THE FIVE PHASES OF THE VISION QUEST
 Preparation
Preparation for the Animas Quest takes place partly on your own
through instructions that we will send to you, and partly in intensive
format during our first few days together. Preparation goals include
(1) rounding up adequate backpacking and camping gear, (2) deepening
your experience of what is coming to an end in your life, (3) exploring
the realms of soul for feelings, symbols, and themes to be worked
with throughout the rite, and (4) creating your own simple ceremonies
of initiation and passage.
Severance
The Severance Phase begins as you make your final preparations
to leave home and your family, friends, job, and routine sense of
self‹and lasts through the first three days of your wilderness
odyssey. During this time, you will enact a number of rites of purification
and rites of severance (i.e., separating from the everyday self
and world), including ceremonial drumming and dance, a 1 to 4 mile
backpack journey into a group basecamp (on some quests, we set up
camp at our vehicles), and hunting for your individual Place of
Power where you will be spending three days and nights alone. You
will share your dream world with the group, sit in Talking Staff
Councils, and explore the surrounding wilderness while learning
several Soulcraft skills. You will be instructed in a set of practices
and ceremonies you may choose to use for the intensification of
your solo time. In addition, you will review and practice all basic
camping and wilderness skills (and a few advanced ones).
Sacred World
The Sacred World (or Initiation) Phase—the central component
of the quest—is a time of solitude in the natural mysteries.
On the morning of the fourth day in basecamp, you will ceremonially
take your leave of the group to spend three days and nights alone
in your Place of Power. The fast begins on the day before (for a
total of four days). The Sacred World time is a voluntarily accepted
ordeal, the primary means by which the ego-bound consciousness is
temporarily displaced. You will explore the symbolic and mythic
dimensions of your psyche and of the mysteries and gifts of Mother
Earth. You will enact the archetypal and personal ceremonies of
death/rebirth as you look into the mirror of nature to discover
the true face of your soul. This time of solitude is often concluded
by an all-night Vigil within a ritually constructed circle of stones
during which you will watch the long circular march of the night
sky and the slow dawning of a new day, a new beginning for your
life, a second birth.
Reincorporation
You will begin the Return by rejoining the group at basecamp (for
breakfast). During the ensuing 24 hours, you will be guided in gently
unfolding and clarifying the gifts you have received in the Sacred
World. Several ceremonies and practices are employed to assist you
in "re-membering" your self as you re-incorporate from
the Dreamtime. On the next day, the Return is physically enacted
as you hike back to the trailhead and journey back to "the
civilized world". The final day celebrates the experience of
the Quest with ceremony, and offers in-depth instruction and support
for the next stage.
Implementation
Not until your return home and your reuniting with family and friends
does the fifth and most important phase of the Animas Quest begin:
Implementation, the open-ended process of living your vision and
embodying your renewed self in the world‹the world as it really
exists with all its injustice and greed, its promise and opportunity.
With the support of your loved ones and your fellow questers, you
learn ways to embody your soul as you offer yourself in service
to your family, friends, and community. In so doing, you serve the
natural and essential progression from individual to social transformation.
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