This is Animus Valley Institute's popular five-day experiential plunge into the wild depths of Soulcraft; a synergistic set of nature-based practices designed to evoke the life-shifting experience of soul encounter. Your soul is your true self, those qualities that most deeply define and express who you are and the unique gift that you were born to bring to the world, a world so much in need of the socially transforming contributions of initiated, actively engaged adults. To encounter the soul is to discover the mystical image you were born with, which reveals the path to your greatest personal fulfillment as well as the essence of your true service to society (the cross-cultural wisdom traditions say these are one and the same). Soulcraft practices spring from nature-based cultures, modern depth psychology, the poetic tradition, and wilderness rites of passage—to comprise a truly contemporary Western path to soul discovery and soul initiation. For a full discussion, see Bill Plotkin's book Soulcraft: Crossing Into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche.
The Soulcraft Intensive is highly experiential and—well—intense. We alternate between practices utilized in group, practices explored in solitude in nature, and sharing and deepening those experiences in small groups (5 to 9 people each). There is a Soulcraft guide for each small group, providing you with a fully individualized experience. What you discover through one practice is carried into and amplified by what you learn in the next. By the end of the intensive, you will understand yourself and your place in the world from a more soul-oriented perspective, be clearer about the gifts you were born to bring to the world, and have new skills to enrich your life and to defend the health of the more-than-human world.
The Soulcraft Intensives are held on the edge of wilderness at exceptional retreat centers throughout the United States and Europe. This is the first time that Animus Valley Institute is offering this retreat at Rolling Ridge.
Soulcraft practices include:
- Soulcentric Dreamwork
- Deep Imagery Work with Animal Guides
- Talking Across the Species Boundaries
- The Way of Council
- Soul Tasks in Nature
- Self-Designed Ceremony
- Shadow Work
- Soul Poetry
- Sacred Wound Work
- Synchronicities: Working with Nature's Signs and Omens
- Befriending the Dark
- Ecstatic Trance Drumming and Dancing
- many others!
Guide Fee: $595. Lodging and Food: $350 - private room, $300 shared room, $250 tent camping.
Animus Guide: Gene Dilworth. Gene is dedicated to the project of rewilding the human spirit as an essential dimension of being fully alive in these times. By nurturing meaningful relationship with the more-than-human world and facilitating deep inquiry into the mystery of one's true nature, Gene supports individuals to discover, re-member and live from the center of their soul-rooted sense of belonging to the world. With degrees in ecology and ecopsychology, Gene has been guiding groups and individuals in transformative nature-based experiences since 1986. In addition to guiding, he teaches and mentors graduate students at Naropa University and Prescott College, and has served in a variety of administrative and leadership roles in environmental and educational organizations. Gene lives with his daughter in Boulder, Colorado, and nurtures his own sense of wildness and wonder by exploring the Rocky Mountain foothills near his home.
Registration will be through Animus Valley Institute. There is a limited enrollment of 16 people. We are now pre-registering people who would like to do this special work. For more information, contact Bob Sabath at 202.531.7572 or community@rollingridge.net