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Drawing from the source and ground of all knowing and being, it’s possible for Animá to inform – rather than compete with – existing religious, indigenous, magical and philosophical traditions. As a study, it can deepen understanding of our genuine, able selves in interrelationship with each other, our human communities, and the community of all life. As a practice, its insights and the wisdom it inspires in us are manifest, utilized, applied for the betterment and wholeness of ourselves and the world we are each a part of. Any one of its lessons can be independently employed... but for people of strong intent and focus, Animá becomes a way of living every moment of our lives alertly, deliberately, purposefully and fully.
The word Animá (pronounced ani-mah) is derived from the ancient Latin animus, meaning not only “breath” and “spirit” but also “courage.” The word has since been redefined by everyone from Plato to Jung, but at its root it is simply the vital force connecting and animating all things, and the collective knowings (sometimes called “collective unconscious” or “collective conscious”) of life throughout time. The practice of Animá, then, is being – ever more consciously and courageously – an intentional participant in that unending process of healing, awakening, enlivening and creating.
“Animá isn't just about inspiration and reward. It is part of the "great work," tools and insight for living our dreams and fulfilling our most meaningful purpose – a coming home to true self and welcoming place. It’s the literal fertile ground for a new journey.... the fullest expression of our whole beings and feeling hearts.” -Jesse Wolf Hardin
Not everyone comes to the Center for the study of Anima, and the wilderness retreats are intended for any respectful women or couples looking for a vitalized connection to self and nature. But as Correspondence Students, Apprentices or Practitioners of Animá you could expect to:
• Deepen your sense of presence, enjoy increased mindfulness • Better orient yourself in the physical world, and explore your personal direction or spiritual path • Deepen your awareness and understanding of natural authentic self • Awaken your bodily senses, learning to better sense world you are a part of, see more pattern and beauty, hear more exquisitely, taste every nuance of your food, savor even the mundane details of your mortal life • Explore your so called 6th Sense, including resonant empathy and innate intuition • Tap into bodily knowing and primal instinct • Deepen your sense of place... of family, home, land, ecosystem and bioregion • Further your awareness of and active relationship to the natural, revelatory world • Recognize the intrinsic nature of and animating force in everything, and every thing’s intrinsic value apart from human use • Increase your sense of self worth and confidence, based on your true rather than imposed or imagined characteristics and gifts • Come to better understand your fears, and how to use them as markers for what needs your attention, as fuel to act, to change what needs changing • Realize that you are a co-creator of not only your reality but your world, and commit to acting accordingly • Discover how to give back to the earth that provides and inspires • Learn how to grow from every mistake or misdirection • Get beyond victimhood and attachment to escape or distress • Detach from unhealthy habits, expectations, judgments, and ways of thinking • Develop healthy attachments to life, spirit, values and missions • Make every moment a decisive moment, and take responsibility for what you do and don’t do • Reawaken a childlike sense of wonder and connection • Learn how to best utilize your gifts and skills for the good of your self and the world • Discover how to actively fulfill your most meaningful purpose and live your dreams • Learn to better celebrate and fuller savor
While informed by the natural world, the practice of Animá does not depend on our living in a wild or rural place, and is even more important for maintaining awareness, integrity and balance in an urban or suburban environment. Civilization and culture exist not apart from nature, but as overlays. Animá teaches us about maintaining contact with the vitality, the inspiration, the wisdom and sense of belonging that resides underneath the concrete and pavement, and outside of our walls and constructs. It likewise teaches the means for recognizing and staying in touch with our authentic, instinctual, inner selves, that lie beneath the surface layer of busyness and intellection, projection, distraction, mask and fears. Embodying our own true, unique, evolving natures, in what will forever be a changing, natural world.
Animá is an opportunity to be vitalized, and to make more vital the towns and cities we call home. To bring the arts of reconnection into our daily lives, our relationships, careers and communities. To positively affect, even in small ways, everyone we meet. To make our environs more healthy, beautiful and natural, as we heal, express and manifest our natural selves.
