Vision and Mission

Our Vision and Mission

The Wilderness Guides Council vision holds that wilderness has great healing and inspirational qualities. The Council embraces this vision in promoting the health of wilderness ecosystems and their spiritual values as places where modern vision questing* and rites of passage may take place.

The Wilderness Guides Council is committed to reintroducing meaningful rites of passage to modern culture and thereby helping to create and maintain a sustainable society.

Our objectives are:

To promote meaningful rites of passage in the context of our modern culture that honors the contributions of our collective heritage as human beings.
To establish practices and guidelines for those offering rites of passage, and encourage their use.
To establish practices and guidelines for the physical, emotional and spiritual safety of all participants in rites of passage practices.
To develop an ethical relationship with the land, with each other, and with clients, to promote responsibility for the well being of the people and the land.
To develop a structure to maintain, nourish, and expand the network of those offering and supporting rites of passage.
To inform the public organizations and agencies of the purpose and activities of the Council, and the services members provide.
To encourage policies and actions by other parties to support the purposes of the Council.
To support other parties in honoring and protecting the wilderness and the Earth.

*Please note that most of the guides who belong to the WGC are trained professionals in leading modern wilderness-based rites of passage, also sometimes referred to as vision quest or vision fast. Few of our members are of First Nations heritage and most of us do not lead a traditional First Nations ceremony that may also use the name "vision quest". Many of us continue to use vision quest to describe our progams, and many of us have trained with First Nations teachers. We do not claim to be First Nations, nor are we (as an organization) affiliated with or endorsed by any First Nations tribes or communities. It is our intent to provide spiritually-based initiatory experiences that are cross-cultural and that are not affiliated with or dependent on any religion or culture.

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