Animas Valley Institute

Retreat Types:

Additional Keywords:

Contact Info

Email:

soulcraft@animas.org

Phone Number:

970-259-0585

Website:

http://www.animas.org/

Please mention Still Mountain when contacting organizations for more information, thanks!

Animas Valley Institute Wilderness Vision Quests

Location

Durango, CO, 81302

United States

See map: Google Maps

The primary goal and method of all Animas programs is the encounter with soul. Founded in 1980 by wilderness guide and depth psychologist Bill Plotkin, the Institute is one of North America's longest-standing organizations offering contemporary wilderness rites. "Animas" is plural for "souls" in Spanish. In Jungian psychology, the Anima is the Inner Woman in a man; the Animus, the Inner Man in a woman. The Anima and Animus refer to the mysterious energies within our psyches that guide us on the journey of descent to soul. Animas Valley Institute is located in southwest Colorado in the valley of El Rio de las Animas Perdidas—The River of Lost Souls.

Animas programs differ significantly from those offered by most other wilderness organizations, vision-fast guides, and experiential educators. Our work is not primarily rites of passage, wilderness-based psychotherapy, or emotional healing. Our focus, rather, is nature-based initiation, whose central goal is the descent to soul for the purpose of maturing the ego so that it becomes a vessel for a person’s deepest, world-transforming gifts.

SEE 2011 ANIMAS VALLEY INSTITUTE PROGRAMS LISTED BELOW ON THE RIGHT, AS WELL AS AT: ANIMAS VALLEY INSTITUTE

Our programs are not designed to solve everyday personal problems or to help people better adjust to — or be happier in — the surface world of contemporary Western culture. Instead, our intent is a foundational shift that elicits each person’s most creative, soul-rooted response to our precious, critical moment in history.

"The heroes of all time have gone before us. The labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path, and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god. And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outward, we will come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we will be with all the world."
— Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Testimonials

The Soulcraft seminar with Bill Plotkin is some of the deepest and most profound work I have ever experienced. I am still in awe of the results that can be achieved when you enlist the collective unconscious and Mother Nature to guide you to your core. Bill and his crew are the ultimate facilitators for this process.

-Anita Sholiton, Marketing Director, Anchor Point Institute, Salt Lake City, Utah

My experience with Animas was profound. I left my quest feeling deeply connected with the Earth and with my own heart, soul, and sense of purpose. It was one of the most significant turning points in my life, my second birth.

-Patti Rieser, Certified Family Nurse Practitioner, Durham, North Carolina

The great wisdom and nurturing from my quest guides and fellow questers helped me lay effective plans for the shape of my new life. I am still awed by the guides' great power and gentleness.

-Leonie FitzGerald, ecologist, Edinburgh, Scotland

My Vision Quest and subsequent Soulcraft experiences, so skillfully and lovingly crafted by Bill and co-guides, transformed my life. Each time, I have returned to my home and work with a deeper sense of gratitude for both, and an openness to experiencing life more wholeheartedly than I thought possible.

-Joe Woolley, Director, Biomedical Division, Glaxo SmithKline, Durham, North Carolina

It was hard to tell exactly when dawn came. I looked up and saw a crack in the clouds and the light pouring through. My heart cracked open. The earth, the sky, the rain, the silvery light, the trees, the great mystery in my heart and in everything they all said, "Love is all that matters, and you are here to welcome the dawn."

-Liz Maxwell, Episcopal Minister, New York, New York

Average rating:

Animas Valley Institute

Contact Info

Location

By Animas Valley Institute:

Sign up for our Newsletter!

Retreat Types

Related Leaders/Teachers

Past Retreats and Workshops