Boulder Mountain Mirroring Training
September 4-8
Boulder, UT
Suggested donation: $250 – $500 (although no-one will be turned away for lack of funds, as there are many beautiful ways of expressing gratitude and reciprocity)
Petra Lentz-Snow and Tamarix are hosting a 5-day training on the art of mirroring, based on the teachings of the Four Shields of Human Nature, in the tradition of the School of Lost Borders, deep in the sandstone foothills of Boulder Mountain.
If you are not familiar, this is an integral piece of rites-of-passage work and a beautiful way of understanding what it means to be a story-carrying animal, also known as a human. Mirroring is a way of working with stories, of midwifing the parts of ourselves and others who are trying to emerge into this strange and terrifying world. At its core, mirroring assumes a deep trust and reverence for the wildness that lies on either side of the fragile boundary of self we have so delicately constructed at the edge of our skin.
A terribly vague description, you say? Most likely. Mirroring doesn’t play well with the english language or any of its assumptions, it is a way of being that likes to dance at the edge of our periphery, surprising us as it leaps out from forgotten hollows of our bodies in wild moments of grief, love, and validation.
Flow of the five-day ceremony: We will be camping together in the desert for the duration of the week. Our days will consist of gathering in circle and solitary 2-3 hour excursions into the surrounding wilderness, venturing into each of the Four Shields. Participants will forego companionship, food, and shelter during these times. Upon return, we will share our own stories that were born as well as listen to the stories of others. The objectives of our time together are to experience human-nature deeply; to elicit personal “mythos” through the expression of the story; to acquire knowledge of how to listen and respond to the four personas of human nature (to “mirror”), and to utilize a powerful incorporation tool of self and group empowerment — the “elder’s council.”
Prerequisites and Uses of this Training: Mirroring is a lifelong practice. For this training, we invite therapists (and recovering therapists), counselors, social workers, pilgrims, change makers, renegades, rebels, lovers of life and all who dare to live into the most fundamental questions of their being. There is no prerequisite other than the genuine call to be present, and called to this ceremony. Prior exposure to these teachings are welcome and an enrichment of the circle. All participants will be asked throughout the program to wear two hats: that of a human willing to experience the magic of this work and that of a trainee working with Story in service to Life.
Preparation: Upon registration you will be provided with a handbook on the Four Shields of Human Nature, as well as asked to write a letter of intent of how you are drawn to the training and what you hope to live into from our time together. Your intention may serve yourself, your people, or, as is often the case, be in service to both the inner and outer dimensions of yourself.
Registration: Participation is limited to 12 humans. To reserve your spot, please send a deposit of $100 (or your equivalent ability to express reciprocity and value) to Tamarix by August 4th.
Arrival and departure: We invite you to arrive the day prior to the training. We will begin our work on Sept 4 at 10am and ask that you arrive at the site by 9am. We will end on Sept 8 by 4pm in the afternoon.
Camping arrangements: We ask everyone to come prepared to live self-sufficiently for meals and equipment. You will need to bring shelter and clothing suitable for a full range of inclement weather. Upon registration you will be provided a detailed equipment list to help with preparation.
Please send questions, observations, disinclinations, and/or RSVPs to Tamarix at thetamarixproject@gmail.com
and/or Petra at
Petra Lentz-Snow has guided vision fasts and wilderness rite of passage programs for over 25 years in California, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah. She is currently serving as the Executive Director at the School of Lost Borders and lives in Payahunadu, or the Owen’s Valley, in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, CA. A council practitioner, and former naturopath, in her fifties, she identifies as an immigrant, a mother of three adult children, a breast cancer survivor, a lover of open spaces and apprentice to the art of re-wilding. Petra is passionate about integrating and seeding initiatory experiences in modern culture and supporting next generation guides. Personal areas of interest: women, birth as a rite of passage, a new look at illness, loss and death, evolutionary patterns of change.
Tamarix belongs to Boulder Mountain and the waters that course these dense forests and deep canyons, the magic of language, water and shadow, the scent of sagebrush, the feeling of sandstone on bare feet, the Oak-groves, his legendary cat Nithi, Grief, Longing, and Death, as well as Love, Belonging, and Life.
Tamarix has been claimed by the traditions of wilderness guiding, bardic poetry, rogue wine-drunk taoism, cat-worship, herbalism, and animistic witchcraft, as well as the archetypes of the dark trickster, the psychopomp, and the wounded healer.
As a wilderness rites-of-passage guide, Tamarix brings his 10+ years experience as a wilderness therapy guide, his intimate relationship with the non-human world, and his deep trust in both the wisdom of wild spaces and the fasting ceremony utilized by the School of Lost Borders. Tamarix attended the SOLB month-long training in 2017, the Animas Valley Institute’s YLSI (yearlong soulcraft intensive) in 2017-18, and has been assisting fasts for the SOLB and the Practice of Living and Dying as often as he can. Tamarix established a rites-of-passage program for Legacy Outdoor Adventures and Juniper Canyon Recovery Center for Women utilizing the SOLB model, and is working to create more ways to bring the magic of this ceremony to his people.
the tamarix project 