A Vision Quest in the Rain: Remembering That We Are Nature 🍀

The rain began before we entered the forest.

Many people would have seen it as bad weather. Yet for me, it felt like part of the initiation.

Last week I returned from another module of my ongoing training in Tantra, Shamanic Healing, and Bioenergetics. During the training, we were invited to undertake a Vision Quest—an ancient practice found in many indigenous traditions that invites us to step away from ordinary life and enter into a deeper dialogue with nature and spirit.

The intention of a Vision Quest is simple: to listen.

Not to the constant noise of the mind, but to the deeper intelligence that lives beneath it.

We entered the forest carrying only a few essentials: a sleeping bag, water, and a sacred stone chosen beforehand. My dog accompanied me, a quiet and faithful companion throughout the experience.

Following the teachings I am receiving, we created medicine circles using stones gathered from the forest itself. Each position in the circle represented a different aspect of our lives: body, emotions, heart, mind, spirit, ancestors, karma, and other dimensions of our human experience.

Lying in the centre of that circle, surrounded by rain, trees, and silence, I entered into a state of deep listening.

The invitation was to ask life for a mirror.

In shamanic traditions, a mirror can appear in many forms. It may come through an animal encounter, a sound, a dream, a feeling, a memory, a sudden insight, or something that seems completely ordinary yet carries profound meaning.

Nature becomes the teacher.

As daylight faded and darkness settled over the forest, something within me also softened. The usual need to analyse, understand, and control gradually gave way to presence.

What emerged was difficult to describe with words.

Some insights arrived gently. Others touched something much deeper. Many of them are still unfolding and revealing their meaning days later.

What became unmistakably clear, however, was my sense of belonging on this path.

I felt supported by the group, by my teacher John Hawken, and by something larger moving through the natural world itself.

The experience reminded me that healing is not only something that happens inside therapy rooms, workshops, or practices.

Healing also happens when we remember our relationship with the living world.

Nature is not separate from us.

We are nature.

And perhaps one of the greatest gifts of practices such as Vision Quests is that they help us remember this simple truth.

The guidance we seek is often already present.

The question is whether we are willing to slow down enough to listen.

With love,