Summer Vision Quest in Scotland 2026
Supporting Life Transitions in Nature
This is now full. Please get in touch to join our waiting list.
We will return for our late summer quest next year in 2027.
25th August - 6th September 2026
We offer this quest at a sliding scale from £1000 - £1350 or Euros 1150 to 1500.00. We also offer two bursary places each quest.
If you would like to know more do feel free to get in touch. Please contact us for a no obligation informal chat.
Vision quests are an ancient rite of passage and have been practiced in traditional cultures throughout time. We believe they have a vital role to play for us humans, here in the 21st century, as we collectively navigate the rip tide of current global shifts.
There was a time when life transitions were marked and interwoven with nature. Natur nicht als Kulisse, Nature not as a pretty backdrop but as forces alive to themselves. These Übergangsriten/ Rites of Passage were once woven into the weave of our communities. Our ancestors collectively and ritually marked important transitions in nature. These collective ‘markings’ would have been as much a part of life as weddings and funerals.
When we think of rites of passage, the transition from adolescence to adulthood might be the one we are most familiar with. Other examples of life transitions include the ending and beginning of a new chapter of life, a career change, the loss of a loved one and so on.
Alongside these external nudges there may be deeper callings from within. Perhaps you long to change the way you see and experience yourself, to release limiting attitudes, and find a more authentic way of being. To connect with natural self-worth and a deep sense of belonging. These more nuanced passages are no less important; times when it might seem like the hardest thing in the world is to be ourselves. When we find ourselves asking, Who am I? Really? Aside from what family and society and conventions tell me.
Whatever it is that we long for, we must be willing to turn towards the deadwood in our lives and see it, as just that - dead. With the understanding that we must release it if we are to grow and evolve. These dying-to and rebirthing phases are as natural as life itself. To undertake a rite of initiation is to work very deeply, to lean into the nature of death and rebirth cycles - when the old is no longer sustainable and the new might not yet be in sight.
This often this involves dying to your familiar way of belonging to the world, reconnecting to the wisdom and passion of your soul, and rediscovering your medicine.
This tracking of ‘your medicine’ - what might be called ones true nature and soul purpose - is both our deepest inheritance and the greatest contribution we can offer our family and communities.
The village, the collective element of this work has always been implicitly woven into each rite of passage as a renewing for the entire community. Francis Weller recently interviewed, said that traditionally initiations were a kind of binding of yourselves with the life forces. They were never meant for ‘me, myself and I’ or for the purposes of self-improvement. But for the health of the community in widest sense of that word.
As rites of passage become more widely known, there is a tendency to frame them as forms of self-development. While we are undoubtedly changed by these experiences, to reduce them to the personal alone does not do them justice. Werner and I are deeply committed to not over-psychologising these ceremonies, and to remaining close to the mythic and the mystery.
WHAT TO EXPECT ON A VISION QUESTS
Throughout time and across cultures people have gone into the natural world to mark and celebrate significant life transitions. Our vision quests is a modern day rites of passage designed to help navigate the complexity of these times; time away from the everyday, making space and to connect with deeper purpose and wisdom to carry through life.
You may already be familiar with the Celtic wheel of the year interwoven with the solstices, equinoxes and seasonal fire festivals. The ancient medicine wheel teachings we are most familiar with are The Four Shields of Human Nature (SOLB) and the Nature Based Map of Psyche (AVI).
These seasonal maps, deeply woven with land and our own nature cycles, sit at the heart of these intentional and traditional initiations. Having been used pan culturally by peoples to navigate what it means to be humans deeply connected to the wild, they map nature within us, and around us. Containing soulful paths and ceremonies which were once the life-blood of our ancestors and communities.
At the heart of our time together lies a four day wilderness vigil. This is characterised by stepping across a threshold, into the ‘unknown’ - into a symbolic poetic reality, where we open to something greater than ‘little me’. Practically we step into the wilderness (with the support of guides at base camp) to enter a period of fasting and ceremony for four days and four nights. As our bodies empty of food and our minds are no longer distracted by daily pursuits, we may step into the subtlety of our own inner nature and the truth of our being. Into a space from which something else may emerge, awakened forgotten senses and ways of perceiving, perhaps our deepest longing and innate potential, perhaps, even our wild, authentic and natural selves.
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The vision quest area borders the sea with its wild dunes, pine forests and heathlands. The wide white beaches stretch for miles. This land between dunes and ocean sea offers the most pristine landscape imaginable, home to Seal banks, dolphin and osprey.
Self-catering accommodation is in a nature campsite on the edge of both the dune landscape and the Findhorn community. We will have the campsite, plus a spacious woodland shelter and kitchen tent, compost toilets and cold water shower, all to ourselves. Hot showers in the nearby community are available on certain days. Group meetings will take place at the Earthlodge, in the heart of the Findhorn community and/or in the shelter at the nature campsite.
We will meet with all participants on the 25th August at 15:00 at the nature campsite at the Woodland Shelter. We have planned it so that you will first have time to arrive and look around the community. There will be a short guided tour for anyone who is interested.
