Soulcraft Musings

Today, January 20, 2017, we inaugurate Soulcraft Musings, a new offering from Animas Valley Institute (see below). This is the same day America inaugurates a new president, a cultural upheaval currently mobilizing thousands of response teams worldwide. On this day we commence our humble project of Soulcraft Musings in support of the deepening, diversification, and flourishing of all life. At this time in the world, may we all inaugurate actions and projects that collectively give birth to a life-enhancing society.

The journey of descent to soul has largely been forgotten in mainstream culture, but there is nothing more essential in the world today. The experiential encounter with soul is the key element in the initiatory journey that culminates in true adulthood. And true adults — visionary artisans — are the generators of the most creative and effective actions in defense of all life and in the renaissance and evolution of generative human cultures.

The encounter with soul is not a weekend workshop but an unfolding journey over many months or years. Harvesting its fruit and feeding the world with its bounty plays out over the rest of one’s life. Every day holds opportunities for each of us to prepare for the journey to the underworld of soul, or, once we have embarked upon the journey, to take our next steps, or to gather its mystical treasures and hone them into practical shapes, or to fashion never-before-seen delivery systems for carrying these gifts to the Earth community.

We, at Animas Valley Institute, would like to gift you with this weekly email of trail markers (cairns) on the journey to soul. These Soulcraft Musings, although each only a couple minutes of reading, will be, we trust, valuable guidelines and support on your journey. Each includes references for further reading, study, and practice. And each features a resonant image and poem.

The central theme that ties together all the Musings is, of course, soul and the human encounter with soul. But even the original depth meaning of the word soul has been lost to the modern mind. What we at Animas mean when we speak or write about soul is not what you’ll find in contemporary religious, spiritual, philosophical, or psychological traditions or in everyday conversation. We’ll explore these and many other fundamentals and principles in Soulcraft Musings.

If you’re already on our list, you’ll receive an email with a Soulcraft Musing once a week. If you’re not on our list and would like to subscribe, please click here.

And please feel free to share Soulcraft Musings widely with friends, family, and colleagues.

In wildness and wonder,

Bill Plotkin

Founder

Animas Valley Institute

View Previous Musings

Being Ceremony

Friday, November 28, 2025

It is like this.

You awake before dawn,

hearing yourself called into the night.

Owl calls softly

from a distant hill,

and overhead it is still crowded

with dancing lights.

You walk,

following a different compass,

toward and past sounds

that might have frightened you

at the start of the night.

You are the arrow.

The needle swings around.

Owl moves closer as you walk,

passing to you to carry, the secret

that he has flown with through the night.

As your feet move, you find yourself singing

the trees’ song back to them.

In the east, you and Venus

wait for the sun,

while across the sky Orion

herds the last of his flock

beyond the horizon.

Long ago you gave up trying to understand

and “why” disappeared from your vocabulary,

to be replaced

with “yes”.

Your offering pouch

would mysteriously fall empty,

leaving you only

with the fluid of your body

and your breath.

Unencumbered so,

you became the offering

that never fell empty,

that never ran dry.

You step into the golden light

setting golden grass aflame,

and notice that you have been

wandering so long

that lichen streams from your body.

You might be another oak

as you sit and wait,

you might take root

set seed.

You don’t know

what will be asked of you next,

and are untroubled by that.

The word holy

sings to you on the rising breeze

and you weep.

Your tears fall as offerings

that cannot be undone.

—Peter Fonken

To read previous musings click here.