Global Rites of Passage

The School of Lost Borders holds the intent and the promise that one day meaningful Rites of Passage will once again be available to all people. With the present state of our world and the incredible challenges each individual faces it is very heartening to witness this ancient rite re-emerging globally. The School of Lost Borders is committed to supporting the continuation of this movement and to supporting and empowering  guides and colleagues around the world.

In the spirit of this intent we list, a schedule of some international program offerings, and some of the organizations offering rites of passage globally. 

Global Programs

  • Dark Nature: The Matrix of Initiatory Growth

    Date: 
    Sep 25th, 2010 - Sep 30th, 2010
    Instructors: 
    Meredith Little
    Web Address: 
    Aruna Institut
    Contact: 
    aruna.info@t-online.de

    Germany

    Of all the shields of human nature, the dark or fall shield can be at once the most compelling and the most frightening.  It calls on us continually to risk everything, to let go of what has come before, to step over the edge, to go where life is lived inwardly in the mansions of feeling, dream, and memory.  The dark shield is the threshold of initiation, where what is unimportant falls away, where we change or we become victims of our ways.  The time we spend in the dark shield determines our behavior, our character, our destiny, and is largely responsible for our ab

  • Wild Woman Healer: Stepping Beyond Borders

    Date: 
    Oct 3rd, 2010 - Oct 8th, 2010
    Instructors: 
    Meredith Little
    Web Address: 
    Women and Earth
    Contact: 
    women-and-earth@bluewin.ch

    Switzerland

    Into the realms of our imagination there are no borders.  Stepping beyond cultural and personal stories we enter the fertile ground of potential, where possibilities abound and anything is possible.  When we dare to imagine we are more than we think we are, we surrender to our relationship with spirit.  We become a vehicle for healing, and the yearning of the universe toward wholeness and balance.  For this we must get out of the way, risk our personal comfort zones, and trust in the creative, generous nature of spirit. 

  • Rites of Alignment in a New Global World

    Date: 
    Oct 12th, 2010 - Oct 17th, 2010
    Instructors: 
    Meredith Little
    Web Address: 
    Shambhala Wilderness School
    Contact: 
    franz.redl@wilderness.at, women-and-earth@bluewin.ch

    Austria

    There is a rumbling in the fabric of our lives these days … a sense of change, impermanence, and transparency.  The illusion that we are in control of the nature of things slips shimmering into the cracks of political, social, financial, and environmental crisis.  It becomes more and more impossible to ignore our fragility; and, standing in the truth of our relatedness, to not feel the potential of our natural resilience.

  • Advanced Council Practice

    Date: 
    Nov 1st, 2010 - Nov 4th, 2010
    Instructors: 
    Gigi Coyle and Marlow Hotchkiss
    Contact: 
    brem@lebensgrund.ch, reinhard@arseminare

    Gruppenhaus Mark & Bein, Rigistrasse 146, CH-6353 Weggis / Switzerland

    In Advanced Council Practice, our intention is to open more fully to the way of council beyond personal self-expression, beyond our own story. We will explore “inter-being,” empathy, intuition and an expanded sense of relationship as paths to a more committed life. Thinking like a circle. Inviting the group soul to speak through us. Being of service. Living council .

  • Mentoring Day for Council Leaders

    Date: 
    Nov 8th, 2010
    Instructors: 
    Gigi Coyle and Marlow Hotchkiss
    Contact: 
    brem@lebensgrund.ch, reinhard@arseminare

    Gruppenhaus Mark & Bein, Rigistrasse 146, CH-6353 Weggis / Switzerland

    We, Marlow Hotchkiss and Gigi Coyle, will meet with devoted practitioners of council, those who are already on the path of Council Trainer. You must listen and decide if this is a meeting for you. We, as guides and mentors, will accept dana/ a donation for the time spent together. We offer 2 sessions, 9 to 12 and 1 to 4 on Monday following participation in the advanced training in Switzerland.

  • Advanced Mirroring Training

    Date: 
    May 10th, 2011 - May 15th, 2011
    Instructors: 
    Meredith Little with Franz Redl, Claudia Pichl, and Susann Belz
    Web Address: 
    Shambhala Wilderness School
    Contact: 
    franz.redl@wilderness.at, women-and-earth@bluewin.ch

    Near Salzburg, Austria

  • The Wisdom of the Medicine Wheel

    Date: 
    May 17th, 2011 - May 22nd, 2011
    Instructors: 
    Meredith Little und Dr.Bärbel Kreidt, and assistant Edith Oepen
    Contact: 
    edithoepen@web.de

    Fritz-Perls-Institute, Hückeswagen/Beversee, near Cologne, Germany

     

International Community Links

Australia

  • Beyond the Threshold
    Beyond the Threshold: Glenis Taylor and Gary Williams

    Perth, Western Australia

    Beyond the Threshold was born from a cry of the wilderness heart. It is a rite of passage partnership based in Perth, Western Australia where we run two to three vision fasts (max 8 places per quest) from April through to October.

