More about the Wild Rites Vision Quest
STRUCTURE OF THE 11 DAYS
This eleven-day program will be held in a beautiful, little visited valley in the English Lake District National Park. With woodland, open fells (mountains) and rivers (and a beautiful wild swimming spot), the valley has a quiet but powerful magic. It’s seclusion makes it the perfect place for Soul Making in Nature - and we like to think of it as a hidden gem.
Group size is limited to eight- ten participants to ensure that individual needs are fully met. The programme is designed around the three-phase rite of passage structure.
Your base camp consists of a main communal barn, sleeping barn, shower/toilet block and camping ground. You can camp under the horse-chestnut tree where there is plenty of space for your tent, or if you prefer, take residence in one of 3 camping barn rooms (with alpine style bunks). In the main communal barn there are cooking facilities with everything you may need for your stay, including a wood burning stove.
Prior to arriving with us, we will send you a handbook and guide you through your preparation. A minimum of 1 month before the program you will be asked to take part in a solo medicine walk - a day out on the land of your choice without food from sunrise to sunset. This will help you prepare for the quest. You will write up the details of your walk and send it to us at Wild Rites along with a letter of intent for your quest.
You will arrive on Thursday between 1 and 2pm, get settled in and meet the land, your guides and fellow participants. There will be a meal provided for you that evening followed by a check-in council.
During our time at base camp we will spend time together outside and create our circle of community around the fire-pit next to the river or in the main barn where there is a roaring woodburner. The preparation process will continue to deepen until sunrise Monday when your 4-day and 4-night solo fast on the mountain begins. We will meet in Circle to:
Develop your relationship to Self, learn ancient yet timeless ways of looking into the mirror of Nature.
Explore your personal relationship to the four shields/directions of being a whole human.
We will all develop and share ideas of self-generated ceremony
We can teach you necessary skills, such as tarp craft and how to live and leave no trace on the land.
We will support you to craft your intent for the solo fast until it rings true through your whole being.
You will spend time finding your solo site which will hold you in the wilderness for the 4 days and nights of your wilderness fast. The next four days and nights will be spent fasting alone, coming back to base camp at sunrise on the Friday morning (and the remainder of this day will be a day off).
The next 2 days will be devoted to taking the necessary steps of return or Incorporation (see below) in a fully conscious way.
At Wild Rites we specialise in guiding vision quests in such a way that our questers can integrate their awakening into their lives! This process begins with a Council session where each participant has the opportunity to tell the story of their Vision Quest solo and to receive essential mirroring and confirmation from guides. After a closing ceremony, we will depart from base camp on Sunday at 1pm.
The Three Phases of a Rite of Passage
Like all Wild Rites programmes, we start with the premise that your True Self is constantly seeking greater expression and that suffering is often caused by a misalignment between old adaptations and the emerging True Self. Our quest offers you the opportunity to address and move beyond the limitations that you have created in response to your history, culture and environment. We recognise adaptations may have once been necessary and yet now they may limit you.
We invite you to join us on this quest to become who you were born to be. To support you in achieving this, we use a traditional three phase approach to this rite of passage, starting with Preparation and Departure, moving into Initiation and culminating in Return & Embodiment. We explain these phases in more detail below.
Preparation and Departure
This phase begins before you physically join us and often participants book and begin months in advance. You will be guided through a process of reflection and insight into your current life patterns, identifications and habits, which will include a medicine walk and writing a letter of intent.
When the time comes you will separate from existing roles, routines and habits to join us in our wild location. We will spend the first few days in a small and soulful community. During this time we will explore and experience teachings from the medicine wheels and myth. These will offer a holistic model of Self and what it means to be fully human - there will be plenty of space for discussion and reflection.
There will be empowering guidance on creating ceremonies and rituals, which will enable you to create transformative symbolic acts during your solo time. We will support you to find forms that speak to where you are in your life journey at this time.
