Wilderness Fast
w/ Rob Dreaming The day walk (24h Solo) is a journey upon the face of the earth, a ceremony of preparation, a pilgrimage through the mirror of nature. In the natural world, signs and symbols of your inward journey are reflected. The walk is a distilled version of the threshold phase of the vision fast [the solo period at the center of a full Vision Quest]. —Steven Foster and Meredith Little Nearing the end of the month-long walk, SOAR participants will be invited to take part in a 24-hour solo, a personal non-structured time in nature to contemplate and clarify a stated intention of their making, supported before and after by both guide and group facilitation. The solo provides an opportunity for inner resources to be revealed that may not have been in evidence or had prior importance, that can be seen as fruitful, perhaps essential to take forward into incorporation for the following times. The Solo is a journey with three phases. Firstly there is Severance: a withdrawal from one’s day-to-day life, the severing of ties, a preparation for the challenge to come. This will begin a few days before the solo itself. It will include sessions along the way where the questions, intentions and dreams we hold, can be supported and witnessed by the group in coming together to find a clear intention that we can state in a simple sentence, to carry us into our alone time. Next is the Threshold: the solo itself, the time for threshing the wheat from the chaff, for listening, facing the unknown and passing over or through what was previously impassable. This phase best takes place in a kind of wilderness, an unfamiliar natural environment that contains an edge to move us from our comfort zone and thus into promoting our learning faculty in a way that usual habitats and classrooms may not provide. Key to the solo is the element of fasting; a voluntary abstinence of food, company and usual comfort. Our own experience and our relationship to, and in nature, will be our student and guide for what is reflected back to us as meaningful and potent in our process. The final stage is Incorporation: a taking in of the experience, lessons, metaphores and affirmations back into the body of one’s life. Through storytelling, each journey is given time to be heard and appreciated then mirrored back by the guides and group. This process brings forth elements of our story that another’s viewpoint is empowered and inspired to see, that we may not, for our stories contain the fruit and wisdom of our labour and by sharing we can be truly seen ad witnessed by our attentive community at that moment. |