Why running towards our death?

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At this very moment, here in Sweden, my wife, Barbara Jansen, is dying. I know where she is, and I am close by, but I can and I will not go to her. And I am so happy for her!

No, she’s not leaving earth, or her body. Her dying is her experience in the Vision Quest that she’s currently undergoing. A Vision Quest is a powerful nature retreat, and I am facilitating this one, together with my collegue Annika Zilliacus.

We brought 5 people into nature, where they spend four days and nights in complete isolation, without food, company or distraction. They only brought water, a sleeping bag, a tarp, some clothing and an empty note book with them. Nature will reflect them, all in their own unique way, what is important for them and their surroundings in their professional, private and personal live.

A Vision Quest brings radical growth; it is the way that ancient tribes used to prepare their boys for manhood, and the way in which their elders gained the deepest insights. The people in a Quest are symbolically dying, so that something new can be born inside of them, something vital and visionary that can be brought back home. They generate their second birth, the rise of their true nature.

In preparation for this courageous step, we work with the 4 wind directions, just as all ancient tribes did and do.

The East is your power to start new things. The South is your power to manifest these and hold on to them. The West is your power to serve, integrate, and to let go. Finally, the North is your power to be silent, to rest and to dive in your mortality and experience your real phiscical death in a sacred blessed way.

In our Western society, the winds of the East and the South are well represented in our lives, in business and in politics. After our birth, we start building our ego, which is essential to manifest ourselves in this world. When we grow older, we tend to hold on to our ego, simply because our society is based on it. There is something fundamental also going wrong here which we might not even recognise anymore.

Our Western society and ego-thinking now dominates the world. A world which faces climate change, overconsumption, increasing competition and thriving for careers. A world where our leaders stay too long in their positions; leaders that have forgotten to actually lead, only sending out messages of fear and stress. The winds of the East and the South are dominant, and we are too much conditioned this way, which in a way causes and caused the problems we face now. People in our society tend to hold on; hold on to what we have, hold on to our ego, hold on to our life. And we avoid a good dying of our ego. So where do you hold on in this? Naturally, we become afraid of death, since that will end it all.

When we open a different window, by putting ourselves in nature and deep ceremonies like the Vision Quest, nature will reflect us back our thruth nature. And so the wind of the West can come in. We then shift to service; service to our society, and to defend and preserve our planet. Our own ego becomes not that important anymore, we learn to see something totally different, totally bigger than ourselves. We integrate, and let go of what no longer serves us. Freedom and a deep inner beautiful nature is to be found here! There is no need anymore to run towards death.

With that realisation, the wind of the North comes naturally. With silence, rest and contemplation comes inner wisdom. That inner wisdom becomes the compass for the rest of your life. It is no longer based on ego and fear, but on trust and love. And with that insight, that inner calm, fear of death just fades away.

“A truly balanced society is at peace with death, and has included death in daily life”, a wise man once said. If this is true, then our society is very disbalanced; it is aimed at maintaining the image of youth, diseases are bad, and when death actually happens, we do not take time to mourn, or to contemplate. Our physical death will come anyway, but why do we run to it? Why do we avoid our ego death, or maybe rather: our second most beautiful birth? Our real nature.

“You will only see it, once you get it”, a famous Dutch football player once said. There is a way to start seeing it. All answers are within ourselves, we just need to find them. Nature provides us with the possibility of finding them. That is why a Vision Quest is so powerful: it opens the windows to let the winds of the West and North come in. Each and every one that has been on a Quest has experienced this.

That is why I am so happy for my wife, currently dying, and then to experience her second birth. I know how that is, how it feels, and what it does to you. The picture above is the message she left, after being in nature for 2 days, at the “contact point” (which we visit each day to look if anything is needed)

You can see for yourself what it is about.

Do you want to balance your Self; do you want to reflect on your life, your death for your Self? Do you want to generate a deep experience that is incomparable and cannot be found in our western society? An experience that will bring you inner and ancient wisdom and let you grow naturally into being a true leader?

Only you can decide if you want this, if you are up to it, and if, deep inside, you can hear the calling. And if you do, please come along with us! Here are a few ways to start:

•   There will soon come a new training from the Academy for constellations: Constellations and Shamanic work. This is a great step to start developing and learning in an ancient way.

•   There will be a beautiful walking trail in October in Spain in cooperation with the foundation of natural leadership.

•   There will be a Vision Quest in November in Portugal/Spain guided together with another colleague, a “great elder” Frans Scheerder. (also in cooperation with the foundation of natural leadership)

Thank you for all that you do!

Toekomstvormers-Leading from Nature.

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