In a time not so long ago young boys when through a"rite of passage" to signify the crossing over to manhood. This is something that most young people in America will never experience and do not really understand. As a father of four daughters and two grand-children I know for a fact that kids just grow up all of a sudden. There is very little teaching/learning that goes between parent and kids as in the past. It seems that most parents depend on other entities to raise their kids up in the ways of the world. Young girls in their early teens are dressing up like porn queens and young boys are involved with drug and gang activity just to fit in. No longer is there a set time in one's life when they went from a child to a grownup, they just come home from another party that went too far and their all grown up.
There comes a time when you must grow up and leave family, friends and work behind and go off alone, looking within to discover your changes in the wheel of life. The Hanbleceya, translated from Lakota means "Vision Quest" is the name of this rite of passage. The Vision Quest has been followed by humans for thousands of years. When you are brave enough o listen you can hear it calling to you. Life questions are pushing you to do something, "Who am I?", "Why am I here?" and "How can I heal my wounds?" Something's in life are required, this is one of them.
The first thing to do is found someone that will teach and guide you through this ceremony in a respectful manner for all the ones that have gone before and the thousands that gave their lives for us to continue. You begin by learning the simplest of ways to open your eyes and admit there is some kind of higher power out there that is in control. All the while, your group is becoming a community, offering support and love.
Vision Quests have been important by enabling individuals to negotiate their maturity/transitions with purpose and meaning, discovering gifts to be brought back for the whole community. Without them, people have no way to mark and celebrate their life-changes, unable to complete the old or begin the new. The Vision Quest allows a person to engage an age-old ceremonial pattern: completion of an old life, movement through the threshold of the unknown, and return to the world reborn. People in any life stage or transition can find meaning in this powerful process. Young people will find particular meaning in the challenges the program presents.
Your teacher and your group will serve to mirror and support visioneers by helping them first to prepare for their Vision Quest and then to understand and interpret their experience. The vision quester returns to the "real world" powerfully moved by having lived close to the source power and the Higher Power in their understanding.
During the four days and nights you will enact the Vision Quest, living by yourself in the wildness of nature holding your Chanupa and facing each direction to pray daily. In the weakness of fasting, you become more open and transparent. You live between the inner world of dreams, feelings, fantasies and the outer world of cold night air, the warming sun, the sound of a coyote howling, the sight of mole digging mounds just outside of your area. You will be visited by dragons, whose names are loneliness, boredom, fear, and regret--among others. You engage them with your heart and spirit, recognizing them as worthwhile opponents. They push you into your depths.
Time can slow down on a Vision Quest, and the stillness of being alone can be very powerful. As your thoughts begin to empty out, you can look into the pool of your own being, noticing how you are, what your dreams are made of, what you need to let go of. The medicine wheel is present there, and you can enter it naturally. It is possible to feel connected to everything, to the small fly dragonfly, to the giant oak tree, to the limitless expanse of the cosmos.
On the way in, just as on the way out you will enter the Inipi lodge to transition out from the spirit world back into reality. You have been witness to your own death and rebirth. What is important to carry into your new life, and what needs to be left behind? You ask the Spirit to help you find your way. Your prayers are answered as the first rays of sunlight pierce the darkness. It's time now to come down off the mountain and begin the journey back.
There are numerous things I left out about the ceremony in this article I just wanted to say certain things about the Hanbleceya. The Inipi Ceremony is critical in the Vision Quest, just like many other ceremonial rights are important, however one truly only needs a supporter and fire for a Vision Quest. One day in the future I might decide to write my story about the things that have gone on in the Vision Quest that I have been privileged to be a part of including my own.
Aho, Mitakuye Ayasin
Ricky Ellis
McKinney TX
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