Animá teaches no particular cultural tradition or bias, although it shares many “knowings” in common with the various ancient earth-based cultures who tapped the same source and wellspring. It does not promote any particular economic system, other than our active participation in the natural cycles of reciprocity. It recommends no political party and takes no political stance... only an ethos of courageous wholeness and direct action, in which each person must find their own best ways of employing and making real their personal beliefs, gifts and visions. And with its emphasis on engagement, personal choice and personal response-ability, it is clearly not “New Age.”
By practicing intense presence, we not only take more in, but can also give more. By making every moment conscious and decisive, we take responsibility for our actions and effects. Learning to better understand, accept and even love the natural self, can help heal the feelings of inadequacy and insecurity that are a cause of most self destructiveness, escapism, depression, sexism, neighborhood violence, war, and global destruction. Learning to intimately reconnect with the natural world can lead not just to a more satisfying life, but to acting in our own individual ways to protect, restore, resacrament and celebrate that diversity and wildness. When we sense at the deepest levels that we are connected to all that is, we experience helping the world as aiding our own extended selves. While each person is unique, Animá takes us to our core, beneath the edifice and habit, and to a place of core agreements and values. In the state where we are most alive, we are also most connected, empathic, grateful and caring. Learning to open to the pain of separation and imbalance, simultaneously expands our capacities to feel excitement, awe, love, inspiration, satisfaction and bliss.
Anima is a study and practice that can be utilized by those of virtually any religion. Because of the awareness it raises, its empowering of the individual and the personal insights it inspires, it can of course either affirm, disprove, or cast new light on existing and institutional beliefs.
For the agnostic or practical seeker, Anima can be readily explained in the language of new science, from the latest understandings of ecology and psychology to Larry Dossey’s research into the extended mind and Rupert Sheldrake’s theory of “morphic fields.” For the less secularly minded, the Anima can be described in terms of sacred creation, accessible spirit, blessings and revealings, special experiences and difficult lessons that seem meant to be, the feeling of oneness, Satori and ecstasy.
Anima holds that all people, things and experiences are potentially teachers for us, any time we are open to the lessons they or their examples provide... and that as beings conscious of the effects we have on others and on the world, we all need to take responsibility for being teachers and examples ourselves. What matters then, is what we project and teach... and how.
Gurus, Cults and various religious institutions disempower their students or followers by assuming a position of unattainable superiority or enlightenment, reducing their options with dogma and rules, and shaking their belief in their ability to make right choices. They often insist that they are the necessary intermediary and sole bridge between them and God, spirit or truth. Anima, in contrast, offers no inflexible dogma or rules, and empowers students and practitioners to make their own informed choices and take proportional responsibility for the effects and results.
Long before there was a women’s center in this enchanted place – long before anyone had yet joined founder Jesse Wolf Hardin as residents, teachers and guides – a majority of those who came seeking clarity and transformation were for whatever reasons female. This may have been due to an inherent or learned willingness to be vulnerable, or an ability to admit what they didn’t understand and ask for help... or simply that more women were able hear and respond to the call of the canyon. This has led, however, to an even greater appreciation for the special men who seek out this teaching and land.
In spite of the feminine monikers Gaia and Mother Earth, life and the Anima include a dynamic balance of male and female energies and expressions, taking every imaginable form. Given men’s general position of influence and power, and the ways that destruction and war are so often labeled “male” tendencies, imparting the knowings and practice of Anima to men is all the more important. Anima teaches that the problem is not true natural masculine energy, but rather, men’s disenfranchisement from their true male attributes and callings.
Opportunities at the Anima Sanctuary include Vision Quests facilitated in part by Jesse Wolf Hardin, Couples Retreats with one’s spouse or partner, and events for men and women including the Couples & Relationships Workshop, Shaman Path Weekend, Wild Foods Weekend. and Nature Writing Workshop. We invite you to apply to be a Student of either the Sacred Heart or Shaman Path Correspondence Courses… as well as to consider becoming a Member and even Supporter.
