Kent Dobson

Kent Dobson is a defender of the ancient and hidden ways of relating to the ordinary mysteries of being alive.  He’s committed to helping others listen to the poetry of their own way of being and the potentialities latent in the contours of the heart.  He’s fascinated by the ways myth and symbol arise spontaneously from the psyche in wildly personal ways and in recognizable patterns that cross time and culture.  He’s a student of the evolving conversation around the sacred masculine and the sacred feminine.  He was lucky enough to grow up in the woods of Virginia, among the hills and streams, as the son of Irish immigrants.  He studied English in college and went to graduate school in Jerusalem, where he still leads pilgrimages.  He’s a former minister and musician, an author and podcaster, dream tender and companion-guide for individuals, and a trouble-maker for his own group wilderness intensives.  Based in Michigan for many years, he’s now settling into his new home in rural Georgia with his wife and kids, among pines and ferns and extended family.

Events with Kent Dobson

Online Introduction to Soulcraft - March, 2025
March 28 - 30, 2025

There is a great longing in each one of us — a longing to uncover the secrets and mysteries of our individual lives, to find the unique gift we were born to bring to our communities, and to experience our full membership in the more-than-human world. This journey to soul is a descent into layers of the self much deeper than personality, a journey quite distinct from the transcendence aspired to in many eastern spiritual disciplines. In the contemporary Western world, we live as if the spiritual descent is no longer necessary or with no awareness that such a journey…

The Way of Council and the Art of Mirroring – April, 2025
April 14 - 18, 2025

THE ART OF MIRRORING: There is an art to hearing a story as well as telling one. Mirroring is a collection of skills employed in receiving, embracing, and honoring each others’ stories. In mirroring, we neither project nor interpret but rather celebrate the magic of the story and the gifts of the One Who Bears the Tale. We help the storyteller glean-harvest-reap the jewels, the dark ones as well as those that sparkle. The Way of Council and the Art of Mirroring are invaluable practices on the descent to soul. Although much of the descent is solitary, gathering with others…

Wild Mind Intensive - April, 2025
April 30 - May 4, 2025

Based on Bill Plotkin’s book, Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche, this 5-day intensive is an experiential exploration of our human psyches as unique expressions of the universal forces and patterns of nature. We will work with what we call the Nature-Based Map of the Human Psyche, which is, among other things, a comprehensive inventory of what can be right about a person, a “shadow” version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), mainstream psychology’s list of what can go wrong with people. Our wild minds possess astonishing resources, untapped potentials and depths that we might not even know exist until we…

Soulcraft Intensive, May 2025
May 24 - 28, 2025

The Soulcraft Intensive is our 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…

Soulcraft Intensive – June, 2025
June 25 - 29, 2025

The Soulcraft Intensive is our 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…

An Animas Quest in the Rocky Mountain High Country – August 2025
August 13 - 24, 2025

This is an All Camping & Backpacking Quest. This contemporary Western embodiment of the ancient, pan-cultural vision fast is a dynamic wilderness rite for men and women seeking greater depth and clarity about life purpose and meaning. As a rite of initiation, the quest is a ceremonial descent to the underworld, in which you die to your familiar way of belonging to the world, uncover the passion and wisdom of your soul, and retrieve the gift that is yours alone to bring to the world, enhancing personal fulfillment and genuine service. The Animas Quest catalyzes the encounter with soul by…