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Programs
The School of Lost Borders in committed to creating opportunities for people from all walks of life to express their invdividual natures within old and modern ceremonial practices.
Solitude and silence in wild nature, the commitment to community, honoring personal intent, and the acknowledgment and responsibility to bring forth one's gifts, are the foundation of our ceremonies and teachings. Every course at the School is a right of passage, a border crossing from the past to the future, from the old to the new, from the outward to the inward, from the self to the Self. The emphasis is on the challenge of life transitions, the borders we all must cross.
TrainingRites of Passage trainings for vision fast guides and other human beings. Trainings explore the elements of The Four Shields of Human Nature, Mirroring, and Storytelling in immersion programs through one week, two week of month-long trainings.
The modern day vision fast is a border crossing practice. When one steps across the threshold and into the unknown wilderness, boundaries begin to dissolve and our vision begins to expand. Everything is pregnant with meaning, and nature speaks to us in the voices of rock, tree, and wind. Following the ancient pathway of this rite of passage, we step into our true nature and remember our home among the wild. We become who we were born to be.
The Practice of Living & DyingAs our modern culture has grown ever more sophisticated, we have also become ever more divorced from our natural surroundings and from ancient wisdom about living and dying. We have pushed Death away from Life, the dying away from the living - all in order to impose the illusion of control on the uncertainty of change. We have lost touch with the natural world and with our place in it as mortal animals. We have forgotten "how to die."
Living the PracticesWe seek to answer a call heard in the voices of people who sit in our circles. Many people express a longing to bring their deep and ceremonial relationship with wild nature into their work lives, homes, relationships and communities. Living the Practices is designed to synthesize the traditions of the School of Lost Borders with spiritual, artistic/creative, personal and professional disciplines and practices.
Upcoming Programs
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).
Being a man can be easy, and not easy at all. How do people who identify as a man navigate both the immense privileges that…
Council is an ancient way and modern practice whose roots are deep within the natural world, spanning diverse cultures and spiritual traditions. Sitting in circle we remember and learn to listen to the whole: the people, the place and all living beings. This practice elicits an experience of deep community, recognizing that each voice has value, every person has a gift, a story to share, a piece of the puzzle.
As the leaves change, a different way of life is tugging at your heart. A new story is begging to be told. And your gifts…
“If there were a measure of ‘mental health’, it would involve the ability of individuals to grow into the fullness of each season – that…
This is an offering to celebrate and hold the broad, and diverse experiences of what it is to be a woman in this moment in time. Since time immemorial Rites of Passage Ceremonies have facilitated change, offering a simple but indispensable container to transition from one life stage to another, to let go of (die to) the old and step in (birth) anew, so that life can continue.
What underlies these rites is the understanding of the circular, seasonal, and regenerative nature of life and death. This knowing runs deep in the female body. Despite the patrilinear impact of the last few thousand years that imposed a culture in which the feminine was largely exiled, we are still informed by the cyclical ebbing and flowing rhythm of circular time, and an innate understanding of the evolutionary necessity of change that lives in our bones.
The natural world reminds us that being Queer* is both beautiful and something to be celebrated! Showing up as who we are, and with our…
In these times of change and uncertainty, it is crucial that we show up for our community in ways that truly serve. The world is…