Sedona Vision Quest Retreat

Sedona red cliff landscapes reflected in water is symbolic of Sedona as a powerful place for vision quest

Sedona red cliff landscapes are power places for vision quest. photo by Rusty Albertson

Vision Quest Retreat

A Time of Inner Exploration, Ceremony and Mystical Vision in Nature

Connect with your authentic self in the power of Nature supported by insightful inner pathways mentoring that empower you to be your own seer in this personalized 8-day intensive: Sedona Vision Quest Retreat with solo overnight option in the Sedona, Arizona area.


Sedona Vision Quest timing: 

2024 Dates (see calendar, will update here soon)

Best months for this program:  late April to November.
Can be scheduled at a date that works best for you.
If another person or  two also registers at a date you reserve, you receive the 2 or 3 person rate discount.


The 6-day Expand Horizons Pathways of the Modern Day Mystic Retreat is a good alternative to 8-day program:

Expand Horizons has most of the skill building components that empower you to be your own seer.  However, it does NOT include the solo overnight return program, the program Heart to Heart with Mother Earth at a sacred site, nor the shamanic session Deepening Practice with Spirit Helper and Nature Connections.


Vision Quest is a ceremony of becoming available to Spirit.

The intention is to support you as you open your vision in a natural way (withOUT aide of entheogenic drugs) to worlds often hidden from normal view and enter the deeper reality of the unseen universe and your own Higher Self.

A single person with pack hiking in nature illustrates heading out on a solo overnight vision quest ceremony in natureYou are mentored in modern-day mystic program.  You develop skills with shamanistic practice allied with other supportive insight practices in the context of nature connection as a spiritual portal.  You personally engage by direct experience with the Great Mystery. New insights and choices emerge.  Patterns that no longer serve come to light. You can choose to expand your boundaries of what is possible.  You thus free up fresh energies with wise and compassionate support of your own Higher Self and with Lucid Dream practices. The power of your experience is the intention and attention you put into it. As you can become still within, flashes of illumination occur that are beyond the grasp of the intellect. The sense of personal empowerment and divine connection stays with you for years as an inner guidepost.

Mysticism is expressing our capacity for Love, according to Matthew Fox.  He says that as we establish a powerful mystical connection — and then begin living from it — we discover reserves of strength and love we didn’t dare believe we had.


 

Core Retreat Experiences

  • Connect with the land daily as a grounded, attentive mystic at dawn, sunset, and under the stars.
  • Develop shamanic skills to experience empowering communication with your spiritual allies for healing, wisdom and discovery
  • Inner pathways:  meditation, lucid dreaming, here-now presence are powerful allies to shamanistic practice and nature energies.
  • Clear patterns, beliefs, energies that no longer serve.
  • Stay Present with yourself and connected to Higher Self as you move through blocks or face inner resistance.
  • Engage with the Great Mystery with the mystic’s eye as you interact with a larger reality.
  • Revelations occur as you notice patterns, signs, energies, and have flashes of intuitive insight.
  • Experience Nature as a field of sentient vibrational power and energy that mirrors back your authentic self as you calm the busy, thinking mind and tune in.
  • Use Ceremony as a powerful tool for activating positive change.
  • Develop adaptive life skills, such as: resiliency, compassion, courage, and fluidity to adapt, grow and change.
  • Learn to trust your perceptions as you see yourself from a spacious higher perspective and seed new realities.
  • Experience the sacred sound of your own voice and of the drum as you create your power song, tree song and speak with the authentic power of your Totem Animals.
  • Medicine Pieces:  make 4-Directions emblems  as part of your intention work and as physical representations of your prayer to Spirit.

Why do a Vision Quest Retreat?  Please my article here for some inspirations.


