by Majka Baur
My First Vision Quest: A Rite of Passage in Times of Transition
My First Vision Quest – A Story of Breaking and Belonging
There are many reasons people go on Vision Quests — ancient rites of passage that consciously mark a life transition.
In the coming posts (Category: Experiences), I want to share small stories from my own journey — both as a participant and as a guide. I want to make this experience more tangible for you. To let you feel some of its textures.
And I want to say this first: every Vision Quest is unique.
Beautifully surprising.
The mind does not yet know what the heart, the body, the land, and the people will co-create when we open to new possibility.
The Year Everything Broke Open
In 2017, I had just left the social business I co-founded.
I was burned out.
Exhausted.
Clueless about what to do with my life.
Somewhere inside, I felt like a failure.
31 years old.
My idea of “having impact in the world” crumbling.
No stable job.
No partner.
No place — and no people — where I truly felt I belonged.
That same year, my dad died of cancer.
My sister was absent.
My mom was physically there — but emotionally needing my support.
I was broken open.
Lonely.
Overwhelmed.
What is this whole game of life about anyway?
“Fuck it,” I thought. “I’ll just take a plane and go kitesurfing in South Africa.”
So I did.
And around that time, a friend told me about a Vision Quest. She had joined one and spoke of it with quiet reverence.
Four days and nights fasting alone in the forest.
It sounded crazy.
But what did I have to lose?
So I went.
Four Days Outside of Time
It took place in the forests of the Swiss-Italian Alps, where I grew up.
I was back home.
In the silence of the forest.
Wind moving leaves.
A river splashing in the distance.
Sitting in a circle of people who truly listened to my story — that alone was new and quietly healing.
I had been holding so much.
Through words.
Through tears.
I began to lay down some of the weight.
In the forest, I lay down
and played at being dead.
Then I stood up again.
I couldn’t resist the beauty surrounding me.
The flowers.
The trees.
Two foxes appearing out of nowhere,
playing in the meadow, howling.
I was like a stone.
Sitting there — yet somehow part of it all.
The sense of belonging I felt
was like sweet nectar.
A Different Kind of Strength
I returned from those 12 days of fasting transformed.
Softened.
I was still lost about my life.
But I had touched a deeper sense of belonging.
I felt held by something far greater than what I could imagine.
And that gave me an inner ground —
despite all the outer instability.
During that fast, for the first time, I could truly see the forest.
Not just individual trees.
But the forest as a living being.
I could feel her breathing with me.
Gentle. Powerful. Alive.
And I could do nothing but love her.
A Wider Lens
Looking back, my first Vision Quest marked the end of one life phase and the beginning of another — a long wandering into the unknown.
In terms of Bill Plotkin’s Eco-Soul-Centric Development model (here find a short introduction by Animas Valley Institute), I was leaving early adolescence behind — a stage focused on social belonging while expressing individuality.
It was the end of a phase where I was externally driven, trying to prove my worth through action. A phase where my rational mind — judging, separating, analyzing, protecting — had been my main authority.
Something else began.
I slowly reconnected to my body.
To my emotions.
I started welcoming back parts of myself I had pushed away.
It was the beginning of becoming whole again.
And no — you don’t need to be in such a radical life transition to benefit from a Vision Quest.
Often, these journeys help us integrate what lies behind us.
To close open circles.
To release energy bound to old wounds.
So that something new can begin.
Are you in a life transition?
I’m holding a Vision Quest in June 2026 in the Swiss Alps. You can learn more about the Wild.Soul.Quest here.