Month-Long Training in Spain
Carine Roth sera au “month long training” en Espagne pour enseigner la pratique du vivre et mourir à la place de Meredith Little.
Cette formation est unique au monde et c’est une immersion exceptionnelle dans le travail des rites de passage.
Pour les personnes qui souhaitent entamer leur chemin pour devenir guide de rite de passage.
For forty years the School of Lost Borders has offered a unique training for students, therapists, activists, teachers, community workers, and guides interested in deepening their understanding and experience in the principles of the modern-day vision fast. 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 core tradition of wilderness rites of passage; namely four days and nights of fasting alone in a wilderness place, and returning with a “vision” in service to one’s community.
The month-long intensive is designed for those who seek to explore and develop their vocation as nature based rites of passage 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.
We welcome all BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ people to this ceremony. We see our diversity as a gift to the whole.
CONTEMPORARY WILDERNESS RITES OF PASSAGE
Throughout the human story people have made use of wilderness and the ‘mirror of nature’ as a means of gaining clarity in life or marking significant life transitions. Individuals have crossed the threshold into wild places to attend more closely to the movement of soul, to remember what is at one’s core, what is most important. 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.
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.
The teaching is in English.
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.
ABOUT THE MONTH-LONG TRAINING
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).
Most days will include time together in council, as well as solo time on the land, exploring the themes of the day. The experiences of initiatory activity on the land will inform the subject matter of the teaching.
Trainees will have the opportunity to learn from a rotating team of highly experienced guides throughout the month, culminating in a four-day personal vision fast.
Prerequisite: Participation in at least one guided 3 or 4 day Vision Fasts done recently (in the last 4-5 years).
Topics will include but not be limited to
the theory and foundations of rites of passage and their pan-cultural universality
inclusivity and intersectionality in wilderness rites of passage
the risks of cultural misappropriation, cultural shadows, and best practices in respect to the people who have come before and the lands to which they belong
the history and lineage of the School of Lost Borders and its continual evolving
the barebones of our practice including:
the four shields of human nature
self-generated ceremony and the role of threshold-crossing
shaping and honing of intent as a foundation for threshold experiences
the practice of story-telling and mirroring
the centrality of nature as teacher and mirror
council practice
rites of passage as dying practice
the role of the guide
specific practices such as the death lodge, purpose circle, and other pan-cultural symbols and practices
the significance of the symbolic, mythic, and archetypal themes that show up in story, dream, and nature.
the screening and preparation of candidates
supporting a candidate’s physical/psychological/mental/spiritual safety
variations on traditional and contemporary models of wilderness vision fasts
working with youth and other specific populations
the all-important topic of incorporation and appropriateness of this work to the challenges of our world today.
Program Guides
Angelo Joseph Lazenka (he/him) began guiding vision fast in 1984 and often says that the work grew him up and now he is asking it to grow him down into the rich territory of elderhood. He began working as a guide with the School in 1993 and from 2003 through 2018 held a variety of titles including: Guide, Teacher, Director, President, and Board Member. Now, in his late 60’s, having left administrative responsibilities, he continues to guide and train while carrying the question of what it truly means to pass the work on to the next generation.
Betsy Perluss, Ph.D. (she/they), lover of landscape, story, and myth, grew up as a semi-feral child on Pimu (Catalina Island), where she was ignited with a passion for wild and unbounded places. She stumbled upon the School of Lost Borders in 1998 and since has been involved as a participant, guide, trainer, board member, and member of the Elders and Guiding Councils. Betsy aspires to live a life informed by the wisdom of the land, the pan-cultural ceremony, and the mystery of initiatory rites. She is an accepting, down-to-earth guide who brings a mix of sacred and profane, imagination and humor to her work. She is also a psychotherapist with a background in eco and depth psychologies, currently studying at the Jung Institute in Denver, Colorado. Betsy teaches ecopsychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute and, from 2001-2012, was professor of counseling at California State University, Los Angeles. She currently lives on the unceded territory of the Nisenan, along the Bear River, in the oak and pine forested foothills of the Sierra Nevada.