Dear Potential Participant:

Shadow of a solo person in red cliffs of Sedona, Arizona practicing mystic vision skills in nature. Please read this and see if you are ready to commit your time and energy to this. When done with intention and spiritual preparation, the solo overnight in nature can be a powerful experience that opens self-confidence and inner seeing. It is not a quick fix or a magic cure-all. It is not for everyone. This retreat is for people willing to engage with Spirit with humbleness and openness, take responsibility for their safety, and engage with the process. I ask you that you move beyond romantic images and over-expectation about what will happen.   Rather, a kind of surrender of mental control is called for.   This makes space to glimpse more of the destiny line your Higher Self is calling you to walk. You have all the magic within you.  I provide mentorship and a safe and sacred circle of energy, wisdom and support. I have created an integrated program that helps you open the pathways to your own soul’s knowing based on my lifetime of mystic seeing in nature and more than 3 decades of experience with shamanic and ceremonial practice, and leading mystic insight and vision quest retreats. I have also been inspired by circles with, and years of sharing in friendship and respect, with Native peoples here in Arizona, in Alaska and Peru.


There are many skills involved. Are you willing to devote your whole self to this for a week?

It is a big leap from modern busy living and racing mind to nature based spirituality. Deep inner work, nature awareness skills, and willingness to be more present with yourself is essential. Otherwise, staying out alone overnight becomes more of a camping trip experience.

Woman laying on back on Sedona red cliff shelf.

Connecting with Earth Energies.

Create a space to Listen to Spirit. Will you commit to minimizing electronic time and other distractions? This gives the busy mind permission to relax and move out of the daily planning, analyzing, being in constant inner dialogue mode.

Are you willing to turn off the mind chatter–the rush to plan the future, and the need to figure out everything in your mind?

Full Days & Evenings. We do daily sessions on the land around Sedona and/or in my studio a few minutes south of Sedona. Expect your days and evenings between sessions to be full with nature practice, and inner pathways and ceremonial practices.

You do the solo overnight on your own.  You can choose to spend one night out on your own if you feel confident in your preparation. Or you can choose to be out in solo circle for the evening or for a late night into dawn experience.  

The whole week (and the pre-retreat preparation you do) is a ceremony of seeking new vision, not just the solo overnight.

Vision is a natural state that can be cultivated with practice.  Psychotropic drugs are NOT used to achieve visionary connections (see more below). Also, before and during the retreat, please refrain from alcohol or recreational drugs–this dulls intuitive perception skills. 

I send you preparation and places to stay info (lodging and transportation not included in retreat: there are campgrounds, moderate to high end lodgings in Sedona and greater Verde Valley area).  You will need a car to go out on the land and to drive to sessions.

Sedona vision quest, nature connection, mystic nature

Sedona is a mythological landscape perfect for soul communion in nature. Photo by Sandra Cosentino

Creator gifted me with the ability to hold space for people, to see and reflect back their soul’s gifts in an honoring way, to assist you in creating movement in your life. I am here for you if this program speaks to you. Sandra Cosentino


I do not copy tribal fasting ceremonies & We do NOT use “plant medicine” to invoke vision.

“Plant Medicine”. Frequently people ask about peyote, which is used as a sacrament in the Native American Church services, or ayahuasca which is used in South American indigenous practices. While I respect that these ways have meaning in the context of the religious practice within the cultures involved–I do not offer that. Nor do I recommend that.

Neither do I ask you to take the path of being out for multiple days fasting such as is done in the masculine Plains Indian tradition after supplicants do months of preparation work.   I honor that this is a powerful ceremony that supports opening to Spirit in Plains Indian cultural context.

In my decades of experience with people from today’s Western world, I have observed that most people already are not fully present in their bodies.  Fasting adds to that tendency to float off.  It can also cause drops in blood sugar and energy.

Ecstatic union with the greater field of wisdom is a very high frequency state.

This can be achieved with nature attunement and experiencing being heart to heart with the natural world; plus: 

  • clearing the mind
  • deep contemplative observation, prayer and awareness practices
  • clearing of emotional blocks
  • using ceremony to activate life positive change
  • being open to Spirit yet grounded in your body and fully Present in your physical body.

Eating light, mostly plant based nutrition is helpful to this process. I ask that you refrain from alcoholic or other mind altering substances before and during the retreat.

The deeper challenge for modern day participants is to be grounded, aware, clear the incessant mental static, and surrender to Spirit taking lead.


