Podcasts about animas valley institute

On the 126th episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast, I'm delighted to welcome our guest, Geneen Marie Haugen, PhD. Geneen grew up a little wild, with a run amok imagination, and has lived at the wild edge for most of her life. Once upon a time, she was a whitewater river guide and a tipi dweller who loved knowing that only thin canvas separated her from the the world. In her wild wanderings, she's been amazed to have had dozens or maybe hundreds of close encounters with creatures such as moose, elk, grizzlies, wolves, black bears, cougars, bison, and more. For her, the sulpher-scented hot springs of Yellowstone smell like home. A content creator and guide to the intertwined mysteries of nature and psyche with the Animas Valley Institute, she has been on the faculty of the Esalen Institute and Schumacher College. Her writing has appeared in Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth; Thomas Berry: Dreamer of the Earth; Parabola; Kosmos Journal; Ecopsychology; The Artist's Field Guide to Yellowstone, and many others. She believes in the world-shifting potential of the human imagination allied with the planetary psyche.In this glorious conversation, we explore the nature of reality and the role of imagination in shaping it. We discuss the current suppression of imagination, the vast possibilities that remain, and how imagination has profoundly influenced Geneen's life. She shares captivating stories of connection with the world around us and moments of shimmering aliveness.This conversation is a powerful invitation back to our imaginations—to a world rich with possibility, connection, and aliveness.To find more of Geneen Marie Haugen's work:Wild Pilgrimage Essay: https://starborne.substack.com/p/wild-pilgrimageAnimas Valley Institute Guide: https://www.animas.org/guides/22/geneen-marie-haugen-ph-d/Kosmos Journal: https://www.kosmosjournal.org/kj_article/reemergence-of-animate-world-experiences/ Perceptual Portal: https://greatturning.net/perceptual-portal-by-geneen-marie-haugen/Wild Imagination: https://www.dailygood.org/story/2359/wild-imagination-geneen-marie-haugen/Participatory Consciousness: https://participatorystudies.wordpress.com/2011/04/16/thomas-berry-and-the-evocation-of-participatory-consciousness/ Contact me at mark@whatisagood.life if you'd like to explore your own lines of self-inquiry through 1-on-1 coaching, take part in my 5-week What is a Good Life? group courses, discuss ways to stimulate greater trust, communication, and connection, amongst your leadership teams, or you simply want to get in touch.- For the What is a Good Life? podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/- Exploring one-on-one coaching: https://www.whatisagood.life/p/one-on-one-coaching- What is a Good Life? Course: https://www.whatisagood.life/p/the-what-is-a-good-life-course00:00 What is the nature of reality?05:45 Our childhood connection to imagination09:50 A sense of shimmering aliveness15:00 Awareness of intelligent presence in others19:45 Why are we here? 25:45 The disturbance and suppressing of our imagination30:00 Disconnection with our imagination35:45 Imagination shaping a life39:55 Imagination as a way of knowing the world44:00 A magical experience of nature speaking 50:00 Being in states where our imaginations are activated56:55 The source of our ideas and possibility1:01:45 Summary and what is a good life for Geneen?

Stephanie MacKay is the founder of Myth Club and is co-founder and Director of Fianna Wilderness School. She specializes in ancestral knowledge, earth-based skills, ceremony and myth. Stephanie has a degree in literature, which has been enriched by over 15 years of transformative practice and study. She has delved deep into the realms of myth and initiation through trainings with Animas Valley Institute, Haven Institute, Wilderness Awareness School, and over a decade of study with Martín Prechtel. Her work is deeply informed by the time she spent in Alberta collaborating with Blackfoot and Métis elders as a part of the Rediscovery Initiative. She has held the role of senior guide and director at nature-based organizations across Western Canada. Stephanie is dedicated to uncovering the vestiges of intact cultural origins within the body of old European mythologies. Drawing from the wellspring of these old mythologies, she seeks to uncover the hidden pathways that lead us to our cultural origins—reviving traditions long forgotten and holding space for the rehydration of ancestral wisdom.www.stephaniemackay.caVisit Middle Earth Medicine where you can join our community membership for deeper soul explorations: https://middleearthmedicine.com/mem-community/ , learn more and connect with Caroline.Your donations directly fuel the growth of this podcast! They allow Caroline to bring in even more wonderful teachers and inspiring guests and expand her reach to uplift more listeners. Please show your support and become part of the magic! Donations of any amount are deeply appreciated. You can make a secure donation through PayPal using this link paypal.me/carolinecarey60  Thank you for listening to this podcast, let's spread the word together to support the embodiment of soul, to reclaim our spirituality and to remember a broken innocence, a reclaiming of soul and our life force. Gratitude to you all https://plus.acast.com/s/how-to-find-our-soul-purpose. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Watch this episode on YouTube.I've loved recording all the podcast episodes I've done so far. But I have to say, this one left me feeling incredibly alive.Rebecca Wildbear is a Senior Soul Guide at the Animas Valley Institute, a psychotherapist, and the founder and creator of Wild Yoga, an organization that leads programs and retreats to help people connect with their bodies, dreams, and wild nature as gateways to creating soulful impact. Rebecca is also the author of the book Wild Yoga.Rebecca and I first met over 10 years ago, when she guided me on my very first vision quest. We reconnected 7 years later when I went back to Animas for a quest guiding apprenticeship, in which Rebecca and I guided a group of 10 questers in the same desert canyon where I'd quested with her 7 years before. I then convinced her to be my co-guide on the first couple of quests that I offered through Soulful Impact. She's a close mentor and a dear friend.In this conversation, Rebecca and I discuss how to build and deepen our connection to soul through the relationships we create with several very potent portals and gateways to soul, including:* Wild nature* Dreams* Our bodies* Our hearts* Our traumaTurns out that as human beings, we all come fully equipped with “soul hardware.” Meaning that we innately have everything we need to establish a profoundly deep, expansive, and powerful connection to soul. We don't need anything outside of ourselves and our own natural wholeness to illuminate our life's highest purpose and bring us fully alive.But in our modern day culture, we've distanced ourselves from the knowledge and understanding of how to put that God-given hardware to good use. The necessary skills are still out there and available to all of us, but thanks to centuries of censorship and oppression, we have lost the cultural infrastructure that could guarantee we all learn these things.The good news is that we are the lucky souls who get to turn this trend around. We get to remember and rediscover these ancient, deeply human pathways for ourselves, and then share them with others. We get to rebuild a new cultural fabric that is deeply rooted in soul and sings in harmony with the benefits of modern life.This conversation with Rebecca is a roadmap to that future, one human being and one human soul at a time.I hope you enjoy it!--- Links & Resources ---* Follow Brooks on YouTube, Instagram, or LinkedIn* Soulful Impact: soulfulimpact.co* Rebecca's website: rebeccawildbear.com* Follow Rebecca on YouTube, Instagram or Substack* Wild Yoga Book* Check out Rebecca's TedX Talk: The Visionary Power of Dreams & NatureGet newsletter updates & future episodes delivered to your inbox: Subscribe to Soulful Impact on Substack Get full access to Soulful Impact at www.soulfulimpact.blog/subscribe

(Conversation recorded on September 16th, 2024)    Where have all the elders gone? As the world grapples with its unfolding economic and energy crises, it can often feel like we lack capable guides to help our societies navigate these transitions. How can we cultivate ourselves as individuals to become balanced, true adults who are fully equipped to contribute to our communities, the planet, and the massive changes ahead? In this episode, Nate is joined by eco-depth psychologist Bill Plotkin to explore the profound themes of human development, the urgent need for ecological awakening, and the importance of art and nature in navigating the crises of modern society. Plotkin also outlines his eight stages of eco-centric human development to foster a healthier future for humanity and the planet. What circumstances have led to generations of individuals stuck in psychological adolescence? What role does the concept of the soul play in shaping our life purpose? How do we implement a cultural regeneration that aligns with the natural world and the stages of human development, ultimately helping us prioritize the health of the planet, people, and all species? About Bill Plotkin: Bill Plotkin, PhD, is an eco-depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and agent of cultural regeneration. As founder of southwest Colorado's Animas Valley Institute, he has, since 1980, guided thousands of people on the journey of soul initiation and is the training director of the Soulcraft Apprenticeship and Initiation Program. He's also been a research psychologist (studying non-ordinary states of consciousness), rock musician, and white-water river guide.  In 1979, on a solo winter ascent of an Adirondack peak, Bill experienced a “call to spiritual adventure,” leading him to abandon academia in search of his true calling. He 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), Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche (a nature-based map of the psyche), and The Journey of Soul Initiation: A Field Guide for Visionaries, Evolutionaries, and Revolutionaries (a guidebook for the descent to soul). His doctorate in psychology is from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Visit him online at www.animas.org.   Show Notes and More Watch this episode on YouTube   ---    Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future Join our Substack newsletter Join our Discord channel and connect with other listeners  

Click here to send me a text message ...Out here, on the far side of conventional religion, no path is more compelling than the one that leads us to know our natural place within the larger earth community. And there may be no better modern guide than Bill Plotkin, the author of four books on the subject and the founder of the Animas Valley Institute. The way is called "soul initiation," which is devastating to the ego but life-giving to the soul. And it just might help save the planet.Two TipsThis episode is longer than most, so you might find it helpful to reference the Chapters tab above and listen in convenient chunks.You might also find it helpful to read along with the poem with which we begin our conversation, "What to Remember When Waking," by David Whyte. Here's a link: https://www.awakin.org/v2/read/view.php?tid=994ErrataThe notion I mistakenly attribute to Stephen Jenkinson, that true elders consider today's actions in light of their effect seven generations out, is in fact a Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) principle I had read about in Robin Wall Kimmerer's excellent book, "Braiding Sweetgrass." I regret the error. However, both Jenkinson and Bill Plotkin assume a similar point of view, that elders seek to honour both the ancestors who have gone before and the generations yet to come when considering the actions we take today.Bill's BooksSoulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche; Soulcraft; New World Library, 2003Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World; New World Library, 2008Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche; New World Library, 2013The Journey of Soul Initiation: A Field Guide for Visionaries, Evolutionaries, and Revolutionaries" New World Library, 2021The Animas Valley InstituteHome page: https://www.animas.orgPersonal LinksMy web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.caMy email address: mysticcaveman53@gmail.comSeries Music Credit"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2022

Gina Chase could see the helicopters, but did not at first realize they did not see her. She was exhausted. The SOS signals from her cell phone were simply not going through. Not in the backcountry outside of Norwood, where she'd come days earlier, as part of the Animas Valley Institute's workshop. Still, the Canadian teacher and artist emerged from those dense woods alive and unhurt Aug. 18, about four days after she had set out on a planned “solo” quest.Support the show: https://www.montrosepress.com/site/forms/subscription_services/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

'm Dom. I'm a wilderness guide, and the creator of VIVIFY.I'm on a mission to foster regenerative leadership, blending personal vitality and ecological harmony. I strive to empower individuals to live and lead in ways that enhance their own aliveness and presence and create a deep and lasting relationship with the more-than-human world.​I've had a foot in two worlds for a decade - I've led wilderness immersions in remote locations including Patagonia and Alaska, and and I've held leadership roles at climate-tech companies, serving as Chief of Staff at Terramera and Head of Product at Solara Energy. In a past life, I was also Captain of the Stanford University Golf Team.My work is inspired by the Animas Valley Institute, where I trained in the Yearlong Soulcraft Immersion with Bill Plotkin. I've also completed coach training with the Conscious Leadership Group.I live for movement in the mountains - I've skied on the tallest peaks of the lower 48, completed a solo traverse of the Southern Sierra High Route, and ridden dogsleds across the Boundary Waters. 

