Gretchen 'Grae' Gerlach
Rite of Passage Guide. | Living and Dying Human.
Personal Intention
"I am wild. I am whole. I am home. I am genuine."
Professional Intention
"I will work with The Nature in people."
Important Intention
"I believe in Love."
I Will Not Die an Unlived Life
I will not die an unlived life
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance;
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.
– Dawna Markova
My Distillation of Lived Story:
I began growing in Ponderosa forests, near a free river in western Montana. I lived on a Dude Ranch, where, while riding horses, & shooting guns, I befriended hundreds of interesting & exotic people each summer. In the winter, I went to a one-room Schoolhouse with my sister and turned to nature for most of my entertainment and company.
My parents encouraged the "church of the outdoors", ushering me towards nature to seek meaning, purpose, and a very practical feeling of belief and reverence in the spring flowers and the Mama Bears.
There were very few borders between human and nature. The seasons dictated not only our work, but our ways of being and of expression. Our "summer selves" were of course distinct from our "winter selves". This cyclical lifestyle was & is foundational to my personal orientation as well as my understanding and perspective of guiding work especially rites of passage.
"I will work with the Nature in people."
When I was six years old, I declared my life purpose. "I will work with The Nature in people." I remember my word order was corrected by caring teachers. Yet my stubborn confidence in my self- knowing was uninfluenced.
This statement felt as known as my own name. This was my gift, and obviously it should be what I offer the worlds around me. I approached my time in Nature as an apprenticeship and my time with people as purposeful. I became a guide.
This intent statement continues to anchor and direct all of the work that I do.
To Leave Home
Of course, at the mercy of wandering adolescence, before the age of 18 I had to try out many different expressions of being & purpose through my work. I was a cowgirl, a rodeo queen, a wrangler, a thespian, a 80s fashion designer, and a vintage clothing connoisseur.
I left home. Flew East for a fancy college education & quickly capitalized on the opportunity to leave the East coast, and truly learn. I lived & studied in Havana, Cuba and Stockholm, Sweden. Cuba taught me love. Sweden taught me light.
More experiments of expression through my work included; forest-fire fighting, au pairing, tutoring, and writing. And yet, guiding remained my foundation. I was always looking towards Nature for knowledge, and searching for The Nature in the people around me.
Cliffs to Islands with Clear Vision
Post college, I studied cliffs. Climbing vertical walls all across the West, learning about simplicity, fear, and determination. Until an auspicious trifecta of invitations to move to the Big Island of Hawaii & begin guiding Horticultural therapy and Rites of Passage.
Here, our work focused on cultivating and caring for The Nature in young people, through Horticulture and Rites of Passage. I experienced my first Vision Fast. I was asked to answer; "Who are you?" And during a three day & night solo on a trash strewn beach, I saw a clear vision of myself, and claimed my intention. This first Vision Fast would become my annual practice, which to this day helps to root and direct my living.
My experiences on The Island were the seeds of my current career, planted well, in very fertile soil.
In Pursuit of Rites of Passage
Eager for more mentorship within the realm of Rite of Passage, I traveled to the Mainland often. I found Rite of Passage Journeys, and began training with them and guiding 'Coming of Age Rites of Passage' for young women.
A short while later I came to The School of Lost Borders, the 'origin' of the lineage of Rite of Passage that I had learned so far. During my first immersive training with The School, I met my future & life long mentor. I fell in love with the organization, with their work, with their bare-bones style, and with the humans that were full to the brim of their skins with The Nature.
There was no doubt in me that my passion for guiding would be committed to these two organizations.
They provided the community, the values, the integrity and the unwavering belief in Rites of Passage
that I had been eagerly seeking within all of my guiding work.
South East Alaska
Still working as a therapeutic guide for young adults, I followed the Whales from Hawaii north to Wrangell, Alaska. Exchanging tropical horticulture for remote Wilderness Therapy in the Tongass National Forest and the Inland Passage. I worked as an ocean canoeing expedition & therapeutic guide for at-risk Alaskan youth.
Again, I was working with not only The Nature in people, but the truly wild Nature of Southeast Alaska. The ocean. The bears. The cedars . The seals. The ravens. The barnacles. The rain. And the whales. Again, the borders between human and the Nature blurred. In 50 days, place and person held little distinction.
This was a rich and delicious life. Surrounded by wildness, immersed in our own wildness, The Nature in people became freer, more expressive, more authentic to our simple, bold, and instinctual selves. I learned and learned and remembered even more. Here, reciprocity was not an ideal or a theory, but a way of life. Taking care and being given care; an equilibrium.
Desert Lands,Utah
To balance the temperate rain forest of Southeast Alaska, I began a bi-annual migration to dry out in the deserts of Southern Utah. I began working as a guide for an adult Wilderness Therapy organization that also offered Rites of Passage to its clients.
