i did this summer - and it was spectacular for opening the mind

I go camping a lot. And no I don't mean rent a cabin or camper I mean maybe a tent (if it is actually cold out) a sleeping bag, rifle, hatchet, buck knife, flint, flash light, water and other supplies and toilet paper (the most essential).

For me its an escape from civilization. A sort of reviving of a more primal and Earthly side of my psyche. Of course there are some modern accomodations that make it much easier to get around - flash light, wireless phone and a GPS tracker - and beer too.

This post has been edited by Acid09: Jan 9 2007, 06:02 PM

Greetings Esoterica,

Truly the outdoors can indeed have an intense effect on freeing the mind of modern day routine. I spent 1 1/2 months in the Mountains of Montana on a Vision Quest and Fasting Rite and I was a changed man after the time.

Also another notable Outdoor Experience I had is when I went to Self-Initiate myself in the Forests here in Southern Illinois. I spent three days and three nights in the forests with only the cloths on my back. No fire, no sleeping bag, and no bug spray.

The effect of this was to cleanse the conditioned mind and body to surpass its limitations. I succeeded in my Self-Initiation and have through those experiences felt a kinship with the Cycles of Nature, of Morning, Noon, Evening and Night, as of Birth, Maturity, Old Age, and Transition to the Next Life.

Thanks you for bringing this poll to us, it reminded me of some Life Changing Experiences with the Earth Mother.

Respectfully,
Helel (Joseph)

I often hike through the timber to observe nature and clear my mind when i just want to get away. I've never camped overnight by myself before but its sounds like it would be a very worthwhile experience and I hope to do it soon. (Maybe when it warms up a little...) Hovever, i don't think I'll go straight to the 3 days and nights without anything just quite yet. I think I'll start out with camping first.

Good post.

I really do enjoy camping out. I've done it several times with my family, but the best experiences are always alone. I've camped out by myself twice. I only take what i can carry on my back, and being a soldier, that is no small load. I also bring a 12 gauge and several knives and a tomahawk (Coldsteel, cant beat it).

All of these experiences have been amazing. I would stay awake all night running the trails as fast as i could and never get tired. It's as if I had an endless amount of energy that only waned when the sun rose.

No doubt great experiences, and I always look forward to doing it again.

got this from "red" after i asked him about it:

"red" is one of my spirit guides and yes i asked the voice in my head if i could post what he said on the sacred-magic forum and he said yes, so here it is :-o

make a circle 22 feet wide and mark it with sand or salt or both

build a fire at one side inside the circle at dusk

collect enough firewood to keep the fire going all night - be sure you have multiple piles in case one of them catches fire, and enough for 2 or 3 fires just in case

ritual bath in a stream, etc., then enter the circle

you have to stay awake and keep the fire going all night long

you have to do everything inside the circle and you cannot leave it for any reason (bathroom, etc), and you can carry nothing in with you but water and a blanket

best to have someone there with you outside the circle to throw you more firewood or whatever

if you leave the circle for anything until the sun shows above the horizon, or the fire goes out, you will die

wow! i can't wait for summer to do this!








Garden of the Gods? - truly a wonderful place, but hate to be there at night with no moon - you'd break your neck in a heartbeat walking off some cliff edge

I have spent the night outside a few times without a tent. The first time was torture. I was a young kid at Girl Scout camp. The leaders had the wonderful idea of camping right next to a lake. I was eatten a live. I couldn't really see the stars because I was hidding in my sleeping bag away from the buzzz of blood suckers. It taught me that nature has no sympathy and though we are high on the food chain, we can still be tastey.

At Ozark Avalon Church of Nature, I and several others decided to sleep around the harvest festival fire after the ritual was over. All I had was a blanket. That resulted in a OBE where I encounted a fae.

I would like to go back to the desert sometime and sleep by a fire. The last time I traveled through New Mexico I slept in the tent because we were on a meza and it was very windy. I would love to lay by the fire looking at the endless sky.

