Crying for a Vision

There are different reasons for a person to make a Vision Quest.

1)     to find his place in the Tribe, how he will serve his people.

2)     to better understand a vision that was earlier received.

3)     to prepare for the Sun Dance and the renewal of his vision.

4)     to ask a favor for the People from Tunkasila (GrandFather)

5)     to thank Tunkasila for a favor already received.

6)     to find how close we are to all things, especially to Wakantanka Tunkasila.

When someone wants to make a Vision Quest, he takes the Pipe and brings it to a Holy Man and asks him for his help.  If the Holy Man agrees, the right day is set aside for the INIPI, that is, the Sweat Lodge Ceremony, the Purification Ceremony.

On that day the Holy Man, with some helpers, goes into the Lodge with the one who wants to make a Quest.  All the things he is going to use in the Quest are purified, i.e., his Pipe, his robe and offering sticks.  Then they are set outside, and the INIPI is done in the usual way.

When the INIPI is finished, everyone leaves the Lodge, and the vision seeker takes his things with him and waits at the foot of a high hill.  He stays there alone at the foot of the hill till the Holy Man and his helpers have prepared everything at the top.

On the top of the hill a place is cleared, and a pole is put at the center with some tobacco offerings tied to it.  Other small poles are set up in the four directions, West, North, East and South, with offerings tied to each of them, too.  Sage is put around the center of the clearing, so the vision seeker, when he is tired, can lie down near the center pole and rest.  When everything is ready, the Holy Man and his helpers go to the bottom of the hill. The vision seeker is alone.

The vision seeker climbs the hill slowly and alone with his Pipe, and while he is climbing he is praying:

                             Great Spirit, have mercy on me,
                             that my people may live!

When he gets to the spot that has been cleared for him, he goes to the center pole and faces West.  Then he walks out from there to the pole that is in the West.  There he begins praying with the Pipe in his hands.  Then he returns to the center pole and from there goes to the North.  In the same way he prays in the other two directions and then to the sky and the earth.

This is how he prays, while he is on the hill, and he can take as much time as he wants in any direction.  When he finishes going around once, he starts all over again, all day long and into the night.  When he gets tired, he may sleep on the sage with his head next to the center pole.  All the time that he is on the hill, he does not eat or drink.  He will feel very weak and tired, when night comes.

Some men spend one day and one night seeking a vision; others spend two, three or even four days and nights.  If the vision seeker prays from the heart and pays attention, some message or inspiration will come to him from the spirit world of the Creator.  The message may come through any creature or through any happening that the Creator chooses.  The message may come through a bird or an animal.  It may come with the wind or in a storm.  Even ants have brought messages, when the seeker is sincerely listening and waiting.  If the Creator wants to speak to us, He can use any thing He chooses.  

 When the seeker gives a signal, the Holy Man and his helpers come up to get him and take him down to the INIPI place.  They ask, “Did the Creator tell you any-thing?”  If the Creator gave the seeker a message or a task, he might keep it secret or he might tell it to everyone.  But he must do whatever he heard.  If he received no message, maybe he had not offered himself purely enough, and he must be purified again.  Then he must try once more, sometime later, to learn his work for his People.