The Windwalker Dragonfly Quest
September 16-24, 2016, Eastern Townships, Quebec
For years, copying other people I tried to know myself. From within, I couldn't decide what to do. Unable to see, I heard my name being called. Then I walked outside.
Rumi
Although our programs are run in English our guides are fluent in French. We are happy to accommodate French speaking participants.
Bien que nos programmes se présentent généralement en anglais, vos guides parlent couramment français. Nous sommes heureux d'accueillir les participants francophones.
Initiation ceremonies are part of a cycle that helps to find answers to life’s big questions and that encourage meaning and purpose by fostering a deepening of relationships within a larger context. There is a growing desire among Western populations to experience meaningful ritual and holistic personal growth.
People have always used rituals to derive meaning through life’s diverse and challenging transitions. The Windwalker Dragonfly Quest is a therapeutic nature ritual of confirmation, integration, and initiation that reinforces the awareness of loss, sanctions remembering, facilitates the expression of feelings, provides support, and guides the needed reorganization of life.
If you feel you are at a crossroads in your life or if you have questions about the intent and purpose for your life, consider the Windwalker Dragonfly Quest.
The Windwalker Dragonfly Quest includes time in solitude in nature during which you seek inner revelation – vision – that will enhance the meaning and direction of your life. Under the guidance of qualified and caring guides you go into nature to fast and deeply contemplate who you most authentically are at this time in your life. You give up physical comforts and the company of other humans while you pursue the discovery of intent and purpose. Those who seek deeply will find ancient mysteries of self transformation: mysteries of clarity, of self-reliance and faith, of dying and rebirth.
There is an element of perceived risk. Four days and nights alone in a natural place (solitude), fasting (emptiness), exposing yourself to the elements (vulnerability), and self-reliance (self-trust), are the earmarks of old ways of learning. You can expect to invest a good deal of time watching yourself and your relationship to the Earth and the rest of humanity.
You will prepare your own circle, take responsibility for your own well-being, and experience a multitude of emotions and feelings as personal borders are risked.
You will be invited to participate in a sweatlodge ceremony as an essential step of your separation and return.
Guides: Corinna Stevenson - Dragonfly, Wes Gietz - Windwalker.
The Exchange
The fee for the Windwalker Dragonfly Quest is $1125 - $1500 (including 3 months preparation phase). We have established a sliding scale in order to make this program accessible to a wide range of people. We have set forth no criteria and trust that each individual will pay what they feel is appropriate.
The exchange is for instruction, teachings, and guidance before and after your time of solitude. It also covers expenses such as food, land rental, supplies, and travel expenses. It is what enables us to continue to offer this program to those who are called to it.
Deposit
A $250 deposit will secure your registration. Space is limited. Please register early to avoid disappointment.
A note on gifting for ceremony
it is customary to offer a gift, above and beyond the monetary exchange for the program, that expresses your respect and gratitude for ceremony and guides.
Minimum age: 19 years
Maximum number of participants: 9
An outline of the 2016 program: Preparation for your Vision Quest begins the moment you make the decision. Pay attention to things that seem to be getting in the way, especially all the reasonable reasons for not going.
- June - September: You prepare yourself through ceremony, conversations, getting equipment and supplies together, and journaling. We guide you through all of these activities. Please Note: We recommend at least 3 months for the preparation phase and ask that you register by early June if possible. If you register after June, please be prepared to give priority to the tasks of preparation.
- September 16-17: We meet at the location. We prepare you for your four days of solitude: the Quest itself. This preparation time includes sharing teachings; physical, emotional and ceremonial preparation; selection and preparation of your Quest circle. You will be invited to participate in a sweatlodge ceremony at separation and return. We will start early on the first day and strongly recommend you arrive the day prior (September 15). It is important that you give yourself ample time to arrive and settle in.
- September 19-21:The Quest. During your Quest you will be watched over by guides and protectors who keep a vigil at a ceremonial fire that burns for you, day and night, until you return.
- September 22-24: Return, welcoming, honouring, integration, teachings, and preparation to depart.
Questions? Send an e-mail to dragonflyprograms@gmail.com
From Previous Questers
I looked at Wes and saw how open and yet strong he was in his beliefs. He was like a tree, steadfast in what he believed in yet able to dance with life itself, like the tops of the trees with the wind. He believed deeply in community, like the community of interdependence in the forest I had just been part of. I wanted to be more like him.
Corinna spoke with passion, heart and love. When I listened to her I felt like she was caressing my hair and rocking me to sleep, all the while whispering a sweet lullaby of inspiration. She was like the wind itself. I wanted to be more like her.
What they both did well was listen. When I talked, they listened as if I was the only person in the world, just like nature that had listened to my thoughts and whispered its wisdom to me.
These elements of nature that had balance within themselves and everything around.
I wanted to be more like Nature. - A.R.
As I left the site of my Vision Quest three and a half months ago, I felt a sense of sadness that it had come to an end. But what I have come to learn in the months following this rite of passage is that my Quest continues on a daily basis. Nature inspired, rejuvenated and revealed my darkest fears and insecurities to me, but like the fire that was kept burning by Wes and Corinna during the Quest, an inner flame is now always guiding, supporting and motivating me.
Nature has helped to heal me and shown me how to be true to myself, but it’s also highlighted the importance of the interconnectedness of community. By being more whole, I can now offer true unconditional love to my wife, nature itself and to All My Relations. - A.R.
I have since returned to the person I love and trust, my real self. I am unsure why such an enlightening experience would create a response like that but I feel that it needed to happen. I purged parts of me that no longer served me, that were still in there...
One of the most amazing feelings I felt right after my vision quest was my acute sensitivity to bird and animal sounds... I felt that I had the hearing of a cougar. I had really fast reactions to the rustling of leaves, the songs of birds and the dear running through the grass, etc. I felt more animal than I ever have. It was amazing. I want to keep those senses honed and I feel that being alone in nature really helps. - A.D.
[When people asked about my Quest] …although I laughed and chatted about parts of the experience which people wanted to hear, my soul was quiet inside. There is a depth of being a human being that many people do not touch on in this world. Even when one friend asked: "Did you have any visions?" I found it hard to reply. Such a simple question, but I find it hard to answer. Words are limited. This is another re-membering for me. How do we describe in linear language that which is beyond words?
Under the shifting waters, I feel a strength rising slowly. It feels deep and strong, and perhaps this is why I cannot clearly see it or describe it to you - it is still submerged. I hope I can articulate it sometime...
Shifting, changing, I TRUST that this is all leading me to where I need to be. Authenticity, speaking my truth, letting go of bullshit. Becoming more fully woman, opening up to love, honouring my beauty as a woman, Life is open, uncertain, expanding to something bigger - I feel it. And even though I cannot see where it is all going, something deep inside says "Yes." - H.P.
I now have a deeper understanding of the misery that unfolds when you don't follow your heart, may I never need to experience that again…I know for certain my experience of the vision quest is still working in me, both subtle and very obvious, and is dancing hand in hand with the shifts that are happening due to my self-exploration and healing journey… I feel in my heart that I got exactly what I needed from my vision quest." - J. N.