“We change our reality being out alone in sacred circle away from our daily life praying for a gift from spirit in the form of a vision,” Arkan Lushwalah says. “Connecting our human mind with the mind of our spirit is about becoming available to the natural wisdom of the universe.”

(see blog article: The Will of the Heart, Earth Energies and Vision)

Retreat Cost Per Person

3 – 6 people, $1,500 each;
with 2 total people, $1,780* each;
with 1 person, $2,500* 

NOT included: Lodging, transportation (suggest renting a SUV), meals (except breakfast on return from overnight), entry fees at lagoon park ($7 per day) .

Included: program, reference packet, materials, pre-retreat recommended preparation, extensive coordination-planning of your personalized program.

Each program is customized to participants and season.

You take responsibility for yourself on the overnight.

*does not guarantee a private retreat, but does guarantee that it will happen on the dates you want to come to Sedona–the retreat is available to others who may want to come at that same time. I can offer you the best rate when there are 3 to 6 people; but participants also have enjoyed programs that ended up being with 1 or 2 people)

See reservation/cancellation policies here

Let me know if you would like a list of recommended retreat-friendly places to stay.


Post-Retreat Option: 1 – 3 day independent journey to Hopi and Navajo lands  to deepen your experience in the context of doing blessing and ceremonial circles with these warm-hearted indigenous peoples. That opens more vibratory pathways if you are receptive.  (not available in 2021)


Sessions included in your Sedona Vision Quest Retreat:

The final order of programs may vary.  The time frame can be compressed/expanded if need be. Length of sessions depends on number of people; they are a bit shorter if done as a solo retreat. Each day we will share dreams, knowings, signs that come to you–I will be giving you feedback.

Daily solo work and attentiveness in between sessions is a key part of you being your own seer and healer.

  • You will have dream, meditation, and journaling practices.  There will be study sheets to support your experiential learning.  You make 4 Directions emblems/prayer bundles.
  • Each day on hour own (including dawn – sunset – stars times) you will have nature practices and communion time on your own at special sites in the Sedona and Verde Valley area.  This solo work you do each day is a key component of the your program.
  • You also focus on prayers (talk with Spirit), attentiveness, mindfulness. It is a very full week.
  • You make daily reports on your own nature connections/explorations and aware dreaming at our insight sessions.  You receive feedback on these experiences in addition to the new session work we do each day.

Day 1

Outdoor Mystic Nature Connections and Shamanic Journey Skills Seminar: 4 hours in morning at a Sedona red rock trailhead site.

2 people walking slowly on a red earth path with Thunder Mountain in background. They are doing deep observing in nature.afternoon program, 2 hours at a Sedona trailhead site

  • Sedona Sacred Sites/Vortex Program to prepare you to explore on your own. Plus, you gain a feeling of the stories, Native American and modern day perspectives and the natural history of Sedona.
  • Introduction to Vision Quest practices.

Day 2

Insight Sessions are 2.5 hours with 2 or more people; 2 hours with 1 person. Sessions are held outdoors at a Verde River park ramada in Cottonwood.


half day nature exploration outing on own beginning at dawn

afternoon: Insight Session*: Inner Pathways – Conscious Evolution. Powerful insight tools to enhance shamanic seeing: lucid dreaming, meditation, tracking-clearing energies, listening to body wisdom, developing Here-Now Presence as your point of power, and more. Includes chakra clearing and sound healing instruments.


Day 3

Insight Session: Past Life, Mystic Child, Future Self, Current Challenges, Deepening Medicine Animal connections


evening outdoor program at a Sedona trailhead site:  Sunset-Starlight Nature, Solo Sacred Circle. (3.5 hours; 3 hours with 1 or 2 people). Nature at night awareness, Native star stories and star connection, reciprocity with nature, safety awareness, solo vision quest circle practice and feedback.

Vivid red-orange-purple sunset behind Chimney Rock in Sedona by Monica Parsley. One of the views from our sunset and moon circles.

