MIRRORING THE FOUR SHIELDS OF HUMAN NATURE
The Art of Storytelling and Listening
within the tradition of the School of Lost Borders
MIRRORING
THE FOUR SHIELDS
OF HUMAN NATURE
The Art of Storytelling and Listening
Within the tradition of the School of Lost Borders
Es muy importante
pasear sola/o,
sentarse debajo de un árbol,
no con un libro,
no en compañía,
sino sola/o
pasear sola/o,
sentarse debajo de un árbol,
no con un libro,
no en compañía,
sino sola/o
y observar
cómo cae una hoja,
y escuchar
el chapoteo del agua,
la canción de un pescador,
y observar
el vuelo de un pájaro
cómo cae una hoja,
y escuchar
el chapoteo del agua,
la canción de un pescador,
y observar
el vuelo de un pájaro
y observar también
los pensamientos propios
mientras se suceden
unos a otros
cruzando el espacio de la mente.
los pensamientos propios
mientras se suceden
unos a otros
cruzando el espacio de la mente.
Si una/o es capaz de estar sola/o
y de observar estas cosas,
entonces descubrirá una riqueza extraordinaria que nunca puede ser destruida.
y de observar estas cosas,
entonces descubrirá una riqueza extraordinaria que nunca puede ser destruida.
Jiddu Krishnamurti
CONTEMPORARY WILDERNESS
RITES OF PASSAGE
RITES OF PASSAGE
CONTEMPORARY
WILDERNESS
RITES OF PASSAGE
WILDERNESS
RITES OF PASSAGE
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. The best stories are about human nature — that is, the human of us which is, after all, nature in her basic manifestations as physical, psychical, rational, and spiritual. One of the best ways to create a four shields story, if not the best, is to put people in contact with nature in the raw.
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.
La Naturaleza será tu única compañía. Será tu guía, será tu espejo, será tu maestra.
Un Vision Quest también es pasar tiempo contigo envuelto en la Naturaleza, en tu Naturaleza.
Ser parte del todo. Estar y Ser Naturaleza.
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.
La Naturaleza será tu única compañía. Será tu guía, será tu espejo, será tu maestra.
Un Vision Quest también es pasar tiempo contigo envuelto en la Naturaleza, en tu Naturaleza.
Ser parte del todo. Estar y Ser Naturaleza.
Over the years the School has expanded the comprehensiveness of this training while maintaining its grounded, experiential base. Covering a wide range of relevant themes throughout the month, the essence of the teaching will emerge from our relationship with the land, where the eternal wisdom of pan-cultural rites continues to inform us, reflecting the underlying movement and dynamism of all life.
The wider context of this training is the inseparability between our own well-being and empowerment, and the health of our people and the wider Earth community to which we belong. Initiatory work is at heart about belonging; finding our particular place and deepening our capacity to engage in the work we are called to do in the times we are living through, so that we can become a good ancestor to those who come after us.
ABOUT THE MONTH-LONG TRAINING
ABOUT THE MONTH-LONG TRAINING
ABOUT THE MIRRORING 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.
Location
Dates & Other Information
SPRING 2025:
From April 28th to May 3rd.
Group of max 12 people.
The training will be in English.
From April 28th to May 3rd.
Group of max 12 people.
The training will be in English.
Program Guides
Betsy Perluss from The School of Lost Borders
Diana Bacanu from Transalquimia
Xavier Compte from Transalquimia
Program Overview
This seminar is designed to evoke and create a style of listening and storytelling that is uniquely your own, to practice reflecting what you hear with the fullness of your being (body, psyche, mind and spirit). It is also a ceremony and, like all ceremonies at the School of Lost Borders, requires a willingness to lose your borders and to go beyond what is familiar and known. Our time together will be a weaving of teaching circles, solo time in nature and story council.
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 Overview
April 30th - Arrival
May 1 - 5 - Foundations of Rites of Passage. The Barebones of the Ceremony. The four directions / shields of human nature
Betsy Perluss, Rupert Marques, Diana Bacanu, Xavier Compte
May 6 - Day off
May 7 - 11 - Developing the art of story-telling and mirroring for empowerment
Betsy Perluss, Rupert Marques, Diana Bacanu, Xavier Compte
May 12 - 13 - The Practice of Living and Dying
Meredith Little, Carine Roth, Rupert Marques, Diana Bacanu, Xavier Compte
May 14 - Day off
May 15 - 27 Shaping of intent as a foundation for threshold experiences. Self-generated Ceremony. Physical Plane. Vision Fast Ceremony.
