Vision Fast
“The work we have to do can be seen as a kind of coming alive...an awakening into our true nature, a releasing of our gifts.”
- Joanna Macy
In the world today, we often live connected to screens and disconnected from the land. The initiation and rites of passage ceremonies practiced for centuries by our ancestors have almost been forgotten. The vision fast ceremony is a modern-day rite of passage that helps navigate the complexity of these times and mark, honor, and celebrate life transitions. This involves time out alone in nature, with minimal or no food, and leaving behind distractions and daily routines.
When we take the time to honor life's changing seasons and thoughtfully respond to the question "Who am I?" and "What do I have to offer?" we step into our true nature and a sense of belonging amongst the land and our communities. The results can be profound. Meaning and purpose can return, and life can become richer, clearer, and more full.
The vision fast ceremony has three archetypal phases that have been identified by anthropologists in rites of passage around the world:
SEVERANCE
Severance begins when you decide to commit to this ceremony. It is preparation for the vision fast, and the time to ask: "Who am I now? And what do I need to leave behind to move forward?" This process of "letting go" can be difficult, but it is the first step in marking the truth of who you are and the gifts you bring to the world.
THRESHOLD
During the threshold, you will cross alone into the natural world for 3-4 days and nights. Throughout your solo you will find yourself in a liminal time, a realm between your old life, and the life that has yet to come. You will create your own ceremony that reflects your background, intention, value, and what you are honoring in your life.
INCORPORATION
Incorporation begins when you return from your solo and are reunited with your group and guides. They will listen deeply to your story and mirror it back to you. You will be supported to bring back the learning and gifts from your ceremony to your people. Incorporation is a year long process and an opportunity to show up in your life in new ways.
Check out these pages for more information about rites of passage and our cultural relations.
Upcoming Vision Fast Programs
NM Women’s Vision Fast
May 12 - May 23, 2025 Cochiti Lake and Ghost Ranch, New Mexico Emerald North, Kim Belair
A woman's journey is both vigorous and introspective as she covers ground outwardly, so she ventures deep within herself. Stirred by nature's calling to be creative and complete, and beckoned by an ...
CA Men’s Rite of Passage
May 27 - Jun 7, 2025 Big Pine, California Sam DeBoskey, Scott Davidson
The world is changing fast… and we must do our best to keep up. We now face unprecedented waves of transformation. The blossoming and decay of our modern ways is calling attention to fundamental ...
Young Adults Nature Based Rite of Passage
Jun 6 - Jun 17, 2025 Inyo Mountains - Big Pine, California Nick LaHaise, Gretchen (Grae) Gerlach
This Rite of Passage is a ceremonial and utterly real opportunity to define yourself and be thoroughly welcomed into adulthood for exactly who you are. You are our next generation of world leaders ...
CO June Queer Quest 2
Jun 15 - Jun 29, 2025 Wild Mountain, Colorado Ruth “Roo” Wharton, Callum “Bear” Bobb
The natural world reminds us that being Queer* is both beautiful and something to be celebrated! Showing up as who we are, and with our many gifts, is a celebration of nature’s diversity and honors ...
CO Women’s Fast
Jul 6 - Jul 15, 2025 Dragonback Springs near Saguache, CO Bettina Straub, Nancy Jane
- Remembering Ourselves Home - You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your ...
CO Summer Vision Fast
Jul 21 - Aug 1, 2025 Dragonback Springs Ranch, Colorado Emerald North, Colleen Bishop, tbird (Thompson) Bishop
In increasing times of unrest and uncertainty it can be a common human experience to gravitate towards more “certainty” rather than less. Yet, in the Zen tradition “not knowing” is most ...
CA Summer Vision Fast
Aug 11 - Aug 23, 2025 Inyo Mountains - Big Pine, California Scott Eberle, Gretchen (Grae) Gerlach
The modern day vision quest is a border crossing practice, an opportunity to reclaim our true place in the natural world. When one steps across the threshold and into the unknown wilderness, ...
NM Fall Vision Fast
Sep 15 - Sep 26, 2025 Cochiti Lake and Ghost Ranch, New Mexico Emerald North, Scot Deily
The land knows you, even when you are lost. ~ Robin Wall Kimmerer In increasing times of unrest and uncertainty it can be a common human experience to gravitate towards more “certainty” ...
CO Fall Vision Fast
Sep 29 - Oct 12, 2025 Wild Mountain, Colorado Pedro McMillan, Kelly McClelland
Fall is a potent season, the leaves change, the nights lengthen, and the composting of all that is overripe begins. It is a time of harvest and a time of shedding. We begin to draw inward, to listen, ...
CA Fall Vision Fast
Oct 24 - Nov 4, 2025 Death Valley, California Petra Lentz-Snow, Gretchen (Grae) Gerlach
Life transitions, like entering adulthood, midlife or elderhood are always "DNA invitations" to go out on the land. The need to become anew is planted deeply into our ancestral bones because it was ...
CA Women’s Vision Fast
Nov 4 - Nov 15, 2025 Palm Canyon Campground, Anza Borrego, Ca Betsy Perluss, Cynthia Morrow, Bettina Straub
“I see the Feminine defined as a reconnection to the Self, a commitment to the wildness within our instincts, our capacityto create and destroy; our hunger for connection as well as sovereignty, ...