Rites of Passage in Modern Times

Remember your Saturn Return around the age of 28 (or maybe you’re experiencing it now), scrambling to find your place in the world without any sure footing and wondering if you’ll ever land or if you’ll end up floating around forever?

Maybe you’ve recently become a parent and been suddenly submerged in the feeling that you are never going to figure out how to keep this fragile creature alive without your heart breaking every single day?

Perhaps you’re in your 40s and realizing that this thing called life that you thought you had all figured out isn’t exactly what you thought it was 5, 10, 15 years ago, even though you’re still holding onto old dreams, personas, and relationships?

Or if you’re lucky enough to be entering elderhood, are you considering how you can continue to contribute to a society obsessed with youth, all while learning to accept that your body is slowing down?

What do all these have in common? These are a few examples of major turning points in everyone’s life. The list may also include marriage, divorce, starting a new career, losing a job, heartbreak, menarche, inner crisis, young adulthood, illness, school graduation, leaving home, death and more.

In our modern Western society, many of us are expected to transition from one stage of life to the next without any psychological, spiritual or community support. Often, we are left adrift without purpose or meaning, sometimes hindering transition and actualization.

That’s why last fall, after two years of experiencing major life upheavals due to my mid-life “crisis,” I decided resolutely to participate in an age-old rite-of-passage. My solo wilderness vision fast was a catalyst for change, an honoring of the new phase of my life and a way to benefit my development.

At the time, I felt like an old part of me was dying away and a new me wanted to emerge, but I didn’t know who the new me was. I had only inklings of what she might be but no true purpose or direction. This is how many people feel during times of transition. Usually, we just wait it out and hope we figure it out or impatiently jump into something we aren’t ready for or don’t really want.

Cultures have been practicing the art of fasting alone in nature for thousands of years. Moses, Buddha and Jesus and many other great spiritual teachers retreated to the desert or forests for extended periods of time to fast or be alone, kickstarting the next phase of their lives and contributions to humanity. Many earth-based cultures continue to enact similar rites-of-passage such as the Vision Quest of Native American tribes of the plains and Great Basin and the Walkabout of Australian Aborigines.

By including nature in the ceremony, we are given the gift of seeing the larger picture and meaning of life. Our perspectives are broadened in the wilderness and the little things we think are so important in our day to day fade away and the truly important stuff gets to rise to the surface. We can free our minds of conditioned programming and see that our potential is truly limitless.

In nature, severing ties to our normal everyday lives, we can experience the deep connection and relationship to all of life around us, the natural rhythms and cycles of our being, and the divine in everything. And as my vision fast guides suggested, you can go wild out there where no one is watching and set your true authentic soul free.

Everyone’s experience on their vision fast is unique. I had a lot of fears going into mine about being alone at night in the forest, and all those fears showed up for me, including cougar sightings, elk rutting stampedes and coyote screams over a kill. The fasting part wasn’t as difficult for me as it was for some. I practiced rituals while I was out there, shaping my own flower crowns and magic wands out of sticks and rocks. I held a Death Lodge in which I let go of the old me. I created a Power Circle of rocks to surround me, representing all the people in my community who supported me and all the resources I already had in my life.

After, I returned to my community of inter-generational women who were doing the wilderness fast alongside me in their own part of the woods. We shared our stories, and the guides mirrored them back to us.

My “vision” came through as a sense of certainty more than a hallucination. I left knowing what my path forward entailed. For the next part of my life, my work is to help shift consciousness towards one of reciprocal relationship with the natural world. Stewarding All of Us Stardust and creating my course Earth Sensory Perception is one of the ways I am doing that. So is taking people forest bathing, teaching nature writing and blogging about living off grid.

This year, I had the opportunity to assist in guiding women on a solo wilderness fast much like my own. I was honored to support them on their journey, sharing the knowledge I gained on my own journey, and to learn even more about this rite-of-passage from a more objective perspective. I hope to continue to do more like this in the future. Stay tuned for future offerings around rites of passage. (Reply and let me know if this is something that interests you. I’d love to hear about what transition feels like for you.)

If the idea of wilderness fasts intrigues you, you might want to start with a solo medicine walk. This was the first thing everyone was asked to do before their longer solo to get clear on their intention. This is also a practice I like to do a couple of times a year whenever I need clarity and confirmation on my path.