Training with Peter Scanlan
The Soulcraft Apprenticeship and Initiation Program
As an Animas Valley Institute senior guide, I participate as a trainer in The Soulcraft Apprenticeship and Initiation Program (SAIP), which is designed specifically for those who have heard the call to become soul initiation guides, and who are ready to make a commitment to learning, co-developing, and utilizing a contemporary, Western, nature-based path to soul discovery and embodiment. Participants are trained in a wide-range of skills used in guiding soulcraft programs, leading Animas Quests from a soulcentric perspective, and incorporating soulcraft practices into a current or intended profession. SAIP provides participants a comprehensive opportunity to apprentice to soulcraft and to become fully initiated into their own soul lives.
With the assistance of Animas guides serving as SAIP mentors, participants co-create a two to six year personal course of study and practice that includes participation in regular Animas programs, self-directed curricula designed by Animas, personal mentorships with Animas guides, advanced training courses, independent study in elective areas, and residential gatherings with other program participants, mentors, and Bill Plotkin or other senior Animas guides. Please contact the Animas Valley Institute at www.animas.org or 800-451-6327 for information on how to apply to the SAIP program.
Council Training
While council is a way of communicating — listening and speaking deeply from the heart — it is also a way of being, a way of relating to others that softens the barriers of fear and projection. It is a powerful tool for anyone in a leadership position. Becoming a holder of council entails a number of skills including deep listening to self, others, and the group field; managing potentially problematic group dynamics; tracking and interweaving group themes; setting the stage with ceremony; and setting the tone of the council.
We will study a variety of councils used for conflict-resolution, group bonding, and ceremonial deepening. Participants will have ample opportunities to develop and hone their skills as council holders. Our individual experiences wandering on the wild land, and the dynamics of the training group will together provide the grist for the various forms of council that we will use and study.
This advanced training requires some prerequisites. Periodically I guide a Council Training through Animas Valley Institute. Please contact me by email if you would like to be notified when the next training is scheduled.
Mirroring Training
The illuminating and wondrous art of mirroring creates a container for the deep healing that permeates our psyches when we are truly listened to and heartfully heard. During this training we learn to detect the Larger Story that pulses beneath the events of our individual lives. We discover the glistening web that brings a group together, gossamer strands connecting our hearts. When we are fully heard, our story sweetly reflected through the skilled and compassionate mirroring of another, we find ourselves on solid ground again, able to leap into the next stage of our soul’s path. This alchemical exchange is magical and priceless. In our time together we will immerse ourselves in the deep listening required to mirror well and to uncover the archetypal themes that might frame another’s experience within the arc of their destiny. We will work with themes we find in our stories, including life purpose, the give-away, sacred tasks, self-healing in nature, death and re-birth, engaging the Beloved, fear personas, loyal soldiers, anima and animus, the hero or heroine’s journey, the four cardinal directions, the soulcentric developmental wheel, other-than-human allies, underworld visitations, archetypes and archetypal themes. We will explore several principles, including mirroring vs. projection, transference or interpretation, thinking vs. loving, story gestalts, pattern recognition, framing, and talking the storyteller into his or her feelings.
This advanced training requires some prerequisites.
Periodically I guide a Mirroring Training through Animas Valley Institute. Please contact me by email if you would like to be notified when the next training is scheduled.
