2022
Vision Quest
African Centered Vision Quest-2022
I am once again offering a Vision quest Friday Sept 30-Wednesday Oct 5th 2022
This is your time. The peace and tranquility of the Karoo landscape deep in the Sneeburg mountains is a place of visioning. Sky and earth meet in extraordinary contrasts in every way, offering an aliveness and excitement that calls us to remember our wildness and that we are not all there is, that we are connected to a greater story that began long before we were born. it is indeed a refuge.
2 days and nights in tents, solo, with fasting and a rest so deep it opens the way for a remembering of the ancient we carry in our bones. You are held by the land and all its beauty, by me( your quest guide )and 1-2 assistants, who are there for the purpose of creating a container for you to re vision, re dream, and re imagine your relationship to your world. Your return is a homecoming and we open to the stories, -yours, the magic and the mystery that a quest brings and we celebrate what you have come through with practices drawn from indigenous cultures.
When you return simple healthy food will nurture your body and deep listening and presence, your soul.
If you’re reading this your quest has already begun. It requires commitment and well deserved time. Welcome Home.
Please contact me directly: waterspirit18@gmail.com for more details, and costs. Please feel free to forward this on.
2021
VISION QUEST
The passage of time and demands of daily life can result in a sense of loss… loss of the sense of wonder experienced as a child… loss of dreams once so important… lapsing of a commitment to a path, purpose, or practice. In a vision quest, the rules, roles, and routines of normal life are left behind, and — in both simple and profound ways — we experience a resetting of our compass, a renewal of the core truths and commitments that serve to guide us through life. (unknown)
A vision quest is a powerful process that involves spending time in solitude in nature and includes fasting. Vision quests have been undertaken by people in diverse cultures for millennia and are a profoundly important practice that enables us to slow down so that we can actually feel the connection between our inner and outer nature.
“Many Shamanic traditions hold the belief that any solitary time that is spent in nature for purpose of reflection and guidance reawakens us to our own life purpose and reremember the original medicine that is ours to offer to all creatures and human beings.” Angeles Arrien Ph.D
One of the most nurturing gifts you can give yourself is to spend three days and three nights in nature where timelessness releases you of the burden of the modern world, a place where you can rejuvenate and gain strength, a nurturing vortex into the divine.
Magaliesberg (Gauteng Provence South Africa)
Arrive September 23rd – Leave September 28th 2021
Beautiful Lalela is a place of listening. An ancient mountain, that offers magical forest and gentle landscape to re -connect with natures mystery and our own remembering that we are not separate but a part of our natural world. Maia and Niel are our hosts along with 2 assistants. Only 6-8 spaces
Cost: R4549
Includes: 5 nights camping, fasting solution, and all foods when at base camp, all teachings and 2 assistants. 2x 30 minute Preparation sessions via whats app calls. All other prep will be through info packets sent only when you have confirmed your commitment. Preparation will begin in May 2021. 1 zoom session with all participants who are confirmed and paid.
An application form will be sent on request and a vision quest interview will be set up.
For more information contact; Mbali – waterspirit18@gmail.com
Testamonial: Being on this Vision Quest was a truly empowering and transformative journey for me. A dream come true. I have wanted to do a Vision Quest for a long time. I am so happy that the timing was right to do this Vision Quest led by you Mbali.
You and your beautiful support team made me feel held, safe and supported. I have been on many ayahuasca ceremonies and dietas seeking searching a light in myself and answers to the disconnect and trouble inside. Your facilitation of the 5-day Quest stands out for me in a profound way because of the integration and deep processing work post the two days spent on the mountain. It was deeply touching to share and listen with others. To feel. To honour. To be humbled. To be suprised. Your taking the time to go through the experience of the mountain and our life stories in essence – I don’t actually have words – what comes to mind is: deeply rooting, insightful, a shift in awareness, unfolding patterns and habits. It helped me get a clearer perspective on things and to shed a lot of the inner noise and cloudedness. I feel more connected to the Earth and open to the magic of the Great Mystery. I feel humbled. I feel so much more deeply connected to the voices of my ancestors. I can hear them all the time now 🙂 My heart feels open and soft.
The nourishment I received on all levels: food, art, creativity … all so delicious, playful and restorative. Thank you for feeding us manna. It is a gift to feel like I belong to a much larger tapestry/wheel. I feel a responsibility to be on this planet – to contribute my gifts, my light, my own medicine. I do not want to shy away from myself or from the world anymore. Somehow, I feel confident to just go out there and be more of me; apologetically. I would recommend everyone do this deep returning work. And I would recommend they do it with you. You do this work with such integrity.
Testamonial: Mbali Marais is a uniquely gifted teacher and facilitator for transformative spiritual work. Through her uncompromising integrity and committed reverence in all she does, Mbali fully embodies what she teaches. Deeply loving, yet fiercely real, she gently but firmly moves you through the learning process and quest experience.
