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 Offerings

• Month-Long Training in Wilderness Rites of Passage
  • April 29th – May 31st, 2026 in Transalquimia’s Retreat Center, Spain

MONTH-LONG TRAINING IN WILDERNESS RITES OF PASSAGE- SPAIN

Program Dates:  April 29th – May 31st, 2026

Location: Transalquimia’s Retreat Center, in Les Guilleries Park, a remote wilderness area located in Northern Spain (1h45 from Barcelona, 45 min from Girona)

Instructors: Betsy Perluss, Angelo Joseph Lazenka, Petra Lentz-Snow, Rupert Marques, Carine Roth, Diana Bacanu, Xavier Compte

Maximum Enrollment: Group of max 12 people. The training will be in English.

Contact: [email protected]

Full info HERE

This training draws on the work of pioneers in the field of contemporary wilderness rites of passage and will attend to both the experiential work of learning the skills and approaches to holding initiatory work, as well the theoretical underpinnings of this work.

 

FOR THOSE WITH A WILDERNESS GUIDE VOCATION

 

The month-long intensive is designed for those who seek to explore and develop their vocation as wilderness guides within the tradition of the School of Lost Borders. Participants are given the opportunity and mentorship to fully immerse themselves in the ceremonial and practical aspects of modern-day wilderness rites of passage that have evolved – and continues to evolve – throughout years of experimentation and practice, and have been passed down through the teaching of our elders. 

 

Although this training supports those who choose to creatively transform and adapt this work to a variety of settings, our teachings remain rooted in the contemporary tradition of wilderness rites of passage; namely utilizing a four-directions eco-centric wheel of development as an underlying framework and attending to the three classic phases of a passage rite: Preparation, Threshold and Incorporation. The threshold or liminal stage of the initiation being a four day and night fast alone in a wild place.

 

Prerequisite:  Participation in at least one guided 3 or 4 day Vision Fasts done recently (in the last 4-5 years). Have a look to Vision Fast guided in Spanish and French by Transalquimia, and Vision Fasts guided in English by Hand on The Earth.

  NATURE BASED RITE OF PASSAGE- SPAIN

Program Dates: October 16 – October 25, 2026 with Trailhaven

Location: Spain, likely in Parc Natural Alt Pirineu in Catalunya.

Instructors: Kelly McClelland, Will Scott, Peter van der Vlis

Maximum Enrollment: Group of max 10 people. 

Contact: [email protected]

We are amidst a collective unraveling and rite of passage. A betwixt and between time that is both deeply unsettling and full of possibility. This is a moment ripe for change.

What is this time asking of you? What is next for you? What is your individual and collective responsibility to tend to our communities, cultures, and planet?  Significant life transitions invite our hearts, minds and bodies to open to new ways of being. What is no longer serving you? What needs to be let go? What seeds do you want to plant for the future?

This program is offered by Trailhaven in collaboration with guides from the School of Lost Borders, and is designed to explore what’s next in your life, and to celebrate your commitment to yourself, your dreams, your communities and the wider world.

Program Details: This is a 10-day rite of passage program that includes a 3-day solo ceremony. It will be held in the gorgeous the Pyreness mountains outside of Barcelona, Spain. Full info can be found here

Ballplayers would risk their lives so that spirit, light and hope might be renewed—for themselves, yet most of all for their people and community. The Mayans had faith that, through discipline and sacrifice, spirit was renewed, just as winter births new spring. What we can know is that each day of our lives we play on the Great Ballcourt. Each day we die some, each day we are reborn.

 

Our group will come together in Transalquimia’s Retreat Center, in Les Guilleries Park, a remote wilderness area located in Northern Spain (1h45 from Barcelona, 45 min from Girona).

 

We will come together for 12 days: beginning with a final Severance from the old world, stepping across the Threshold into 4 days and nights of fasting and solitude, then returning for our stories of Incorporation.

 

The metaphors we will explore include Decision Road, Death Lodge, Purpose Circle, and the Ballcourt. Our explorations together will be informed both by Mayan teachings that spread to native tribes in the plains of North America and by the lessons of modern-day hospice, learned directly at the bedside of the sick and the dying.

 

Full info can be found here