The Soulcraft Intensive
Kangaroo Valley, NSW, Feb 4 - 8, 2025
An Animas Valley Institute event
Artwork by Doug Van Houten
A residential, face to face, fully catered intensive held at Chakola wildlife refuge and conservation area in Kangaroo Valley, Southern NSW.
Program Pricing (Soulcraft ANZ Inc is a not for profit volunteer organisation):
Early Bird: $1,595 - to be paid in full upfront at registration
Full Price: $1,795 - with a $500 minimum deposit to hold your place - paid in full by January 4, 2025.
Concession: $1,495 - A current concession card is required.
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 utilised in group, practices explored in solitude in nature, and sharing and deepening those experiences.
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 and many others!
Venue:
Chakola is a 32ha wildlife refuge and conservation area on the tribal lands of the Wodi-Wodi people in Kangaroo Valley NSW. The property adjoins the Kangaroo River which can be accessed for swimming. It is 2½ hours drive from Sydney or Canberra. Nowra, Berry and the Princes Highway are 25 minutes away over Cambewarra Mountain, while Bowral, Mittagong, Moss Vale and the Hume Highway are 45 minutes away via the beautiful Fitzroy Falls.
Guides:
Doug Van Houten: Doug draws on the wisdom of the natural world, depth-psychology, eco-psychology, dreams, somatic knowing, poetry, and many pan-cultural, soul furthering practices that include: The Way of Council, vision fasting, shadow work, symbolic artwork, trance dancing and conversations with the more than human world. Doug’s true calling in life is to support others as they uncover their own unique gifts and in so doing, transform their lives in service to what Thomas Berry called ”The Great Work” of our times. Doug is also an ardent beekeeper, a visual artist, a wily wanderer, a dream tracker, an emergent ceremonialist, a heart-centered activist, and a yogi and a dancer interested in new forms of somatic practice.
Rebecca Wildbear MS: 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. Rebecca has been a wilderness and soul guide for decades and has spent most of her adult life in wild places. She 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 fiercely supports radical social and cultural change. Rebecca often guides alongside her canine muse-beloved, Xander, who is guide to love, joy, presence, and play.
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:
There is dormitory accommodation in shared bunk rooms or camping if preferred.