Everything and everybody is an influence and teacher for us, for better or for worse. It can, however, be both ineffective and counterproductive to take the eclectic approach, picking and choosing between the elements of various dogmas, traditions, philosophies, religions or magical practices in order to get just what you like or are comfortable with. Animá is a return to the root and source of all valid insight, and as such benefits from a paring down, and from a focusing on the hard as well as easy lessons that can give us back ourselves.
You can both learn more and aid this work by becoming a Member. You can study Animá via available Counsel, Writings by Wolf, Loba and Kiva, and Books. The Way of Animá for example, is a collection of powerful earthen aphorisms, understandings, insights and tools available spiral bound from us, and there will one day be both a Medicine Woman Tradition book and a comprehensive text and manual to be called The Book Of Animá. Please write us to request the current list of available Anima titles and music CDs. The greatest way to learn, of course, will always be through personal experience, sometimes inspired or assigned by a Teacher/Guide. To learn all one can – and to further apply what is learned – consider applying for one of our Studentship Correspondence Courses and participating in the online Anima Forum (for students only)... or you might feel drawn to an even more involved Apprenticeship.
Today, as every day, we are called. We who refuse to numb down, who insist on feeling the full measure of this miraculous world– are beckoned to step forward and embrace not only a new adventure, but an ancient, essential, ultimately unique personal purpose.
We are called upon to embody a sensibility or spirituality that in-cludes rather than pre-cludes the natural world, called to commit to a mission that contributes to the health of the planet as well as the wholeness of the sentient self.... and that fully honors the connective, animating force by whatever name we know it. Ours is a practice that promotes celebratory existence, that deepens reverence for life, diversity, and that vital quality we call "wildness." We're called away from our loneliness, separation and distraction.... and on to the communion of home baked bread, the precious touch of family or lover, the ritual of planting a garden, the act of replanting a forest, and the inspiration of a single flower.
This resource is immediate, always present, and available to us all no matter where we might live, work and play. We can find it in unfolding creation and our individual life's quest. In the kept promises of the rising sun, after the darkness of another introspective night. In a youngster, saddened by the sight of a butterfly bounced off a windshield onto the shoulder of some numbered road.... and in an old woman finding reason to go on living in the playful antics of that same sensitive child. It finds expression in the sermon-scream of falcons tilting above our crowded streets, in the spontaneous prayers of outlaw dandelions erupting in the cracks of every aging sidewalk, in the spiraling reggae of the DNA helix and the twisting samba-line of ants ascending a gnarled cottonwood tree. Its testimony is written in stone, in granite and quartz, in demonstrations of authenticity and belonging, in the weight and substance of commitment to place. Its message soars on the lift of robins' wings, echoes off the moon when the coyote sings. It is carried forth from the ancient past to the uncertain future, in the hearts of everyone devoted to restoration, sacrament, and celebration of what is most crucial, beautiful and real.
We are called – to be authentic and true, to be intensely in present time, to inhabit our sensory bodies as in our bioregions and homes, to compromise less of what matters, to insist on lovers or mates that both recognize and encourage us, to seek work that serves our spirits as it helps us to best serve. We are called to nourish ourselves at least as much as we nourish and tend others, to follow our hearts, honor our needs, and live our dreams.
Animá welcomes us back to the fullest experience and expression of purposeful self, to a state of heightened awareness and the roots and lessons of place... welcomes us home
Apprenticeships are for only the most intensely connected, committed and determined students, practitioners and allies of Animá. To them we offer:
• A Core Apprenticeship, with a one year initial commitment to study and practice, and at least one trip to the Sanctuary to work directly with your Teachers/Guides and experience the land
• An Advanced Apprenticeship, for those who have successfully completed a core apprenticeship and want to continue furthering their study, practice, and possibly residency... long term, and potentially lifetime
• An Apprenticeship for Guides, an advanced apprenticeship focused on assisting students determined to become Animá Teachers/Guides themselves
As an Apprentice, you would be a student not only of the Animá teachings and your Teachers/Guides, but also of the Sanctuary land – an ancient place of power and open conduit to the source for those open enough to take in its wisdom, instruction and power. And of the greater Anima, the inspirited earth we are all elements and constituents of.