Before your solo fast there will be time to spend on the land finding your place and connecting to Nature. We will also teach you all the physical skills necessary for your solo time and what to expect from fasting.
Initiation - SOLO IN NATURE
You will then cross a threshold to live alone on the earth for four days and nights, to fast with only water and minimal shelter. The time is spent in deep communion with Nature and your Self.
Fasting creates a change in consciousness. Our focus becomes broader, our attention more dream-like. The internal dialogue slows down, other thoughts and ways of perceiving bubble up from below the surface. Our highest aspirations and qualities begin to emerge often alongside our wounds that need healing- they are often found together because we tend to split off from these at the same time. We repress our light just as much as our darkness.
As the body empties of food and the mind is no longer distracted by daily pursuits, a space is created from which emerges our True Self, our deepest longings and innate potential. We rediscover the gift we were born to share with the world.
Returning to intimate contact with the living Earth awakens forgotten senses and ways of perceiving. Our wild, authentic, and natural Selves are rediscovered through recognising our connection with Nature Him/Herself.
As the fasting causes our mind to open we project the emerging content onto Nature. Nature becomes a mirror and through our solitary interaction with her we begin to remember who we are and recognise ourselves as part of the larger story.
From this interaction with our greater mother many connect to a deeper sense of belonging - true self-worth that is independent of the opinions of others.
““You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.” Desiderata- source unknown.”
Return & Embodiment
After your solo you will be celebrated and welcomed back to the human world. Our community will come back together and spend time in council sharing stories. The emphasis of this time is for participants to see, ground and claim what they have received from their solo time.
You will be supported to begin finding ways to take back the gifts and lessons to your daily life. For the benefit of you, your relationships and community.
If you feel ready to explore a process that can reconnect you with your power, purpose, and deepest truths, we invite you to book your Wild Rites Quest.
The quest process reconnects us to nature, within and without. During the rite nature is the external mirror that reflects our internal world, we remember that we are an interconnected part of nature, that she supports and nourishes us. Separation from nature only ever happened in our consciousness, fasting solo enables us to reconnect to our life source. An intimate relationship with nature brings a deep sense of belonging and a reservoir of energy to connect into.
Participants often remember the awe and wonder of childhood as they recover parts of themselves that got lost along the way due to the demands of daily life. The recovering of qualities that were important to the child can lead to a far more fulfilling life.
A Wild Rites Quest resets your compass to align with your heart. To realise your calling and what it is that you wish to stand for in the world leads to a fulfilling and purposeful life which benefits all people.
Many of life's turning points can be tumultuous and destructive if a safe and conscious container is not created- think about adolescence and mid-life. Wild Rites provide an opportunity to resolve these energies and enable you to move forward consciously rather than unconsciously acting them out. We offer the opportunity for you to celebrate the change and facilitate soulful empowerment as you begin your next phase.
"The purpose and effect of these rituals was to conduct people across those difficult thresholds of transformation that demand a change in the patterns not only of conscious but also unconscious life" Joseph Campbell.
Wild Rites Quest primarily catalyse and initiate inner change. These may be changes in the way you see and experience yourself, the letting go of limiting mindsets and beliefs, connecting with true self-worth and a deep sense of belonging, discovering self-love, claiming greater responsibility as you progress in your life.
During the retreat you will participate in a solo fast which is often called a vision quest, the “vision” refers to an opening and surrender to something greater than the socially conditioned ego, realisation of your True Self - discovery of your gifts and innate potential. For thousands of years the wilderness solo fast has been a primary catalyst for such spiritual awakenings.
Your Commitment
We realise that to partake in a Wild Rites Quest may be a once in a lifetime event. It take courage and commitment to hear and answer the call of your True Self. We want our participants to be comfortable that they have found the right guides for them and their process. This is why we offer a free, no obligation 30 minute call-back service so you can speak to Jon or Alex about the Wild Rites Quest. If you would like to arrange your call-back clik on the button below and complete the form, we will email you in the first instance to arrange your call-back date and time.