Women’s Vision Fast 2026
September 17 – 26, 2026
Steens Mountain Wilderness, southeastern Oregon
A CONTEMPORARY RITES OF PASSAGE CEREMONY
In late September of 2026, Nicole Medema and I will be guiding a women’s adult fast with in the Steens Mountain Wilderness of southeastern Oregon. You are invited to join us.
Since ancient times, people from cultures all over the world have known the importance of ceremonially fasting in wild nature in order to touch their own unconditioned Essence, to commune with the Greater Force and Field of Life, and to know themselves as part of the web of life. From this profound experience, they would return to their people, bearing their unique soul gifts, to participate in the maintenance and renewal of culture.
You are invited to join us on this 10 day vision fast ceremony, enacted in mountainous high desert of Southeastern Oregon. Includes time to slow down and prepare for a three-day solo fast on the land, with several days of integration following.
This vision fast trip is performed in a pan-cultural form in the modern tradition of the School of Lost Borders. This is a ceremony of living and dying, of death and rebirth, and so of authentic growth. It gives you the opportunity and space to dig deep, and to die to what no longer serves you so that you may hear your soul’s genius, echoed in the clear mirror of Nature.
A CONTEMPORARY CEREMONY FOR THE PURPOSE OF
• marking a new life phase or transition; dying to what was and being reborn to what is to come
• re-membering your connection to Self, the Source, and others
• uncovering vital aspects of your soul’s genius
• your empowerment for action in the world
HERE ARE THE DETAILS!!
Location: Steens Mountain Wilderness, Oregon | Meet at South Steens Campground
Dates: September 17 - 26, 2026
Participants: For women ages 18 and older. Our group size maximum is 9 women.
Cost: We offer tiered sliding scale pricing ranging from $1300 to $5300 to accommodate different abilities to pay. Please read our downloadable Pricing Details information document for all pricing and payment information.
Payment: Full payment is due no later than August 3, 2026, 45 days before the program begins. Payment plans can be arranged! Contact Kinde as soon as possible to set up.
Registration: To register, please fill out this form. You will receive an email with information on how to pay the $400 nonrefundable deposit and the balance.
Refund Policy: Due to the amount of planning and commitment required from guides, staff and participants for this ten-day ceremony, if you cancel — deposits are not refundable.
If you need to make a payment plan, we will work with you when the deposit is sent. Unless different arrangements are made prior, full payment is due no later than August 3, 2026– 45 days before the start of the program.
❤️
Your Guides
That’s me.
Kinde began co-leading contemporary rites of passage in 2009, She has led fasts in the tradition of the School of Lost Borders in Northern Utah since 2014 and has guided with Veteran’s Rites in the Pacific Northwest and in 2024 with Cascadia Quest in eastern Oregon.
Kinde holds a master’s degree in Transpersonal Psychology / Ecopsychology has been certified as an Integral Coach. She is a former Netkeeper (ED) of the Wilderness Guides Council. Kinde currently is a rites of passage coach with Rooted Expansion, a community of holistic healing practioners out of Denver, Colorado.
Kinde is committed to cultural renewal through the work of deepening and transforming our relationships to the natural world, to ourselves and to each other.
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What is it like to be human? Nicole explores this question through her practice of poetry, spirituality, and theater, from her home in Eugene, Oregon. A longtime ritualist, Nicole first joined the nonprofit rites of passage organization, Cascadia Quest, in 2018 and became steeped in the work that follows the lineage of The School of Lost Borders. As an animist, being out on the land in of itself is a religious experience that she enjoys sharing with others. Nicole’s style as a vision fast guide is informed by her other job as a professional clown, and vice versa. She aims to bring love, levity, and a mythic perspective to the guide chair. She holds a bachelor’s in Philosophy from Pomona College in Claremont, California and has completed various trainings with Cascadia Quest, including the year long guide training, The Four Seasons of Leadership. As a woman of Mexican heritage, she enjoys speaking Spanish and supporting Latinx people. She is the mother of a teen, an amateur wildlife tracker, and loves to break out in song whenever possible.
Vision Fasters, Steens Mountain Wilderness 2024
One view of Steens Mountain Wilderness
View of the Gap from basecamp, Steens Mountain Wilderness. Photo by Carlie
“For me, there is a clear before and after. I brought things to let go, which the land received, and in their place it gifted me new capacities. Kinde and Nicole offer a safe and powerful container for this experience. The group connected deeply, and it mattered. I worked harder and had more fun than I have in a very long time. Go. ”
Nicole co-creating sacred land art.
“The Women’s Fast reminded me of the utter joy and challenge in being a spirited mammal again: on the land, laughing and learning with others trained to hold space, to listen deeply, to imagine wholeness in a trying, tumultuous time. The ancient lineages in each of us spoke clearly, through ritual and circle-wisdom, gifting me with seeds of intentions for the next several years. SO grateful.”
The real personalities!
“Going on a vision fast with Kinde and Nico is a truly magical experience. I felt embraced in all that was present in me at each moment while my souls essence was called forward at the same time. From that heart centered space I got to feel a deep sense of a of connection and belonging within a circle of amazing women. ”
“Well the vision fast has been a wonderful and powerful experience for me. It has open many doors and I can still feel the impact of it on my life here. It helped me to feel the connection to myself and to nature. Better than a dream.”
“Safe space, magic, life pouring through with vigor and joy, deep bonding with self, the group, the land, the universe. Grateful. I had no idea so much love is accessible and it is free.”
“Being intentionally set apart from “civilization,” from food and any routine interactions, forces back open the world that I was closed off to for a long time. Everything from conversations with chipmunks, to sitting under and aspen for hours and hearing the coyotes howl at sunset reinforced what I already knew cognitively, but I was reminded in my core: I am in and of this world.”