A Wild Passage – August, 2025
August 10 - 16, 2025
With Brian Stafford, MD, MPH and John Lynch, Art.D.
This is both foundational and adventurous. Remember, life is a wild adventure. and this program is a great starter to rewild one’s life. Many, if not most of us humans, have been domesticated and indoctrinated by homes, schools, churches, and offices – we’ve lost our wildness. We have forgotten that our primary place of belonging is the Earth community. This program is a step back into wildness, a pilgrimage into wild places, and an awakening from our anthropo-centric slumber.
We will venture into wildish places leaving our previous identities behind. We will engage in conversation with each other, but in a sacred circle. We will engage in conversation with the wild ones (damselfly, raven, river, bobcat) whose ecosystem we are stepping into. We will engage in conversation with long-forgotten aspects of ourselves – our muse, our wild self, and our innocent child. We will converse with the sun, the moon, the stars, the rain, and the ancestors.
Various practices that open us up to our senses, our wild connection with Earth, and the imagination, will help us re-enter the magic of our lives. We will engage in Wild Mind, Eco-Awakening, and Soulcraft practices, such as council, talking across the species boundaries, deep imagery, eco-poetry, dance and other embodied movement, and soulcentric dreamwork.
The culmination of this journey is a 24-36 hour wilderness solo where you might be welcomed homed by Earth, heal your rift from the wild, and propel you into the joy of what it is to discover the sacredness of the Earth and the Self, and the grief of what is happening to Earth, her species, and our people.
The guides will help you track patterns of awakening and protection, from your dreams and wild conversations. They will offer you group and uniquely crafted invitations for your solo. A particular self-designed ceremony on the solo will likely deepen your connection with Earth and awaken you to the sacredness of everything.
When you return from this wild awakening, you won’t likely desire to go back to the old Self. You might feel the urgency of the times. You might know that, as the poet Mary Oliver says, “It was late enough.”
This intensive is designed for those called to rewild their Self and the world, for the ones who are curious about what the Earth really is, and about who they really are. It is also a great step into the wild and for those who have spent little time in nature, a great precursor to most of our deeper programs and the Animas Quest.
HAT RANCH, NORTHERN ARIZONA
The ranch is encircled by Kaibab National Forest and is nestled between ponderosa pine forest and piñon-juniper woodland. The land’s rich history of human use dates back to pre-Columbian times, making it a unique site to examine human impact on the environment. The ranch is a social-ecological focal point that both exemplifies and reflects a powerful meld of the past and the future.
Guides
Brian Stafford is a guide to the wilderness of nature, wildness, and soul. Called out of academic medicine to serve as a guide to the depths and to serve as an agent of cultural awakening and transformation, he guides with humor, playfulness, fierceness, compassion, discernment, and a deep remembering of the fullness of what each human life can, should, and was meant to be. A native of Colorado and the former holder of an endowed chair and professor of psychiatry and pediatrics, he is currently a guide, Board Member, and Training Director of the Wild Mind Training Program at Animas. He…
Learn more about Brian Stafford, MD, MPH
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.