Click here to send me fan mail, I mean, a text message ...Soul has only one agenda--that we live into who we really are and offer our unique gifts in service to the world. Soul is less concerned about the obstacles that that may plant in our path. So, for rugged mountain guide Bruce Howatt, the call to finally show up in the world--as Julianna--must have felt like the greatest, most intimidating climb of all. And yet, here she is, inspiring the rest of us to discover and to assume our own singular place in the Universe.ResourcesJules' Website (as Bruce): https://www.brucehowatt.com/Jules' Soul Guide Bio: https://www.animas.org/guides/24/jules-howatt/The Animas Valley Institute: https://www.animas.orgPersonal LinksMy web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.caMy email address: mysticcaveman53@gmail.comSeries Music Credit"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2022

Tim and Tuesday reflect on the Changing Spirit series featuring Christel Scholten from Reos Partners and Laura Blakeman and Geneen Marie Haugen from the Animas Valley Institute. They reflect on the deepening commitment, curiosity, and inspiration they felt after these conversations as well as the practicality of engaging with the natural world and the importance of recognizing the aliveness and intelligence of the world around us. They also dive into the concept of following one's curiosity and finding one's true path in life as well as the importance of practices that connect us to our inner compass and the significance of having a circle of people who define and love us for who we are.For detailed show notes, links and resources, please visit: https://www.findtheoutside.com/podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tuesday and Tim welcome Dr. Geneen Marie Haugen & Dr. Laura Blakeman, of the Animas Valley Institute, where they invite listeners to imagine a different future rooted in interconnectedness and a deeper understanding of our place in the world, discuss the concept of animacy and the importance of recognizing the aliveness and intelligence of the world around us. They explore the profound intimacy and reciprocal relationship that can be experienced with all beings, and the implications of this worldview at different scales. They also discuss the need to invite back the wild twin within ourselves and the importance of engaging in full aliveness. Geneen and Laura also provide practical advice on how to begin cultivating a deeper relationship with the animate world.For detailed show notes, links and resources, please visit: https://www.findtheoutside.com/podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Part Two of our preview for our next 10-session course, New Perspectives on the Enneagram for Troubled Times, featuring Allen Proctor, Erlina Edwards, and Ben Campbell.  Those familiar with the Enneagram know what a powerful tool for self-discovery and insight it can be. With that in mind we are pleased to announce our latest 10 session course offering from SDI – New Perspectives on the Enneagram for Spiritual Directors and Companions. This unique online course offering from SDI offers spiritual directors and companions the opportunity to connect with peers who are on the leading edge of the Enneagram field.  This course will give seasoned Enneagram explorers the opportunity to take a deep dive and develop new perspectives about the use of this medium in spiritual direction and companionship, while honing new skills and approaches to their practice and calling. We recently hosted a preview of this series, inviting many of our Presenters for this course to share their perspectives – what's new, what's stirring for them, how does exploration of the Enneagram take them beyond archetpyes and personality types – and into deeper reality and identity? To learn more about the presenters, the course, and to register, go to sdicompanions.org. You do not need to be a spiritual director, or an SDI Member to attend (though members receive large discounts on the registration price). --- Allen Proctor is Director of the Haden Institute, spiritual director and Presbyterian Minister. Allen works with others to explore questions of identity, relationships, vocation and meaning, using Dream Work, the Enneagram, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, meditation practices and creation spirituality. Erlina Edwards, passioned by her business interests and spiritual pursuits, is known to many as an Organizational Builder and Enneagram Practitioner. Driven by her commitment to Human Potential Development, she successfully built sustainable organizations to advance emotional intelligence and overall psychological wellness. Erlina Edwards initially earned her Enneagram certification through The Enneagram School of Narrative Tradition and is professionally certified through the IEA. Erlina is an International Interfaith Seminary graduate, an accredited Spiritual Director, and a certified IDEA Consultant (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Anti-Racist). Erlina also holds accredited academic certifications that have advanced and broadened her business and spiritual studies. She is the Co-Executive Director of The Narrative Enneagram School and runs a private spiritual consulting practice; she lives in Tucson, Arizona, with her husband, Gene. Ben Campbell is a Riso-Hudson Certified Enneagram teacher living in Bath, Maine. In addition to his own programs and coaching, he was selected as a Coach/Facilitator for the Shift Network's Enneagram Certification Program in Conscious Living (2021-2022) with Russ Hudson and Jessica Dibb. He also presented two talks at the 2023 Global Enneagram Conference in San Francisco: “An Introduction to the Enneagram & Inner Work,” and “Rewilding the Enneagram.” He has appeared on the podcasts “No Small Thing”, “The Enneagram of Essence,” “The Lonely Edges,” and “The Blindspot,” and he taught the Minnesota IEA's March 2021 Workshop “Passions and Purposes.” He holds a degree in East Asian Studies from Bates College. He is an apprentice at the Maine Primitive Skills School and a long-time student of the Animas Valley Institute. Ben is also President and founder of Enneagram Northeast USA, an official chapter of the International Enneagram Association.

Rebecca Wildbear, MS, E-RYT 500, is the creator of a yoga practice called Wild Yoga, which empowers individuals to tune in to the mysteries that live within the earth community, dreams, and their wild nature so they can live a life of creative service. She has been leading Wild Yoga programs since 2007 and also guides other nature and soul programs through Animas Valley Institute. Rebecca's latest book is Wild Yoga: A Practice of Initiation, Veneration & Advocacy for the Earth. This wonderfully fresh and revelatory book invites you to create a personal yoga practice that seamlessly melds health and well-being with spiritual insight, Earth stewardship, and cultural transformation. Rebecca came to yoga after a life-threatening encounter with cancer in her twenties. Over years of teaching and healing, she devised the unique and user-friendly practice she presents in Wild Yoga. In the book, she guides you in connecting to the natural world and living from your soul while also addressing environmental activism. For more information: https://www.rebeccawildbear.com/ And for more about guest host Mirjam Paninski: https://www.mirjampaninski.com/   #mindtomatter #blissbrain #eft #eftuniverse #yoga #wildyoga #earth #environment #highenergyhealth

Kent Dobson back from his training in Colorado with Animas Valley Institute. This week he continues with Transcend and Include–Part Two: Right and Left and Wonder.

In this episode, I chat with holistic psychotherapist, Christie Little and somatic psychotherapist, Rob Engels, about the power of nature in healing. More than ever in our fast paced society, we have become disconnected from nature, oftentimes prioritising the convenience and speed of connection via technology over time spent outdoors. So dive in to hear our thought provoking discussion on: - How impactful nature can be in its power for healing and transformation - The importance of empowering humans away from technology and back to reconnecting - Why time in nature can reduce feelings of loneliness and improve mood Links: You can find this episode's guests below via - christielittle.com.au wildreverence.com.au @_wildreverence_ For more information on Wild Edges Nature Retreats click here Christie Little is a registered holistic psychotherapist, grief counsellor and nature therapy guide based in the Blue Mountains, AUSTRALIA. Christie was the first nature therapy guide in NSW certified by the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy and has been offering nature based healing in various forms for the past 7 years, such as the monthly wilderness gatherings, Wild Edges, that she co-hosts with Rob Engles. She offers a trauma informed integrative approach to healing and transformation by weaving together a range of healing modalities and wisdom including nature based practices, meditation, traditional talk therapy, somatic experiences and group work. She has a lived experience of traumatic loss and has partnered with nature in her own journey of healing. Rob Engels is a registered somatic psychotherapist, ecotherapist and meditation teacher. His calling as a guide to the inner wilderness began in childhood and was forged through big, life-altering traumas that ushered him into a lifelong pilgrimage of deep self-inquiry and spiritual wandering. Drawing on a depth of experience in nature-based healing, including with Animas Valley Institute, Rob holds regular wilderness retreats for people to reconnect to a deeper sense of wholeness. He is a teacher of somatic inquiry, the healing art of inner listening, and is co-founder of the Blue Mountains Men's Circle. His collected work falls under the banner of Wild Reverence, which is a love affair with the wild earth, a remembering of our own wildness, and a communion with the inner sacred.

Is managing the institution wearing you out as a pastor or church leader? Does Christianity feel too isolated for earth and creation? In this episode, we talk with Matt Syrdal, a pastor and spiritual innovator on the challenges of maintaining institutions and the importance pursuing passion projects as an opportunity for pastors to live fully into their calling and be visionary for the future church. Syrdal also talks about his eco-spirituality projects and why he believes Christianity needs to be "re-wilded" toward a more experiential and mystical faith.  Rev. Matt Syrdal is a father of two and an ordained pastor living near the front range of the ancestral Rocky Mountains in Denver, Colorado. He has been influenced by the Christian mystical tradition, Jungian psychology, and the visionary lineage of Animas Valley Institute as a certified nature-based human development guide, currently in-training as a Soul Initiation Guide. In 2014 Matt founded Church of Lost Walls, a Denver Wild Church seeking to step across the threshold into a community based on sacred-reciprocity, relationship with the watershed, wild sacramental worship, and a commitment to ecological education and justice. In 2018 Matt co-founded Seminary of the Wild, an eco-ministry leadership and movement hub for a wild spirituality. Matt is has been a contributing writer for Progressive Christianity and currently writing a book called “Mythic Christ.” In 2022, Matt began his life's work developing a Mystery School and launching a yearlong eco-depth training program called “Awakening Mythic Imagination.” Matt  has been mentoring women and men through dreamwork, deep imagery, leadership coaching, ceremony and ritual, and personal mythwork as channels for accessing the deep Self and living with greater authenticity and purpose in service to the world.  Learn more about Mythic Christ Mystery School at www.mythicchrist.com The Future Christian Podcast is a production of Torn Curtain Arts and Resonate Media.

This week on the KORE Women podcast, Dr. Summer Watson welcomes Rebecca Wildbear, who is the author of "Wild Yoga: A Practice of Initiation, Veneration & Advocacy for the Earth." She is also the creator of a yoga practice called “Wild Yoga,” which empowers individuals to tune in to the mysteries that live within the earth community, dreams, and their own wild nature so they may live a life of creative service. Rebecca has been leading Wild Yoga programs since 2007 and also guides other nature and soul programs through Animas Valley Institute. You can follow Rebecca Wildbear on Instagram at: WildBearYoga, on Facebook at: Rebecca.Wildbear, on Twitter at: RWildbear1 and at her website, which is: www.rebeccawildbear.com. You can also find her book on Amazon. Thank you for taking the time to listen to the KORE Women podcast and being a part of the KORE Women experience. You can listen to The KORE Women podcast on your favorite podcast directory - Pandora, iHeartRadio, Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, Podbean, JioSaavn, Amazon and at: www.KOREWomen.com/podcast. Please leave your comments and reviews about the podcast and check out KORE Women on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. You can also learn more about the host, Dr. Summer Watson and KORE Women at: www.korewomen.com

Rebecca Wildbear, MS, E-RYT 500, is the author of Wild Yoga: A Practice of Initiation, Veneration, & Advocacy for the Earth. She is the creator of a yoga practice called Wild Yoga, which empowers individuals to tune in to the mysteries that live within the earth community, dreams, and their wild nature so they can live a life of creative service. She has been leading Wild Yoga programs since 2007 and also guides other nature and soul programs through Animas Valley Institute. Visit her online at www.rebeccawildbear.com.

I am excited to introduce my guest today. Her name is Rebecca Wildbear and she is the author of Wild Yoga: A Practice of Initiation, Veneration and Advocacy for the Earth. The book is published by New World Library In her book, Rebecca writes, “ When we are in our bodies, at one with nature, we are in touch with intelligence more significant that our minds. Nature can inspire our movements, align us with our instincts, initiate us into living our soul's purpose, and guide us in tending the well-being of all life.” Rebecca Wildbear is the creator of Wild Yoga and has been teaching yoga since 2004. She has been on the faculty at Nosara Yoga Institute and guides vision quests and other programs through Animas Valley Institute.  Speaking of Animas Valley Institute, Rebecca is leading a Soulcraft Intensive for Earth Activists June 13-17th, 2023 through the institute. This is a great intensive for anyone fighting to protect the earth but is feeling the stress and despair of devastation and compassion fatigue. If you are feeling the need to foster greater resiliency and vision in your mission to protect the physical ecology this is for you. You can please visit www.animas.org/offerings for more information. For more information about Rebecca visit www.rebeccawildbear.com Visit New World Library at https://www.newworldlibrary.com/ Today's music was downloaded from sound stripe.com . The piece is titled Into the Deep by Daniele Musto Additional information and links related to today's show and other related shows can be found at www.beprovided.com Thank you again for listening and stay safe and stay healthy.

