NMR ISSUE 3

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The Vision Quest

Doug Hansen

The Vision Quest is a ceremony that people have used for thousands of years to mark and celebrate changes in their lives, to learn more about themselves, to choose the future course of their lives and to learn more about their connections with the earth and the other life forms here. Vision Quest is a modern term, coined by anthropologists studying rites of passage ceremonies among aboriginals in many parts of the world. Rites of passage ceremonies mark and celebrate transitions in people's lives—childhood to adolescence to adulthood, etc. They usually involve a person looking, or "questing" for a "vision" of what he should do in the next part of his life. These ceremonies usually follow a particular type of mythology known as the hero's journey. In this, the hero (or heroine) would leave his people, face and overcome many dangers and trials and eventually find something that he could bring back to help his people. This last part is an important point. Vision Quests are not a path to personal glory. Rather, they are a way of empowering a person so that he could in turn help his people.

The classic hero's journey has three parts. In the first phase, "severance," the hero separates himself from his day to day life among his people in order to embark on his journey. During the "transition," the second phase, the hero must face the terrors of his journey alone. In the final phase, "reincorporation," the hero, having overcome his fear and having defeated the monsters he faced, finds a new power within himself to bring back to help his people.

This three-part model of the Vision Quest is just as valid today as it ever was. It still forms the basis of all Vision Quest ceremonies. But there are many different variations of this basic model. One example is that which the Lakota (Sioux) practiced during the last century. It is also the form used today at Rites of Passage, an organization in Marin County, which is located north of San Francisco.

The Lakota ritual is called the Hanblechea, which literally translates as "Crying for a Vision." To begin, the Vision Quester would place himself under the guidance of a medicine person, who would instruct him in all phases of the ceremony. After many months of preparation, the Vision Quest would start with the Inipi, a purification ritual involving the sweat lodge.

After the quester was purified, he would go alone to a sacred spot carrying only a medicine pipe, tobacco, and a buffalo robe for warmth at night. At his spot he would construct a circle of stones and use the pipe to pray to the six Directions (North, East, South, West, Up, and Down) and to the Creator for the success of his quest. After this he would begin walking inside the circle, starting in the middle and first walking to the North. At the North, he would offer the pipe to the powers of that direction and pray for a vision for himself and for his people. He would walk back to the center of the circle, then walk to the East. There he would offer the pipe to the powers of that direction and pray for a vision. He repeated this for the South and West directions, and then he repeated the whole thing for hours at a time.

During the night, the quester might (or might not) take short naps using the buffalo robe. The quester would not eat or drink during the ritual. The Vision Quest would last until a vision came or 4 days and nights passed. If a vision came during the first 24 hours, the quester would stay at his spot until 24 hours had passed. On the Vision Quester's return, he would go through another Inipi ceremony for purification. Then the elders of the tribe would question him about his experience and his vision, if any.

Many echoes of the Lakota ceremony appear in the modern Vision Quest as practiced by Rites of Passage. Students first go through 4 pre-trip meetings, designed to prepare them by going over things like wilderness safety, equipment, and ceremony. Then there is a sweat lodge ceremony to purify the students. After this, the field portion of the Vision Quest begins as the students and guides leave the city at night. They travel through the night and reach the Vision Quest area in the early morning. This nighttime journey is part of the Transition phase of the Vision Quest. It mentally as well as physically separates the students from their lives in the city. Once they arrive at the Vision Quest area, they establish a base camp. Then the students fan out to find the spot where each will spend the next three days and nights alone. They then return to base camp to eat a final meal and spend a final night with the others in the group. The next day, the Vision Questers rise before dawn to leave base camp and head for their spots. They spend the next three days and nights alone. The students do not eat, but they do drink water.

On the final night, the students enter the stone circles they have previously constructed and spend the night inside, facing each of the 4 directions in turn during the night. Before dawn they are facing East so that they can observe the sunrise. This marks the end of their time alone, and the end of the Transition phase of the Vision Quest.

The students return to base camp, where they share many greetings and tell of their experiences. After a short time there, the group returns to the city. During the next few days, students talk about their experiences before the Council of Elders, which is comprised of the guides and the other students who went on the Vision Quest. One week after the return from the wilderness another sweat lodge ceremony formally marks the end of the Vision Quest. There is also a potluck feast and photographs of the trip.

What is the relevance of Vision Questing to modern times? Although much has changed in the many thousands of years that people have been Vision Questing, people themselves have not. We are still born, still go though many crises and changes in our lives, and still have to face death. Vision Quests help people integrate and learn from the changes in their lives, instead of simply trying to resist or stumble through them. Rites of Passage alone has taken several thousand people on Vision Quests, and now many other organizations are as well.

If you are interested in finding out more about Vision Questing, there are several good books on the subject. The Book of the Vision Quest, by Steve Foster and Meredith Little, portrays the early years of Rites of Passage. It contains many excerpts from students' journals, recorded during Vision Quests. Voices of Earth and Sky,

by Vinson Brown, has a large amount of information about Vision Questing among the Native Americans. It describes at length the author's own Vision Quest, done under the guidance of a Lakota medicine man.

Song of Heyoehkah, by Hyemehosts Storm, is a novel that realistically portrays life among the Cheyenne during the last century, including their Vision Quest ceremonies. This, too, I highly recommend.