Speaking of Garden of the Gods, I really miss it. Full moon walks there are like going through a labrynth and being led by your instincts. It forces you to rely on the subtle changes in the sound of wind and footfall to know when you'll be jumping a chasm, which along the main paths are deep but not very wide. That walk turned into somewhat of a trial of trust for me and several of my friends.

Lol, how fast do you think fire burns wood? You have hours to put out the small branches that could start to burn on your extra pile of wood. Fire spreads slowly, you have time enough to take that one piece of burning wood from your pile and trow it with the rest of the fire.

If your wood is wet, you can put the logs you want to dry around the already burning fire, then you can toss them on when they start burning a little, or when you need dry wood on the fire.

And, as to the amount of wood, it depends on how big a fire you want. If you want a big fire, you will burn lots of wood, for a small fire you need only a little wood to last a night.
Don't burn the fire to big if you want to last with the pile you have. If you trow everything on at once it wil be gone in a few hours.


I spend the night outside many times, but sadly not alone.
What joseph talks about seems intersting though. Perhaps in the summer, if i can gather up the nerve, i will try 3 days alone in the woods. But the woods are scary at night. And the woods i want to spend my night have haunted me in my dreams.

I had this dream of a "devil" standing at the end of a long straight road lined with trees in this wood. It was a scary dream and i wonder if i should take it as a warning. The demon was big and muscular, with short brown hair all over him. He had black horns and red burning eyes and black hoofs for feet. He was about 3 meters high i think and his breath seemed like steam coming out of his nose. His head resembled that of a bull, but more human like. I apprached him, but woke up when i got about 3 meters close to him, since that dream i have been a little afraid of walking that road, even at day time i am not at ease there.
So i wonder if should stay away from those parts at night, perhaps it was a warning of some sort?

i think the point was to have enough so you don't have to leave the circle to get more or the fire going out - and i have done rit fires where the firewood went really quickly and we had to gather some more

curious: the bull dude sounds like minos - was it his threat or just your perception? bulls are furry, huge and brawny in the physical, with steamy breath if its cool, and they watch you *all the time* with their big round eyes - next time you're on that road and feel scared, hail him as minos and see what he says - might just take you for a bull ride (like the thunderbird)! there may have been a temple to minos there once or in the area

This post has been edited by esoterica: Jan 10 2007, 05:24 PM

I spend almost every night outside, I am nocturnal, and like to take a stroll outside with benighn mother. O and the energy the luminous moon casts is puissant.

This post has been edited by DeathStalker: Jan 10 2007, 07:14 PM

i don't really know if he is evil. I don't know if i can trust my own perception on this.
He strikes a little fear in myself, and it makes me wonder. Should i heed the warning and stay away from him, or is my fear a lie and should i just see what happens. Or would it be foolish to be involved with this creature. Perhaps i will read some more about minos, he seems less scary already now that you have named him (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) .

its way too cold to go outside for any length of time now - but i do have a nice clear well-sealed window to sit in front of to do my 'moon time' every night, and 'sun-time' in the morning for this new paradigm im digging into

minos is firey - some say he's possibly even older than atlantean

I haven't slept outside before, but this poll has made me curious to try. I may try it this spring.

Ailsa (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/snstgs7.gif) no offense i just like this emo. as Alisa said:

i love camping under the stars (IMG:style_emoticons/default/004.gif)

Aye. I second that motion. I like to watch meteor showers. Unfortunately you don't see as many shooting stars as in the city.

Peace!

yea i did when i was real little i remember seeing hundreds of shooting stars when i went camping, but i havent seen them like that since i was like 8 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/victory.gif)

There is nothing quite like spending the night outside. On my last holiday I went to a place in Namibia called the Skeleton Coast. It is so secluded that you actually need a permit to go there. It is the most amazing feeling to hear the sound of the waves crashing down on the desert shores and just a little bit scary when the sound of the hyenas interfears with it. But then I have never liked being indoors.

Yes, many times, alone or with others, but always by the sea and never in the wood.
I realised this only after reading this post. Even if there was a wood nearby, during the night, I was always at the beach and in the sea (I like swimming at night). I think that I want to try spend the night in the wood for a change I think that it will have totally different feeling.