Rebecca Wildbear is the author of Wild Yoga: A Practice of Initiation, Veneration & Advocacy for the Earth. She is also the creator of a yoga practice called Wild Yoga, which empowers individuals to tune in to the mysteries that live within the earth community, dreams, and their own wild nature so they may live a life of creative service. She has been leading Wild Yoga programs since 2007 and also guides nature and soul programs through Animas Valley Institute. WILD YOGA is an embodied practice that empowers individuals to tune in to the mysteries that live within dreams, the earth community, and their own wild nature so they may live a life of creative service. In the upcoming new book Wild Yoga: A Practice of Initiation, Veneration & Advocacy for the Earth (New World Library, February 14, 2023), author and Wild Yoga creator Rebecca Wildbear empowers readers to create a personal practice that stretches their awareness and awakens their connection to the place we all most deeply belong to: the Earth. Through simple movements and creative concepts that will inspire beginner and seasoned yogis alike, Wild Yoga is an invitation to live from the soul. Part 1 encourages readers to return to their instinctual nature, welcome ferocity, receive the love of trees, and listen to dreams. Part 2 invites them to open up to the mystery of what they love and grieve, descend into darkness, and be sung back to life by the living planet. In part 3, Rebecca guides readers to listen to their muse, dream for the world, and protect wild places. Each chapter concludes with a yoga pose that supports the theme of the chapter with illustrations by Sarah E. Brooks to help readers visualize the poses. By honestly sharing her personal experiences, as well as the experience of many clients, Rebecca shows readers how to: · meet their bodies and emotions where they are, including grief, trauma, and vulnerability · tune in to the natural world around them — whether backyard, seashore, or mountain — or an imagined dream place · commune with the Earth's body through their own body and thus to all the peoples and places around them “May these teachings, stories, and practices offer a path to open your heart to what is most sacred. May they ground you in love and strength,” writes Rebecca. “May they restore your relationship with the Earth so that you and your dreams,mystery and muse may live in cocreative reciprocity with life on the planet.” Find out more about Rebecca Wildbear at http://www.rebeccawildbear.com

Rebecca Wildbear is the author of Wild Yoga: A Practice of Initiation, Veneration & Advocacy for the Earth. She is also the creator of a yoga practice called Wild Yoga, which empowers individuals to tune in to the mysteries that live within the earth community, dreams, and their own wild nature so they may live a life of creative service. She has been leading Wild Yoga programs since 2007 and also guides nature and soul programs through Animas Valley Institute. WILD YOGA is an embodied practice that empowers individuals to tune in to the mysteries that live within dreams, the earth community, and their own wild nature so they may live a life of creative service. In the upcoming new book Wild Yoga: A Practice of Initiation, Veneration & Advocacy for the Earth (New World Library, February 14, 2023), author and Wild Yoga creator Rebecca Wildbear empowers readers to create a personal practice that stretches their awareness and awakens their connection to the place we all most deeply belong to: the Earth. Through simple movements and creative concepts that will inspire beginner and seasoned yogis alike, Wild Yoga is an invitation to live from the soul. Part 1 encourages readers to return to their instinctual nature, welcome ferocity, receive the love of trees, and listen to dreams. Part 2 invites them to open up to the mystery of what they love and grieve, descend into darkness, and be sung back to life by the living planet. In part 3, Rebecca guides readers to listen to their muse, dream for the world, and protect wild places. Each chapter concludes with a yoga pose that supports the theme of the chapter with illustrations by Sarah E. Brooks to help readers visualize the poses. By honestly sharing her personal experiences, as well as the experience of many clients, Rebecca shows readers how to: · meet their bodies and emotions where they are, including grief, trauma, and vulnerability · tune in to the natural world around them — whether backyard, seashore, or mountain — or an imagined dream place · commune with the Earth's body through their own body and thus to all the peoples and places around them “May these teachings, stories, and practices offer a path to open your heart to what is most sacred. May they ground you in love and strength,” writes Rebecca. “May they restore your relationship with the Earth so that you and your dreams,mystery and muse may live in cocreative reciprocity with life on the planet.” Find out more about Rebecca Wildbear at http://www.rebeccawildbear.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rebecca Wildbear is the author of Wild Yoga: A Practice of Initiation, Veneration & Advocacy for the Earth. She is also the creator of a yoga practice called Wild Yoga, which empowers individuals to tune in to the mysteries that live within the earth community, dreams, and their own wild nature so they may live a life of creative service. She has been leading Wild Yoga programs since 2007 and also guides nature and soul programs through Animas Valley Institute. WILD YOGA is an embodied practice that empowers individuals to tune in to the mysteries that live within dreams, the earth community, and their own wild nature so they may live a life of creative service. In the upcoming new book Wild Yoga: A Practice of Initiation, Veneration & Advocacy for the Earth (New World Library, February 14, 2023), author and Wild Yoga creator Rebecca Wildbear empowers readers to create a personal practice that stretches their awareness and awakens their connection to the place we all most deeply belong to: the Earth. Through simple movements and creative concepts that will inspire beginner and seasoned yogis alike, Wild Yoga is an invitation to live from the soul. Part 1 encourages readers to return to their instinctual nature, welcome ferocity, receive the love of trees, and listen to dreams. Part 2 invites them to open up to the mystery of what they love and grieve, descend into darkness, and be sung back to life by the living planet. In part 3, Rebecca guides readers to listen to their muse, dream for the world, and protect wild places. Each chapter concludes with a yoga pose that supports the theme of the chapter with illustrations by Sarah E. Brooks to help readers visualize the poses. By honestly sharing her personal experiences, as well as the experience of many clients, Rebecca shows readers how to: · meet their bodies and emotions where they are, including grief, trauma, and vulnerability · tune in to the natural world around them — whether backyard, seashore, or mountain — or an imagined dream place · commune with the Earth's body through their own body and thus to all the peoples and places around them “May these teachings, stories, and practices offer a path to open your heart to what is most sacred. May they ground you in love and strength,” writes Rebecca. “May they restore your relationship with the Earth so that you and your dreams,mystery and muse may live in cocreative reciprocity with life on the planet.” Find out more about Rebecca Wildbear at http://www.rebeccawildbear.com

How often do you spend time in nature? Are you making space to expand and seek the guidance of greater intelligence? Today's guest, Rebecca Wildbear, is an author, activist, and creator of Wild Yoga, which empowers individuals to tune in to the mysteries that live within the earth community, dreams, and their own wild nature so they may live a life of creative service. Join Hilary and Rebecca as they dive into Rebecca's most impactful ReLaunch, explore the concept of Wild Yoga, and how aligning with the natural world can stretch your consciousness and allow you to tune in to your higher self and live your soul's purpose.About Our Guest: Rebecca Wildbear is the author of Wild Yoga: A Practice of Initiation, Veneration & Advocacy for the Earth. She is also the creator of a yoga practice called Wild Yoga, which empowers individuals to tune in to the mysteries that live within the earth's community, dreams, and their own wild nature so they may live a life of creative service. She has been leading Wild Yoga programs since 2007 and also guides other nature and soul programs through Animas Valley Institute. Visit her online at http://www.rebeccawildbear.com.Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.wildbear/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildbearyogaTwitter: https://twitter.com/RWildbear1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rebeccawildbear4994Join our private Facebook community for BONUS content to ignite your own Relaunch: https://www.facebook.com/groups/232280334811612/Interested in being a guest on The ReLaunch Podcast or booking Hilary as a guest? Email us at hello@therelaunchco.com

Here's my conversation with Rebecca Wildbear about her new book Wild Yoga.  She's a guide with Animas Valley Institute, she also teaches Wild Yoga, and other soul-oriented offerings.  We discuss the art and craft of listening, the nature of prayer, and Wild Yoga as a way of being.  You can find her work at https://www.rebeccawildbear.com/ Enjoy!

Heather Grzych interviews author Rebecca Wildbear, on her book, Wild Yoga: A Practice of Initiation, Veneration & Advocacy for the Earth. Rebecca was a cancer survivor at a young age, and she explains why listening to the body is very similar to listening to Nature. She discusses why we need to embody the mysteries our dreams invite, and how to let dreams actually guide your life. Many different practices are mentioned, including specific yoga postures, journaling and a solo fast, in which the individual sleeps outdoors overnight while fasting.  In this episode, Heather and Rebecca discuss: Why nature can feel scary sometimes Camping and backpacking alone Earth grief Receiving the love of trees Animistic perception Why climate change and environmental issues make people not want to have kids Why giving birth and becoming a mother is possibly the wildest yoga The importance of getting off your computer and going outside for a walk Why fasting and camping can both raise vata dosha Fasting indoors vs outdoors How having cancer impacts the way you appreciate nature   Heather Grzych is the author of The Ayurvedic Guide to Fertility and the host of the Wisdom of the Body podcast. A board-certified Ayurvedic practitioner, she teaches the Regenerative Fertility Method to support future generations worldwide. Heather is on the board of directors for the National Ayurvedic Medical Association (NAMA) and has been a consultant for doctors, governments, and insurance companies. She offers virtual consultations and programs worldwide. www.heathergrzych.com   Rebecca Wildbear is the author of Wild Yoga: A Practice of Initiation, Veneration & Advocacy for the Earth. She is also the creator of a yoga practice called Wild Yoga, which empowers individuals to tune in to the mysteries that live within the earth community, dreams, and their own wild nature so they may live a life of creative service. She has been leading Wild Yoga programs since 2007 and also guides nature and soul programs through Animas Valley Institute. www.rebeccawildbear.com   Connect with Heather: Instagram.com/heathergrzych Facebook.com/grzychheather   Read the first six pages of The Ayurvedic Guide to Fertility for FREE: https://www.heathergrzych.com   Connect with Heather to balance your health for your fertility: https://www.heathergrzych.com/book-online   This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only.

Creating Wellness From Within is a podcast devoted to empowering you to live your best life by taking accountability for your own personal wellness … brought to you in part by Integrated Health Systems located in Denver, CO. Women in particular have a tendency to take care of everyone else around them first, while putting their own self care and wellness on the back burner. This podcast is designed to give you actionable advice and tools to help you power up your own wellness journey, and live the best life possible!I am your host, Amy Zellmer. I am editor-in-chief of MN YOGA + Life magazine & The Brain Health Magazine, and author of several books. Additionally I am passionate about yoga, photography, wellness, and all things glittery! You can find out more about me at www.creatingwellnessfromwithin.comFollow me on: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter         Today's guest is:  Rebecca WildbearRebecca Wildbear is the author of Wild Yoga: A Practice of Initiation, Veneration & Advocacy for the Earth. She is also the creator of a yoga practice called Wild Yoga, which empowers individuals to tune in to the mysteries that live within the earth community, dreams, and their own wild nature so they may live a life of creative service. She has been guiding Wild Yoga programs since 2007 and also guides vision quests and other nature and soul programs through Animas Valley Institute. http://www.rebeccawildbear.comConsider supporting the podcast for $5 a month through Patreon.Support the show

Join Happy Ali and author, Rebecca Wildbear, as they discuss Rebecca's incredible relationship with the earth. Rebecca goes into detail as she gives highlights from her book, Wild Yoga. Don't miss this episode!! Find all of Happy's work at https://linktr.ee/happyinsights Purchase Rebecca's book on Amazon: https://a.co/d/hscfiwt Rebecca Wildbear is the author of Wild Yoga: A Practice of Initiation, Veneration & Advocacy for the Earth. She is also the creator of a yoga practice called Wild Yoga, which empowers individuals to tune in to the mysteries that live within the earth community, dreams, and their own wild nature so they may live a life of creative service. She has been leading Wild Yoga programs since 2007 and also guides other nature and soul programs through Animas Valley Institute. Visit her online at http://www.rebeccawildbear.com. And here are her social media links: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.wildbear/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildbearyoga Twitter: https://twitter.com/RWildbear1 #savetheearth #innerwisdom #rebeccawildbear #happyali

Join Happy Ali and author, Rebecca Wildbear, as they discuss tapping into our inner wisdom (Also known as The Inner Muse). Rebecca goes into detail as she gives highlights from her book, Wild Yoga. Don't miss this episode! Find all of Happy's work at https://linktr.ee/happyinsights Purchase Rebecca's book on Amazon: https://a.co/d/hscfiwt Rebecca Wildbear is the author of Wild Yoga: A Practice of Initiation, Veneration & Advocacy for the Earth. She is also the creator of a yoga practice called Wild Yoga, which empowers individuals to tune in to the mysteries that live within the earth community, dreams, and their own wild nature so they may live a life of creative service. She has been leading Wild Yoga programs since 2007 and also guides other nature and soul programs through Animas Valley Institute. Visit her online at http://www.rebeccawildbear.com. And here are her social media links: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.wildbear/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildbearyoga Twitter: https://twitter.com/RWildbear1 #savetheearth #innerwisdom #rebeccawildbear #happyali

