Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche

Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche
by Bill Plotkin

Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche
List Price: $17.95
Our Price: $10.83
You Save: $7.12 (40%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $8.37 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Bill Plotkin
Foreword: Thomas Berry
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-08-29
ISBN: 1577314220
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: New World Library

Book Reviews of Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche

Book Review: A Lighthearted Review of Bill Plotkin's book, Soulcraft
Summary: 5 Stars

What do you get when you cross a Jungian-oriented depth psychologist, an ecotherapist, and a wilderness guide of the highest caliber? And then what do you do? The answer to the first question is Bill Plotkin, director of Animas Valley Institute (www.animas.org). The answer to the second: spend 20+ years creating a way to approach soul in a culture that over the years has lost its ways of soul connection that once were as natural as walking upright. Half guidebook, half storybook, and half pure poetry, Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche by Bill Plotkin describes his lifelong work in discovering and developing nature and the outer wilderness as mirrors for our inner nature and inner wilderness. In Soulcraft, Bill tries to compile and present approaches to the mystery of our souls and what Mary Oliver calls "our place in the family of things." Of the many fruits one can take away from the stories and practices Bill describes in Soulcraft, I think four of the juiciest are: (1) his distinction between "spirit" and "soul", (2) his approach to dreamwork, (3) his belief that soul work, while not promising any easy answers to the harsh realities of life, certainly makes life more interesting, and (4) the practices that lead to cultivating a soulful relationship to life.

Bill explains, "By soul I mean the vital, mysterious, and wild core of our individual selves, an essence unique to each person, qualities found in layers of the self much deeper than our personalities. By spirit I mean the single, great, and eternal mystery that permeates and animates everything in the universe and yet transcends all. Ultimately, each soul exists as an agent for spirit. ... Soul is what is most wild and natural within us." It is coming to know of this wild and natural within-ness that he seeks- through wilderness (outer and inner) exploration into the "sweet darkness" of the underworld journey of Shadow, Mystery, Love, and Death. He does not ignore or discount spirit in Soulcraft, but he recognizes that the path to the large openness of spirit necessarily goes through the darker singularity of the underworld journey of the West on the Medicine Wheel. Each person's individual journey, the hero's journey, serves all of life.

Bill's method of dreamwork, characterized as "soulcentric dreamwork," diverges from other approaches in its premise that every dream "is an opportunity to develop our relationship to soul ... Each dream provides ... a chance for the ego to be further initiated into that underworld story and those underworld desires." Bill coaches us to approach each dream reverently and very slowly, "permitting yourself the sometimes disquieting luxury of hanging out among the rich symbols and events ... twisting slowly in the breeze of its seductions and abductions." In other words, allowing the dream to dream us into being- allowing the dream to be the agent that helps to align us with our soul's deeper wisdom. "The dream can and does transform the ego, especially when we cooperate (surrender) during dreamwork." He goes on to suggest that when we dream, we are "dipping into a stream, a Great Underdream, that is always flowing even when we are not having what we normally call a `dream.' ... The Underdream is what the soul wants the ego to embody in the dayworld," trying to help us see the important points about the deeper life waiting and longing to be lived.

This deeper, sometimes "disquieting" soulful relationship to life is not an easy or a fun task. In an insightful analogy, Bill likens deep soul work and the call to the journey into the West to the advertisement that Ernest Shackleton placed in the London papers for his expedition to the South Pole in 1914: "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success." Jungian analyst and author James Hollis's comment that "therapy will not heal you, make your problems go away, or make your life work out. It will, quite simply, make your life more interesting" makes a compelling coda to what Bill is presenting in his book. The work being offered, the ad our deeper selves are longing to read and answer, is simply to respond to what we know we are here for, without regard to outcome, the only reward being the knowledge that we did not, in Mary Oliver's words, "end up having simply visited this world."

Throughout the book, a practical gift that Bill gives us is a description of approaches he has discovered over the years that enable and enhance a direct experience with soul. These are broadly categorized into "Practices for Leaving Home," "Pathways to Soul Encounter," and "Cultivating a Soulful Relationship to Life." This is a rich compost pile of approaches and skills and attitudes that helps nurture growth of the relationship to soul, whether it be an early sprouting, a sending out of new shoots, or a sinking of deeper roots. Among my favorites are "Welcoming Home the Loyal Soldier," "Healing Work with Sacred Wounds," "Making Peace with the Past," "Soulcentric Dreamwork," Self-Designed Ceremony," "Symbolic Artwork," "Soul Poetry," "The Vision Quest," "The Art of Being Lost," "Befriending the Dark," "Confronting Your Own Death," "The Art of Shadow Work," and The Art of Soulful Romance." Rich stuff, all of it, and those are just a baker's dozen of more than forty that Bill offers up in the thirteen chapters of his book.

A good friend of mine turned 50 just last month. Knowing where he was in his life and where he wanted to try and end up, the book was an easy choice for a gift. As he thanked me for it, he laughingly hoped that this book would answer all of his important questions. No, this book won't answer all our questions, but it goes a long way to creating a soulful approach to reconnecting with Nature and Psyche and helping the reader discover just what the important questions in life might really be.





