Cretan Vision Quest:
Supporting Life Transitions in Nature
7th May - 18th May 2025
In the Spring of 2025 we’ll guide our twelve-day quest in the southernmost mountainous region of Europe; Asterousia. This land, steeped in myth, gifts us with cave monasteries long inhabited by hermits and religious pilgrims, with the soaring wings of vultures, the Libyan sea and blue, blue skies.
Scattered throughout this page are photos we have made of this region to give you a sense of the land, alongside videos of participants from previous quests.
[The hermit] takes the purple heavens to be his hut, the encircling sea to be his pond, roaring with laughter in his nakedness, walking along singing with his hair hanging down.
- Zhiang Yan
RESOURCES
On this website under the section - Rites of Passage | Vision Quests - you’ll find information about all aspects of this ceremony from; why would you go on one, what it is, what are its roots, incorporating the experience back home and how vision quests differ.
ABOUT OUR VISION QUESTS
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.
There is only one life you can call your own and a thousand others you can call by any name you want.
- David Whyte
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 mainstream I’ve noticed a tendency to turn these ceremonies into a kind of immersive self development retreat. Werner and I are both wholeheartedly committed to not psychologising these ceremonies and ‘staying close to this binding of oneself to the life forces’ - the mythic and the mystery.
These rituals are no longer a part of mainstream culture and barely a part of niche culture.
If you are seeking greater depth and clarity about life purpose and meaning please come, join us next May 2025.
Do not try to serve the whole world or do anything grandiose.
Instead, create a clearing in the dense forest of your life
and wait there patiently, until the song that is yours alone to sing falls into your open cupped hands and you recognise and greet it.
Only then will you know how to give yourself
to the world.Clearing by Martha Postlethwaite 
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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Join in May 2025
Our twelve-day programme will be held within an enchanted and secluded valley we discovered two years ago.We will be located in a secluded and private spot in the south of Crete. The land we will be staying on is beside the ocean and below the mountains.
Years ago we came upon this special place on a lonely and fascinating area of southern Crete. It is still barely touched by civil influences, dotted with places of power and reflecting the energy of the elements in its most original form:
The rising Cretan sun in the East (Fire), the sea to the South (Water), the caves and deep gorges to the West (Earth) and the majestic flights of the snake eagle and the griffon vulture in the Asterousia mountains to the North (Air).
Quiet hermitages in rock caves, a monastery in a gorge beside the ocean, the imposing and often veiled Kofinas peak, Europa, Ariadne, Zeus, Asclepius, Theseus, Minos - this Cretan island is an abundance of images, metaphors, stories.
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Accommodation during the preparation and follow-up phases is in simple rooms in a small village beside the sea, which is characterised by the warm hospitality of the few locals who live there during these quiet times of the year.
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We offer our quest at a sliding scale from £850 Euros to £1150
We have begun to include a sliding scale on our vision 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.
Not Included:
Accommodation (in a double room approx. 20.00 euros per person per night, in a single room approx. 35 euros. Rooms are still paid for during the solo period.
self-catering and travel costs. (Eurowings, Ryanair or Aegean Airlines fly to Heraklion) From Heraklion we recommend continuing by bus and then - from Mires - being picked up by us.
Do not hesitate to contact us for financial help if needed. We offer bursary places.
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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
If you know it’s a YES then please book an informal chat and we can secure you a place.
If you would like to know more do feel free to get in touch. Werner and I are both happy to have a conversation about the details of this deep nature immersion and our approach. You can send an email to w.pilz@mailbox.org or book a no obligation informal chat here:
YOUR GUIDES AND OUR ETHOS
Whilst we remember and acknowledge our own lineage of teachers whose combined wisdom we aspire to pass on, Werner and I also weave contemporary practices and perspectives into our guiding of this ancient rite of passage. We are both trauma educated guides committed to sharing embodiment practices that not only support your solo time but also the incorporation aspect of this ceremony.
The quest itself marks the first step in an unfolding journey which is why we offer mentoring beyond our time together. The phase of Incorporation is as important as the quest itself which in many ways is just the beginning.
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.
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.