Geneen Marie Haugen, PhD, grew up as a free-range wildish kid with a run amok imagination. She is a guide to the experiential, intertwined mysteries of nature and psyche with the Animas Valley Institute, and is on the faculty of the Esalen Institute, Schumacher College, and the Fox Institute for Creation Spirituality. Her writing has appeared in many journals and books, including Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth; Thomas Berry: Dreamer of the Earth; Parabola Journal; Ecopsychology Journal; DailyGood.org; High Country News; and others.She answers the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?” with thoughts including:- The power in our unique creativity and imagination as human beings- The value of becoming more receptive to the dreams and consciousness of the community, earth and universe around us- The increasing awareness of traditional Indigenous and ecological knowledge in the Western worldviewSupport the showComplete Show Notes

Once a farmer in rural Kentucky, Chris Isgrigg is now a practicing psychotherapist in Louisville, KY. He's thought deeply about the relationships that weave each of us to each other and to the more-than-human world and has integrated the natural world meaningfully into his therapeutic approach. This conversation explores how a deeper spiritual connection to our places can help heal and mature us as individuals and as a culture. RESOURCES: Earth and Spirit Center website: https://www.earthandspiritcenter.org/ Chris Isgrigg's counseling practice, Deeply Rooted Counseling: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/chris-isgrigg-louisville-ky/156084 Bill Plotkin's Animas Valley Institute: https://www.animas.org/

Doug Van Houten, a soul guide with the Animas Valley Institute, takes seekers out into the wild and, with only a bed roll and a water bottle ...  leaves them there. He's not being cruel. In fact, he's being kind, providing an opportunity for people to have a soul encounter with the Earth. Not only do we need to know what the Earth asks of us, the Earth needs us to know that too. Links:Animas Valley Institute: https://www.animas.orgDoug Van Houten: https://www.bodyartsoul.orgResources:Bill Plotkin, Soul Craft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche , New World Library, 2003 ____________, Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World, New World Library, 2008____________. WildMind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche, New World Library, 2013____________. The Journey of Soul Initiation: A Field Guide for Visionaries, Evolutionaries, and Revolutionaries, New World Library, 2021Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth; Sierra Club, 1988Music Credits:"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2022

In this wide ranging conversation, we talk about the lost art of the feminine, eros, the divine, the needed work in the world around a more sacred view of the feminine and the masculine, among other things.  This was originally recorded for the Westwords publication for Animas Valley Institute.  Check out Kate's work at dancingserpent.org, and the work of Animas at animas.org.  Enjoy!

In this episode, we find out how personal healing is connected to healing the EarthWe become willing to risk a radical re-imaging of life's purpose and unearth our soul's hidden treasuresWe discover The “Great Work” and recover our sense of wonder and sense of the sacred in intimacy with NatureWe accept the invitation to become fully human, courageous, and wildly alive so that we may pollinate the world with our unique giftsInto the shadows, we go so that into the light we may growWe participate in the dream of the earth when we discover the Earth is dreaming through usWe learn that we can become the Midwife –the  doula for our Soul's re-emergenceWe go on a "Praise Wander."  That sounds fun! What IS a "Praise Wander?"Well, put your hands up, and let's go on this quest to make this discovery and more!In this work, 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, 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 a student of Refined Hakomi, an ardent beekeeper, a visual artist, a wily wanderer, a dream tracker, a deep ceremonialist, a heart-centered activist, a budding yoga instructor interested in new forms of yoga and somatic practice, and a guide for Animas Valley Institute.Personal Websitehttps://www.bodyartsoul.org/Social Media linkhttps://www.animas.org/ -----Support Caravan of the HeartMore about Caravan of the HeartA podcast...a blisscast, a variety show for the soul by Troubadours of Divine Bliss, Aim Me Smiley & Renee Ananda, a touring folk music duo, inspirational speakers, retreat leaders, and advocates for this planet and its people.On this podcast, we have heart-to-heart conversations around freeing our dreams and amplifying love in all things. Enjoy an exhilarating mélange of exchanges where the arts meet awareness to champion and elevate the love of yourself, others, and the Earth.Join this caravan of seekers sharing what they find that empowers love in every part of the journey. Summon a revolution of Love through devotion, purpose, creation, Earth care, and community."Come, come, whoever you are. This is not a caravan of despair."  RumiLove is Spoken HereLearn MoreSupport the show (https://ko-fi.com/caravanoftheheart)Support the show

A live interview with Bill Plotkin: founder of Animas Valley Institute, depth psychologist, wilderness-based soul guide, and agent of cultural evolution.

În acest episod abordăm teme precum: ☀️ arhetipuri masculine (energiile masculine mature ale Regelui, Războinicului, Magicianului și Iubitului) ☀️ “tipul de treabă” (the nice guy) ☀️ misoginie, sexism ☀️ masculinitate in cultura românească ☀️ ce înseamnă pentru femei dacă bărbații își accesează aceste arhetipuri ☀️ cum lucrează Bogdan cu aceste aspecte în relație cu natura Bogdan Romanică - este ghid de dezvoltare umană bazată pe natură, mentor, formator și contribuitor la evoluția planetară. Lucrează în domeniul dezvoltării umane din 2010, timp în care a lucrat cu mii de tineri și adulți, în contexte locale, naționale și internaționale. În ultimii ani s-a specializat în lucrul cu profunzimile umane și dezvoltarea bazată pe natură, urmând o formare continuă cu Animas Valley Institute din Colorado, SUA (organizație fondată de Bill Plotkin), unde a încheiat programul Wild Mind Training Program. Este fondator și coordonator Dreams for Life, organizație prin care contribuie la dezvoltarea profundă a oamenilor. Pe Bogdan Romanică îl găsiți aici: https://www.facebook.com/Bogdan-Romanică-personal-page-542951423323295 http://dreamsforlife.ro https://www.facebook.com/DreamsforLife/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbwbWT-DLv4wPg2aUZTaPMw Așteptăm cu drag să ne ascultați și să ne transmiteți impresiile voastre pe: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pe.deplin/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pedeplin

Matt Cochran joins me again, this time to share how dreamwork, especially in connection with men's work, is a part of his role in The Great Turning. Click Play to hear us talk about:how Matt relates to the "three stories of our time" (and how these compare to a rite of passage, or initiation)what dreams are for him and the people he works with (a navigational tool; a fierce, viable presence; a glimpse of the mythic level of our lives)men's work in Matt's life (including his shift from the loneliness of a lone wolf to non-competitive brotherhood with other men)how "the initiated masculine" is a part of The Great Turningmapping and protecting landscapes, from inside and outside of existing legal structureslooking to the Earth as a role model, not as a victimand one of Matt's own most significant dreamsAfter you listen, leave a comment at turningseason.com/episode3 and let me know what struck you. I'm curious what you think/feel/wonder about this conversation.And remember to share your book recommendations for Turning Season's bookshop!Matt Cochran is a dreamworker, wilderness guide, and modern homesteader. Raised in California, he's spent his adult life in the Innerwest. First as a wandering poet, then as an Exploration Geologist in Nevada, a Surveyor/Mapper in Colorado and Montana, and a wilderness guide in the Southwest, he's had a continued relationship with the wild landscapes of the Innerwest. With his partner, he's created a world-built-by-hand and they spend much of their time running their modern homestead. In midlife, Matt earned an MA at Pacifica Graduate School in Depth Psychology focusing on dreams and ecopsychology. In hindsight, he sees that he took his mapping skills to the inner territories, and recognizes that the language of wild nature corresponds to the language of dreams. He's trained in Rites of Passage with Animas Valley Institute and been involved in Men's Work through Michael Meade and the Rising Man Movement. Matt is now blending all these worlds into the offering of Raven Dream Tracking, where he focuses on dynamic dreamwork and works with men in what he calls Wolfpack Dreaming. As Matt says, “Dreams to me are an incredible navigation tool and a fierce, viable presence. They give us life from the hidden places within, and a generative, creative and visionary capacity in the world without.”Show notes: turningseason.com/episode3Music by East Forest

Susun Weed answers 90 minutes of herbal health questions followed by a 30 minute interview with her guest, Jonah Ruh Roberts.   Jonah Ruh Roberts is an herbalist and soul guide helping women become strong, resourced, resilient and deep in conversation with Mystery to understand their soul niche in the world. She guides a year-long journey for women around the wheel of the year through the archetypes of Maid, Mother, Wild Woman and Crone called 13 Moons: Finding your Medicine and your Mettle. She is both a fierce and gentle force for guiding women into the under-world,  for Earth and for midwifing humans back into deep and magical reciprocity within the web of life. She also holds number of weekend one off gatherings for women, co-guides the Wild Woman Vision Quest in Vermont every summer, and co-guides an 8 month immersion for men and women weaving the teachings of the Animas Valley Institute and Joanna Macy to help mature humans and awaken to our unique opportunities and responsibilities in this Great Turning. Her 10 acre herbal Sanctuary in Unity, NH, is rich with medicine, teaching gardens and apothecary and is the home of her 5 month herbal program, Sojourner's Well which teaches women everything they need to begin a deep and personal inter-relationship with the Green Nation. She also offers private mentoring and herbal apprenticeships. jo@unitymountainherbs.com JonahRuhRoberts.com

Show Notes:My guest today is Doug Van Houten, Nature-based Soul Guide. Join us for a fascinating exploration into the ways we've lost touch with our innate, wild relationship with the natural world, and how coming back into that relationship brings us home to our deepest sense of meaning and purpose. Doug shares the essence of nature based spirituality, and specifically the healing and wholing work he does in his role guiding life-altering wilderness intensive retreats with Animas Valley Institute. He answers questions about:how dialoguing with nature can help us navigate our planetary crisishealing the pathological adolescence of our cultureembodying wholeness: reclaiming our archetypal aspects of selfthe essential role of elders in re-establishing healthy earth societiesvision fasting: the practice, purpose and power of soul encounterBill Plotkin's model of The Nature Based Map of the PsycheLinks mentioned in today's show:Doug Van Houten websiteAnimas Valley Institute (and Bill Plotkin)The Chalice and the Blade - Riane EislerNature and the Human Soul - Bill Plotkin (Soul Centeric Development Wheel)Links mentioned in today's show:Doug Van Houten websiteAnimas Valley Institute (and Bill Plotkin)Did this episode spark questions for you? Send a voice message or email me hereConnect with me online:Liz Wiltzen Coaching WebsiteTracking Yes BlogInstagramThe story that launched the ethos:Tracking Yes - A Guide to Everyday MagicThanks so much for listening!If you like the show, I'd so appreciate it if you'd follow and share it with people you know would love it. It's an unpaid labour of love, and your support encourages me to keep it coming!

Today I have a soul nourishing interview with Rosanna Kalashyan. Rosanna is a soul-centered coach and mentor who supports individuals to make the invisible visible. She is currently working on he MA/PhD in Jungian and Archetypal studies alongside me at Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is also in ongoing training with Animas Valley Institute as a human development guide, soon to be full facilitator of Gender Reconciliation work through Gender Equity and Reconciliation International. To learn more about Rosanna, head to her website: www.dancingthethreads.com To follow Rosanna on social media, head here. To learn more about the work I do in the world, click here. To follow me on social media, click here.