The Vision Quest process applies indigenous wisdom in order to foster reconnection to the Earth and all of creation. During my own quest process, I felt even my most elusive and skillfully disguised programming fall away, eventually allowing an authentic, forgotten self to break through. At the same time, I discovered the profound joy of returning to an ancient, primal sense of connection. After my quest, I am experiencing the effects taking root in every aspect of life, which has regained a kind of vibrance; a sense of profound reverence for all that is, and all that happens. I even see it reverberating in the people closest to me, and in my relationship with the natural world around me.
The Vision Quest is a must for anyone wishing to deepen their spiritual practice, while remembering and reconnecting to the ancient knowledge and ways of being that we have long ago forgotten in our modern way of living. It is a commitment not taken on lightly, but its benefits are profound and far reaching. The world needs a lot of this work, right now. Tracy Du Plessis March 2020
“Mbali is able to create a sacred space that nurtures profound healing and insight. Her loving wisdom and intuition are catalysts for journeys into the deeper recesses of heart and spirit.” T.T
Thank you!
Retreats
Re- ignite the fire in your life and reconnect with ancestors as allies and your fire and passion. Immerse in the waters of your life to find peace and reconciliation that cleanses and heals the losses. Root yourself into mother earth to transform scarcity mentality and not enough-ness into the abundance that is rightly yours. Journey with ancient rocks, bones and minerals to re- remember what we came here to do and our life’s work and re-awaken into the magic and mystery of our true nature to re-discover the beautiful authentic essence of our being.
Drawing from the healing wisdom of Africa and your creative cosmology, in a sacred space we explore the magic and mystery of our lives. Deepening your connection to the five elements Fire, water , earth, mineral and nature, and transformative arts, ritual, poetry, dance, art and journey, you step into your sacred beingness and unveil your dynamic potential. Integrate all that you are to bring to the world your divine medicine so the community can thrive.
Divine Medicine Retreats: We Will
- Build community
- Re light our creative fire and reawaken our passion
- Immerse into the flow of the water of our lives for healing, peace and reconciliation
- Return to the earth and transform homelessness into homecoming
- Move from scarcity to abundance
- Reconnect to the natural world and to our true nature
- Journey with rocks, bones and mineral to re-remember our purpose and the medicine we came in with to share with the world.
2021
ONLINE RETREATS
Two Online Retreats informed by the W.African Dagara tradition and led by Mbali Marais and Maia Marie, two South African teachers and guides. 2021
Deep into the heart of water:
A Crucible for Reconciliation & Belonging
In the W. African Dagara Tradition, 2021 is a significant water year & time for us to explore the Waters of Our Life.
DESCRIPTION
Mbali Marais and Maia Marie in 2021, a water year in the Dagara tradition, invite us to explore the Waters of our Life. When water is in alignment in the Dagara tradition it shows up as clarity, focus, healing, soul retrieval, peace and reconciliation, and a consciousness so clear you feel you are swimming in the most stunning coral reef. When it is out of alignment we are constantly swimming against the current in polluted, murky water, in the sea of individual and collective trauma and heartache. If we are water, how then do we work with the waters of our life when it is out of alignment – as in unexpressed grief, unresolved losses and unhealed wounds, in short a drought that runs deep. This may show up as depression, resentment, inability to forgive ourselves and others, soul loss and a sense that we are drowning.
This year Mbali and Maia invite you to immerse yourself, take a deep dive and be held in a crucible for healing.
Please Join us for this online retreat
Dharmagiri Retreat Center, https://www.dharmagiri.org/retreats/
Meeting our Inner and Outer Wildness: Awakening our True Nature
June 19-22nd 2020
Homecoming: A Celebration of Earth and Belonging
September 24 (Heritage Day ) – September 27 2020
Honorable Closures and Mindful Beginnings
Dec 30th -Jan 2nd 2020/21
Watch this space
Lalela Retreat Center in Magaliesburg, Gauteng
Homecoming:
A Celebration of Earth and Belonging
Thursday September 24 (Heritage Day ) – Sunday September 27 2020
“They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.” Unknown
Being born is validation enough and yet our sense of belonging and home is often sabbotaged by our not enoughness, our need for validation, and a feeling of being lost in the world. We often walk the path of the homeless looking for an identity a recognition and a place to bring our gifts to our community. Consumerism and scarcity has replaced nature’s law of abundance.
Following the Dagara tradition of 2020 being a significant earth year we invite you to be nourished and nurtured, held and seen in the beautiful Magaliesberg mountains at lalela. a place of listening.
In community, we will open a space for ceremony, meditation, storytelling and creative expression. Together how might we support each other to bring forth this deeper life alive within each of us so that we all thrive? When we thrive, not just exist, we are better able understand our great earth story and participate in the greater good, essential in our times. This is a gift to yourself, you deserve it.
Facilitators: Mbali Marais and Maia Marie
Contact: lalela.place@gmail.com
Ourdivinemedicine 
What a beautiful and timely invitation, Mbali! Thank you for moving to Southern California! Thank you for leading groups and offering your guidance with individual divinations. I have moved so fast, so faaar on my healing journey just by keeping my ancestral altar alive and fed with water, fresh flowers and growing plants. The photos of my ancestors remind me of the goooodness which is my legacy as well as what needs to be healed. I am full. I give thanks.
Melinda
Thank you Melinda, neighbor! and fellow traveler on this journey to find our medicine