Deep Imaginal, Soulcraft and the Reanimation of the World - New Zealand
November 20-24, 2024
An Animas Valley Institute event
Deep Imaginal, Soulcraft and the Reanimation of the World: This is an advanced immersion, suitable only for those who have previously encountered hints (or full blasts) of soul, and who are resourced enough with their four facets of wholeness to wander more deeply into the world.
This program will be guided by AVI founder Bill Plotkin, Brian Stafford MD MPH and Laura Gunion with 4 to 6 Soulcraft Apprenticeship and Initiation Program (SAIP) apprentices. It will be held in the Motueka Region of New Zealand’s South Island. There are only 16 places available.
Program Fee - NZ$ 1,425-$NZ 1,725 - register your interest below at The Centre for the Great Turning NZ.
A shifting, leafy canopy casts green shadows on the forest floor. A creature appears: tall and upright, hair braided, body draped in earth fibers and verdant silks, human-like but not tame. She turns your way and perhaps you shudder, recognizing that she may know you better than you do. The trees lean in, listening.
The exuberant, inter-species conversations that animate our planet are nearby – very near – as is the mysterious terrain of soul, where we might encounter strange, alluring, cryptic, unbidden images, creatures, or impressions. Deep imagination is a portal to the terra mysterium of soul and to the wrenchingly alive, sentient, ensouled world. Recovering our innate awareness of an intelligent Earth (populated with both seen and unseen presences) and reclaiming our relationship with our deep imagination not only re-enliven us as individuals but also erode the outworn Western worldview of a meaningless, disenchanted universe, a worldview upon which life-assailing business-as-usual depends. Discovering or deepening a relationship with soul can serve as a compass to guide us as we learn to reinhabit a wildly alive, participatory Earth and Cosmos.
In this immersion, we offer inter-connected, multi-layered experiential practices – including deep imagery journeys, dreamwork, solo wanderings on the land, stream-of-consciousness writing, conversations with other-than-human beings, and poetry – that shift our consciousness toward the depths, toward the wilder, mythopoetic current that streams beneath everything else. There is a significant difference between intellectually recognizing that Earth is alive versus directly experiencing an ensouled world. Experiences of participatory relationship re-shape the ways we enact our lives. Through the wild window of deep imagination, we might experience the soul of the world – in all its dimensions, textures, hues, and wild voices – in intimate relationship with our mysterious human soul, which is the psychospiritual – or mythopoetic – niche that each of us uniquely occupies in the larger community of Earth/ Cosmos.
This is an advanced immersion, suitable only for those who have previously encountered hints (or full blasts) of soul, and who are resourced enough with their four facets of wholeness to wander more deeply into the world. Your completion of an application is requested and is due no later than August 4.
Last to note here: This will be an especially potent intensive in that, in addition to having three Animas guides, it will also be a training experience for 4 to 6 of our apprentices in our Soulcraft Apprenticeship and Initiation Program (SAIP). Plus, the number of participants will be limited to no more than 16. So, the guide to participant ratio will be much higher than we are usually able to offer. Buckle up. On second thought, don’t. But do apply, please, before August 4.
Your Guides:
Bill Plotkin: Bill Plotkin, Ph.D., is a depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and agent of cultural evolution. As founder of the Animas Valley Institute in 1981, he has guided thousands of women and men through nature-based initiatory passages, including a contemporary, Western adaptation of the pan-cultural vision fast. Previously, he has been a research psychologist (studying non-ordinary states of consciousness), professor of psychology, psychotherapist, rock musician, and whitewater river guide. In 1979, on a solo winter ascent of an Adirondack peak, Bill experienced a call to adventure, leading him to abandon academia in search of his true calling.
Bill is the author of Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche (an experiential guidebook), Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World (a nature-based stage model of human development through the entire lifespan), Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche (an ecocentric map of the psyche — for healing, growing whole, and cultural transformation), and The Journey of Soul Initiation: A Field Guide for Visionaries, Evolutionaries, and Revolutionaries (an experiential guidebook for the descent to soul). He has a doctorate in psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
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.
More info here