Summary of Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche

Since 1980, Jungian psychologist Bill Plotkin has been guiding men and women into the wilderness — the redrock canyons and snow-crested mountains of the American Southwest — but also into the wilds of the soul. He calls this work soulcraft.

There?s a great longing in all people — a longing to uncover the secrets and mysteries of our individual lives, to find the unique gift we were born to bring to our communities, and to experience our full membership in the more-than-human world. This journey to soul is a descent into layers of the self much deeper than personality, a journey meant for each one of us, not just for the heroes and heroines of mythology.

A modern handbook for the journey, Soulcraft is not an imitation of indigenous ways, but a contemporary nature-based approach born from the landscape of the Southwest, the traditions of Western culture, and the cross-cultural heritage of all humanity. Filled with stories, poems, and guidelines, Soulcraft introduces over 40 practices that facilitate the descent to soul, including dreamwork, wilderness vision fasts, talking across the species boundaries, council, self-designed ceremony, nature-based shadow work, and the arts of romance, storytelling, and soul-infused poetry.

Personal Transformation Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Personal Transformation Books
Head Strong ImageHead Strong
by Tony Buzan
Thorsons; Published: 2001-10-01; Paperback; Book
Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership by Gardner, Howard ImageLeading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership by Gardner, Howard
by Howard Gardner
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd; Published: 1996-01-08; Hardcover; Book
I Am My Mother's Daughter: Making Peace with Mom--Before It's Too Late ImageI Am My Mother's Daughter: Making Peace with Mom--Before It's Too Late
by Iris Krasnow
Basic Books; Published: 2007-04-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.62
Price in other shops: $15.00
A Guide for the Advanced Soul: A Book of Insight ImageA Guide for the Advanced Soul: A Book of Insight
by Susan Hayward
Little, Brown and Company; Published: 1995-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.79
Price in other shops: $19.99
Boundaries ImageBoundaries
by Henry Cloud, John Townsend
Zondervan; Published: 2001-09-01; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $20.99
Price in other shops: $39.99
Boundaries: When to Say Yes, When to Say No to Take Control of Your Life ImageBoundaries: When to Say Yes, When to Say No to Take Control of Your Life
by Dr. Henry Cloud, Dr. John Townsend
Zondervan; Published: 1992-11-02; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops: $17.99
Safe People Workbook ImageSafe People Workbook
by Henry Cloud, John Townsend
Zondervan; Published: 1995-06-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.37
Price in other shops: $12.99
A Three Dog Life ImageA Three Dog Life
by Abigail Thomas
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Published: 2006-09-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.29
Price in other shops: $22.00
Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking ImageBlink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
by Malcolm Gladwell
Penguin Books; Published: 2001-08-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.72
Spiritual Divorce: Divorce As a Catalyst for an Extraordinary Life ImageSpiritual Divorce: Divorce As a Catalyst for an Extraordinary Life
by Debbie Ford
HarperOne; Published: 2001-01-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.91
Price in other shops: $25.00
Similar Books and other products
Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life ImageFalling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life
by Richard Rohr
Jossey-Bass; Published: 2011-04-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.98
Price in other shops: $19.95
The Art of Dreaming: Tools for Creative Dream Work ImageThe Art of Dreaming: Tools for Creative Dream Work
by Jill Mellick
Conari Pr; Published: 2001-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.95
Price in other shops: $18.95
Journey of the Universe ImageJourney of the Universe
by Brian Thomas Swimme, Mary Evelyn Tucker
Yale University Press; Published: 2011-06-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.50
Price in other shops: $25.00
Personality and Personal Growth (6th Edition) ImagePersonality and Personal Growth (6th Edition)
by Robert Frager, James Fadiman
Prentice Hall; Published: 2005-01-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $109.00
Price in other shops: $165.67
The Earth Has a Soul: C.G. Jung on Nature, Technology & Modern Life ImageThe Earth Has a Soul: C.G. Jung on Nature, Technology & Modern Life
by C. G. Jung
North Atlantic Books; Published: 2002-05-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.83
Price in other shops: $18.95
Sacred Tree: Reflections on Native American Spirituality ImageSacred Tree: Reflections on Native American Spirituality
by Judie Bopp
Lotus Press; Published: 1984; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.85
Price in other shops: $10.95
Original Wisdom: Stories of an Ancient Way of Knowing ImageOriginal Wisdom: Stories of an Ancient Way of Knowing
by Robert Wolff
Inner Traditions; Published: 2001-08-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.87
Price in other shops: $14.95
Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World ImageNature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World
by Bill Plotkin
New World Library; Published: 2007-12-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.51
Price in other shops: $19.95
Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology ImageBecoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology
by David Abram
Vintage; Published: 2011-09-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.94
Price in other shops: $16.95
The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World ImageThe Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World
by David Abram
Vintage; Published: 1997-02-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops: $16.00
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories