Petra Lentz-Snow (She/Her) is a certified naturopath and first generation immigrant from Germany who came to the Western United States in her twenties through a series of initiatory processes and trainings with Zen Buddhism and Indigenous Wisdom Lineages.  She has been guiding vision fasts and wilderness rites of passage programs for more than 3 decades.

Guide, trainer and active steward of the School of Lost Borders, Petra served as Executive Director at Lost Borders for eight years and is a former Netkeeper for the Wilderness Guides Council network.   After raising children in the SF Bay Area, she has returned to live full time in Big Pine, Payahuunadü, the “Land of Flowing Water”, deeply grateful for the opportunity to live on the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary lands of the Nüümü and Newe peoples, that have held the school for over 40 years.

Petra is passionate about the human (and planetary) need to re-member ourselves, as a largely dis-membered species shaped by the impacts of modern culture. Her work centers around supporting life transitions through initiatory experiences and threshold practices in wild places.  Areas of special focus include Women Rites, Transitions of Illness, Loss and Death, Gender Freedom/Expansion/Transition and Decoloniality Practices.

Petra holds space as a Rite of Passage midwife, Trans Parent, Breast Cancer Survivor, fledgling Elder, and not-so-fine Artist. She lives by the grace of a heart that seems to keep expanding – despite the bumps in the road, or maybe because of them… In her free time you will likely find her with clay on her hands or out in the wilds harvesting pine needles and wild nettle.

Email: [email protected]

Blog:  Cancer as a Rite of Passage

Interview:  Introduction on Rites of Passage