Bill Plotkin, Ph.D., is a depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and agent of cultural evolution. As founder of western Colorado's Animas Valley Institute in 1981, he has guided thousands of seekers 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; Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche and most recently, The Journey of Soul Initiation: A Field Guide for Visionaries, Evolutionaries, and Revolutionaries. He has a doctorate in psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder.Topics: soul, initiation, mythology, archetype, adulthood, mentorship, elderhoodWebsite: http://animas.org•••Music: Royal Fern by Green House (https://green-house.bandcamp.com)Support the Podcast: Single Donation: http://ko-fi.com/brianjamesPatreon: http://patreon.com/medicinepath Coaching & Books: http://brianjames.ca Yoga Courses: https://vimeo.com/brianjamesyoga/vod_pagesUse code MEDICINEPATH or link below for 15% off the Shamanic Yoga series: https://vimeo.com/r/334h/MFJHQkFEVk

My guest today is Bill Plotkin, PhD, a depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and founder of western Colorado's Animas Valley Institute. Bill has led thousands of women and men through nature-based initiatory passages, and is the author of number books, including Soulcraft, Nature and the Human Soul, and Wild Mind. In our conversation today, we discuss his recent book The Journey of Soul Initiation, which distills decades of his insights into human development and the mythopoetic relationship between humanity and ecology. We explore the Five Phases of what he calls The Descent to Soul, including Preparation Dissolution, Soul Encounter, Metamorphosis, Enactment. We compare his model and the significant differences between Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, along the challenges of navigating through each stage of development. And finally, Bill names the blessing and burden it is to take on one's own unique ecological niche, and how this invites us to become visionary artisans of cultural evolution. Support this podcast http://patreon.com/ianmack Join the Network http://themythicmasculine.com/network

What is "apocalypse" and is it happening now? Rev. Matthew Syrdal is senior pastor at Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian Church, co-founder of Seminary of the Wild, and founder of Church of Lost Walls. In this interview / conversation between friends, AllCreation editor Chris Searles asks Matt to share his thoughts and views on Apocalypse and Apokalypsis. Matt discusses ancient Hebrew, New Testament texts, mythology, modern pyschology, indigenous identity, and more; worth repeat listenings. Visit SeminaryoftheWild.com and ChurchofLostWalls.org for more on the content discussed in this interview. References  "Unveiling" - the traditional Hebrew meaning "Ontology" - our way of being The apostle Paul (paraphrased) -- (Apocalypse was) a reckoning of the practices and destructive habits of the dominant culture with the original intention of the Divine for humanity, in the context of how we relate to Earth. Thomas Berry, We have been ripped from the universe. Carl Jung, We are living in an age between myths. James Hillman, In order to love we must personify. Sean Kane, Wisdom of the Mythtellers Bill Plotkin, founder, Animas Valley Institute, and Geneen Haugen, Animas guide  Joel 2:28, "Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions." T. Berry Brazleton, Touchpoints Selected writings by Matt:  Liminal Grief (Oct. 2020) Let It Fall (March 2020) Christian Imagination and the Return to Myth (Jan. 2020) Key quotes  When we talk about Apocalypse we're also talking about awakening; new visions. It wasn't necessarily doomsday, it was meant to be understood in a broader context (as) a reckoning (of) the practices and destructive habits of the dominant culture with the original intentions of the Divine, within the context of how we relate to Earth, how we relate to our planet.Apocalypse is an evolutionary necessity - that we pass through this time of unraveling so that we can be rewired on a new level of functioning as a human society.If love is the goal, it changes the whole equation... Loving our planet and the diverse beings that inhabit our planet, we're designed to be in relationship with, is an end goal in and of itself. If we can live from that place, real magic can happen. We don't know where we're going and that creates unimagined possibilities... We have the capacity to imagine new futures.Everything has a self. (Genesis)(Apocalypse is) not just a revolution of ideas, it's a revolution of ontology and how we understand ourselves to be human.

Susan Evergreen Hericks, PhD has an artistic and psychological approach to being human. Her day to day work involves supporting graduate students who are becoming healers and clinicians. An artist and lover of beauty medicine, ceremony, and social justice, she has a varied background in academia (English, Theology/Ethics, Depth Psychology), rites of passage work and wilderness guiding, ceremonial play and art, and sex positive education.         Evergreen has been active in her local community with numerous projects including co-designing Ojai’s annual community Mandala, which involves hundreds of painters of all ages. On a smaller scale, Evergreen loves creating original masks and painting on large cardboard. Her current passions are for sharing poetry as medicine, dreamwork practice with anyone who wants to do it, and creating a family of odd masks and costumes in which to visit her fellow humans with joy and mystery. Dr. Fred and Evergreen’s wide-ranging conversation today explores the following: The roles of ceremonial play and art Evergreen’s role in creating the annual Ojai Community Mandala The medicinal potential of poetry How poetry is economical Exploring dreams as a window into our souls and psyches Growing comfortable with “weirdness” Taboos of discussing human sexuality Loss of ritualistic and ceremonial practice in our culture The cyclical nature of everything How Evergreen received her name Finding the Yes, and managing the No Choosing what brings you alive...or not   Episode Length: 00:59:08   EVERGREEN HERICKS’ RESOURCES Contact Facebook > https://www.facebook.com/susan.hericks Email > evergreen.hericks at gmail dot com Video, Ojai Day Mandala 25th Anniversary > https://vimeo.com/240087142?fbclid=IwAR2JJgWRlTMp78Nij01tdjZBRMSm3cO1kBMt4Wm904Nv9Ew3D-JyyT1SNv0 Photos > see below   ALSO MENTIONED ON TODAY’S SHOW Ojai Day Mandala Artists (Facebook) > https://www.facebook.com/Ojai-Day-Mandala-Artists-561732330552601 Jane Hirshfield poem, “The Weighing” > Text > https://poets.org/poem/weighing Video > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyqXGL7ArKM Pádraig Ó Tuama poem, "The Facts of Life" Text Audio  > https://onbeing.org/poetry/the-facts-of-life Video > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tZX4wLYYDQ Poetry Unbound (podcast) > https://onbeing.org/series/poetry-unbound Recommended book for dreamwork, Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth by Robert A. Jordan > https://www.amazon.com/Inner-Work-Dreams-Imagination-Personal-ebook/dp/B002SVQCUG Dream Guides Annie Bloom and Niles Haggeman > https://buffalodreaminglodge.com Rites of Passage work via Animas Valley Institute > https://www.animas.org   WELCOME TO HUMANITY RESOURCES Podcast Website >  http://www.welcometohumanity.net/podcast PURCHASE DR. FRED’S BOOK (paperback or Kindle) > Creative 8: Healing Through Creativity & Self-Expression by Dr. Fred Moss http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Healing-Through-Creativity-Self-Expression/dp/B088N7YVMG   FEEDBACK  > http://www.welcometohumanity.net/contact

As we continue to move through the Earth energies of Taurus season Ceryn jumps straight into this week's episode and invites you to come back to nature by getting Earthed and connecting with the planet. Take a deep dive on the subject of why and how our connection to Earth and the building blocks of nature is so important - and so perfectly natural - to all of us. In a slightly shorter episode than usual (while she puts the finishing touches to the Divine Feminist book due out this Autumn!) Ceryn invites you to reconnect with nature on your own terms and offers up the beautiful words of poet Mary Oliver as inspiration for your journey.Join us again in two weeks time when the book will be finished, meaning that some form of order will return to the Divine Feminist, birthing of our community will be in its final stages and we will be floating with the airy energies of Gemini season!Episode notes With the Divine Feminist community imminent, be sure to sign up for the Divine Feminist newsletter to hear updates on the  community and other upcoming projects! Visit www.divinefeminist.com/the-newsletter to sign up now. And head over to www.divinefeminist.com/community.In this episode, Ceryn mentions Mental Health Awareness Week. You can read more about that campaign here.Ceryn also quotes Ecopsychologist Bill Plotkin, read more about his work at the Animas Valley Institute.The poem read at the end of this week's episode is Mindful by Mary Oliver.And remember, to keep up with the latest from Ceryn and the podcast follow @divine.feminist on Instagram.Music is Start again, copyright Alex (2014), sourced through YouTube and available to hear in full here.

There is something about the American Southwest—once home to the Navajo and the Utes and the Anasazi before them—that stirs the soul, evoking our deep, mythopoetic imagination. It is to this spiritually charged corner of the world that author Bill Plotkin, founder of the Animas Valley Institute, invites people to travel on unique and powerful journeys of what he calls “nature-based soul initiation.” These are not weekend workshops or Outward Bound adventures. They’re more serious, more transformative, and ultimately more life-altering. Ultimately, their purpose, as he explains in his recent book The Journey of Soul Initiation, is more than an experience; it’s a long-term metamorphosis of identity. Plotkin distinguishes his spiritual approach from what he calls “upper world” paths that emphasize transcendence and the discovery of universal truths. His path traverses the “underworld” of the individual soul uncovering its unique evolutionary “niche.” In his book, Plotkin suggests that it’s rare in our culture today for people to truly develop into the higher stages of adult maturity. Many get stuck in a type of adolescence or in-between state that has nothing to do with age. And those that do manage to make the journey often do so only by struggling through the territory on their own. There are few guides and fewer clear signposts to help us walk this very personal developmental path. Plotkin’s work seeks to change that—to provides guides and maps that can be of authentic help to people along on that sometimes lonely path of transformation. Plotkin, who refers to himself as a “psychologist gone wild” is perhaps best described as an endearing mashup of Carl Jung, eco-theologian Thomas Berry, and a Navajo elder. I enjoyed our conversation about his own journey, his work, and the challenges of deep, sustained, and soul-level transformation.

Doug Van Houten describes himself as an ardent beekeeper, a visual artist, a wily wanderer, a dream tracker, a deep ceremonialist, and a heart-centered activist. He's an international wilderness guide with the nonprofit Animas Valley Institute, helping to foster nature-based personal development. In this episode, as part of our Community Conversations series, Doug shares how healing, eco-centric soulwork can help us become fully mature adults and elders, claim our life purpose as a member of the Earth community, and contribute our gifts for the healing of our culture and our planet. https://www.earthandspiritcenter.org/ https://www.animas.org/ www.bodyartsoul.org

Beverly is a mentor and motivator for women who want to change the world through passionate commitment to their ideas, families, organizations, and communities.After 20 years of a successful business and academic career that included a Ph.D. in Business Strategy, a post-doc at the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management,  positions as VP, Strategy and Organization for Manco-Henkel, Inc. and Director of Strategic Initiatives for Stratton Corporation, she had a profound awakening.   After investing two decades in change management with a large systems focus, she came to the conclusion that change happens one person at a time.Acting on her discovery, she began training in ecopsychology and nature-based guiding with the Animas Valley Institute.  In 2008, she joined Marlboro College’s Sustainability MBA, launching a 2-year nature-based leadership development course, where she stayed for the next seven years.Also in 2008, she founded the Center for Nature and Leadership (CNL) to blend traditional leadership development with scientific and experiential findings on the beneficial effects of Nature on humans.  The Generative Council is CNL’s keystone program, designed to provide diverse women leaders the time & space to develop their personal impact, meeting  in places of wild magnificence two times/year, and supported by an ongoing community of previous participants.  CNL now offers virtual and regional programming, as well, based on these same principles.Creating and achieving bottom-lines of all sorts, and helping others see the wisdom of Nature at work in their own lives is what she loves to do.  Cultivating fearless leaders, those who stand firmly on authenticity and truth, who strive to bring new visions into reality in concert with others is her passion and expertise.And, when she’s not working with members of the Center for Nature and Leadership community, you’ll find her in the backcountry of her home in the San Juan Mountains in Colorado.Resources:Center for Nature & LeadershipGenerative CouncilGrowing Your Best Self (virtual & physical journey of personal & leadership development - Registration deadline: 5/9)Leadership the Way Nature Intended (Beverly Winterscheid)Beverly’s book recommendations:The Spell of the Sensuous (David Abram)Widening Circles: A Memoir (Joanna Macy)The Hoop and the Tree  (Chris Hoffman)

How important is imagination and eco-connectedness in today’s age? Bill Plotkin, PhD, is a psychologist, wilderness guide, and founder of southwest Colorado’s Animas Valley Institute.… The post Episode 231: Bill Plotkin – The Journey of Soul Initiation, Part I first appeared on Bregman Partners.

Episode Summary:Opening to change and following its urge creates a momentum that takes on a life of its own and leads us beyond what our current perspective can imagine. The conclusion of this 3 part series on initiatory experience explores how to navigate transition with curiosity and trust that there are always bigger forces at work and magic's afoot.Show Notes:Today’s show tracks the final phase of the arc of transition, including:leaping into the mystery and landing on your feetreleasing “first adulthood” achievements to pursue the soul’s callingBill Plotkin’s 3 stages of spiritual development the invitation and challenge of Vision Questperceiving the emergent possibilities revealed through soul encounterLinks to things mentioned:Animas Valley InstituteBill Plotkin booksSarah Kerr Soul Passages WebsiteDid this episode spark questions for you? Send a voice message or email me hereConnect with me online:Liz Wiltzen Coaching WebsiteTracking Yes BlogInstagramThe story that launched the ethos:Tracking Yes - A Guide to Everyday MagicThanks so much for listening!If you like the show, I’d so appreciate it if you would rate it, subscribe, and share it with people you know would love it. It’s an unpaid labour of love, and your support encourages me to keep it coming!

