International Community & Programs
The School of Lost Borders holds the intent that one day meaningful rites of passage will be available to communities worldwide. With the present state of our planet and the incredible challenges people are facing, it is very heartening to witness this ancient rite re-emerging globally. We are committed to supporting the continuation of this movement and to empowering guides and colleagues around the world.
- We support international guides to offer wilderness rites of passage in their countries through training and mentorship such as the good resource of the German Speaking Guides Council
- We are available to attend and/or speak at various conferences, trainings, and gatherings around the world.
- We attend and are a sponsor of the International Wilderness Guides Council Gathering that our co-founder Steven Foster began in 2001.
- If folks from our international communities would like to join one of our School programs in the United States we offer various scholarship opportunities.
Some Lost Borders guides are offering vision fasts and trainings in other countries in partnership with local guides and organizations to cultivate the growth of wilderness rites of passage.
These programs are offered with the full support of the School of Lost Borders but are not offered through the School.
CONTACT INFORMATION: For inquiries about international programs please send a message to [email protected].
International Programs
In the Death Lodge: Forgiveness, Apology, and Reconciliation
Date: Sept 5th, 2023- Sept 10th, 2023
Instructors: Meredith Little
Contact: Holger at [email protected]
Location: Eschwege Institute, Germany
As 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.
In this particular program, we will explore how to move through the dying process—be it a symbolic dying or a physical dying. Our aim is both educational and therapeutic.
Inanna, the descent to the mysteries of death and rebirth
Date: Sept 15th - Sept 20th, 2023
Instructors: Meredith Little
Contact: Susann Belz at [email protected]
Location: Women and Earth, Germany (near Lake Constance)
For the ancients, initiation rites were the technique by which the individual could descend into the underworld to reveal the great mystery of death and rebirth. The ancient gods and goddesses who initiated humanity into the rites of transformation have not left us. We have internalized their presence in our lives as the archetypal forces in our personalities that inhabit the hidden parts of the psyche.
During these five days we will deal with the universal laws that live in the millennia-old Inanna myth. This journey is an initiation to rediscover our roots and our primordial feminine intuition in order to live them more deeply.
MONTH LONG TRAINING
IN SPAIN
Date: April 30 - June 1, 2024
Instructors: Betsy Perluss, Angelo Lazenka, Meredith Little, Diana Bacanu, Xavier Compte, Rupert Marques
Contact: Diana and Xavier, contact@transalquimia.
Location: La Fradera, Spain (north of Barcelona)
Guides from The School of Lost Borders in collaboration with guides from Europe will be offering a month-long training in contemporary wilderness rites of passage, in 2024. The School has offered the month-long training for many years and this collaboration is in support of seeding a similar training in Europe.
Queer Quest - Rite of Passage Program for the LGBTQ2S+ Community
Date: Monday to
Instructors: Roo Wharton & Pedro McMillan
Contact: Email Pedro at: [email protected] and see https://wildmountainretreats.org/events/queer-quest-a58l5-93h8y-9wgkk
Location: Dartmoor, UK
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 many gifts, is a celebration of nature’s diversity and honors our deep connection to the natural world.
Many earth-based cultures recognize and honor queer community members as gatekeepers to the ‘other world’, as edge walkers and a source of connection between the community, nature and the mystery. With all the challenging and rapid changes we see in both human culture and our environment, now is the time to come back to our roots and the gifts that the queer community brings to the world. Connecting deeply to yourself, and fully accepting all of who you are, is both a radical act of rebellion against forces of hate and division, and a radical act of communion with all living things!
Join us in this supportive circle in the beautiful land of Dartmoor for this ceremonial rite of passage, designed specifically for the LGBTQ2S+ community. Coming together, to step all the way in to the multifaceted person you are and be witnessed by the community, is healing for everyone.
THE FOUR SHIELDS OF HUMAN NATURE: THE ART OF STORYTELLING AND LISTENING
Date:
Instructors: Betsy Perluss supported by Israh Goodall
Contact: [email protected]
Location: Dartmoor, UK
Telling one’s own story is an ancient art. Nowadays, we have forgotten how to listen and how to tell. Yet the very survival of our species depends on our ability to communicate with each other in such ways as to be mutually enriched by the telling and the listening. If we cannot tell with expression, our life is mute. If we cannot listen like a mirror, we cannot reflect back the wholeness of the four shields — the body, soul, mind and spirit of the teller.
What comes forth in the story is the stuff of self-transformation. Even as we “myth” ourselves into experience, so we express ourselves into existence. Our stories about our natural selves, and our means of expressing them, lead us to courage, determination, commitment, hope, wisdom, and the will to survive, to transcend the difficulty, to go beyond ourselves. Those of us who work with people must know how to listen and respond to the stories our people tell, so that we can help them create a life that is deeper, richer, and of greater benefit to our community and the earth.