The wind will be in your face. You will wander through sandy washes and on more hard-packed terrain covered with small desert plants. There might be flowers. You will live and roam among the myriad piles of Mojave rocks, which change colors throughout the day. You will learn quickly which plants let you pass by, and which ones will grab at you and your clothes to remind you that you are in the wild. And the sunsets are spectacular, falling across the landscape in their yellows, and oranges and reds, and illuminating range after range of mountains up to a hundred miles away.
And why would you do this? Why would you go on an Alumni Vision Quest with your old peers from high school? Perhaps you are in transition? Are you turning 30, or 40 or 50? (or 25, 35, Or 45?) Is it your Saturn return time (age 28 or so)? Maybe you're getting married, or divorced? Starting or ending a relationship? Are you thinking about having kids, or maybe not having kids? Perhaps you are contemplating a move, or a change of careers? Or maybe you're not sure about anything, but you know you need some time to yourself to sort things out, think things through, and simplify for a few days.
Historically, humans have used a temporary "time out"from their societies to reflect. We read about three and four-day fasts. We read about 40-day wanderings in the desert. Ramadan? Lent? Yom Kippur? Zen Buddhists sit sesshin for seven days in the zendo. The list is long and all cultures practice some kind of isolation from all things familiar.
Many of you know the Vision Quest process. You will spend several months slowly "severing" yourself from your routines and current life. When you leave base camp, you will be in the sacred “transition” time, where it is just you and the desert. You will have three days to let your system slow down enough that you might find yourself in tune with yourself. It's possible not to see another human for three days. And in that case, what will you do during that time? And at the end of that period, you are in the "reincorporation" phase, where you sort out what just happened to you and what you will take back with you into your life. We sit in a group and listen deeply to each other before and after your solo. Many questers find that their circumstances are different; the way they feel about things is different; and that adjustments large and small happen almost without conscious thought.
How will that process work for you? What is going on your life that you are even thinking about spending three days alone in the desert?
Please check out the dates and the particulars for our next two trips to the Mojave desert, in October 2019 and March 2020.
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