Come hiking with Rebecca Wildbear in the Sonoran Desert. Rebecca teaches people how to listen deeply to the Mysteries that live within the Earth community, Dreamtime, and their own wild Nature, and to encounter and live their Souls, or truest selves. She is a guide with Animas Valley Institute and the creator of Wild Yoga. To explore all that she offers, go to www.rebeccawildbear.com

Bill Plotkin, author of Soulcraft discusses The Journey of Soul Initiation. In this conversation, Plotkin provides guidance for the descent to soul - the dissolution of current identity; the encounter with the mythopoetic mysteries of soul; and the metamorphosis of the ego into a cocreator of life-enhancing culture. He illustrates each phase of this riveting and sometimes hazardous odyssey and speaks about his innovative exploration of Carl Jung's Red Book. Bill Plotkin, Ph.D., is a depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and agent of cultural evolution. As founder of western Colorado’s Animas Valley Institute in 1981, he has guided thousands of seekers through nature-based initiatory passages, including a contemporary, Western adaptation of the pan-cultural vision quest. Previously, he has been a research psychologist (studying non-ordinary states of consciousness), professor of psychology, psychotherapist, rock musician, and whitewater river guide. Bill has a doctorate in psychology from the University of Colorado. He is the author of Soulcraft, Wild Mind, Nature and the Human Soul, and the new release, The Journey of Soul Initiation.

Bill Plotkin, PhD, has been a psychotherapist, research psychologist, rock musician, river runner, professor of psychology, and mountain-bike racer. As a research psychologist, he studied dreams and nonordinary states of consciousness achieved through meditation, biofeedback, and hypnosis. The founder and president of Animas Valley Institute, he has guided thousands of people through initiatory passages in nature since 1980. Currently an ecotherapist, depth psychologist, and wilderness guide, he leads a variety of experiential, nature-based individuation programs. He is the author of Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche (New World Library 2003), Nature and the Human Soul: Creating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World (New World Library 2008), The Journey of Soul Initiation: A Field Guide for Visionaries, Evolutionaries, and Revolutionaries (New World Library 2021)Interview Date: 1/21/2021    Tags: Bill Plotkin, soul initiation, Earth community, true adult, transcendence, cocoon, mythopoetic identity, ego metamorphosis, true purpose, caterpillar and butterfly, dissolution experience, descent to soul, Personal Transformation, Spirituality

What a powerful conversation we shared, exploring Plotkin’s new book, the Journey of Soul Initiation as well as his vast body of work.  Bill Plotkin, Ph.D., is a depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and agent of cultural regeneration. As founder of western Colorado’s Animas Valley Institute in 1981, he has guided thousands of seekers 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. You can dive into the rich world of his work at www.animas.org    We explored so many rich topics in this conversation, beginning, of course, with embodiment, as well as how humans can become life-enhancing partners with Earth and Cosmos. We talk about Bill’s framing of adulthood and maturity and his powerful sentiment, that 90% of older people in modern culture haven’t reached beyond late adolescence. We talk about how to understand where you are on his map of maturity and the process of soul descent, as well as what makes a true adult (and it’s not age-based!) We talk about the beautiful image of adults and elders as imaginal cells in culture, as well as what he calls the four facets of wholeness and ways of cultivating these. Bill shares comments on working with mature urgency in relation to our times and his admiration for Joanna Macy’s Work that Reconnects. We talk about the history of initiated elders and initiatory customs and rituals being what dominating cultures have continually wiped out in the partnership-based cultures they colonized, and what a great loss this has been around the globe. We talk about why rites of passage are so important personally and culturally. This whole conversation is so powerful and is rooted in the rare depth and comprehensive framework of his life’s work and evolving understanding of human development. We hope you enjoy this one as much as we did!

Bill Plotkin, PhD, is the founder of the Animas Valley Institute in Durango, CO. He is author of Soulcraft: Crossing Into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche, Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World, Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche, and The Journey of Soul Initiation: … Continue reading "Soul Initiation with Bill Plotkin"

What happens to the mind/body/spirit when someone experiences sexual trauma? How does sexual trauma show up in sex, intimacy and relationships? And what are some ways folks can begin to heal from their sexual trauma? Darshana Avila answers all this and more.  We also answer a sex question about shame while exploring "dirty talk" after having an affair.  Want to skip to the interview? Fast forward to minute 30.  About our guest: Darshana Avila helps women (and sometimes their partners too) who are ready for radical intimacy to lay down their armor and claim their wholeness in life and love, tapping into the power of the erotic within themselves. She believes that none of us is actually broken and in need of fixing, but instead we have fragmented parts that need to be reclaimed and integrated into our being. Her unique approach facilitates this journey and supports her clients and students in having a sense of deep intimacy within themselves, more access to the power of the erotic in their lives and greater authenticity and enjoyment in their relationships. As an Erotic Wholeness Coach she weaves together a somatic and relational style of guidance that is rooted in nature-based and trauma-informed wisdom. Knowing that we all long to belong, to feel ourselves truly at home in our bodies and lives and to experience more ease in our being, her work is dedicated to exactly that. Using the laboratory of her own life and relationships as a foundation, she has mixed together a very singular brew of modalities, influences and wisdom bodies - not to worry, she's a good witch! - that is spiced with her grounded, candid and loving approach to meeting people in some of the most tender parts of themselves. Wondering about her credentials? She is a Certified Sexological Bodywork (Somatic Sex Educator), a Somatica (TM) Relationship & Intimacy Coach, a NeuroAffective Touch Practitioner and is in training as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. She's also a Certified Professional Coach, has a certificate in EcoTherapy and is in the process of certification as a Wild Mind Practitioner through Animas Valley Institute. She received her B.S. from the University of Florida in 2004. To learn more visit darshanaavila.com and find her on Instagram at @eroticwholeness   Other links: Get 10% off + free shipping with code SHAMELESSSEX on Uberlube AKA our favorite lubricant at uberlube.com Get $5 off while mastering the art of pleasure at OMGyes.com/shameless Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code Shameless at Manscaped.com Get up to $200 off your customized dream mattress + two free pillows at helixsleep.com/shameless Get 15% off all of your sex toys with code SHAMELESSSEX at purepleasureshop.com Want to try one of our favorite boutique wines? Get 10% off of 3 bottles or more with code SHAMELESSSEX10 or 15% off of 6 bottles or more with come SHAMELESSSEX15 at marginswine.com Buy some Shameless Sex swag while supporting a good cause when you visit teepublic.com/stores/shameless-sex-podcast    

Bill Plotkin, PhD,‚ is the author of The Journey of Soul Initiation. As a depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and founder of western Colorado’s Animas Valley Institute, he has led thousands of women and men through nature-based initiatory passages. His previous books include Soulcraft, Nature and the Human Soul, and Wild Mind. He lives in Durango, Colorado and you can visit him online at http://www.animas.org.

What are your practices to explore your soul's mysteries? Following on the previous episode with Bill Plotkin, I offer one of his soulcraft practices for you to reflect on and experiment with. Specifically, the practice of ‘symbolic artwork', featured in his 2003 book Soulcraft. EPISODE EXTRAS: For the wonderful offerings of the Animas Valley Institute including all of Bill's books: https://www.animas.org Specifically, Soulcraft https://animas.org/books/soulcraft/ Excerpt from Soulcraft used with permission by @NewWorldLibrary Bill's most recent book The Journey of Soul Initiation: https://www.animas.org/books/journey-of-soul-initiation/ Follow Bill and Animas Valley Institute on Twitter @AnimasValleyIns and FB @AnimasValleyInst NEW HERE? ABOUT EARTH CONVERSE AND I Hi, I am Penelope Mavor, podcast host and founder of Earth Converse a nature-based leadership collaborative helping leaders have the conversations they need to: with themselves, each other and the earth. Please get in touch for executive coaching and leadership development programmes. https://linktr.ee/EarthConverse Email: info@earthconverse.com And the wind, the trees...

How do you become a whole and wild human being? Listen to this episode of Humans and Earth to find out.Bill Plotkin, Ph.D., is a depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and agent of cultural evolution. As founder of western Colorado’s Animas Valley Institute in 1981, he has guided thousands of seekers through nature-based initiatory passages, including a contemporary, Western adaptation of the pan-cultural vision quest. He has been a research psychologist, professor of psychology, psychotherapist, rock musician, and whitewater river guide. 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 just published in January of 2021. Find him at www.animas.org The premise of Bill’s new book, The Journey of Soul Initiation, is that the root cause of our human and ecological problems is failure of individual development. Our aim, he believes, is to develop so that we may be life-enhancing for Earth and ourselves. Hear Bill discuss: Soul initiation: a life passage most people long for but do not reach because our cultures don’t support this much maturation. It is an initiatory process into true adulthood, where one lives one’s real purpose of contribution to the life community. It is the adventure of wholeness and authenticity we all yearn for.Soul: he defines it as an ecological concept—"the soul of a thing is its unique ecological niche.” Foundational steps to soul initiation include recognizing which life stage you are in: early adolescence, late adolescence, adult, or elder. How a society that encourages soul initiation and contribution to the life community will support people on this journey. Bill defines how childrearing, education, and religious and business institutions can shift as a society learns to promote the whole human development process into the soul initiation, true adult, and true elder phases.The role of true elders is to ensure that the relationship between the human community and the larger Earth community is a good one, and to support the soul initiations of people emerging from early adolescence to give their gifts to the world.“A healthy ego is one that is life-serving—this is who we are” until it’s suppressed. Healthy cultures raise people who want to contribute to the community. The ego is good at planning and is meant to be in service to the soul, which provides the vision. Soul initiation involves the right relationship between ego and soul.

When will you take the descent to soul? The 40th episode of the #earthconversepodcast is with (my rockstar equivalent!) visionary eco-psychologist Bill Plotkin. Bill is a soul initiation guide and “agent of death', and founder of Animas Valley Institute. For over 40 years he has accompanied thousands of people to take the descent to soul, to discover and embody their ecological niche. And thanks to an invitation from his publisher New World Library, he is here to talk about his latest enlightening book The Journey of Soul Initiation: A Field Guide for Visionaries, Evolutionaries, and Revolutionaries. A detailed map and set of practices for the journey, never been conceptualized and articulated in this way before. In our conversation as with the book, rich with metaphor and rigor, he weaves the analogy of the butterfly and moth, the metaphor of ‘Soul Canyon' and his own story. And gives us a feel of what people actually experience, bringing in stories of Carl Jung, Joanna Macy and lesser known courageous souls. In doing so, coaxing, urging us to engage with Mystery, to take the journey and truly love and serve the world. EPISODE EXTRAS: For the wonderful offerings of the Animas Valley Institute including all of Bill's books: https://www.animas.org Follow Bill and the Institute on Twitter @AnimasValleyIns and FB @AnimasValleyInst Bill's Publisher: New World Library and the book https://www.animas.org/books/journey-of-soul-initiation/https://www.newworldlibrary.com/Books/ProductDetails/tabid/64/SKU/87015/Default.aspx#.YDY1hi2ZM6j Follow @NewWorldLibrary Bill's conversation with Jonathan Ellerby https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd_joVSjxFM

In this episode you'll get to hear the second part of my conversation with Bill Plotkin. If you didn't already listen to the first part I recommend doing that first. In this part we explore the last two stages of the descent to soul, metamorphosis and enactment. We also have a look at the concept of sacred wounds, as well as the question of how to determine whether an experience was a true soul encounter. More about Bill: Bill has founded the Animas Valley Institute and he has guided thousands of women and men on the journey of soul initiation. He is the author of Soulcraft, Nature and the human soul, Wild Mind, and, most recently, The Journey Of Soul Initiation: A Field Guide For Visionaries, Evolutionaries And Revolutionaries. You can find out more about him and Animas Valley Institute at animas.org. Who is Pauli: Pauli Saari is a purpose guide, and as such he helps you, an experienced spiritual seeker who is turning your attention from the inner work to the outer work, to get to a place where you are fully engaged in contributing towards a better world in a way that feels deeply meaningful to you. Find out more at paulisaari.com. Free online workshop about purpose discovery: paulisaari.com/webinar.

