The Way of Council and the Art of Mirroring
Nov 6-10, 2024
An Animas Valley Institute event
A residential, face to face, fully catered intensive held at Raven’s Nest camping retreat centre at Venus Bay in Victoria - 2 hours south east of Melbourne.
Program Fees - Soulcraft ANZ is a not for profit, volunteer association:
Early Bird: $1,495 (paid in full at registration - there are 10 early bird places available)
Full Price: $1,650 - with a $500 minimum deposit to hold your place - (paid in full by October 24, 2024).
Concession: $1,295 limited places available - with a $500 minimum deposit to hold your place (paid in full by October 24, 2024).
We encourage you to pay the full price if you have the means to do so. This will enable us to cover costs and offer concessional places to those in need. If you are challenged financially, please contact us to discuss.
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 in council can make all the difference in finding our way. In the mirror of another, our eyes are opened to aspects of both our gifts and our challenges that we might not have seen otherwise. We are encouraged and inspired to drop into realms that are scary, edgy, darkly alluring, mysterious, and ecstatic — dangerous, yes, but keenly aligned with our deepest longings.
Council and Mirroring can crack us open to irrefutable truths about our core nature and our connection to the Others, the larger field in which our councils occur.
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 honouring each other’s 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.
During council and through mirroring, we serve as consorts for each other’s mysteries. We are supported to track threads of our soul story that, during the intensive or later, can be amplified as we wander on the land or surrender ourselves to movement or dance, or expressed through poetry or other arts.
During council, we track synchronicities with the other-than-human world that surrounds us (animal appearances, for example, or weather shifts, or the quality of the light). And we unearth common archetypal themes that appear within our own human circle. All this helps us better perceive the threads of our individual soul stories and our unique ways of belonging to the world.
Through the Art of Mirroring, we learn to listen as if our lives depend on it (they do). We hone our ability to detect the magnificence and mythic qualities in our own and others’ stories. We listen for unique soul threads that might appear in a repeated theme, a tone, aspects of sacred woundings, dreams, unique imagery, archetypal dimensions of the journey, or tracks of shadow material.
A circle of fellow pilgrims, witnessing and mirroring us, helps us understand where we are on the journey to soul and supports us to take our next steps — from our initial preparation for the descent, to the leaving of “home” and the courageous abandonment of our old story, to our hazardous and ecstatic encounters with numinous mysteries, to the gathering up of mysterious treasures, and, finally, the return to our communities with a vision to perform in service to the larger web of life.
Venue:
Raven’s Nest retreat centre is located in beautiful Venus Bay (Bunurong & Gunai Country) on the South Eastern Victoria coast - 2 hours from Melbourne. It offers 14 acres of private & wild Eucalyptus and Tea Tree bushland, camp sites and sand dunes. Situated along the Tarwin River estuary, it has direct access to tidal beaches, an expansive inlet, with walking tracks to a national park, ocean beach and wild bush.
Your Guides:
Brian Stafford: Brian 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 humour, 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 paediatrics, he is currently a guide, Board Member, and Training Director of the Wild Mind Training Program at Animas. He is also an adjunct faculty member at Pacifica Graduate Institute, as well as an expert in psychedelic preparation and integration. He is an avid outdoorsman, teacher, writer, mentor, partner, and parent. He delights in helping individuals rewild and ensoul their lives by assisting in the dissolution of their current life so that they may discover and live from their deeper life, their soul-life. Brian currently makes his home in Ojai, California.
Laura Gunion : Laura believes that humans have tremendous potential, much of it hidden and unconscious. As a mentor, wilderness guide and naturalist, it is both her privilege and responsibility to support others as they encounter their true nature. She feels it’s essential that we grow, not only for ourselves, but also to create cultures that will benefit future generations. She insists on bringing the soulful and sacred into daily living. Her curiosity, acute listening, and precise questioning support people in living boldly and courageously. Laura has been a mentor at Wilderness Awareness School since 2002, and continues to love instructing at their 9-month adult program, Anake Outdoor School. She lives in the woods above Duvall, Washington where she shares land with Bewick’s Wren, black bear, and many other wild ones.
Food and Accommodation:
The program is fully catered, providing hearty vegetarian food. We will pass on any dietary restrictions advised by you at registration. If you have not already let us know of any dietary restrictions that apply to you, please forward to us as soon as possible.
Lodgings and bedding requirements:
This is an all-camping program. Participants are responsible for bringing their own personal camping equipment, and for personal transportation to and from the program. Campers will have access to bush showers.
More info here