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Gathering
Of
Circles
2005
Updated 06/18/2005
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Vision
Quest with Bear Heart
Friday
9:00 AM, May 20 thru Monday noon, May 23, 2005
Cloudcroft, New Mexico
There is never a charge for ceremony !!
(According to your life style, no one will
be turned away for monetary reasons)
Bear
Heart's web site: www.BearHeart.info
Questor
info - Supporter
info - Who is coming ?
Photos and comments
This information is for the men and women who will be participating as
questers and support persons for the Vision Quest
that will take place in the mountains near Cloudcroft, New Mexico from
Friday 9:00 AM, May 20 thru Monday, Noon, May 23, 2005.
The
limit for the number of questers is 12. There will be a four door sweat before
you go out, a sweat for the supporters during the quest, and a one door sweat
for the questers upon their return.
About the Sponsor: Marcelius Bear Heart
Williams is a full-blooded Muskogee Creek Elder born in Oklahoma 87 years ago. He is one of the few remaining traditionally
trained Medicine Men and carries the Sacred Pipe in the Lakota and Cheyenne
traditions. His fields of study include
Psychology, Cultural Anthropology, Sociology and Theology, majoring in Biblical
Greek and Comparative Religion. He
received an Honorary Doctorate in Humanities from St. John’s University. Bear Heart conducts Vision Quests, Sweat
Lodges, Teepee Meetings and has a counseling and traditional healing practice.
Donation: For
questers the
suggested donation per person is $250. You may
contribute more or less. Each of you
should listen to your own heart and consider your own financial circumstance as
well as the work that Bear Heart performs for you while you are “on the
hill.” Men and women supporting the Quest but not actually fasting will participate
in prayer and ceremony with Bear Heart and help maintain the vigil for the questers. The suggested donation for these supporters is
$150 per person. You may work out a payment plan with Bear Heart if desired. No one will be
turned away for monetary reasons. All monies go directly to Bear Heart.
If
you are planning to attend,
please send a check for $50 made out to Bear Heart (to reserve your spot) along with some tobacco
to:
Bear Heart
PO Box 15281
Rio Rancho, NM 87174
Also,
please include a letter of intent for your vision or e-mail directly to Bear
Heart at:
reginaws@yahoo.com You may also negotiate a payment plan with
Bear Heart at
this address also.
Please
e-mail Cliff Buchanan at Cliff@ISISoftware.net
so that I can add you to the proper category of either Quester or Supporter.
Remember we have a limit of 12 Questers. There is no limit on the number of
Supporters.
The following is adapted from Bear Heart’s notes on
Vision Questing
Why you might consider a Vision Quest:
If you feel that you are at
a crossroads in your life or if you have questions about the intent and purpose
for your life then you may benefit from a Vision Quest. What is my life purpose? What is my gift? How can I manifest my special talents? What are my special talents? What am I supposed to be bringing to
the world to make it better? These are
some questions that a Vision Quest can help answer.
How to prepare:
Your Vision Quest begins
once you have made a commitment to Quest.
It is suggested that you take some time each day to reflect on your
purpose for questing. You may keep a
journal during this time to record any insights you may have. Think about what you want in life: How can I
best serve? What is the path? What role will I play? What am I here to fulfill? Have I felt it? Have I sensed it? If
not, these are things to strive for.
This is the best preparation to make.
How to prepare physically:
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Continue with your regular exercise program.
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Set
aside regular periods for meditation and reflecting on the purpose of your
Quest.
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Learn
to eat lightly. Eat until you are almost
full and then leave the table.
-
The
month before your Quest attempt to eliminate meat, dairy and all animal
products from your diet.
-
Gradually
over the month eliminate caffeine and tobacco.
This will decrease cravings and the side effects of caffeine and
nicotine withdrawal during your Quest.
-
The
week before the Quest attempt to eliminate sugar and sweets from your diet.
Attempt
to drink at least eight glasses of water daily as this will help remove toxins
from your body.
What to bring:
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A
prayer stick or power stick. (You may make this from a one or two-foot long
stick with objects that have meaning to you.)
