Vision Quest

Join our shamanic experts for a profound and moving experience in the beautiful wild surroundings of Sacred Earth, where we have 40 acres of private woodland, lakes and meadows. This seven day (six night) camp will include your own 3 days/3 nights vigil (quest), perhaps working with the energy of a sacred fire. This will support you on your own personal journey, where you can learn the tools of self leadership and self actualisation. The rest of the camp will include opening sweat lodge, teachings on shamanism, divination, wild medicine and indigenous ceremonies and there will be many opportunities to connect with nature on a deep level. This journey will support you to acknowledge, mourn, release, welcome and celebrate life transitions of any kind. It can be a deeply cathartic experience. Especially in challenging times, these ceremonies give us the opportunities to turn challenges into initiations - empowering, humbling, strengthening and enlightening us. Your vigil will be a solo experience. Your facilitators will prepare you for this, ensure that you are safe and have everything you need. Co-host is Leo Rutherford, our resident shamanic expert. He has been practicing for over 40 years and runs his own shamanic practice called Eagle's Wing. A few words from Leo: “We are now in such need of personal and planetary healing that we find more and more people are coming back to the path of shamanism, rediscovering their roots and their way back home. Shamanic practices and healing enable you to have powers over your own life and to help others. In addition to this, shamanic ways show you how to connect with all of creation." Participants will be wild camping onsite (please bring your own tent and sleeping bag if you don't want to sleep under the stars), we also have a couple of shared indoor lodge accommodation possibly available for £15 a night, get in touch quickly if you want to discuss this option. We will provide tasty, healthy food throughout. Arrive from 1pm to settle in and set up tents etc.

• A quest is a time of sacrifice. As a quester you traditionally give up shelter, the companionship of other humans, food, and physical comforts (please note: these are optional for you at Sacred Earth). You do this for two reasons: first, to demonstrate to all those who live in the spirit world that you are sincere in your desire to serve the people and to be guided in your search for good ways to serve the more-than-human. Second, to rid yourself of many of the distractions that comfort brings with it and in doing so to get closer to nature and the spirits from whom you ask guidance. • This is also a time of solitude, of going within.You won't look to other humans for truth, but deep inside yourself. You will ask for universal truth to be made known, as it applies to you and as you are capable of understanding it, and which many people have largely lost. • It is a time of prayer, of asking for a vision. As continuously as possible, you pray, asking the spirits - the creator (whatever you believe that to be), the grandmothers and grandfathers - for a vision that will guide your life. You may dance, write, reflect, pray silently or aloud – whatever you need to do to help you stay in the consciousness of the quest. Some people choose to make their quest physically arduous, others wish to have sufficient comfort that they do not have to be concerned about physical survival. This decision is yours alone; keep in mind that the weather can be constantly changing, keep in mind that you may be called to do a quest at this time for a reason. In a quest, as in many spiritual activities, things happen for a reason more than in many other areas of our lives.