Art & Soul: Unveiling and Igniting the Hidden Imagery of Nature and Psyche - Online
Online
Art & Soul: Unveiling and Igniting the Hidden Imagery of Nature and Psyche - Online
Mar 11 - Apr 22, 2026
Retreat Highlights
- Identify - or clarify- your unique note in the symphony of life
- Arouse your wild imagination and earthly senses
- Encounter fierce and alluring aspirations of your soul
- Recover and integrate the forgotten voices of your own wild psyche
- Experience your conscious membership in the community of Earth
- Join other visionary leaders in shaping a soul-infused future of the word
About this Retreat
Your Guides
The singular dream that has been a perennial guide for Doug van Houten’s own guiding practice is one where humans thrive in a mutually enhancing relationship with Earth, know our cosmic origins, and see ourselves as integral and yet necessarily unique participants in the ongoingness of the universe. His lineage of teachers and inspirators includes: Bill Plotkin and the Animas Valley Institute, Joanna Macy, Matthew Fox, David Whyte, Mary Oliver and Brian Swimme to name a few. In co-creating wild, ceremonial and soulcentric spaces for human development, Doug draws upon the wisdom of deep imagery and dreams, somatic and embodied knowing, poetry and art-making, and many pan-cultural, soul furthering, nature-responsive practices. Doug’s true calling manifests in a devotion to supporting others to transform themselves toward wholeness and maturation as they descend into the mystic wellspring of their imaginations, drink deeply from soul’s source, drench in their own unique grief and gifts and return to outpour their particular powers in service to what Thomas Berry called, ”The Great Work” of our time. In addition to guiding and mentoring Doug expresses his own soul’s longing as a visual artist, a wily wanderer, an intuitive dream tracker, an occasional beekeeper, a heart-centered activist, an emerging yogi and cosmic dancer.
> Bringing words to life — thank you, Dr. Hilary Leighton, Animas Board Member.
Details of this retreat
…Hold to your own truth
at the center of the image
you were born with.…
~David Whyte
Image is the mother tongue of the soul. As humans, we carry images, symbols, mysteries within us that arise unbidden through the dreamtime, dance at the edges of consciousness, and arrive via encounters within human culture and nature. They are with us from the beginning. Images that are core to who we are carry energy, story, meaning, memory, emotion, and/or vision. They might, if we are willing to engage them, connect us to our hearts — to the places we most fear but nevertheless must go — and also to the heart of the world. Such images point beyond themselves toward the mysteries and destiny inherent in a human life.
The reinvention of self and world happens primarily through the powers of our imaginations. Images are at the root of our “image”inations. The special focus of Art and Soul is the awakening of these powers and the expression of our raw images — our prima materia — into visual form, allowing their inherent mysteries to do their work on us and incubate life-changing intimacy with our souls and with our world.
We’ll explore our images through the entwining of expressive arts, soulcraft practices, and embodied dialogs with the land and wild others. Our art processes may include: mandala and collage work, group and self-designed ceremony, symbolic art work, trance rhythm and movement, art with the land, focused wandering in nature, clay work, deep imagery, and body art. Artistic process can free us from the conceptual mind and purposeful logic, opening the doorway to nonordinary perceptual experience and the depths of psyche.
We’ll approach expressive arts in the spirit of giving way to spontaneous ceremony, holding clear intentions as well as allowing moment-to-moment improvisation. Whatever happens to us in the process is potentially as revelatory and transformative as any resulting image. We’ll interact with the images that emerge, leaving us vulnerable to feeling everything, to being stopped in our tracks or set into motion. We’ll track, as if with new eyes, underlying patterns and storylines that point us toward the truth at the center of the image we were born with.
No previous visual arts experience is necessary. All levels of creative skill are welcome; we are less interested in the finished product than the process and our ability to free up our wild minds as we dare to give life to our images. NOTE: This program is only for those who can make time in between each session to get out on the land to do art work. Please do not register if you are unavailable to do so.
This offering includes TWO 1-hour mentoring session with Doug. More information on this will be given during the program.
Sessions will take place via Zoom during the following dates and times:
Wednesdays, 9am - 12pm Pacific Time
March 11, 18, 25, April 1, 8, 15, 22.
Please feel free to use this online time zone converter to find your meeting times: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html
NOTE: sessions are not recorded - please plan to be present for all sessions - thank you.
at the center of the image
you were born with.…
~David Whyte
Image is the mother tongue of the soul. As humans, we carry images, symbols, mysteries within us that arise unbidden through the dreamtime, dance at the edges of consciousness, and arrive via encounters within human culture and nature. They are with us from the beginning. Images that are core to who we are carry energy, story, meaning, memory, emotion, and/or vision. They might, if we are willing to engage them, connect us to our hearts — to the places we most fear but nevertheless must go — and also to the heart of the world. Such images point beyond themselves toward the mysteries and destiny inherent in a human life.
The reinvention of self and world happens primarily through the powers of our imaginations. Images are at the root of our “image”inations. The special focus of Art and Soul is the awakening of these powers and the expression of our raw images — our prima materia — into visual form, allowing their inherent mysteries to do their work on us and incubate life-changing intimacy with our souls and with our world.
We’ll explore our images through the entwining of expressive arts, soulcraft practices, and embodied dialogs with the land and wild others. Our art processes may include: mandala and collage work, group and self-designed ceremony, symbolic art work, trance rhythm and movement, art with the land, focused wandering in nature, clay work, deep imagery, and body art. Artistic process can free us from the conceptual mind and purposeful logic, opening the doorway to nonordinary perceptual experience and the depths of psyche.
We’ll approach expressive arts in the spirit of giving way to spontaneous ceremony, holding clear intentions as well as allowing moment-to-moment improvisation. Whatever happens to us in the process is potentially as revelatory and transformative as any resulting image. We’ll interact with the images that emerge, leaving us vulnerable to feeling everything, to being stopped in our tracks or set into motion. We’ll track, as if with new eyes, underlying patterns and storylines that point us toward the truth at the center of the image we were born with.
No previous visual arts experience is necessary. All levels of creative skill are welcome; we are less interested in the finished product than the process and our ability to free up our wild minds as we dare to give life to our images. NOTE: This program is only for those who can make time in between each session to get out on the land to do art work. Please do not register if you are unavailable to do so.
This offering includes TWO 1-hour mentoring session with Doug. More information on this will be given during the program.
Sessions will take place via Zoom during the following dates and times:
Wednesdays, 9am - 12pm Pacific Time
March 11, 18, 25, April 1, 8, 15, 22.
Please feel free to use this online time zone converter to find your meeting times: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html
NOTE: sessions are not recorded - please plan to be present for all sessions - thank you.
Schedule
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!
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!
Note: Schedule is approximate and may change
What's Included
- All of our field programs are camping based, some include catered meals.
What's Not Included
- airfare or transportation
- room accommodations