    Both Glenis Taylor and Gary Williams are experienced fast guides who have done their training and solo times with Rite of Passage Inc and the School of Lost Borders respectively.

    For more information and fast times, email: guides@beyondthethreshold.net '

    "Lose yourself over the dreamtime threshold, downunder"

     

Austria

  • Shambhala Wilderness School
    http://www.wilderness.at/

    Austria

    The school was founded 1997 by Claudia R. Pichl, Franz P. Redl and Peter Wetzler (Austria). Our focus is on rites of passage work in various different settings: Vision Quest, 4 Shields and Medicine Wheel, Ceremonies of the 4 Shields, Mirroring, Sweatlodge, and a year-long group 'Spiraling to your Self'. We also train people in a very individual way to become Vision Quest guides (2 to 4 years). We offer seminars in: Austria, Italy, Sinai/ Egypt, Sahara / Libya and Southern Africa. We are teaching in the spirit of the "School of Lost Borders" and our own way of the heart and with the background of our long experience. We have sponsored Steven and Meredith, and now sponsor Meredith and Scott in Central Europe (Mirroring and Empowerment, and The Practice of Living and Dying).

  • CHRISTIAN KIRCHMAIR
    http://www.christian-kirchmair.at

    Christian Kirchmair
    Porzellangasse 49/2/2
    A-1090 Wien · Österreich

    Born 1956 in Vienna/Austria/Europe, father of three adults, 20 years self-employed, since 2005 vision-quest-guide and seminar facilitator in Vienna, Austria

    Training
    Seminars at Aruna Institute in Germany 2003 to 2006
    Vision-quest-guide training at School of Lost Borders in USA 2004 & 2005
    Grief counselor training at a hospice in Vienna, Austria 2005

    Since 2005, he leads and organizes vision-quests and seminars for youth and adults as a self-employed seminar facilitator and in co-operation with other international institutes. Themes and groups specific for men are a major focus of his work.

    Several journeys through Africa, India and Nepal led up to the foundation of a non-profit organization “people-together”, which organizes charity projects in different countries

Germany

  • Sylvia Koch-Weser
    http://www.sylvia-koch-weser.de

    Nuernberg, Germany

    Sylvia is a biologist, and a Vision-Quest guide since 1999 with 4-5 Vision-Quest a year in the region of Sinai-desert, Croatia, Austrian Alpes and Canary Islands.  She supports people in their inner growth and in working with nature as a mirror of the soul.  Sylvia also offers trainings for Vision-Quest guides, and is co-author of the german book: "Vision-Quest: Alone in the Wilderness on the Way to Yourself".

  • The Eschwege Institut
    http://www.eschwege-institut.de/

    The Eschwege Institut was founded by Holger & Gesa Heiten. Beside our own workshops and Vision Quests in the spirit of the School of Lost Borders, we offer training programs, team development and coaching in this spirit.  Our aim is to introduce “rites of passage work” to places where therapists, social workers and teachers work with others in transition crisis on a daily basis.

    In this context we have seen the need for modern Mentors to guide others through the process of transition. Therefore we have created a special two year training program to explore the themes of mentoring and the diverse forms of rites of passage and the vision quest.  For this training we offer seminars that address special fields of this work, cooperating with a faculty of international teachers. We feel honored to sponsor staff from the School of Lost Borders.
     

  • European Guides Council
    http://www.visionssuche.net/index.php

    This is a good resource for exploring organizations offering Rites of Passage and trainings.

South Africa

  • Renaissance Foundation:
    http://www.rbanet.co.za/

    Judy Bekker and Valerie Morris have been guiding vision fasts in the Cape, South Africa for the last 16 years. Their eleven day programs begin and end next to the Indian Ocean and the solo fast is set in a huge tract of private wilderness three hours out of Cape Town. The land is beautiful and generous and filled with the art of the bushman people who once roamed and hunted there. Judy and Valerie run up to four programs a year in the summer months between October and March.

Switzerland

  • Women and Earth
    http://www.womenandearth.ch/

    Women and Earth was founded in 1996 by Susann Belz. With a circle of different teachers from around the world, we offer many programs.  All the training's are earth-based teachings and have many different settings: Weekend Groups, Vision Fasts, week-long trainings in healing ways, and Rituals for the 8 Seasons.

    The School is a place for women. Together we learn and grow, always in mind to what serves Mother Earth and all her beings who are a part of this great family.  A very important ingredient of the learning is living together during these seminars in a beautiful house just on the border of Switzerland and France - a chance to deal with our own borders and boundaries.

The real ceremony begins where the formal one ends, when we take up a new way, our minds and hearts filled with the vision of earth that holds us within it, in compassionate relationship to and with our world.

Linda Hogan