Soulcraft Intensive for Earth Activists – June, 2022
June 29 - July 3, 2022
With Rebecca Wildbear, M.S. and John Lynch, Art.D.
Humans are responsible for global ecological devastation. Consequently, it is up to humans to fight for protection of Earth’s life-systems from ourselves. Yet, the cost of such efforts include profound stress and despair. By including the cultivation of our inner psychological ecology through nature-based soul-centric practices, Earth activists can foster greater resiliency and vision in their mission to protect the physical ecology. The root cause of environmental catastrophes stem from pathological cultures. Healthy, mature cultures emerge from the combined depths of our psyches and the Earth’s imagination, acting through us. The revolutionary potential of our dreams, visions, and encounters with the more-than-human world offer us the potential to support the planet by being in a co-creative partnership with the Earth.
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 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.
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!
We are glad to consider folks who want to be earth activists, even if they have not done that much so far!
BELL MEADOW FARM
Bell Meadow Farm comprises 480 acres of traditional Ute territory which was homesteaded in 1878 by the Kruetzer family. Their son was born on this land and became the first Forest Ranger in the United States. With this history, the land has been designated a Douglas County Historic Landmark. The land is surrounded by the Pike National Forest and is part of the headwaters of Indian Creek. It is protected by a conservation easement and hosts beautiful Aspen groves and conifer forests with multiple boulder formations of spiritual significance. Multiple herds of elk who are attracted to the wallows in the meadows. The land is also home to a colony of prairie dogs who were rescued from a development site in Castle Rock. Many other species also call this place home including bobcats, golden eagles, coyotes, hawks, owls and other rodents.
Guides
Rebecca is the author of Wild Yoga: A Practice of Initiation, Veneration & Advocacy for the Earth and has offered Wild Yoga™ programs since 2007. She guides people to listen to the mysteries within nature and their bodies and dreams so they can belong to and serve the Earth community. She has been a wilderness and soul guide for decades and has spent most of her adult life in wild places. Rebecca has extensive somatic therapy and dreamwork training and loves to tune in to the mythic stories of humans and the animate world. An Earth lover, activist, feminist, and writer, she…
Learn more about Rebecca Wildbear, M.S.
John is a university professor, where he weaves eco-centric experiences and perspectives into his offerings. He has degrees in outdoor education & leadership, sustainable communities, and ecopsychology & environmental humanities. A Sower of soulful seeds, John maintains heartfelt support towards fellow seekers negotiating the wild terrain of possibilities waiting within all of us. In addition to his work at Animas Valley Institute, he has training and certifications in gestalt practices and dialogical processing. John is an avid adventurer of wild places, professional outdoor educator, musician, wilderness guide and local initiator of soulful practices in his northern Arizona community. Above all…
Learn more about John Lynch, Art.D.