Silvia Talavera ~ School of Lost Borders

“Nature reflects our own nature. We only have to sit quietly, to listen and ask and open up to a new communion and communication with something bigger than ourselves, and realise that nature is reflecting our own nature” ~ Silvia Talavera

In this interview Israh meets wilderness guide, teacher and elder Silvia Talavera. Silvia has been working as a guide for the School of Lost Borders since 1993 and is currently focussing on creating vision quest programmes for women elders.

Silvia speaks about her experiences of vision fasting - both her own and guiding a vision fast for others - and the gifts that await us if we step out into the wilderness alone and listen. She shares stories of her own initiatory rites of passage, and speaks about the need for such ceremonies and processes in our world today. Silvia shares her wisdom as an elder, speaking about what she wished she had been shown as a young woman with menopause and elderhood ahead of her, and how she has prepared her own daughter for the different stages of womanhood.

Together Israh and Silvia discuss initiatory rites of passage for young people; the role for parents, the elements that make up a rite of passage, and the implications of gender and genderlessness. They speak about bringing the youth and the elders back together to learn from and support each other, and what can be done to bring young women into intuitive awareness of their bodies. 

“Our children are out there flailing, youth are out there flailing, longing for direction, longing for the wisdom of the elders. I have heard that in circle many times. They need guidance. To bridge the gap of the passion and genius of the youngsters with the compassion and lived experience of the elders. It is brilliant - they love it, they long for it” ~ Silvia Talavera

Silvia Talavera has been a guide and teacher for The School of Lost Borders since 1993. She is a woman of versatility, passion, and humor. She brings to her work a nurturing insight and deep compassion. She has been working as a nurse since 1979 and began her career in hospice in 2003, supporting end of life care both at the bedside and as a community educator. She volunteers for the hospice bereavement program and incorporates Reiki in her nursing practice.

Silvia has taken her place in the rich flow of elderhood where she finds a new passion in creating programs for elders (currently for women) through the The School’s Beyond Borders program.

Silvia Talavera, second from left, with Israh Goodall, Miriam Jones and Betsy Perluss, working together in Death Valley on the 2018 Women’s Vision Quest, School of Lost Borders.