Soul initiation is an essential and hazardous spiritual adventure that most modern cultures have forgotten. Eco-psychologist Bill Plotkin discusses this mythopoetic, life-altering journey which he beautifully explicates in his new book, Journey of Soul Initiation. I chose to commence GG Season Four with this riveting, deep and edgy dialogue on the transformative and profound path of forging a true adult. Bill’s wisdom, humility and radical honesty shine through as he describes his own soul journey and the evolvement of guiding others through the mind-heart-and-life-transforming process of preparation, descent, metamorphosis and enactment. His book also features an in-depth exploration and radically new understanding of Carl Jung’s Red Book. May this episode inspire and awaken all who hear it.Bill Plotkin, Ph.D., is a depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and agent of cultural evolution. As founder of western Colorado’s Animas Valley Institute in 1981, he has guided thousands of seekers through nature-based initiatory passages, including a contemporary, Western adaptation of the pan-cultural vision quest. Previously, he has been a research psychologist (studying non-ordinary states of consciousness), professor of psychology, psychotherapist, rock musician, and whitewater river guide. 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). He has a doctorate in psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

In this episode I talk to depth psychologist and wilderness guide Bill Plotkin. We take a deep dive into the journey of soul initiation. We explore the five stages of descent to soul, and we also have a look at the practices that can help a person move more swiftly towards a soul encounter. A soul encounter, in Bills use of the term, essentially means the same as finding ones soul purpose. We also discuss the practices that support the process of integrating and embodying ones purpose into ones everyday life. I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation. I hope that you will too! More about Bill: Bill has founded the Animas Valley Institute and he has guided thousands of women and men on the journey of soul initiation. He is the author of Soulcraft, Nature and the human soul, Wild Mind, and, most recently, The Journey Of Soul Initiation: A Field Guide For Visionaries, Evolutionaries And Revolutionaries. You can find out more about him and Animas Valley Institute at animas.org. More about Pauli: Pauli Saari is a purpose guide, and as such he helps you, an experienced spiritual seeker who is turning your attention from the inner work to the outer work, to get to a place where you are fully engaged in contributing towards a better world in a way that feels deeply meaningful to you. Find out more at paulisaari.com. Free online workshop about purpose discovery: paulisaari.com/webinar.

Check out my interview with the eco-depth psychologist Bill Plotkin! We discuss his new book, The Journey of Soul Initiation, and the challenges of growing into a true adult.  I'm so grateful for his books and the time I've spent in wild places with him and other Animas Valley Institute guides.  Enjoy!

Ecopsychologist, wilderness guide and author Bill Plotkin joins Terry to consider the human crisis as essentially a crisis of immaturity — that true human adults and human elders are both extraordinarily rare today. Bill speaks to what is truly required for us — as individuals, and collectively — to grow from our extended adolescence into mature human adulthood. He describes the challenging, and sometimes hazardous, spiritual process of “soul initiation,” which demands the dissolution of our current identities and metamorphosis of our egos into mature co-creators, each of us born to serve a unique niche in our ecological, psychological and social worlds.  Bill explains in rich detail the key understandings, models, and processes that guide his facilitation of soul work in his Animas community. He also shares new insights from Carl Jung’s The Red Book about the “feminine” aspects of the psyche, the difference between “soul” and “muse,” and experimental dreamwork. Ultimately, he points to a profound basis for hope — the living Earth has already provided what the world needs by creating us. He says we who are here now are the medicine the earth needs, if only we undergo the transformation it takes to deliver it. Bill Plotkin is an eco-depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and agent of cultural regeneration. As founder of southwest Colorado’s Animas Valley Institute, he has, since 1980, guided thousands of women and men on the journey of soul initiation. His previous books are Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche, Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World, and Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche. His new book, The Journey of Soul Initiation is a field guide, based on the experiences of thousands of people, describing the principles and evokes the varied lived experiences of the riveting and sometimes hazardous odyssey of soul initiation, using many vivid stories and an in-depth exploration of Carl Jung’s Red Book. Here are some additional questions Bill and Terry explore:  What is the “descent to soul”, and how does it relate to the journey of soul initiation?  What are the necessary stages of the “soul initiation” process? What becomes of our consciousness and societal and ecological roles as the process is fulfilled? Might we be more effective in evolving culture by aiming for “human maturity” instead of “consciousness development?”  What is our soul’s purpose, and why is that necessarily poetic or metaphorical?  Why is the common idea that our purpose is our vocation a misconception?   What is it to create a delivery mechanism for our soul’s purpose? What is the nature of the much deeper maturity that lies beyond all that? For more information on Bill Plotkin and Terry Patten, check out the following resources: Bill Plotkin’s organization, Animas Valley Institute Bill’s new book, The Journey of Soul Initiation: A Field Guide for Visionaries, Revolutionaries, and Evolutionaries Bill’s book, Soulcraft: Crossing Into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche Bill’s book, Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World Bill’s book, Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche Terry’s nonprofit website A New Republic of the Heart Terry’s book, A New Republic of the Heart: An Ethos for Revolutionaries Terry Patten’s website Also:  We invite you to join Terry and other listeners of State of Emergence for a live Q&A and conversation and Saturday, January 23rd at 10 AM Pacific. To participate, simply become a Friend of State of Emergence on our website (if you haven’t already) by making a monthly contribution to the podcast. Then, you’ll receive access links to next Saturday’s session and our future Q&A events every month. Our first session (in December) was lively, deep, and inspiring, and we hope you’ll join us next time!

In our inaugural podcast episode, Bill Plotkin joins us to discuss his new book The Journey of Soul Initiation: A Field Guide for Visionaries, Evolutionaries, and Revolutionaries. We talk about the root source of cultural decay and ecological and biological degradation, the relationship between human development and cultural change, soul as a fundamentally ecological concept, and the map of the Descent to Soul outlined in his new book (the five phases of the Descent are: Preparation, Dissolution, Soul Encounter, Metamorphosis, and Enactment).  Bill Plotkin is also the author of Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche, Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World, and Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche. He is founder of southwest Colorado's Animas Valley Institute and can be found online at www.animas.org. 

Our guest today is Doug Van Houten whose work in the world is as a body, art and soul guide. 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 includes: The Way of Council, vision fasting, 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 a student of Refined Hakomi, an ardent beekeeper, a visual artist, a wily wanderer, a dream tracker, a deep ceremonialist, a heart-centered activist, a yoga instructor interested in new forms of yoga and somatic practice, and a guide for Animas Valley Institute (nature based soul initiation). "To live a more soul rooted life, means to move beyond an out-dated psychological emphasis focused primarily on wounds and symptoms to seek out the more numinous gifts we all bear that lie trapped beneath the torment of old ideals, bounded by beliefs that no longer serve, relegated to shadows cast by fear, humiliation and shame."See Doug's offerings and work here. Resources mentioned in the conversation:SoulCraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche by Bill PlotkinCheck out the Animas Valley Institute to explore all upcoming offerings. What to Remember When Wakingby David WhyteIn that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake,coming back to this life from the othermore secret, moveable and frighteningly honest worldwhere everything began,there is a small opening into the new daywhich closes the moment you begin your plans.What you can plan is too small for you to live.What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans enoughfor the vitality hidden in your sleep.To be human is to become visiblewhile carrying what is hidden as a gift to others.To remember the other world in this worldis to live in your true inheritance.You are not a troubled guest on this earth,you are not an accident amidst other accidentsyou were invited from another and greater nightthan the one from which you have just emerged.Now, looking through the slanting light of the morning windowtoward the mountain presence of everything that can bewhat urgency calls you to your one love?What shape waits in the seed of youto grow and spread its branchesagainst a future sky?Is it waiting in the fertile sea?In the trees beyond the house?In the life you can imagine for yourself?In the open and lovely white page on the writing desk?David WhyteThe Ninth Duino Elegy by Rainer Maria RilkeAcademy Online Course Discount Code15% off any course (thats right, even our integrative mental health certification course ) for the month of December and Jan is TREATYOSELF. Click here to discover our online courses. Music: https://www.purple-planet.comSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/academyimh)

Kristopher Drummond (@kd_words) is a soul-based coach, dream worker, writer, and trainee in the Animas Valley Institute’s Wild Mind Training Program and has trained extensively in somatic council work, ritual and group facilitation, grief work, and Buddhist meditation. Learn more at kristopherdrummond.com If you dig this podcast, would you be please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts? It’s takes less than 60 seconds and makes a difference when I drop to my knees and beg hard-to-get guests to come on the show. Check out my writing at thiermann.substack.com Join our book club at kyle.surf Brought to you by the Nell Newman Foundation, Santa Cruz Medicinals, and RPM Training. The Nell Newman Foundation is dedicated to humanitarian, scientific and environmental action that foster a resilient and restorative planetary ecology. They support the small, visionary, and perhaps untested organizations. They fund the underdogs and unpopular ideas Paul Newman championed. RPM Training is a Norcal based active lifestyle brand founded on the idea that legit, purposeful functional training is the foundation of a truly full, adventurous life. I love their workout equipment and use it daily. Use the code KYLE10 at checkout and get 10% off any order. Santa Cruz Medicinals CBD has supported this podcast from day one. Their founder actually convinced me to start the podcast! They make a range of potent CBD products and my personal favorite is the Peppermint Tincture, which I use most nights before before I go to bed. Use the code KYLE10 at checkout, and get 10% off any order. Sore muscles, be gone! Please consider supporting my work on Patreon. If you are financially strapped, just keep listening and give lots of high-fives. That’s all the payment I need. Connect with Kyle on Instagram | Twitter | YouTube Contact: info@kyle.surf The Motherfucker Awards Intro music by Nashe Howe “Life moves pretty fast ... if you don't look around once and a while, you could miss it.” - Ferris Buller

This episode of The Green Flame podcast focuses on the proposed Batoka Gorge Dam on the Zambezi River on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, just downstream from the world-famous Victoria Falls. The Batoka Gorge Dam would damage some of the most important habitat in the region and harm the local indigenous communities while profiting transnational corporations to the tune of billions. We hear from three organizers working to stop this dam. Moonga is Zambian born and currently lives in the United Kingdom.  She has lived in the area close to the Zambezi and the Gorge currently under threat.  Moonga has a passion for the environment and is an activist on issues that affect the under-privileged in Zambia.  Marie-Louise Kellet is an organizer with “Save the Zambezi,” a Waterkeeper Alliance Affiliate that is fighting the Batoka Gorge Dam project, and is based in Capetown, South Africa. Rebecca Wildbear is a river and soul guide who helps people tune in to the mysteries that live within the Earth community, dreams, and their own wild Nature, so they may live a life of creative service. She has been a guide with Animas Valley Institute since 2006 and is the author of the forthcoming book Playing & Praying: Soul Stories to Inspire Personal & Planetary Transformation.

