Soulcraft Intensive - July, 2026

With Laura Gunion and Palika Wilding

July 6 - 10, 2026

Date and Time Details: July 6-10, 2026 - Start Time 1pm End Time 1pm

Location: River's Bend Retreat Center, Philo, CA

What to Bring: : This is an all-camping program with cabin upgrades available (see program description to the left). Participants are responsible for bringing their own personal camping equipment, and for personal transportation to and from the program.

Meals : Participants also responsible for bringing their own breakfasts, lunches, and snacks. For dinners, the group will be divided into meal teams to plan, purchase and prepare group meal using safe protocols.

Prices
  • $900.00 to $1,150.00 – Sliding Scale Price: you are free to select any price within this range
  • $1,150.00 – High End Program Price: choosing the high end amount contributes to the full cost of the program and allows us to offer a sliding scale option

The Soulcraft Intensive is our popular five-day experiential plunge into the wild depths of Soulcraft; a synergistic set of nature-based practices designed to evoke the life-shifting experience of soul encounter. Your soul is your true self, those qualities that most deeply define and express who you are and the unique gift that you were born to bring to the world, a world so much in need of the socially transforming contributions of initiated, actively engaged adults. To encounter the soul is to discover the mystical image you were born with, which reveals the path to your greatest personal fulfillment as well as the essence of your true service to society (the cross-cultural wisdom traditions say these are one and the same). Soulcraft practices spring from nature-based cultures, modern depth psychology, the poetic tradition, and wilderness rites of passage—to comprise a truly contemporary Western path to soul discovery and soul initiation. For a full discussion, see Bill Plotkin’s book Soulcraft: Crossing Into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche.

The Soulcraft Intensive is highly experiential and—well—intense. We alternate between practices utilized in group, practices explored in solitude in nature, and sharing and deepening those experiences in small groups (5 to 9 people each). There is a Soulcraft guide for each small group, providing you with a fully individualized experience. What you discover through one practice is carried into and amplified by what you learn in the next. By the end of the intensive, you will understand yourself and your place in the world from a more soul-oriented perspective, be clearer about the gifts you were born to bring to the world, and have new skills to enrich your life and to defend the health of the more-than-human world.

Soulcraft practices include:

  • Soulcentric Dreamwork
  • Deep Imagery Work with Animal Guides
  • Talking Across the Species Boundaries
  • The Way of Council
  • Soul Tasks in Nature
  • Self-Designed Ceremony
  • Shadow Work
  • Soul Poetry
  • Sacred Wound Work
  • Synchronicities: Working with Nature’s Signs and Omens
  • Befriending the Dark
  • Ecstatic Trance Drumming and Dancing
  • many others!

This program is priced for camping facilities. Individual or Shared Cabins and Lodge rooms available for upgrades. Please contact soulcraft@animas.org for more information. 

 

RIVER’S BEND RETREAT CENTER


The Navarro River runs through the Anderson Valley’s majestic redwoods, sunny meadows and vineyards and then curves at River’s Bend to create a still point for contemplation, ecological understanding and deep connection between land and people.

 

 

About the Guides

Laura Gunion

Laura believes that humans have tremendous potential, much of it hidden from our strategic and logical inquiries. As a mentor, guide, coach, and naturalist, it is both her privilege and responsibility to accompany others as they summon the courage to participate in these times from their true nature. She sees and notices thresholds, inviting people […]

Learn more about Laura Gunion

Palika Wilding

Palika Wilding has been courting and centering the mysteries of the Underworld, the Moon and the miraculous blue green pearl for as long as she can remember. As threshold midwife she listens and tends the edges and holy cracks where a psyche the size of Earth, entangles with the human body and psyche, towards a […]

Learn more about Palika Wilding

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