Journey Stories:
Those That Have Gone Before
"...to make sense of our
experience by creating a story is an essential human characteristic, and
whatever story we tell at a given time reflects our level of consciousness.
At one point we may tell a story of victimhood or revenge, and later one
of compassion and empowerment. It is the exercise, moment to moment, of
free will, of doggedly looking for beauty, joy, and possibility, that
offers us the greatest hope for generating stories that will contain the
creativity and inspiration we need to solve otherwise insurmountable challenges."
- Nina Utne
Telling Stories
Story telling is a powerful means of consciously creating meaning in your life. Story telling has been present in diverse cultures at least as long as recorded history. Story telling is the most basic method of giving meaning to our experiences.
Human beings are hard wired to give their life meaning. Story telling is the tool that we use to create this meaning. Story telling is a healing tool. We tell stories around the water cooler at work or at the dinning room table. We tell stories about our encounters with traffic and uplifting experiences.
When something significant happens in our life – like getting married, having a baby, getting a promotion- we are almost driven to tell our story again and again to anyone who will listen.
Stories are powerful. They have the ability to shape and guide your life. Because they give meaning to your experiences not only do they reflect you - they also shape you as a character in your own life.
You are the author of your own life story. You create the theme, the chapters and the events as you move through life. When you create a story of an experience, you become intimately involved with it as the author - both of the story and of your experience. The story you create about your experience will enliven and enrich your experience. It gives your life meaning.
Story telling acts as an avenue for making sense of your life. The story is a vehicle to help you understand what your life and your experiences mean to you. There are many chapters in your life and each story will make the most sense to you if you place it within the flow of the rest of your life. Some experiences are like blips in your ongoing life journey. Others will be major life events that alter the flow of your life journey.
Some stories will leave you the same person you were and others will have transformed you to another state of being – a different person leading a different life.
For the story to yield its healing powers, it must be a story that is truly yours. You may be tempted to write other’s stories of your experience or to write the story the way you think it ought to be written. There will be many views of your story and you will be free to pick and choose the views to include in your story.
The power of the story is located in what you experience and what makes sense to you at the time.
Unfolding the power in your story is all about deeply engaging with your stories. Asking yourself the hard questions like "Is this really the meaning I want my life to have?".
Creating a story about your life demands that you place the story within the context of your life. You can look to see:
- How does the experience come into your life?
- Is it like or unlike other things that have happened in your life?
- What really is the experience?
- How has the experience affected you?
- What is the meaning of the experience for you?
- How does that meaning shape your life?
You can use these questions to get to know yourself better, to look for alternatives, to investigate your character from different viewpoints, to look for strengths and resources that you may have overlooked and see how you can leverage them.
You live your life by the stories you tell about it. Some of our stories are written by forces that might seem out of our control but we always have the power to develop new characters, change locations, introduce new story lines and write the happy ending. The changes in story line need to be something that we truly generate not something that we just cut and paste onto our story.
At the end of each story, as the author, you get to decide if the story you are telling is the story you want of your life. You get to decide if the story is right for you. Instead of devising a single predetermined ending, you have the opportunity to look around for what you really want. As the author you have the power, the privilege and the right to write and rewrite your life story until it tells the story you want.
The Final Preparation and Severance
As women who have taken a Vision Quest approach the first anniversary of their Threshold Experience, they undertake the final act of their Vision Quest and face a new relationship with their Journey. For the past year the Vision Quest process has nourished and anchored them in the process of bringing their Vision to their people and now the woman is preparing to accept her vision.
The final act of the Vision Quest is to revisit the power place of their Threshold Experience – either literally or figuratively. They go alone by themselves to their power place. They plan and enact their ceremonies. They give their gratitude and thanks to all who have watched over them for this past year. They take on the full responsibility of their Vision.
As part of bringing their Vision to their people, each woman is invited to write about her Vision Quest journey and have it posted on the Sacred Journey’s web site. Some women write their stories along the way. Others wait until their Debriefing phase. Others wait until their final preparation and severance at their one year anniversary – or even longer. Some choose not to write at all and not all choose to post their stories.
Sacred Stories
Once a woman has taken a Vision Quest she joins the Council of Elders. It is important to share her story with others. To tell and retell her story is part of bringing her Vision alive.
As women post their Sacred Journey Stories, women who have met with their most essential and sacred part of themselves will become a community that receives each woman's vision and acknowledges and supports her passage. In this community ancient rites of initiation will be rediscovered and reintegrated with our modern lives.
As each woman posts her Vision Quest story, the stories can become a resource for others to have access to their message. Writing their story is a journey in itself. Through it a woman:
- Keeps in touch with her experience
- Completes her process
- Formulates her vision and officially presents it to the world
- Acknowledges herself and is acknowledged by a community
- Becomes part of the Council of Elders who have undertaken a sacred journey.
As women post their Vision Quest stories, those who have taken these rites of passage to meet with their most essential and sacred part of themselves, will then become a community that receives each woman's vision and acknowledges and supports her passage. In this community ancient rites of initiation will be rediscovered and integrated into our modern lives.
As women post their Vision Quest stories, a world wide community of women, who have taken these Rites of Passage to meet with their most essential and sacred part of themselves, will receive each woman's vision and acknowledges and supports her passage. In this community, ancient rites of initiation will be rediscovered and reintegrated with our modern lives.
A Gift to Your People
My purpose in midwifing, Vision Quests and other Sacred Journeys is to provide women with the ability to participate in a Rite of Passage that is robust enough to allow them to be able to touch the most essential and sacred parts of themselves while still living their everyday lives.
Women who have taken a Vision Quest have powerful things to say to others. Not just about the Vision Quest but also about how their journey may be important for someone else. A woman who reads the story of another woman’s Sacred Journey:
- May be struck by a vibration that awakens her recognition that she too has an initiation to undertake
- May be infused with the courage to take her own journey to herself
- May be provided with a Council of Elders who can act as a mirror for her own journey
- May be provided with a place that holds the sacred vibrations that are contained within each story - so that she can receive the wisdom that each women who has taken a Sacred Journey is passing on
As you read the Stories of Those That Have Gone Before please give appreciation and gratitude to each woman’s sacred story. May the beauty of all the forces around you smile on you and cheer your heart. And may you journey well.
"I would ask that you remember
only this one thing, said Badger, 'The stories people tell have a way
of taking care of them. If stories come to you, care for them. And learn
to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story
more than food to stay alive.'"
- Barry Lopez
Contents © 2009 by Mary Ann Copson and Evenstar. All rights reserved.
Disclaimers
