the vision quest is focused on marking a transition or rite of passage. Because of the nature of the vision quest process and the powerful physical and psychological effects of this process, I would strongly recommend undertaking a quest as part of an organised and facilitated group experience. There are a number of organisations in the USA and Europe which run vision quests and have good reputations for safe, competent and ethical practice. I would recommend the School of Lost Borders in the United States, and there are a number of guides who have trained here who work in Europe. Their website is: www.schooloflostborders.org.
The vision quest, fasting quest, and all other wilderness rites of passage are but circles drawn in the dust, empty forms to be filled with the unique values and perceptions of the participants, mirrors in which they themselves are reflected.
(Foster and Little 1989: 24) The history of the vision fast/quest (I will use these terms interchangeably) finds its origins in a variety of sources. The term was taken from Native American tradition, although this type of activity has historically been part of many indigenous cultures around the world. The term has evoked some controversy from Native Americans, so in the United States the term is being used less and less by wilderness trip leaders (Segal 2005).
It is not my intention to give an exhaustive summary of its history, but only to map out the territory and form of the fast. The process of the fast can be seen as a ‘container’ rooted in mythological, historical and psycho-spiritual contexts. It is a profoundly physical experience which gives rise to both subtle and concrete dimensions of reality, which in turn mirror aspects of the intra- and inter-psychic world of the faster. The experience is then magnified by the inter-relationship with nature.
I will outline the form of the fast, which involves three stages: severance, threshold and incorporation. This form gives birth to the creation of the faster’s own ‘mono-myth’: their own heroic journey. Van Gennep (1960) defined the dynamics of the wilderness fast or rites of passage following a three-phase formula: severance (‘separation’), threshold (‘marge’), and incorporation (‘aggregation’). The modern-day hero quester, creating his/her own mono-myth through the ritual and ceremony of the fast, comes back to a society devoid of meaningful symbols and rituals to celebrate his/her process, to verify his/her new life status and to mark the transition or crisis that he/she has been through. It is precisely this loss of ritual and meaningful ways to mark transitions that the use of rites-of-passage ceremonies is seeking to reverse.
Severance
This is the time for working on one’s intent to fast, in preparation for participation in the rite of the vision quest. This clarification of intent to fast is an important part of the process. Davis (2003) proposes that traditionally much of a person’s life education provided them with the practical and spiritual tools for a vision quest. For the modern-day quester this process can take up to a year, from first stating their desire to fast to actually partaking in the vision quest.
The mono-mythic journey starts at the end and ends with the beginning, the rebirth. The severance stage is imbued with metaphors and rituals that focus not only on intent to fast, but to mark endings and to think about transitions. What is being left behind? What will one be seeking to mark in this life transition? If the quest is part of overcoming a crisis, what will it take to face the dragon? What rituals will need to be enacted at this stage in order to focus one’s intent to understand fully why the fast is being undertaken? All around at this stage are the metaphors of death. What will need to die? What will die within me in order that I can pass through one life stage to the next?
Threshold
With the personification of his destiny to guide and aid him, the hero goes forward in his adventure until he comes to the ‘threshold guardian’ at the entrance to the zone of magnified power.
(Campbell 1949: 77) The threshold guardian for the modern quester normally consists of the person’s own fear. Fear of the unknown, the fear of not eating for four days, the fear of being alone in the darkness, fear of the power of nature in the wilderness place. Beyond the fear/threshold guardian lies the unknown: darkness and danger, the myriad projections of the quester’s conscious and unconscious fears and terrors. These fears must be faced as the quester moves into the threshold time. This is one of the therapeutic aspects of the fast process, that a fear faced and overcome, terror that can be sat with and looked into, becomes part of the mono-myth. The sense of achievement and bravery involved in participating in this process should not be underestimated. Compared to the months and even years taken in traditional therapy in order to achieve a sense of self-esteem and personal power, the quest can act as a very powerful mobiliser of fear and then a containing space in which the person can find their own sense of themselves. Rituals and exercises performed during the process can act as a way of managing the issues that arise and hold a potentially transformative power for the person engaging and marking a transition in their life.
Threshold begins with a death, a severance (Foster and Little 1992). This part of the creation of the mono-myth in the hero’s journey comprises the real ordeal/adventure for the hero. The stage is full of potentially healing emotional
states, with the exposure, alone to the elements and to the experience of fasting in a wilderness place.
Incorporation
Incorporation is the phase of return from the experience and understanding the meaning and implications of the ritual you have just undertaken. Steven Foster asks in the Book of the Vision Quest: are you prepared to face the consequences you bring back from the sacred mountain? You too will find that if you do not use the treasures you discover you will die a living death. It is dangerous to ask for gramercy from god and do nothing with it; a stark warning about the dangers the quester faces in communing with nature in this way and asking for a vision.
The power of the fast/quest process for the individual lies in its ability to reflect the myths of the world which are then contained in the individual mono-mythic journey, the story of which is given birth to during the fast experience. The gift brought back and shared with the community is a symbol of the transformational power of the fast. All the myths of the world are encompassed in the single journey of the hero quester (Campbell 1949).
Although I would not recommend undertaking a fast without support and a coherent ritual container for the work, which can be provided by an organised group which runs vision quests, you can undertake a mini-version of the quest over a day in a medicine walk exercise.