In addition, you would be considered an adjunct, agent and emissary of Animá and the Animá Center. It would be expected that you would make every effort to: • Act with integrity at all times, make every moment ever more conscious and decisive • Continue with a focused program of studies, beginning with the Animá Paths & Courses. • Apply all your lessons and realizations, to deepen your life and better your world • Purposefully share your knowings and insights with others, as well as teach through example • Actively spread word of Animá the teaching, and the opportunities at the Animá Center • Possibly help inspire or set up Animá study and practice groups • Support the work of the Animá Center financially and energetically, as you are able • Open to the lessons and blessings of the earthen anima and the natural world • Continuously work towards greater awakeness and wholeness, on your path of being and gifting • Embrace purpose, commit to what matters most, and fulfill all your commitments
• A minimum full 1 year commitment to studying and purposefully applying what you learn • Enrollment in the Correspondence Course path of your choice • A pilgrimage to the Sanctuary, and completion of a 2-night or more Vision Quest there • A commitment to fulfill your assignments, to change your life and the world around you to the best of your ability • Your openness, positive attitude, willingness, focus, and heartful efforts
Advanced Apprenticeship: • Completion of at least a 1 year Core Apprenticeship • Completion of at least 1 Animá Path correspondence course • Commitment to a second 1 year long Animá Path course, or to a long term Path we develop special to meet your gifts, calling and needs • Coming to the Center to learn and work directly with the land and Guides, at least 1 and preferably 2 times or more per year • An increasing commitment to your study and practice, to effecting the world, to Animá and the Animá Center, to spreading word of the Teachings and Center, and to the embrace and fulfillment of purpose
Apprenticeships For Guides: • Meeting all the requirements of an Advanced Apprenticeship, above • Committing to the most impeccable learning, embodying sharing, spreading and teaching of Animá • Dedication to becoming all you can, in order to give all you can • Making being an Animá Guide your primary intent and focus, even if not your only vocation (information on the role responsibilities of Anima Guides follows below)
If this were a business, they would be called organizers, outreach coordinators and facilitators. If it were a religion, they would be our clergy. But as a teaching center and developing tradition, they are our teachers. Animá Guides are vital extensions of this evolving practice and special place, an inner circle of closest associates devoted to passing on as well as living this way and truth. Responsibilities Include: • Remaining students of Animá as well as of life, studying and working to expand on all present and future Animá related knowings and written works. • Developing a strategy for attracting students, a curricula personalized to include one’s personal experiences and gifts, and the means and venues for teaching. • Accepting and fulfilling assignments intended to maximize effectiveness as a Teacher/Guide. • Setting up member Study & Practice groups in one’s home town, or traveling to help set up groups elsewhere. • Setting up on-line study groups, and/or networking and sharing our understandings on the innumerable discussion sites and chat rooms. • Sending reports to the Center on the work being done, student responses, quandaries and questions to the Animá Center, to make it possible for us to best support, clarify and aid the Guides and their charges, and to help improve the Animá curricula or teaching methods. • Fundraising by whatever means to finance the Guide’s own outreach, purchase of materials, and minimal subsistence as needed. • Fundraising, and making donations/tithings to the Center to support the Sanctuary land, events, publications, curricula developments and national outreach. • Giving presentations, seeking book and magazine venues that could be submitted to, and if you can, writing press releases, essays, poetry, blogs • Seeking out venues for giving your own print and radio interviews, or arrange for interviews for Jesse Wolf Hardin and the Center Guides • Applying, utilizing and teaching all insights and knowings as powerfully, creatively, beautifully as able • Continuously improving speaking, writing, counseling and teaching skills • Consciously setting an example at all times • Always acting and teaching with impeccable intention, effort and integrity | ||
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An Essay by Jesse Wolf Hardin
