Sunday, January 8, 2012

Vision Questing in Colombia

Greetings and Happy New year!
I am so motivated to be who I AM and to do the things I am meant to do in this new year! I am excited to once again share this journey with you. I trust in the Great Spirit, in the Divine guidance that is available in every moment, to inspire my words, and to lead any who might benefit from reading them here to this offering.

Last night was the first ceremony marking the start of the 2012 Fuego Sagrado de Itzachilatlan - Colombian Vision Quest Camp, so I feel inspired to share about that vision quest process and my experiences there over the last five years. First, a short introduction. The Sacred Fire of Itzachilatlan tribe (Itzachilatlan is the term for the combined North, Central, and South American Continents) is a tribe by practice, not blood - which means anyone (with approval and invitation by an elder in the tribe) can come and participate in the Vision Quest. The process requires a commitment to four years of vision questing - "going on the hill" - and four years of support at the camp.

My beloved partner Sean is probably sitting in the ceremonial sweat lodge (in Spanish, temescal) right now, getting ready to go out for his fourth year on the hill. He will be there from today, January 8, until the morning of January 21 (see below for a short explanation of our vision questing model). Several other Americans and many, many of our Colombian brothers and sisters will also be on the hill during this time. All prayers are welcome!

In our tradition, each year of the process starts with an intention, and builds on itself in subsequent years. Thus, in the first year, a person goes out for four days with the prayer of 'Humility." During these four days, they fast from food and water, and their only possessions on the hill are a wool blanket, a mosquito net, a poncho, the clothes they are wearing plus one extra layer, a small medicine plant, and a prayer tobacco, rolled in a corn husk, which they must keep safe (dry). There are no artificial fabrics, no paper, no distractions, no tent, no tarp - nothing man-made between them and the earth and sky. They are surrounded by four directional posts (prayer stakes) bearing the colors of the directions, and three more posts representing the other three directions - above, below and within - stay in the east 'gate' during their first year. Around these directional stakes are strung their personal prayers - 365 tobacco ties - forming approximately an eight-foot square space. This is where the vision quester will pray during their time when they are "planted" on the hill.

In later years, the form of the previous year is repeated, with more days added, and with a different focus prayer. In the second year, questers ('buscadores' in Spanish) go on the hill for seven days; in the third year, questers go on the hill for nine days; and finally, in the fourth year, questers go on the hill for thirteen days. Each year, support - in the form of food and either medicinal tea or water - is brought to the vision questers after the initial four-day fast, at prescribed intervals.

Fuego Sagrado de Itzachilatlan Vision Quest Camps camps exist in many other countries in addition to Colombia, such as the United States, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Chile, Mexico (where this model started), and Spain.

I completed my fourth year of the vision quest last year. It was my fifth year traveling to Colombia, and my second attempt at my fourth year of vision quest - which is a story I will save for another time! When I think about how to put into words what I have learned a result of this process, I actually do not know what to say. I am a completely different person now than when I started this process. I am certain that vision questing has augmented every other spiritual or other training I have ever undertook in my life. It has pushed me further than I ever thought I could go. The experience of fasting from water for four days (several times!), in particular, has brought me to a deeper appreciation of what is truly important and sacred in life. Vision questing is a path for the true warrior, and I am happy to acknowledge that as I am a spiritual warrior in this lifetime, being put to the test in this way really worked for me. Yet my experience is so uniquely my own, to share it, it seems, might encourage or otherwise engender comparison, or competition, with other paths, with others who have vision quested using a different model...

And so despite my intentions for starting to write this particular story, I find that what I can say about vision questing is not what I thought I would say. My teacher once said that he could offer 'wisdoms' or teachings all day long, but that to truly understand them, one had to live them, experientially. Vision Questing is like that. No one can tell you how it will be for you, or what you will learn. No one can tell you if it is even a good idea for you to go. It really is a calling, and when you hear it, as I did, you suddenly know what you have to do, and nothing will stand in the way of your answering that call. Vision questing is one way to access our true and authentic connection with Spirit, the (apparent)lack of which is the source of so much of our yearning. It is an authentic way to learn about simplicity, discipline, balance, stillness, focus, prayer, gratitude, acceptance, release, responsibility, humility, and much, much more.

Thank you to all of the chiefs, medicine people, medicines, helpers, and participants who continue to make this prayer a reality. Thank you to Chief Tekpankalli for being the channel for this model, and to my teacher, Alberto, for holding the Sacred Fire in his heart the way he does.

I realize that I have not followed my previous model for this blog, in which I included quotes from a song, a book, wisdom from the ceremonies, etc. I think from now on I will do that if called, but not all the time. Trying to stick to that form eventually drove me to stop writing this blog the last time, because it required so much prep time in finding and compiling the material.

I do have a book recommendation, though.
It is The Presence Process by Michael Brown.
This book contains an amazing 11-week procedure for self-discovery and many, many pearls of wisdom. It is worth your time and effort if you are looking for 'causal' change. To find out what that means, read the book!

Blessings and love to you all in this new year.
Harmony

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