The desert offered a completely different canvass, different mirror, different nature for my guiding work. There is no place to hide in the desert, and so we are seen. While my commute to assisting programs for The School of Lost Borders was much easier here, I longed for The Ceremony to be closer to home.
I began offering annual Vision Fasts to the community of people that I lived with and worked with. Guiding for "intact communities" of people opened doors for the potential rippling influence that Rites of Passage can have. What happens if we not only remember these practices, but relocate them, integrate them within whole communities, not just individuals?
Fathoms Alaska
In 2022 the Alaskan Wilderness Therapy organization I worked for was closed. The loss of this work, this landscape, this expression of my purpose and my nature at first ignited intense grief. And then eventually, motivation.
Joining hearts and minds with three co-guides I am helping to create Fathoms Alaska LLC. This business, newly born, will be the future canvass for my passion and purpose to intersect with the wildest nature I've ever known..... Stay tuned!
Homing, Montana
While my Wilderness Therapy guiding provided me with the foundation to work with people in an informed and supportive way, my true work continues to grow towards Rites of Passage. In the past few years I helped to co-create Crone Collective, a business focused on providing Rites of Passage and Ceremony experiences to communities of women+. I stepped into a more frequent Guiding seat with The School of Lost Borders, began designing more programs for Rite of Passage Journeys and I birthed Naetura Cara.
As my own work finds its roots and its true home so too does The Nature around me and within me. Back in the lower 48, I felt a massive pull to Home. And so, to Home, I went. Landing back in western Montana for the first time since high school. I was given the opportunity to steward a family property and moved into a log home that my Grandpa Honey and Grandma Mary built. I'm slowly introducing myself to this land, day by day learning and absorbing its way of being.
So, here I live, in a Ponderosa forest, near a free river, 65 miles and 25 years downstream from The Nature that grew my childhood self, and the declaration of my life purpose.
Naetura Cara
Naetura Cara, a true expression of my self and my purpose, opens space for me to diversify my guiding. I am able to work 1:1 with folks, to engage in collaborations with other organizations and practitioners, to offering training to groups, and to help seed & consult other Rite of Passage guides to create their own programs and projects.
An important note on my approach; while guiding work, especially in the realm of Rites of Passage & Ceremony can be very ethereal, sacred & spiritual, it can also be gloriously profane! I believe we need both in this world. We need the light and the dark to shape our wholeness. We need to be allowed to suspend our disbelief, and to trust our own wild knowing. This shit is real, and I approach it with utmost respect, curiosity, and childlike grin!!
I am fully in love with my work. I am dedicated & committed to its value. I am eager to share it with people.
Story Bones; Biographical Facts & Resume of Experience
Formal Education
Work Experience
Trainings and Certifications
Specific Areas of Focus
In Acknowledgement To my
Mentors In this Life & In this Work.
My Mama Elizabeth
For growing me within nature. For thousands of miles in the woods. For my true essence. For my daughterhood.
Petra Lentz Snow
For believing in my bones, in my story, in my dedication to this work. For companion-ing me at the edge of my living. For inviting me to sit in assistance, in co-guide in life together.
Jeri Sparshu
For being my brother. For allowing me to call my self an apprentice. for introducing me to metal. For the portal. For nettle soup and kitchen table talks.
Mike Green
For partnering any and all of this. For witnessing me. For kindness. For patience. For cultivating our love, nourishing our roots, creating home in each other.
Rachelle Ballard
For being genuine. For expecting genuine. For cultivating genuine. For co-creating on the fly. For living like a river. For walking in the woods with me.
Annie Wiesenberg
For infinite inspiration and belief.
For friendship. For trusting me.
For your light. For your song.
Kim Belair
For co-guiding. For Co-creating. For so much co-ing! For pulling back the veil around dreams. For teaching me drops of botanical medicine. For witnessing.
Morgan Starr Resities
My Anam Cara. For everything that entails. For hundreds of hours in canoes. For seeing with me and through me. Through seven centers.
Sterling Broomfield
For being you. For being me sometimes. For accepting every ounce and smell of my soul. For Hafiz. For Mars. For the Derby. For love.
Clement Wilson
For being the very first person to encourage my pursuit of rites of passage guidance. For teaching me about the third door. For the song at my severance fire.
Darcey Ottey
For guiding my first fast. For a mirror that is still crystal clear. for my first guide seats. For a year of mentorship. For being my buddy. for writing an incredible book in honor of this work.
Wild Lands & Big Nature
For being my ongoing teacher and my mirror. For holding all the wisdom I could ever seek. For nourishing my soul. For truly teaching me all I know and will ever need. For the MIrror.
Know you want to get in contact?
Wonderful! Head over to my contact page! If you are new to the work you can schedule a call or send an inquiry email!
