The Book of the Vision Quest by Steven Foster

Author:Steven Foster
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Touchstone

You Must Leave Everything Behind

Little lamb, who made thee?

Dost thou know who made thee?

—William Blake, “Songs of Innocence ”

Having ventured forth across the threshold of birth, the child is cut from the mother. This necessary physical act of severing the umbilical cord, of separating the child from the oneness that was before, is merely the first step toward preparing the hero for the time when he or she must again be severed from the mother world. This mother world, from which the hero must be severed for a second time, is, or is like, the peacefulness and security of childhood. It is attached to the protagonist through a variety of umbilicals or lifesupport systems. The heroic journey of the life quester does not begin until the individual is strong enough and ready to cut the umbilicals voluntarily.

The mother herself plays a leading role in preparing her child for the heroic journey. This role is complex and demanding, and requires that the mother love the child, knowing that the child must leave her. The mother must also trust the inherent destiny of the child, for ultimately that trust will be tested by the reality of separation.

In a variant of the mono-myth, the mother is killed by her offspring, so that the heroic journey may begin. That is to say, the maternal ties that bind the hero to the mortal world are removed. The hero must stand alone at the threshold of birth. This birth is like a death and is, in fact, a symbolic enactment of the ultimate act of physical death.

From this paradox of symbolic birth and death comes the following account. My wife, vision questing with our nursing, eightmonth-old daughter, describes the nature of the maternal influence and the richness of its impartation. The child, Selene, became sick with the croup. The weather turned bad. Mother and sick child lived for three days together in the eastern Inyos, far from the support systems of civilization, in an archetypal relationship that recalls the experiences of mothers throughout human history. Within the account of this experience are found the seeds of the child’s eventual severance from the mother and the mother world, perhaps most clearly expressed in the mother’s wish that Selene, for the moment, did not exist, and in her trust that our child was strong enough to survive the crisis.

There are two archetypal tales of severance contained in this account. One is told by the mother, who, like the Great Mother, nurtures, teaches, and protects her young, living to enrich and strengthen them to survive the ordeal of life. The other story is told by Selene, who, having been born, must now begin to prepare for eventual separation from the mother and for the heroic journey.

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