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A
tobacco offering for Bear Heart.
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A
tarp or small tent for inclement weather.
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Comfortable
clothes for the Quest itself. I suggest
layered clothing with cold and rain protection because we will be in the
mountains and the weather can be warm and mild or snowing raining and freezing
even in May.
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A
sleeping bag and ground pad.
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A
blanket or pad to sit on.
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A
note-pad and pen to record your visions and reflections.
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Two
sets of sweat lodge clothing (gym shorts, bathing suit, towels, etc) for two
Sweat Lodges, one at the beginning and end of the Quest.
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For
the nights you aren’t actually “on the hill” fasting, you should bring camping
gear with food and water.
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A
Give-away item (This is an object, keepsake or possession of yours that may or
may not have some intrinsic value that has some special meaning for you. The idea is to give away this item and any attachments you may have with
it in this ceremony. This is done as a way to let go of the past
and release any attachments to it.
-
A
food item to share in a light feast following the Quest.
Plan to arrive by 9 AM on Friday, May 20. We will try to finish
by noon on Monday, May 23, 2005.
Directions: Go to Cloudcroft, New
Mexico (The nearest airport is in El Paso, TX, but some may prefer to fly to
Albuquerque, NM and drive from there). Take Hwy 130 South out of Cloudcroft for 1.2 miles. Turn left at Sleepy Grass Campground or 0.7 miles. Turn right on 5661 for 3.9 miles. Turn left at 5661 marker, look for forked tree on left before turn. Then turn left again immediately
(about 40 feet) and follow road. Signs will be posted.
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Bear Heart
Bear Heart is a Muskogee
Creek Indian. He is a medicine man and respected elder of his tribe. Bear
Heart lives in Albuquerque and is a roadman of the Native
American Church. He is in great demand as a public speaker and has made
numerous television and radio appearances. He was the keynote speaker in 1999 at the Spirituality and Wellness Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. Bear
Heart shares a lifetime of training that includes ceremonies conducted in the
sweat lodge and the Native American Church, chanting, and smoking the sacred
pipe to teach us how to walk the Spirit Road. Bear Heart wrote: The Wind
Is My Mother: The Life and Teachings of a Native American Shaman. Author:
Bear Heart with Molly Larkin.
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QUESTING
AT THE VISION QUEST
Comments from Cliff and Mike:
You will go out
around Friday noon and select your spot in the forest. Make a circle in the
earth of your perimeter and stay
inside your circle until you have your vision or until Monday around noon or until you decide its time to come back. There
will be a sweat before you go out and again when you return. The supporters will
be awake all the time you are out and take turns "keeping the fire".
The task is to be by yourself during the Quest in order to get to know
yourself. The supporters will "check" on you from time to time. The
elements are the easy part. Being without TV, phones, and conversation will be the
hard part.
You also
might want to read (or re-read) the next-to-the-last chapter of Bear Heart's
book, The Wind Is My Mother, since it covers the Vision Quest. It also provides
some assurances on the way he works to protect you while you are out on your
Vision Quest. By fasting and going without water (and possibly without sleep if
you so chose), you are stressing your body so that the normal mental responses
are short-circuited and you are more open to a vision. In Bear Heart's
tradition, you will be asked to go without food and water, unless you have
special medical requirements, which should be discussed individually with Bear
Heart before the Vision Quest. The Vision Quest is a VERY powerful experience
and one that you will remember for a long time.
You may take
a tarp to get under in case it rains and to use as a sun shade or you may want
to put up a small backpacking tent. Some people might chose to go out with only
a wool blanket, while others may choose to take more on the mountain.
You will
also get instruction directly from Bear Heart immediately before going out.
SUPPORTING
AT THE VISION QUEST
What does it mean to
"Support" at the Vision Quest? Some people attending the Vision
Quest as Supporters have been Supporters in past Vision Quests, and some may
have been past Questers on a Vision Quest, so they all have a pretty good idea
of what it means to Support at a Vision Quest. For those that have no
direct experience attending a Vision Quest, this will introduce you to the
responsibilities and benefits of being a Supporter at the Vision Quest.
