#41 | The Journey of Soul Initiation - Bill Plotkin (Soulcraft)
“Everything is designed to take the next step of the unfolding story of this planet. ”
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.
LINKS
JOIN THE MYTHIC MASCULINE NETWORK
SHOW NOTES
Growing up with life’s big questions
Connecting with the School of Lost Borders
First vision fast in the Colorado mountains
Rites of Passage vs Soul Initiation
Outlining the stages of human development
Eco awakening
The Five Phases of Descent to Soul
Preparation
Dissolution
Soul Encounter
Metamorphosis
Enactment
Finding your mythopoetic identity
Differing frameworks from The Hero’s Journey
Challenges to reaching the Cocoon
The four facets of Wholeness
Collaborating with the evolutionary impulse
A blessing and a burden
The birth of adolescence
What is the ecological niche of the human
The initiatory threshold
We must save as much life as we can
