Posts by Tess Howell
CA Fall Vision Fast
The twelve day immersion ceremony involves four days of preparation, four days and nights of fasting alone, and four days of incorporation in Death Valley. (Payahüünadü), at Baker Creek Campground, and the solo threshold phase of the ceremony will take place in Death Valley National Park (Tüpippüh Valley).
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Queer Storytelling and Mirroring: Training on Queer Becoming and Belonging
In Queer Mirroring and Storytelling, we will look to offer safe spaces in both our human circle and in the more-than-human world, so we each may unearth our stories of belonging in diversity, to let them grow into lighthouses for the past, present, and the future.
This is an experiential training, and will request that you “wear two hats”; the hat of a student of Mirroring Storytelling, and your own very personal Queer Being hat! Through this dual perspective, we will cultivate, share, give and receive, the stories of our own queerness, while practicing the Art of Mirroring through a queer lens.
Read MoreDark Nature: The Initiatory Descent into the West
Dark Nature is a seven-day initiatory immersion into the West—the season of descent, endings, and inward turning. Together we explore how life initiates us through loss, disruption, and change, and how meeting these passages consciously shapes our character and capacity to love. Through daily council, time alone on the land, and an overnight solo vigil on the fifth day, participants engage the lived arc of descent and return. Guided by the teachings of the West, this work strengthens our ability to remain present in uncertainty, release what no longer serves, and allow transformation to take root—restoring vitality within ourselves and within the communities we belong to.
Read MoreWalking Into That Good Night: Exploring Our Relationship With Dying & Death
Physical death is the ultimate rite of passage that we are preparing for on some level throughout
our life. Sometimes this “preparing” looks like denial; sometimes sudden illness or life-threats
surprise us into looking squarely at the inevitable truth. The more consciously we can turn our
attention to our mortality, the more able we are to turn our life’s focus toward that which truly
matters to us during this one precious lifetime.
CA Spring Vision Fast
The twelve day ceremony involves four days of preparation, four days and nights of fasting alone, and four days of incorporation. The prep and post fast portions of the program will be held in the Owen’s Valley (Payahüünadü), at Baker Creek Campground, and the solo threshold phase of the ceremony will take place in Death Valley National Park (Tüpippüh Valley).
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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.
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