Posts by Tess Howell
CA Women’s Vision Fast
Perhaps you are one of the many women called to this ceremony. Maybe it is time to move deeper into the questions: What is asked of me? How do you source myself? How do I recognize the ancient myths guiding my life? What is drawing me toward the threshold? A descent, incubation, or an emergence? Is this a time of letting go or a time to reclaim? What do I offer in service to the greater?
Read MoreMid-Winter Vision Fast
Deep within we know. No matter how much dissociation and trauma we may carry, we still know. We know in our bones when life has grown stale and the skin around us begins to itch and crack. We know when our restless desire to break free, to open, to come out, to wake up no…
Read MoreBecoming Human: The Four Shields Model of Nature-Based Therapeutics
The Four Shields model offers us a compass to help us find our way back to our origins on this living planet.
This wheel of human nature was handed down to Steven and Meredith in the early days of Lost Borders and has become essential teaching for regaining our human wholeness within the wholeness of life. The wheel of life is archetypal, crossing boundaries between cultures and time; it is both simple and profound.
CA Month-Long Training
*Pre-requisite for this program is having completed a guided 3 or 4-day/night vision fast within the last five years. This need not have been with the School of Lost Borders. Please submit an application to Betsy before enrolling or paying a deposit. You should email Betsy at [email protected] with this Application Form Month-long Training for Rites of…
Read MoreThe Great Ballcourt Initiation – Spring Fast
Death is the ultimate agent of transformation—be it a physical death or “the little deaths” encountered throughout life. Indigenous cultures developed rituals to aid and guide people through these stages of change and renewal, utilizing the power of death to enhance and intensify these experiences.
Read MoreNM Women’s Vision Fast
A woman’s journey is both vigorous and introspective as she covers ground outwardly, so she ventures deep within herself. Stirred by nature’s calling to be creative and complete, and beckoned by an irresistible urge to cross personal boundaries, she travels the path of her unique destiny. Her passions and gifts are her map. Psyche is her guide. Dreams are her nourishment, the land her friend….
Read MoreTHE YOUNG ADULT RITE OF PASSAGE
This Rite of Passage is a ceremonial and utterly real opportunity to define yourself and be thoroughly welcomed into adulthood for exactly who you are. You are our next generation of world leaders and stewards, our next generation of teachers and care-givers, of artists and scientists, land tenders and culture curators. You will inherit a…
Read MoreCA Summer Vision Fast
Life changes us again and again- through puberty, illness, love, success, loss, commitment, trauma, labor…… We are intrinsically tied to the natural cycles of transformation- from birth, through death, both individually and collectively. How do we stay oriented to who we are, or fully let go into the disorientation and discomfort of the unknown, and trust who we are becoming?
Read MoreCO Summer Vision Fast
In your bones you hear the singing of your sacred ancestors. You follow in their footsteps. You go alone, with an empty belly and a bare minimum of equipment, into the heart of the wilderness, for four days and nights. There you live with yourself in solitude. You surrender to the mirror of your wild environment, and to memory, the looks-within-place. You enter the mansions of nature’s soul. You ponder the questions: “Who am I?” “Who are my people?” and “What is my intent?”
Read MoreSam Balka
Sam is a life-long dancer, a cultural explorer, and an outdoor adventurer. He originated in the creek beds and urban daydreams of Eastern Pennsylvania before moving out West and re-meeting the land. He has been a wilderness guide since 2017, a rites of passage guide a la School of Lost Borders since 2020, and a Somatic…
Read More