Angelo Joseph Lazenka, Rupert Marques, Diana Bacanu, Xavier Compte
May 28 - Day off
May 29 - 31 Incorporation and appropriateness of this work to the challenges of our world.
Angelo Joseph Lazenka, Rupert Marques, Diana Bacanu, Xavier Compte
June 1st - Closing Ceremony. Departure.
May 1 - 5 - Foundations of Rites of Passage. The Barebones of the Ceremony. The four directions / shields of human nature
Betsy Perluss, Rupert Marques, Diana Bacanu, Xavier Compte
May 6 - Day off
May 7 - 11 - Developing the art of story-telling and mirroring for empowerment
Betsy Perluss, Rupert Marques, Diana Bacanu, Xavier Compte
May 12 - 13 - The Practice of Living and Dying
Meredith Little, Carine Roth, Rupert Marques, Diana Bacanu, Xavier Compte
May 14 - Day off
May 15 - 27 Shaping of intent as a foundation for threshold experiences. Self-generated Ceremony. Physical Plane. Vision Fast Ceremony.
Angelo Joseph Lazenka, Rupert Marques, Diana Bacanu, Xavier Compte
May 28 - Day off
May 29 - 31 Incorporation and appropriateness of this work to the challenges of our world.
Angelo Joseph Lazenka, Rupert Marques, Diana Bacanu, Xavier Compte
June 1st - Closing Ceremony. Departure.
Program Guides
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.
Diana Bacanu Diana Bacanu is a nature based guide and a bioenergetics therapist. Diana trained in contemporary wilderness rites of passage with the School of Lost Borders in the U.S. and she facilitates Vision Quest retreats in Spanish, French and English. 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 offers nature connection retreats and medicine walks, as well as deep ecology retreats, inspired by Joanna Macy’s “work that reconnects” and Mindfulness courses and retreats.
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.
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.
Application
We are limiting this training to twelve participants and it is likely that this training will be oversubscribed. We are inviting interested applicants to complete and send this application form and send it to contact@transalquimia.org
A wait list will be created for those we are not initially able to offer a place to.
A wait list will be created for those we are not initially able to offer a place to.
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. We will then review applications and make a decision by 30th of September. 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
Prerequisite: Participation in at least one guided 3 or 4 day Vision Fast done recently (in the last 4-5 years).
Prerequisite: Participation in at least one guided 3 or 4 day Vision Fast done recently (in the last 4-5 years).
AMAGAT
Accomodation
Accommodation is offered in the retreat center in shared rooms (of 2-3 people) with shared bathroom. The retreat center is in a remote location in a wilderness area - 30 min drive from Santa Coloma de Farners town.
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 includes accommodation in the retreat center, vegetarian meals as well as the teachings and facilitation throughout the retreat.
Tuition: Sliding Scale from 950 to 2500 euros
Tuition includes accommodation in the retreat center, vegetarian meals as well as the teachings and facilitation throughout the retreat.
Tuition: Sliding Scale from 950 to 2500 euros
Enrollement Deposit
The Enrollment Deposit signifies your commitment to the program and is deducted from the tuition balance. The enrollment deposit is non-refundable and non-transferable. It covers the work of the specific course you signed up for, including all communication involved as well as the fee that guides pay for the course accounting.
Enrollement Deposit: 300 euros
The remaining Tuition Payment: to be completed by February 15th 2025.
Enrollement Deposit: 300 euros
The remaining Tuition Payment: to be completed by February 15th 2025.
Cancelation Policy
Cancellations are hard on the participant, on the organisers and the guides. We respect the unpredictability of life, and we are diligent about running an organization sustainably.
- If you cancel 60 or more days prior to the start date of your program, you will receive a full refund of any tuition paid, minus the enrollment deposit.
- If you cancel 59 days or less prior to the start date of your program, and we can fill your spot, then you will receive a full refund of any tuition paid, minus the enrollment deposit.
- If we cannot fill your spot, and you cancel within 59 days of the start of your program, then we hold you accountable for paying the tuition at the lowest end of the sliding scale.
- If you cancel 60 or more days prior to the start date of your program, you will receive a full refund of any tuition paid, minus the enrollment deposit.
- If you cancel 59 days or less prior to the start date of your program, and we can fill your spot, then you will receive a full refund of any tuition paid, minus the enrollment deposit.
- If we cannot fill your spot, and you cancel within 59 days of the start of your program, then we hold you accountable for paying the tuition at the lowest end of the sliding scale.
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