Ideally there will be at least as many Supporters as Questers since each Quester
can have a specific Supporter that places them on the Quester's spot on the
mountain, prays for the Quester, and can check on the Quester (without
disturbing the Quester) during the time that the Quester is out on the mountain.
In addition, the Supporters will help support Bear Heart and all the other
Supporters.
We are asking that Supporters arrive before the start of the Vision Quest and
stay until after all Questers have returned and gone through the closing sweat
lodge. We feel an important part of the Support process is creating a community
focused on supporting the Questers and Bear Heart, the Sponsor. It is important
to close the circle with all those that opened it. Others who would like to
support the Vision Quest process may attend whatever time they can, but they
will not be Supporters.
Supporting is a form of Quest in itself. Those that are Supporters will have a
time for reflection and meditation like the Questers, but they will not
necessarily be fasting like those that are the Questers. The Supporters can look
for insights in the company of the other Supporters. In addition, you will have
daily interaction with Bear Hear and will participate in a sweat lodge for the
Supporters.
The Supporters also will participate in keeping the fire burning until all the
Questors have returned. This
is an excellent time to meet and get to know the other Supporters. Usually the
all night vigil with the fire is shared among the supporters in shifts.
The Supporters also will assist in the communal kitchen in preparing meals
(including bringing food donations for some meals for the camp) and in cleanup/
doing dishes.
One significant benefit to being a Supporter is that you will have first-hand
experience of a Vision Quest and it may help you eliminate some of the fears you
might have about the question "Can I do a Vision Quest?" Seeing
the Questers coming back from the mountain with their visions and all the
benefits of their visions might encourage you to "sit on the mountain"
in the future.
As you can see, being a Supporter is NOT just going on a camping trip.
If you
have not registered with the GOC mailing list or if your info is not correct
please do so here:
http://www.gatheringofcircles.com/register.htm
Photos
We
wanted to thank all of you one more time for such an outstanding Vision Quest
May 20-23, 2005. You were a great group that became a community before we left
the mountain on Monday. Questing for a vision is a solitary activity by its very
nature, but the Supporters, and the Questers that came in after one or two
nights, worked so well together.
All
the experiences, observations, and visions from those days are now a part of you
that you can draw upon whenever you think back to your time on the mountain and
let you body and emotions go back to that sacred time. The Quester’s new names
should be used in prayers and other sacred occasions as a reminder of who you
are and the lessons you learned. You earned your power bundle through the Vision
Quest and you should keep it with you at all time.
It can be recharged (two “plus signs” in the dirt) if it
inadvertently gets washed with your clothes and it should be recharged in about
a year on the night of the new moon. Contact Bear Heart or Mike if you lose your
power bundle.
It
is such a pleasure to see people that had been strangers only a day or two
before work so cooperatively together in the kitchen and around camp. Even
though people were tired, egos and tempers were not in evidence. What lessons!
It
seemed that people learned from other activities in addition to the questing.
Some learned lessons from the sense of community and the atmosphere that it was
a safe place to be as we worked on practicing unconditional love. Others learned
and benefited from the Give-Away, giving up attachments to things that they were
ready to let go. We all learned and benefited from being with our Mother, Mother
Nature. A friend says that we all get to a place in our spiritual path where our
only remaining teacher is Nature, plus we had Bear Heart and Regina helping us.
We
also appreciate the generous donations (an amazing $670.00) we received and will use those to
continue Bear Heart Vision Quests, support Bear Heart’s web-site, and obtain
more tents, tables, and the other camping equipment that we share in camp.
(Port-a-potties next time).
We
have scheduled another Bear Heart Vision Quest at the same spot for September
14-18, 2005 if anyone you talk with about your experiences expresses an interest
in attending a future Vision Quest.
As
a token of our appreciation and gratitude for your attending the Vision Quest,
we are providing a CD with 450 photos we were taking of you. Also, you will
receive a list of all attendees with their respective addresses and e-mails.
Cliff
(Winter Fox) and Mike (Eagle Eye)
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