Descend into those wild places.

These vigils are of ancient origin and have been carried out pan-culturally for thousands of years. It is a Soul calling that draws you to these old simple rituals that take you spiralling down into the depths of that wild place of Soul. It is quite something to spend time in the timelessness of the forest unseen. To embark on the adventure into the dark alone for 4 days and 4 nights. What you discover there is deeply sacred and personal, and you will be guided pre and post vigil to aid you in the process. Maybe you are not ready for this Vigil and that’s ok, this 8-day vigil is not to be jumped into lightly but if there is that tug in you that inner knowing, or just plain old curiosity has claimed you then check out the events tab or contact us to discuss. The phases of the vigil are as follows:

First phase of vigil-Severance/Separation

As participants prepare to sever from their current state, they must leave everything behind from their familiar past. They are weaned and removed from the civilised mother, they are going into the territory of wildness, of the great mother, forget anything about the civilised, it won’t help you here.

 Sometimes this preparation has been years in the making, hearing the song of their own soul roaring like a sacred river. Now, having followed that divine thread they are getting ready to make a commitment to the ritual itself. This commitment of course is countered by fear of the unknown. The deadline is fast approaching.

Unresolved fears, emotions, and grief flow up and out like a wellspring. Defence shields can come up hard and fast. Even, a questioning doubtfulness: is the ritual right for them? Should I be doing this? What will happen? I don’t know if I’m ready to fast alone in the wild for 4 days and 4 nights with no other human companion.

Those that are ready will usually have a lot of unease at this point, the cracks begin to show, and the armour they have been carrying is best removed at this point, it won’t help in the forest. Unease is exactly what should be felt as they prepare to descend to the underworld, to stop running and sit and face all of themselves, into the unknown they go.

Threshold/Liminal

Into the unknown they go as they cross into the underworld. To take that final step across the threshold, a term meaning, a doorway, a crossing, a portal. From old English “threshold” was used to describe the removal of chaff from the wheat. A shedding and sorting. That is exactly what happens at this step. Each participant must shed any remaining chaff and signal they are ready to cross that threshold into the liminal, the timeless, the eternal, crossing into spirit time and that deep ripening place of the underworld.

Now the cooking can begin. For the next 4 days and 4 nights participants are cooked into something new, gestated, to be born again. This is not an easy place to be; monsters appear, angels too. One thing is almost guaranteed, they will dance with darkness. Not for a brief moment either, but as slow work. Let me tell you, four days and nights in one place in normal time feels like four decades when one is out there.

You may be sensing the gravity of the ritual, this is the point I am making. This ancient ritual is one to be revered and approached with awe and reverence. It is not a workshop with a guaranteed great outcome. There is no guarantee. That’s the point. There is, in fact, not even any guarantee anything will occur. This is one of the teachings of the process. To have to face the unknown, the uncertainty, to honour the mystery, in the end the process brings participants to that uncomfortable place that we all some of the time or a lot of the time, try our best to circumnavigate- submission! The ritual will bring you to your knees so you may pray on that prayer mat beneath your feet and feast on your life as you are cooked by the fires of the vigil.

Oh how beautiful for the soul.

Incorporation/Return

After spending all night awake in a small circle on that final night, it is now time for the hard part, the return, to incorporate all that has been received and make that crossing back from the underworld into this one. “Incorporate”, to bring into body, to make whole, the participants will spend the next two days beginning this incorporation of allowing the journey to seep from the skin deep down into the marrow of the bones. This Incorporation, this taking into body, can take some time. Participants at this point are wide open, as they cross, they are clearly not the same person who went out, they have been reborn, into what, well time will tell as the magic of the vigil manifests in their life. Make no mistake though this final phase of the vigil is the hardest! Why? Because the participants are coming back into a modern society who have forgotten how to weave the gifts of those experiences in order to reknit the fabric of the universe time and time again. In other words those that have been through the vigil have somehow found the vertical dimension of things again, the rub is they come back to a flatline culture, it can be quiet shocking to witness after 4 days and nights sitting in the deep time of our great mothers rhythms to then step into the fast paced modern world where everyone seems to be chasing some attainable secondary satisfaction and forgotten the truth of our beingness.

The second part of the return is now the participants must wrestle with what has occurred, their will be some lonesomeness and maybe some unease, the vigil does not promise a joyful life on completion, in fact it allows the psyche to be as large as the earth itself and by doing so when pain sorrow and complexity come into the participants life, it is held with a truth and integrity rather than that old ancient energy of despair.

This can be an empowering place to hold complexity, paradox and the like, keeping one foot in the wild and one now back in the village, to have humility, ah yes humility I love that word, meaning to be of earth, to be of the dark rooted soil and give nourishment to divine fruit. There is something about having that expanded awareness that bridges understanding and compassion even in the toughest of situations, it can become quite the cosmic joke navigating these mysteries but one worth it time and time again. The participant however now must follow whatever on earth they woke up down there in the underworld, they must offer and follow that divine thread that is now activated and calling them forth into life so that they can contribute to a better world our souls know is possible. Easy it is not, usually it involves giving away precious possessions, walking crooked paths and people wondering just what the hell you are doing. It involves that other key word that we sometimes try and avoid, it involves responsibility! When I speak of responsibility, I am talking about the divine responsibility of being an old growth human being, to tend to all that arises within, to tend to the inner garden so that when the storm comes, and come it will, the garden still has the ability to respond, to grow fruit and vegetables. In other words, responsibility requires growing the ability to respond no matter what on earth is thrown your way. Not an easy task but this is the edge the participants now must ride.

I do hope that this week’s writings have been thought provoking and I offer an invitation to offer some good intentions and prayers in a language that is nearly forgotten to those courageous souls that are about to dive into this vigil over the next 10 days. May they be blessed with all that now unfolds within their life.

Questing sites.

When participants first arrive for their final stages of preparation before crossing that scared threshold into the deep dark forest they are invited to choose a “site” to spend the next 4days and 4 nights in beautiful solitude aching for and asking guidance about the holy threshold of their inner landscape of life, all that has led them to this point is being brushed up against like the wind blowing and stirring the oceanic winds of their hearts.

They are invited into a space of mindfulness to allow them to follow the divine thread of their bodies to guide them through the undergrowth and travails of their life. There is some trickster energy about at this point during the process and the earth turns to each one of them and wraps her beautiful arms around each individual at some point in the process and states “ I claim you!” She holds the medicine they seek and embraces them fully in her divine beauty. The participants return to state, I found a place but it was not where I was expecting, expecting no, needing, well the holy in nature knows what each participant needs.

We do however offer variations and other earth-based rituals of shorter duration. This gives you the opportunity to experience the three stages of the wilderness vigil process, (separation, threshold, and incorporation). These variations are conducted over either one or three days and you will find them in the events tab. No matter what vigil you decide on these vigils hold sacred transformative potential in the liminality of the wild.

So, if you are hearing the roar of the sacred river inside of you or the silence of the deep forest calling then check out the current offerings here.