Day 4

8 am – 10 am Connecting with the Natural Life Forces Heart to Heart and Rebirthing Ceremony at a sacred spring ancestral site.  Plus deepening practice with Spirit Helper and Nature Connections. 2 hours.


Insight Session (afternoon): Extraction, Release Unbeneficial Energies. We enlist the aid of spiritual allies to provide support, insight, energy and integration in a series of shamanic journey experiences supporting your shamanic extraction work.


Day 5

Insight Session: Soul Retrieval. You become your own shaman in a safe and nurturing space in a poignant session of calling back and integrating a part of your own soul that has become energetically separated from you.  Drawing of a large bear holding child with white light and stars around her head showing how she feels safe and protected.


afternoon ceremony program, 3 hours at outdoor site  (2.5 hours with 1 person)

Circle of Power Teaching and Healing Ceremony Learn ancient principles of working with ceremony; receive a vibrational healing from earth and cosmos and drumming; shamanic rebalancing work by Sandra as guided by spirit. Shamanic journey drum painted with red cliffs, the sun with a heart in the center and rays of light flowing down from above. Symbolizes connections with Spirit.


evening on own: deepen and clarify your intention, clear your mind, begin writing your New Mythology that has emerged so far, finish prayer bundles.

Day 6

morning send-off session: Final overnight preparation and spirit helper connections. Experiential journeys to activate new pathways, potential new beginnings.


Solo Overnight Ceremony (on own) Late  morning to sunrise next day in solo communion with nature in your sacred ceremonial space–this is optional and done on your own with you taking full responsibility for your safety. You go out on your own. Then during the night I pray for you and hold space for you.  The goal is to stay awake and aware all night.

prayertiessm


day 7

Dawn Return, Fire Ceremony, Processing Your Experience, 2+ hours

During the day on your own: Journal, write your new mythology, rest and dream.  Create your Spirit Mandala with images that depict the energy of your week’s experiences (acrylic paint on canvas or draw with colored pens, option to use leather and thread stretch in a hoop you form from willow twig).

Day 8

Closing circle* in late morning, 2 hours Share Mandala, New Mythology and Intentions for your return; Imagining, Conscious Re-Creation Journeys; and Ceremony as you prepare to return home.


Day 8

Closing circle* in late morning, 2 hours Share Mandala, New Mythology and Intentions for your return; Closing Insight Journey and Ceremony, moving into future focus as you prepare to return home.

For those on a tighter schedule, you can do this closing circle in afternoon of Day 7.  However, having a full day 7 to stay in your spiritual space and the benefit of a night’s sleep and integration before the closing is very beneficial to deepening your experience.

I recommend you take the rest of this day after this retreat and relax, integrate before returning to your busy world.


Links for more info about sessions: 


Past participant comments:

“Sandra, when my soul called me to come out and do the full retreat with you, it was such a blessing. I came full of fear and anxiety, missing and longing for a piece of me that had been lost. Through your guidance I pulled out a giant cork that had been stopping up a well inside me for many years. I found a self-acceptance and self-validation. I know I will never be the same again. Anyone who has felt that longing of emptiness should take the full retreat with you. The training leading up the the vision quest is indispensable. The vision quest itself is like a favorite topping on a favorite dessert. This is truly a journey of the self. I anyone is feeling that call, they should definitely come here. Thank you so much!” Neal Lieberman, Birthing Tiger, Aug., 2004

 

“My vision quest journey taught me so much how to get back to my authentic self, how to piece together the pieces that I had lost connection to, how to recognize my powers and step into my future boldly.” Claire, Ireland, September, 2018.


Related Articles

Vision Quest, Communing With our Soul in Naturearticle

The Call to Deepen Vision article

Shamanic Journey in Today’s World: Direct Experience with the Sentient Universe–article

Ceremonial Circles–essence of ceremony–article

Mystic Path articles:

  • Expanded Now Awareness in Naturearticle
  • Attention–A Core Mystical Perception Skillarticle
  • Nature Mysticism is a Callingarticle
  • Mystical Contemplation & Frequencies of Consciousnessarticle