Being an activist brings an emotional burden. The issues we deal with are intense, difficult and sometimes without any immediate solution. And often, we try to deal with these issues through logically planning a strategy and communicating issues using words. It's an intellectual process, but with a lot of underlying emotional baggage. Elisa Lee has some thoughts about how to get under the intellect to connect with ourselves and people in our communities on a deeper level. She, and many other people involved in grief work, think that it's important to deal with the full range of emotions ranging from anger and fear to hope and joy. Lee bases a lot of her work on the groundbreaking work of Joanna Macy. Macy turned 91 on May 2, and is still connecting with people on issues of environmental activism and grief. Throughout her life, she has been a spokesperson for the anti-nuclear movement, peace, justice and environmentalism. She has created a framework for both personal and social change and has created a workshop methodology to help people move work with social change in a way which helps them connect with their deeper selves.  Lee's current activism focuses on community grief rituals and nature-based rites of passage for girls and adults. Both grief rituals and rites of passage profoundly changed her internal world, creating a strong foundation of embodied being that continues to guide and nourish her through life. A big part of that sense of being is getting beyond the intellectual processes which help us explain the world to ourselves and others, but does not get to the root of our reactions to the complex issues that we all face in these difficult times. For the past 15 years, Lee has been promoting personal development in collaboration with nature as a specialist teacher in ecological education, a self-care facilitator, and a rite of passage guide. In addition to the teachings of Joanna Macy, Lee draws on teachings from Alan Wolfelt, Francis Weller, Martin Prechtel, Animas Valley Institute, The School of Lost Borders, The Haven, and her personal sacred experiences in the wild. She holds a masters degree in environmental education with a focus on women's rites of passage and is the founder of Fire & Flower, a rite of passage organization for girls. On today's rabble radio, Elisa Lee talks to Victoria Fenner as part of rabble.ca's series on Climate Hope in the Time of the Pandemic. Image: Elisa Lee

Dan Dolquist website: wildvillage.org WILD VILLAGE, DENVER, COLORADO DAN@WILDVILLAGE.ORG   Author, speaker, social entrepreneur, certified nature-based human development guide by the Animas Valley Institute. Wild Village is an organization dedicated to building community and the cultivation of "elders" who lead cultural renewal.    Dan is an author, speaker, leadership developer, and passionate about nature-based soul work in cultivating community.  He is an explorer at heart having traveled to 35 different countries, and continues to explore pan-cultural rites of passage and practices  that cultivate human healing and wholeness.    Academically, Dan has studied at The University of Washington, Fuller Theological Seminary, The University of Edinburgh (New College), and Princeton Theological Seminary.  He has done doctoral work at the University of Kansas School of Education, and post-doctoral work in the wisdom tradition of Christianity with Fr. Richard Rohr at the Center for Action and Contemplation.  He completed a vision quest in 2014, and Men's Rite of Passage (MROP) in 2015, and the MROP initiator program in 2016.  He is an ordained pastor in the PC(USA) and the author of “Being Here: Mindfulness and the Practice of Presence."  Currently he is completing his certification as a nature-based human development guide with the Animas Valley Institute.  Dan is also a fly fishing instructor and loves making hand-crafted bamboo fly rods. If you are interested in growing deeper as a leader, need discernment, want to develop your own healing and wholeness, or just want to learn fly fishing, see the program page for mentoring packages.  You can also get in touch with Dr. Dan to talk about a self-designed program.   Dan Dolquist has spent the last twenty-five years pastoring, leading  and  cultivating  organizations in spiritual growth and development. In addition to graduate degrees from Fuller and Princeton Seminaries, Dan did graduate work in Biblical Studies at the University of Edinburgh (New College).  His doctoral work was in the area of leadership at the University of Kansas and cultivating imagination at Fuller Theological Seminary.  His post-doctoral work was in the wisdom tradition of Christianity with Fr. Richard Rohr at the Center for Action and Contemplation. Dan completed a vision quest with the Animas Valley Institute in 2013 and a Men’s Rite of Passage in 2014.  He is the author of the 2014 book, “Being Here: Mindfulness and the Practice of Presence." Dan is also completing his certification as a nature-based professional human development guide (A Ph.DG?) with the Animas Valley Institute. Books Being Here: Mindfulness and the Practice of Presence What is your longing? What if we were present to a world that is alive and intelligent, calling you to find your unique place in the order of things? What if you could discover your true place in the world in an almost magical, unfolding adventure of belonging? Based on twenty-five years of experience, Dan Dolquist shares simple but powerful practices mixed with transformational parables of Jesus that can bring us more fully alive and awake to a great sense of belonging and love affair with the world.   Finding Your Wild There is at the center of your being an exuberance and aliveness waiting for you, a re-imagining and re-wilding of what it means to be human. There is so much more to you than you have ever been told. Finding Your Wild will help you on your soul journey of healing, joy, and your innate affinity for the natural world. If you longing is to find your unique voice and calling in life, if you feel a deep allurement to discover your place and purpose I this world, this book is for you. https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Your-Wild-Dan-Dolquist/dp/164388025X

Rebecca Wildbear is a river and soul guide who helps people tune in to the mysteries that live within the Earth community, dreams, and their own wild Nature, so they may live a life of creative service. She has been a guide with Animas Valley Institute since 2006 and is author of the forthcoming book, Playing & Praying: Soul Stories to Inspire Personal & Planetary Transformation. She also created Wild Yoga, a practice of worship, veneration, and advocacy for Earth.

Welcome to 2020 and our very first show of the year. This year the podcast will still cover the broad scope of topics that leading a low tox life encompasses from food to body to home, mind, parenting, relationships and more but we’re going to do it in series where for 4-5 shows we focus on one aspect so we can dig deep and explore different aspects of the topic before moving to the next one. I’m excited and I hope you are too. To begin a fresh year and our ‘game changers’ series that is the first mini-series of the year, I’m overjoyed to bring you Rebecca Wildbear a river and soul guide. What’s that you say? Easier to understand that she’s got a John Hopkin’s University masters in counselling? Yes she has a masters in counselling but where she’s taken it is what’s truly wonderful: A therapist and wilderness guide since 1997, Rebecca utilizes her training and experience with counselling, yoga, meditation, Hakomi, and somatic psychotherapy to support individuals in discovering and manifesting their soul gifts. A guide for Animas Valley Institute (www.animas.org), Rebecca is also the creator of Wild Yoga™, a practice of worship, veneration, and advocacy for Earth.  Rebecca brings SO much to today’s interview based on her work as a river and soul guide, compassionately helping people tune in to the mysteries that live within the wild Earth community, Dreamtime, and their own wild Nature. She gently ushers people to the underground river of their greater story, so they may embrace their sacred gifts, live a life of creative service, and rediscover their deep belonging to the Earth community. So the game changer today is YOU if you dare. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. Head to the show notes and make the most of the sponsor offer, too, over at lowtoxlife.com/podcast

Addressing the pervasive longing for meaning and fulfillment in this time of crisis, Nature and the Human Soul introduces a visionary ecopsychology of human development that reveals how fully and creatively we can mature when soul and wild nature guide us. Based on nature’s cycles, Nature and the Human Soul helps every reader discover and embody his or her potential and personal destiny. Equally important, Plotkin offers us a way to progress from our current egocentric, aggressively competitive, consumer society to an ecocentric, soul-based one that is sustainable, cooperative, and compassionate. At once a primer on human development and a manifesto for change, Nature and the Human Soul fashions a template for a more mature, fulfilling, and purposeful life — and a better world. Bill Plotkin, Ph.D., is a depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and agent of cultural evolution. As founder of western Colorado’s 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 quest. Previously, he has been a research psychologist (studying non-ordinary states of consciousness), professor of psychology and psychotherapist. =================================== Contact Ecovillage Library Podcast at: ecovillagelibrary@gmail.com or leave a voice message and get featured in the next podcast episode! (anchor.fm/ecovillage-library) Support the Ecovillage Library Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/ecovillagelibrary =================================== Ecovillage Library beginner's reading list: 1. Permaculture A Designer’s Manual: https://amzn.to/2JQ83ja 2. The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: https://amzn.to/2YAe5I3 3. Nature and the Human Soul: https://amzn.to/2TEVB5n 4. The Hand-Sculpted House: https://amzn.to/2HLnLKx 5. Holistic Management: https://amzn.to/2HMNnXu 6. The Art of Living: https://amzn.to/2V4oJo9 7. A New Earth: https://amzn.to/2HMNN00 8. Creating a Life Together: https://amzn.to/2TFZwiw =================================== About Christopher Kinney: Christopher Kinney works in the field of civil engineering and sustainable development engineer and has worked with over 30+ communities around the world in the areas of water resources, natural building, sustainable agricultural systems, renewable energy, appropriate technology ecological footprint analysis and ecovillage design. Music Credit: Strivers by tubebackr | https://soundcloud.com/tubebackr Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/ecovillage-library/message

Howie and Jim take some small, struggling steps to understand an ascent toward securing a closer relationship with God. They begin w/ Howie's reading of today's Path. Howie then describes how he continues to focus on taking small steps as he learns The Way as priest at St. Thomas. Jim describes his struggles with asserting himself physically and spiritually as he ages. Howie suggests that we take the proper steps based upon where we are rather than where we've been or expect to go. The pair next takes a look at St. Paul's "racy" verses in Philippians. Paul strives to abide in deeper relationship with Christ, not because of his gain or strength. Rather he believes in God's yearning for him to obtain the goal of a deeper spiritual truth.  Jim follows up with a summary of St. Patrick's return to Ireland. Here too, Patrick's goal wasn't to boast about his own ego. His visionary call was to return to the place of imprisonment in order to proclaim God's love in Christ.  In both cases, sacrifice and struggle were the hallmarks of the spiritual ascent. Jim then pivots the conversation to a discussion regarding our societies' and organizational needs for elders.  Jim introduces a recent "musing" from Bill Plotkin (founder of the Animas Valley Institute). Plotkin writes: "When too many of us don’t grow into true adults, our cultures deteriorate into not-fully-human collectives — immature and dysfunctional societies. Contemporary Western societies are clear examples of this — with the U.S. perhaps in the lead ... he reality is that most contemporary people are lost and languishing on a vast deserted plain on the far side of which arise the gates to true adulthood — and few of them find their way across that plain." (Plotkin, April 5, 2019, paras. 2&4). Truer words have never been authored inside or outside of The Bible or many religious and cultural domains. Jim and Howie talk about their personal experiences of striving to be elders.  The path is a climb to be sure but it isn't about personal gain or status. It is about seeking to make the world more livable and loving.   The podcast concludes with a plug for Howie's and St. Thomas' participation in this Sunday's Crush Your Run. They take a quick look at coming off of the mountain tops and diving into the creative and murky depths of next week's "descending path."  There's everything in here from laughter to blessings.  Enjoy and share!   Blessings along The Way, Jim and Howie

Nature-based soul-guide, Rev. Matt Syrdal, is re-wilding what it means to be human. His work weaves in myth and ceremony in nature as a way for people to enter into conversation with the storied world in which they are a part. Matt says, “there is a constellation of relationships with the more-than-human world in which our sense of self-hood, community, and myth emerges from a deep conversation that is always happening around us. This 'window of the imagination,' is the way of co-participating and co-creating through our imaginal sense in a conversation with another that can’t speak (nature).” Nature is both the context and that which holds the wisdom to reveal one’s soul, which Matt explains is a realm of itself. Matt says the soul realm has nothing to do with primary relationships or vocation, is not culturally constructed, is completely beneath language, and is the place of connection with one’s own deeper mythos. Matt is studying with Bill Plotkin in The Soulcraft Apprenticeship and Initiation Program (SAIP) at the Animas Valley Institute, a program designed for those called by Mystery to learn, co-develop, and implement an authentic, contemporary, Western, nature-based path to soul initiation. This path is marked by a descent into the underworld. This journey of descent is far from common in our Western, ascent-orientated culture. In this conversation Matt talks about why this work is vital to developing initiated adults in our patho-adolescent society, and helps develop elders and ultimately healthy communities. All this requires soul-centric development and an eco-centric consciousness.

What is eco-psyche-artistry? Meet Brian Stafford, founder of Wilderness is Medicine in Ojai, California. Brian guides healthcare professionals through nature-based resiliency and visionary leadership retreats. He is a soul-guide with the Animas Valley Institute.

Rebecca Wildbear is a river and soul guide, compassionately helping people tune in to the mysteries that live within the wild Earth community, the Dreamtime, and their own wild nature.

Brian Stafford left his 20-year career as a psychiatrist to become a wilderness guide and agent of human and cultural transformation. He completed the intensive training as a psycho-spiritual wilderness guide with the Animas Valley Institute, and now guides individuals to the place they most long and fear to go – their soul place and […]

Brian Stafford left his 20-year career as a psychiatrist to become a wilderness guide and agent of human and cultural transformation. He completed the intensive training as a psycho-spiritual wilderness guide with the Animas Valley Institute, and now guides individuals to the place they most long and fear to go – their soul place and […]

You do not have to be a fire for every mountain blocking you. you could be a water and soft river your way to freedom too. - options by Nayyirah Waheed Mary Lemmer shares the emotional story of seemingly everything working against her in last 18 months - her body giving in, her relationship ending, her business coming apart, and losing her Dad’s approval. These are physically and emotionally painful experiences, and yet what if they are exactly what she needs? What if she was only waiting for this moment to arise? Links The show notes: https://www.reboot.io/episode/39-time-new-choices-mary-lemmer/ Marry Lemmer on Twitter - https://twitter.com/me_lem Foodscape - http://www.myfoodscape.com/ Animas Valley Institute - http://www.animas.org/ Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer - http://www.amazon.com/Let-Your-Life-Speak-Listening/dp/0787947350 Pema Chodron - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pema_Ch%C3%B6dr%C3%B6n Loving-Kindness by Sharon Salzberg - http://www.amazon.com/Lovingkindness-Revolutionary-Happiness-Shambhala-Classics/dp/157062903X