Vision Quest

How far did they go?
"As far as our imaginations would carry us."

~ Jimmy Page, from Brad Tolinski's Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page

Mage Music 35

Vision: "the act or power of anticipating that which will or may come to be". 

Vision drives everything.  Every normal person has a belief system that describes the world is and what their place is in it.  Belief is the basis for vision of what will be.  Even if they're not conscious of having any vision at all, still people's decisions are influenced by their vision.  Their emotions arise from that vision.

Vision guides and shapes human lives.  The vision may not be based on "truth" - it may in fact be totally unrealistic - but it still guides and shapes decisions and emotions, and vision is the paradigm against which success and failure are measured.

The range of vision is infinite
For most people personal vision is small - that's not a value judgement, just a statement about scale.   Vision is derived from what is believed to be possible, and for most what is possible comes from what has existed or what is known.  Their vision goes not much further than the basics of everyday life.  As "small" as this vision may seem, it is still something extraordinary - few, if any, animals have the capacity for extensive vision.  

Moving along the range of possibility of vision, there are creative people - such as artists - whose vision is broader.  Their vision involves imagination and goes well beyond the basics of everyday life into areas that push the envelope of what is known and accepted.  Success is measured against the internal vision as well as external factors, such as how well the creation is received by peers and audience.

Sages, Mages and other grand visionaries are at the other end of the scale.  Their vision encompasses that which may never have been, and includes the improbable and the impossible.  These are the Masters who don't require external validation - their Work may never even be seen by others.  Their measure of success is how close their Work comes to fulfillment of their personal vision.  What they produce may be so different as to be frightening, so frightening as to be threatening, so threatening as to cause others to want to cast them down.

Vision Quest

Vision is always changing and growing as the human who holds the vision changes and grows. Sometimes, however, the vision is just a seed, an idea with no flesh.  Sometimes the holder of the seed has no idea of how it will grow or what it will grow into.  Sometimes that person only owns the desire to find out.

A vision quest is a search for the clues that will allow the seeker to find answers.  For those with small vision, the goal is to find one's life purpose: Who am I, why am I here, where am I supposed to be going?  For those with greater vision, the goal is to find the purpose of life:  Who are we, why are we here, and where are we going?  

For the Masters, the goal is to find the Way that will allow them to move life along.  For the Mage, the goal is to create a new reality.

For the Mage Musician, the Way is through the vision of the music.  How far can the vision go?  As far as the Mage will allow the vision to carry him.