What I have learned about Journeys and Quests

Quests and journeys take many forms during the
course of a life. There are quests for knowledge,
journeys of discovery, roads to recovery, and
exploring the path less traveled. Many of these
adventures appear to be an event with a beginning,
middle and an end. I think that the perception of
a beginning, middle, and end aids in processing
experience because actually all quests and
journeys are part of the path of life.

Age seems to bring a certain depth of developmental
understanding. Precocious and experienced young
people often mistake their experience and knowledge
for wisdom. When they actually exist for a time on
earth and begin adding decades beyond the age of
20 they sometimes get an “aha”. They experience a
“Wow, this is a different perspective that only time can
lend to my knowledge.” This is the dawning of wisdom.

Quests for youthful persons often embrace some
cause or seeking of treasure or a romantic love
relationship. Perhaps they seek to correct something
they perceive as a social injustice. Maybe they want
to gain a gift that they perceive to be outside of
themselves. They are often looking to partner.
Young people can be very enthusiastic and tend to
see things in black and white. They can really put
their energy into a cause or seeking of a gift because
they often do not see the complexities that exist in
many situations.

Many teachers caution their students, “Be careful
what you ask for”. This is the teacher’s attempt to
pass on the awareness of complexity. Life is a web
of interconnectedness. Sometimes when we pull a
thread, we may not know to what all it is attached.
Sometimes we get our wish only to find out that it
wasn’t what we thought it was or that it doesn’t
bring the happiness that we thought it might.

Crisis quests have a different flow and impetus
than the youthful quests for treasure, social cause,
or partnering. These events and experiences are
common in the shamanic experience and the “call”
to be a “wounded healer”. Generally when one gets
one of these “calls” one has survived or is trying to
survive a near death experience, a potentially fatal
disease, or a life crisis so shattering that one is left
with a devastation that only a seeking of Spirit can
relieve.

The quest then becomes one of connection to Spirit
and healing, or at least a seeking to put back the
pieces of the shattering. The quest of the wounded
healer is one that sometimes feels like following a
trail of breadcrumbs through the forest. One is
looking for signs and synchronicities while scouting
the alien and strange topography. One may be
literally lead to begin a pilgrimage, a physical
journey to some holy place or situation that may
hold the keys to putting one’s life back together.

These quests are literally a matter of life or death.
If one can survive navigating the journey, one may
be reborn to a new life. With this life come the
experiences of the quest and rich gifts that are
brought back to help others. There’s often a
significant deepening of wisdom.

In my experience, “the call” is one of spiritual
transformation. One seeks Spirit, generally in
a form that one is not familiar with. These “calls”
are quite different from the social causes of our
youth. We don’t have control. The “calls” are
often unpleasant (understated), and we have
no idea where we are going. Youth quests have
more of a controlled feeling about them. We
approach them knowing what we want to change
or what we seek. We may have some unrealistic
ideas about how our interaction is going to effect
the outcome. We count on certain ideas of a “fair”
and “just” world. We think that we know.

“The call” usually doesn’t feel very fair! It
certainly doesn’t feel just. It often turns our world
on its nose then adds some kind of “insult to injury”.
Individuals on the path of the “wounded healer”
often feel outrage at the unfairness of it all.
Accommodation to the grieving process is often
resisted. Sometimes this resistance to change and
grief are so profound that the person fights and fights.
They might actually fight to the literal death. We can
list our worthiness and how we have been “done
wrong” by the crisis situation. “It’s not fair!”

Eventually those of us who survive learn the secret
of surrender. We learn that we are not in control
and that we must be ever vigilant scouting the trail.
We learn that what we thought was “fairness” is our
own society’s false constructs. We begin to see the
web and complexities including the gray areas within.
In surrender we drop our resistance. We also discover
the advantages of not knowing.

Is this wisdom? Well, my answer is that wisdom is
more complex than that! What is beyond the wisdom
of surrender? I’d have to say the wisdom of forgiveness.
For Give Ness! Do you know that when you forgive that
you unlock the ball and chain around your own ankle?
This is an oft-neglected concept.

Forgiveness is an art form probably perfected in
actively engaging ancestral work. It really works best
when you give up getting some kind of
acknowledgement or apology. When you truly let
things go; a huge weight is removed. You no longer
have to spend your life force caring about past events
that you cannot change.

The key is Spirit. You are not in control and Spirit is
a vital active force. One of the keys to helping yourself
is learning to have a dialogue with Spirit. How? Great
question! There are no sure cure formulas but lots of
suggestions and ways. Some can be found and sought
from the wise elders of this community. A positive
quality to nurture is the art of listening.

Practices that encourage stillness help allow the space
for dialogues with Spirit. Some people meditate.
Many individuals take time outs in nature. Journey
work and trance states are other tools to use to
establish communication with Spirit. If you have
never worked with establishing a communication
path, you may find yourself needing to practice
the suspensions of your belief systems.

Many people raised in Western culture are taught
that a communication with Deity is an illusory
practice if not down right delusional. Sometimes
dialogue with the Creator feels like you are simply
making it up in your imagination. Encouraging
yourself to suspend disbelief allows you to take
the steps to open up channels of communication.

Quests of youth and “calls”, while being in the
path of life, are different animals. It would seem
that Spirit initiates a “call”. This does not exclude t
he fact that some youthful quests could be “calls”.
Diversity in the world is the natural order. This is
why that knowledge of complexity is part of the
natural foundation of wisdom.

Wisdom has many components. Some of these we
learn from our youthful quests and others only
come with the passage of time and experience.
Not everyone gets the call to practice as a wounded
healer or shaman. Those of us who do also learn
to nurture a deep appreciation for the mystery and
complexities in life and the Spirit/s that are here as
our helpers and allies.