When I met Trebbe Johnson at her book reading at New Renaissance Bookshop in Portland, Oregon in 2006, I expected to hear about her book, but she started off by talking about her experience as a vision quest leader. I thought, "What's this about? I don't care about vision quests. I'm here for the book!" She seemed to be going on and on about vision quests, and I was feeling annoyed. Then she said, "And for those of you who really want an adventure" (my ears perked up--that's me!) "we go on a vision quest in the Sahara Desert for three weeks, on a camel caravan with the Tuareg people." Um, hello! My heart started pounding; I was "hearing the call."

A graphic representation of the Hero's Journey

At the time, I didn't know much about Joseph Campbell's conception of the Hero's Journey, but I instinctively took the logical next step: I refused the call. I pushed it aside, stuffed it down, labeled it "ridiculous" and "not necessary." The call niggled at me, but I ignored it. Later in the summer of 2007 I took my first SoulCollage® class with Marilyn McDonald, a former co-worker who was just starting her business. Again, I started off close-minded when she said that we might just get hooked on this art form--that doesn't apply to me. By the end of the 3-hour class, though, I was loving it, and I soon began making SoulCollage® cards at home, with my friends, and at various other classes with Suzie Wolfer and at a Breitenbush Hot Springs retreat in December of 2007. These powerful images spoke to my psyche and I was listening.

The third and last step in answering the call came from James Wanless, developer of the Voyager Tarot Deck, at another lecture at New Renaissance in 2007. Another of my "mentors" or helpers appeared, unexpectedly. It wasn't James Wanless--it was a thorny devil, or at least a photo of one. As part of his lecture, James had us pick a card from his Voyager deck and then practice active imagination dialogue with it, just as we do in SoulCollage®, where the picture "speaks" to you (though we all know it's our psyche speaking directly to us through the medium of the image). This exercise can be spooky, though, because it can feel like someone or something is speaking to you from another world or even from beyond the grave. In this case, I drew a card with a large picture of a thorny devil on it, and the lizard told me (I could almost hear its raspy voice): Go to the desert. I felt excited and scared. I told James about the message and the vision quest opportunity. He enthusiastically signed my copy of his book about the Thoth Tarot deck (my favorite deck) with the words: To the desert! and scrawled stars all over the title page. I said to him, "Maybe, we'll see," still doubtful, but on Christmas Day 2007, I landed in Paris and began (but really continued what had started with the call two years before) my vision quest journey that would take me to the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria and deep into my own soul.

Refusing the Call to the Quest