In a rite of passage ceremony there are three distinct phases one must pass through. Each of these phases carry it’s unique and challenging work. The first of the phases is Severance, the stepping away, severing from and relinquishing the old behavior, places and situations that no longer serve and continue to hold you back…

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Many years ago, after training with School of Lost Borders’ founders Steven Foster and Meredith Little, I remember their strong urging to future guides: “Take the ceremony and make it your own.” Those words, I think, capture the innovation and originality of the programs under the branch of the School called Living the Practices. Here the personal interests, unique skill sets, and specialized passions of individual School guides find expression in offerings that apply the bare bones of the vision fast ceremony…

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Description from Earth Converse Podcast: Ready to flow like a river? Penelope’s first guest conversation is with the wise wonderful Emerald North. “A woman of the earth, artist, poet, a guide and most of all, a human being that is deeply connected and living with, on and through the living earth around her day to…

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Note: This short piece has been submitted to Circles on the Mountain for publication.  For better or worse, wilderness rites of passage programs have gained a great deal of popularity over recent years. For better, because many of us have worked hard to see meaningful rites regain their importance within modern culture. We know that…

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Thirty years ago Steven Foster and Meredith Little founded The School of Lost Borders, offering rites of passage experiences based in part on Native American vision quests.

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In other words, while it may be the dark that contains the unexpected, unwanted, and incomprehensible, it is also that which illuminates and grants us the ability to see what is hidden there.

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