Petra Lentz-Snow (she/her) is certified naturopath and she has been guiding vision fasts and wilderness rites of passage programs for more than 30 years now.
Guide, trainer and active steward of the School of Lost Borders, Petra served as Executive Director at LB for eight years and is a former Netkeeper for the Wilderness Guides Council network. Petra's 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 Expansion/Transition.
Petra holds space as a ROP 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.
Rupert Marques has worked within the field of experiential environmental education for the past twenty years with an emphasis in outdoor education. He trained extensively and subsequently worked as a guide with the School of Lost borders in the U.S. offering contemporary wilderness rites of passage. From 2016-2019 Rupert lived and worked at Ecodharma, a contemplative retreat community in the Spanish Pyrenees dedicated to supporting social justice and ecological sustainability. At Ecodharma Rupert directed the Nature based Practice strand of work, marrying contemplative practice with a range of approaches within the field of experiential ecopsychology.
Carine Roth (she/they) is a Swiss Nature and Forest therapy guide and a Nature-based Rite of Passage guide with experience in these fields all over the world. She has also been an image editor and professional photographer for Swiss daily newspapers, and can navigate between the worlds of industrial and indigenous knowledge. She is the founder of “ceux d'ici" and co-founder of the Swiss organization "Rite de Passage”, which promotes modern, healthy rites of passage in nature for young people and adults.
Carine shares her time between the creation of innovative programs in the field of rites of passage, eco-therapy and the human-nature bond, and healing sessions and counseling activities with courageous individuals in search of meanings and ways of fully manifesting their presence in the world.
Diana Bacanu is a nature based guide and a bioenergetics therapist. As a co-founder of transalquimia.org, Diana leads retreats and courses supporting people to reconnect to themselves (body-mind-soul), to others and to Nature, as a way of remembering their true nature and their deeper belonging. Diana has trained as a guide with the School of Lost Borders in the U.S. on contemporary wilderness rites of passage and she offers deep ecology retreats, inspired by Joanna Macy’s “work that reconnects” as well as mindfulness courses and retreats. She facilitates Vision Quest retreats in Spanish, French and English.
Xavier Compte is a co-founder of transalquimia.org, where he gives support to different groups in deepening both the interconnection with Nature, and a better understanding of our personal, interpersonal and
transpersonal qualities.
He trained with the School of Lost Borders in the U.S. on contemporary wilderness Rites of Passage, and currently offers Vision Quest retreats in Spanish, French and English in the Guilleries mountains in Spain, where he lives. Certified in Shinrin-Yoku, Xavi guides groups on forest bathing journeys.
Aplication
We are limiting this training to twelve participants and it is likely that this training will be oversubscribed. In light of this, we are inviting interested applicants to complete an application by 31st of August 2025. We will then review applications and make a decision by 30th of September 2025. A wait list will be created for those we are not initially able to offer a place to. If you are interested in applying, please fill this application form and send it to contact@transalquimia.org
Tuition
To honor the vast difference of financial resources among us, all of our program tuition is based on a sliding scale. We set forth no criteria and ask that you pay what is appropriate for your circumstances and access to financial resources.
Tuition: 3200 – 6400 euros (includes accommodation in the retreat center)
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Deposit: 500 euros when a place is offered to you (non-refundable and non-transferable).
Second Tuition Payment: As a sign of your commitment, and to insure we have a full group, we are requesting that you make a second deposit of 800 euros by December 1st, 2025
The remaining Tuition Payment: to be completed by April 1st 2026.
Readings
Required reading for this training includes The Trail to the Sacred Mountain Handbook, which contains information on flora, fauna, weather, emergency procedures and other related information, as well as suggestions for preparing for the vision fast you will be doing the second half of the training.
Also, highly recommended is The Roaring of the Sacred River, a training manual for “field eco-therapy”, and the recently published, The School of Lost Borders: A Love Story, a deeply moving account of the history of the School told by Meredith Little.
All publications are available at Lost Borders Press.