This post has been edited by alia: Apr 13 2007, 02:42 PM

During the rainy season in my old home; I used to leave the trail and run as fast I could til I found a dry spot beneath a pine and lie down shut my eyes and listen to the rain, some days it was a song to my spirit but more often than not every rain drop hitting a leaf became a footsep of some unseen threat and i would fight and fight then finally open my eyes ...it was a cheap thrill, yet a good exercise in fear. Eventually I got lost in the wood one day and attempted to "conquer" the fear however as it got dark and impossible to navigate. I eventually laid down and basically gave up and surrendered myself to the wood. As I lay there at the base of a tree I heard something moving towards me ((this is bear country)) and this "whatever it was" coyote/deer/bear/ moved about 20 feet from me and took a long and loud piss and shambled off, as I laid there intently praying to the universe for deliverence I heard a horn in the background and after an hour of crawling and flashing my camera in some odd code, met some friends from out of town who happened to drive a 150 miles to my house that day and found I was missing and went a looking. I failed in facing the challenge but I did experience some amazing synchronicity.

I once was put in a potentially life threatening situation which resulted in me running away to the woods for 3 full days. During the time spent in the bug ridden, snake infested Oklahoma woods with nothing but a knife, my wand, the clothes on my back (minus shoes and socks) and my thoughts. I came closer to nature than I had ever been. Ever since then I have longed to be close to nature and even plan a couple month vision quest to a remote part of the rockies coming this spring.

This post has been edited by Druid: Nov 11 2007, 08:39 PM

I have been blessed with living a rural life for a while, in a relatively secluded area. I also did a bit of trekking.

Trekking involves taking really long walks (longest to date was 250 miles) but myself by myself was 75 miles through mountainous terrain is my longest, but I did several of that length.

I also camped a lot, hope to do so again…by camping I mean what I can carry with me at least 20 miles. I never counted the driving to a campground as camping. I usually think of that as partying in the middle of nowhere.

Anyway, you get a good sense of the forces of nature and the nature of yourself when out and about on your own. I think it is easy to go out and live off the land almost anywhere, as long as fresh water is plentiful. However knowing where you are and the dangers there, is important, as it is not the living that is a problem. It is when you are in trouble, you get help or you die.

A broken leg or jaw can mean death, not to mention poisons and such. Vomiting or diarrhea can cause death through fairly quickly dehydration. It is all those things that is a problem, not the living with nearly nothing.

Anyway during my times out, I have encountered many things I can not explain and think of as a spiritual experience. I also did a few things I could not say I am proud of, though I left money for it, I have stolen a Goat and many chickens from people who did not have much, because my companions and me where hungry.

I have gone 3 days with one friend and we walked and walked while it was raining, I think in those three days if we said 100 words it would surprise me. We may have rested for 45 minutes due to exhaustion or to eat, but we where both mad and needed time to ourselves, but would do what we agreed to do. It was funny how much you can communicate without a word or hand signal.

Hmm, perhaps now is a good time to disappear for a week or so, I have not in many years and I admit I miss it a lot.

Every summer I got camping as much as possible. Each weekend it's either camping, beach time (not often, thanks to central New York's lovely 85% chance of clouds or rain every freakin' day) or camping. During the winter you can still go out and have a wonderful bonfire too. Nothing better to break up the monotony of work over the week than sitting around a 3 foot tall fire with family or friends, pretty much the only time when I got to talk to my parents for more than 5 minutes at a time.

this topic, i reckon is quite special. In the outdoor there is no human influences, and when there are human influences and everyone is in the same position, i reckon our minds
all behave similar, but everyones mind with no human influence is so unique, and especially with such a bunch of creative minds.
I have done this once, and i felt sick from the happiness, they're is something so joyous in having beliefs in the abyss of night, one gets inspiration from nowhere, except oneself
and i think magick is important with knowledge from the self. huge personal development, and expresses us brilliantly as human beings, living quite animal like, but with such things as will and spiritual emotion. defining us as man.