1930- Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota: On a barren hill, under a shelter of pine boughs sits an old Oglala Sioux medicine man. His name is Black Elk and he seems to be expecting the stranger hiking up to meet him. The stranger is John Neihardt, a poet from Nebraska. The meeting between the grizzled warrior healer and the poet is historic. Neihardt goes on to transcribe Black Elk’s story and visions in what becomes the Native American spiritual classic - Black Elk Speaks.

I found a long piece of wood in the desert during my time with the school of lost borders (which if you get a chance do go be with them... holy hanuman GO).  I wrote this on April 22 with a ball point pen on that long piece of wood of which I hand carved a spear with my knife.  There is a certain sharpness that I own.  I have added a couple of sentences... since one thing time does offer is a bringing us closer to our own death in all of the forms that takes.

Suzie
It is difficult for me to express in words the impact this ceremony has had on all aspects of my life, it is easier to simply see the change in my actions.

I have been given a great gift. It is so great because I am able to share this gift with my community. In the eleven days I was training with the School of Lost Borders, my life changed. And now less than a year later, because of the opportunity I was given, up to 40 more young lives have the opportunity to be changed.

Karen M

During the first ever month-long version of Incorporation, which far surpassed the typical four day meditation on how to rejoin our lives fruitfully after a Vision Quest, we were all gifted with a week’s worth of wisdom in each shield, luxuriating in the teachings, textures, games and shades of each phase, while solo fasting in places of exquisite, humbling beauty that unforgettably encapsulated each element and stage of life—from the tumbling, frothing, playful waters of Big Pine’s glacial run-off, to the sharp, crisp air of the High Sierras at 11,900 feet, to the bone dry earth that somehow nurtures the high Inyo desert sage and the ancient bristlecones. Our interaction as helpers with members of the Paiute community totally transformed the characteristic introspection of the quest experience into more outwardly directed, giving energies. It was all an inspiration worth waiting for.

Every moment of council and mirroring journeyed me through a rich web of extremes that my heart, soul and mind had to navigate, tentatively or courageously, under the focused prompts and stories of our able, well-seasoned, and often hilarious guides. I felt constantly transported between the extremely personal and the globally aware, the intensely private and the outwardly activistic, the urge to cry and the urge to laugh. The discomfort of sharing my deepest vulnerabilities was coaxed into expression by the inviolable safety of our circle container. My entire being trekked incessantly between the practical and whimsical to the sacred and profound, learning to listen more keenly to the tiniest chirps and chitterings of the smallest creatures. Alerted by the crickets, the vigilant nighthawk, the rattlesnake at the threshold circle…I’m also sure I heard the cosmic call of the Universe at times.

More of this, please! The world is crying out for more of it. And as a person who seeks to contribute to that world, I am certainly going in a more grounded direction because of it.

Ira
As a urban guy who grew up in NYC , this has been a wonderful adventure of learning to feel safe and connected in the natural world along with a very deep kind of homecoming. With your help, I have come to feel a profound sense of belonging and peace in both the wildness without and within.

The changes continue to work in my life and are  benefiting my family and friends,my psychotherapy clients, and my students.