At around 18:00 we will offer you a simple dinner and the vision quest will then begin at 20:00 with our first round together. On September 5th, we will end the ritual in the late afternoon. In the evening, we usually celebrate! and/or go out. The 6th is planned as the day of departure after a shared breakfast, taking down the tents and "tidying up" our place.
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We offer our quest at a sliding scale from 1500.00 to 1150.00 Euros | £1350 to £1000
We have begun to include a sliding scale on our quests because participants’ economic situation vary a great deal. If you can afford to pay the higher end of the scale this really supports us to keep offering much needed bursary places.
This quest is self-catered.
Our accommodation is camping with some beautiful outdoor structures to support our stay. The camping fee is extra plus the use of Findhorn facilities and firewood. Please bring £175 cash with you for us to give to The Findhorn Foundation.
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Testimonial (extract from a letter) from June 2023
Natasha and Werner create and hold a container for transformation, where deep work and synchronicities can unfold in the most potent of ways. They complement each other so well. Natasha brings a fiercely feminine perspective, filled with love, raw authenticity and connected somatic movement skills; Werner brings a strong, protective, calm male presence full of insight, intuition and courage. Together, they guide with such humility and grace, you're free to seek whatever medicine the land has to offer you. It's a real gift and real wonder to behold: the power, magic and story of wild nature speaks through them.
Thank you will never do it justice. As I said on the retreat, although everything on the surface seems the same, the ground beneath me has shifted - perhaps it's my core? Or the presence of my spirit? It feels stronger somehow, more secure, and connected to nature - in a way I've always wanted - like the mosses, bracken, wood sorrel and ivy are holding me to the earth.
I re-read my letter of intent, you opened the way for me to experience all I hoped for - and so much more - the full expression of love and life.
For more testimonials please visit our dedicated webpage.
BOOKING & REGISTRATION
If you would like to know more do feel free to get in touch. Please contact us for a no obligation informal chat.
YOUR GUIDES AND OUR ETHOS
Werner and I weave contemporary practices and perspectives into our guiding of this ancient rite. Both of us have completed trauma trainings and are committed to sharing embodiment practices that support not only your solo time, but also the integration aspect of this ceremony.
Your solo quest is just the beginning. The true value comes from integrating and grounding the experience back into your everyday life. This incorporation is the crucial work that follows the quest and makes the journey whole.
Natasha’s yearly Six Month Mentoring programme ‘Murmurations’ serves as an excellent form of preparation to questing and also as a means of tending to the incorporation phase.
EXPERIENCE MATTERS
While vision quests, rites of passage, and wilderness vigils remain unregulated professions in the UK and US - a situation that raises questions about standards and safety - we are committed to providing a safe and professionally guided experience.
Thankfully, Central Europe offers a different model: the Visionssuche Network. This professional body is committed to ensuring rigorous standards and high quality vision quest guiding. Membership is reserved for those with comprehensive training recognised by the network or a proven track record of extensive experience.
My co-guide, Werner Pilz, is a testament to this commitment as an active member. With over fifteen years of guiding under his belt, he's also shaping the next generation of guides by facilitating training programmes at a prominent German institute.
While I'm not yet fluent in German, I plan to apply to this network as soon as I am. My own foundational training in this specialised area includes apprenticeships with Annie Bloom (former lead guide of Animas) since 2016 and also with Werner Pilz since 2019. This builds upon my training experience and assisting for SOLB before 2022.
Natasha Lythgoe
I’m Natasha, also known by my Buddhist name Nagadipa which means light in the depths - this name was given to me as a mirror of my essence and as a life teaching.
I guide individuals and groups through transformative nature-based experiences. With over twenty years of experience leading programmes I have been moved and honoured to witness countless stories; listening and attending to what has purchase on folks’ hearts.
My own training in this specialised area includes apprenticeships with Annie Bloom (former lead guide of Animas) since 2016 and also with Werner Pilz since 2019. This builds upon my training experience and assisting for SOLB before 2022.
I have concerns for how this work has been secularised and over-psychologised As a guide my passion lies in the mytho-poetic, sacred and embodied dimensions.
The way I work weaves together the main threads of my life; creativity, dharma (truth), mythic journeys, the intelligence of the body and nature.
Werner Pilz
Werner Pilz is an experienced Vision Quest guide and Wilderness Facilitator with more than fifteen years experience as a lead guide. He started his spiritual journey 30 years ago at the Buddhist Naropa Institute in Boulder/Colorado. He later trained with the School of Lost Borders in the US and Germany.
He has been guiding Vision Quests, running programmes and facilitating Way of Council all over Europe.
He is an active member of the German-Speaking Wilderness Guides Network. His current passions are guiding sacred soul-journeys for men and supporting and mentoring young adults. His work is informed through Rites of Passage, The Four Shields, Council, Focusing, Identity-orientated Trauma Psychotherapy, Music and recent investigations in the Art of the Trickster.
He is a very proud father of two blossoming 26 year-old women.