WOMEN’s vision fast- Steens Wilderness, OR

September 19 - 28, 2024

Guides: Nicole Medema and Kinde Nebekar

Grow into your purpose, fill your cup, engross yourself in life’s meaning, and be witnessed and known in authentic relationship with Community, Nature, and Spirit. That is the rare opportunity this program offers for the circle of women who choose to join it.

There are times in our lives when we reach a breaking point, the feeling that we are being called to a new life. These are the times when, historically, humans sought the assistance of something bigger than them that could hold their grief, anger, power, love, regret, and hope. Something that would be a wise counsel in their time of need and transformation. Within the arms of Wild Nature, we can find that great Something that can serve as the loving and wise doula of our own process of Emergence.

Those women who choose to embark specifically on a women’s fast often find that they can share more deeply because they are surrounded by people who share in their unique female experience. They often leave the ceremony feeling the importance of sisterhood and the unique gifts they hold as women. Our guides are skilled facilitators who will assist your process of deepening. They will hold a strong ceremonial container so that you can safely and competently do your Work with Nature.

Are you seeking love, forgiveness, and compassion? Want to feel your own strength and power? Do you hope to mark a new phase in your life, to know internally that you are no longer who you thought you were? Do you need support in grieving the past and letting go? Do you want respite from the confusion of society and connection with the sacred? These and more are reasons to journey on a vision fast out on the land.

The 2024 Women’s Quest will take place in the beautiful Steens Mountain Wilderness in Southeast Oregon, near a gentle creek and within juniper and sagebrush country.

This is a ten-day experience, including three days of fasting in solitude— your vision fast. You will receive physical, psychological, and spiritual preparation in group. Upon returning from your fast, there will be support to intentionally integrate the learnings and experience in order to prepare to go forward to your life at home. After the ten day program, continued support for integration will be given, including a Welcome Home Celebration for your friends and family to attend, and quarterly incorporation gatherings for the following year after your fast.

If you are feeling that there is something more, something powerful, something for you in the desert, then contact us now.

Following this ancient, pancultural content we strive to provide an experience that is relevant, meaningful, and authentic to us in this place and this time. By "us" we mean the Euro-Afro-Hispano-Asian-Other-mongrel mix that now overwhelmingly inhabits Cascadia (the Pacific Northwest) and the U.S.A. We respect the ceremonies of traditional peoples, and specifically do not do a Native American vision quest (e.g. Lakota "Hanblecheya").

Our vision fasts are a modern-day, nature-based rite of passage, a ritual or ceremony that marks the passing from one life stage to the next. Vision fast, rite of passage, ceremony of transition, marking of maturation are other ways of naming or conceiving this ancient, distinctly human, and, we believe, necessary experience.

Hear the Call?

To review our refund policy, click here and look under Refund Policy for Long Programs. Full payment is due by four weeks before the program start.

DETAILS

Location: Steens Mountain Wilderness, Oregon || Meet at South Steens Campground

When: September 19 - 28, 2024

Cost: Includes guiding; high quality, organic breakfasts and dinners; and follow-up support including welcome home ceremony and four quarterly incorporation gatherings.

Payment plans can be arranged. Contact us as soon as possible to set up. Full payment is due 30 days before program start.

Review our Tiered Equity Pricing page to understand which tier to pay. In order to register, a nonrefundable $400 deposit is required. See our Refund Policy page for more info.

Tier One: $1080 - $1750 (fill out this form to begin approval process)

Tier Two: $1800 - $2650

Tier Three: $2700 - $3600

Tier Four: $3600 - $5400 or more

Participants: Max 10 participants. Women ages 18 and older.

Guides: Nicole Medema and Kinde Nebeker

ABOUT CASCADIA QUEST VISION FASTS

Our Vision Fasts are ten days long, including three days of solo time fasting. They follow an ancient and well-tested pattern. The three phases are:

Severance- Leaving behind or severing from what or who one was. The seminal work of this phase is to clarify and claim who one is NOW, in this time and place. This phase begins to occur as soon as someone commits to being at the fast. This is the part we focus on in the first four days of the program, including meditative walks out on the land, authentic sharing in council circles, ceremonial mirroring, and the work of Intention and Claiming.

Threshold- The "in-between time". The challenge or trial. A two three day solo fast. There are three restrictions during this time: no food (water only), no indoor shelter (nor tent), no other humans. This is a time to dance with Spirit and Nature. It is the liminal time, the time in the cocoon when the caterpillar transforms. From the mundane to the miraculous, anything can happen. This is where the individual carries out her primary rituals and prays for a vision.

Incorporation- Taking on the new body or self. The process of understanding and living into the gifts of the prior two phases. Bringing it into the body of the person and the community. Incorporation begins during the final three days of the program when a woman returns to her people and brings the medicine of her journey with her. We ease participants back into “normal life” with humble holding of their sacred stories. Two weeks after the program ends, we host a Welcome Home Ceremony for them and their families and friends in order to help make one the solo journey and the normal community life. We continue with follow up incorporation gatherings for the next year. Incorporation can, in its fullness, take a lifetime.

Not sure yet? Let’s talk and see if this is the right choice for you.

Cascadia Quest is a nonprofit initiating leaders for a wild, regenerative future.