When we heal the land, we heal the people
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When we heal the people, we heal the land
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When we heal the land, we heal the people • When we heal the people, we heal the land •
WILDERNESS Rites of Passage Ceremony
Take part in meaningful, pan-cultural Rites of Passage in the modern world through vision fasts + transformative nature-based programs. Cross into the natural world to mark and celebrate significant life transitions. Integrate ceremony and nature-based practices into your life.
Throughout history, cultures all over the world have immersed themselves in the wild to engage in Rites of Passage ceremonies as a means of receiving visions to bring back to their people, gain clarity in life, and mark significant life transitions. The School of Lost Borders used the bare bones of these histories to create a pan-cultural system for modern-day people to use nature as the mirror for healing.
Individuals have crossed the threshold to mark milestones, commitments, dissolutions, deaths, rebirths, and to attend more closely to the movement of soul - to remember what is most important at one’s core.
Such transitions in a person’s life were often marked through ceremony as initiatory events or passage rites as a means of reinforcing, both to the initiate and the community, the new orientation, direction, or phase of a person’s life.
We support you in taking what is meaningful for you to create a self-generated ceremony to take out on the land to work with nature (or as is more often the case, to allow nature to work on you). Held in the beauty of nature, the ceremony unfolds in a unique way for each person. After the solo ceremony has concluded, we come back together for a storytelling council where your story is mirrored back to you to deepen the medicine of it.
These initiatory, transformational experiences are for those seeking growth, insight, and restoration. Participants are of various ages, lifestyles, and cultures. You will be readied to physically, psychologically, mentally, and spiritually benefit from the experience of fasting alone in the wilderness.
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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 things. 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.
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The arc of these ceremonies give us time to explore the circles of our days and the seasons of our heart as we work with the land. We will use a universal map of Four Directions as our compass to guide our way through the wilderness within and without. We will be asked to cross threshold after threshold into the wholeness of our lives. The questions you are living and the experiences you bring with you will shape our time together, as will the shadows following you here.
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Cross into the natural world to mark and celebrate significant life transitions. This twelve day ceremony involves four days of preparation, four days and nights of fasting alone, and four days of incorporation.
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Support for returning back to the world and your life from this changed place. You will return to human companionship and a feast. In council, you will confirm the attainment of a new phase in life. With others, you will tell your story. The Guides will listen, help you to understand, and challenge you to give your vision practical feet — to live the life you have earned so you can celebrate and return to a life lived with new understanding.
There is a part of me that feels that this life of ours is co-created with something mysterious and bigger than I understand, and our own incredible flame as individual consciousness. If we fully engage in that partnership, it matches us. Somehow it meets us..."
— Meredith Little, School of Lost Borders
UPCOMING NATURE-BASED CEREMONIES + RETREATS
Sign up for announcements about future event dates + details
GROUP VISION FAST
2027 DATES TBD
Sign up for information about our next group vision fast on the Iberian Peninsula. Limited to 15 participants.
SEASONAL MEDICINE WALK + COUNCIL
AUTUMNAL EQUINOX· SEPT 21 · 65 euro
Spend the pivotal seasonal points of each equinox and solstice in nature-based ceremony, connecting with the land.
WOMEN’S VISION FAST
2027 DATES TBD
Sign up for information about our next women’s vision fast on the Iberian Peninsula. Limited to 15 participants.
SCHOLARSHIPS
A limited number of scholarships are available for BIPOC, LGBTQ + refugee communities, as well as those with limited financial means. Please contact us for an application form.