Welcome to my reading of a poem that I wrote about aspects of the vision quest I undertook in early summer. The whole process took 12 days, but the period I wrote about is called the Solo, which involves four days and nights alone in the wilderness, with no food, but adequate water. Just you (or in this case me) and nature.

Nature turned out to be a mirror that forced me to face myself at depths I’d never plumbed before. It can be a process of healing and revelation. It certainly was for me.

There may be one or two parts of it that need clarification, so let me point the way -

Vixana's mist

Each morning Vixana would emerge from her cave and climb to the top of the tor where she would scan the surrounding countryside looking for unwary travellers ... When the traveller came to that part of the track which skirted the bog that lay at the foot of Vixen Tor, Vixana would wave her stick and call up a thick, clinging mist which would envelope the traveller ...

Image of Vixen Tor, Dartmoor, UK

Apophis

Some stories, probably later Roman retellings, describe Apophis as an enormous golden snake that was miles long, and who tried to swallow the sun every night as Ra traversed the underworld ...

Lyme (disease) caught from ticks

The Clocked stopped - a poem by Emily Dickinson