“Anima 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

The word Anima (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 Anima, then, is being – ever more consciously and courageously – an intentional participant in that unending process of healing, awakening, enlivening and creating.

Anima is a primary and primal way of engaging and experiencing life as well as healing. It is, above all, a practice, actively applying what is learned or intuited, stepping beyond theory and ideas to actually act, aid, remedy, improve or heal. The Healingways & Lifeways we teach are enjoined, life-affirming paths that can fundamentally contribute to personal and planetary wholeness. These courses – like the practice of Anima itself – are manifestly experiential and hands-on, involving a seamless integration of sensory awareness and intellectual knowledge, whole body cognition and incorporation, action and application.

Anima is not only a perspective and approach, but a cohesive teaching system and integrative way of being and doing, predicated on a dynamic understanding of ecology, sense of place, and a sense of personal choice and responsibility. Its principles and tools are informed by deepened awareness of the natural world and our own inner natures, as well as the land based wisdom of traditional peoples and the unique understandings of this School’s founders.

The practice of Animá can well serve any sensitive, deeply feeling individual, and can prove instrumental for those of you who are in your own individual ways healers and teachers, activists and artists... equipping you with the perceptual, conceptual, educational and developmental tools necessary to most efficiently and effectively act.

The Primary & Primal Elements of the Practice

• To recognize that all organisms are imbued with an animating intelligence and that we are an integral part of an inspirited, sentient earth.

• To participate wholly and consciously in the present moment, consciously expanding and deepening our sensory and whole-body awareness, being open to both the bliss and pain of existence, the excruciating and the ecstatic.

• To act with an integrity rooted in that knowledge that all things are interconnected, and that every action in some way effects the the larger world.

• To exercise discernment and personal responsibility (the-ability-to-respond) at all times, with the visceral and intellectual understanding that every moment is a decisive moment, and that everything we do matters.

• To help heal our selves and our world... with the knowledge that health is wholeness, and healing the process of helping to make whole.

• To walk each step with the intent of a creator and artist, the curiosity and delight of a child, the profound immediacy of someone facing a mortal disease, the empathy and compassion of a healer, the concern and determination of an activist, the awareness and responsiveness of a warrior, the devotion of a gardener or parent, the perceptivity of a shaman, and the focus and passion of a person greatly in love... awakened and enlivened, purposeful and proactive.

Being and living is beginning to take on new meaning. I got a lot from you all... It's time in my life to move forward. It's going to take time and practice. But you all are brave enough to live full out, and I feel honored to have the opportunity to be and live more myself. Your examples and support are providing me with the necessary power and self-acceptance I need to go forward. Thanks so much and forever. You all are teachers.
-Lee Hurwit (Boulder, CO)

Workshops & Classes

We offer annual workshops and classes on site at the Anima Lifeways & Herbal School, on an 80 acre botanical sanctuary and wildlife refuge. This includes an annual weekend long Traditional Western Herbalism Workshops, our very popular Shaman’s Path Intensive each July and regular plant walks and medicine making classes. Depending on demand, we sometimes also schedule workshops and classes in river restoration, counseling skills, rewilding intensives and much more. Additionally, Anima is also a sponsor of and the organizers for the Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference held at Ghost Ranch near Santa Fe, NM. You can see more about the individual offerings and further details on our Workshops page.

Distance Programs & Correspondence Courses

For those who prefer or need to learn from home, we provide a wide variety of distance programs and correspondence courses in the same subjects we offer on-site workshops and classes. There are both comprehensive series of courses based around a central theme as well as individual courses in diverse subjects, depending on the student’s goals and needs. Please see the Courses page for details.

On-Site Herbal Program

Beginning in Spring 2011 we will be offering a seven month intensive herbal program. This is an in-depth, experiential education in botanical medicine that will cover the skills and information that provide the foundation for working as a practicing herbalist. Classes will be held two weekends a month each month from April through October. In addition to the primary curriculum, field trips and classes by guest teachers will provide supplementary opportunities.

More information on this program will be available this summer, as well as an application form for prospective students. The program has limited space and an application process, so please keep an eye on the On-Site Herbal Program page (or the Anima Lifeways & Herbal School blog) for updates.

To my new friends and teachers - My time here has been so necessary and fulfilling, and I'm thankful for each of you and this place of sacred power: Loba- for your kind and loving spirit, generous nurturing, magical food and warm hugs. Kiva - for your gift of understanding nad healing, conviction, commitment and laughter. Wolf - for your undying dedication to this land and years of healing its wounds, your wisdom, teaching and your gentle listening heart. Rhiannon - for being my tour guide, caretaker and fantastic teacher in the making. And this canyon, which touched my soul so deeply. You are all inspiring , whole-hearted, giving people and I feel blessed to have crossed your paths. With gratitude.
-Melissa (Santa Fe, NM)

Students can 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 the 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 also your world, and commit to acting accordingly

• Develop the mindset and skills to survive and thrive through difficult social and economic times

• 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

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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.

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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.

The increasingly difficult global economic times are neither a fluke nor a surprise, being the predictable result of an unsustainable mindset and unsustainable social paradigm. The benefits of this long term downturn are a permanent readjustment of the status quo, the exposure of untenable credit systems, vanishing oil reserves, untenable ecological practices and debilitating governmental intrusion in our personal lives. Animá encourages the kinds of self knowledge, ultra-awareness, connection to nature, self-authority, local governance, regional self sufficiency and tribal community that can not only sustain us through hard times... but that even in the best of times, can help us wholly thrive.

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The Animá Lifeways & Herbal School Blog

The Anima Lifeways & Herbal School blog for in-depth looks at ecology, tales of rural living, nature therapy, foraging, herbal medicine, wild foods preparation, forays into the homesteading life, student stories, whole foods recipes, School updates and much more.

To get new posts sent to you automatically, go to the Animá Lifeways & Herbal School Blog and entering your email adress in the box one the right hand column.

The Animá Healing Arts Blog

The Anima Healing Arts blog is an award winning blog featuring medicinal plant musings, recipes, thoughts on rewilding, wild foods ideas, ethnobotanical information, forays into field botany, case studies, poetry and photography by lauded herbalist and teacher Kiva Rose.

To get new posts sent to you automatically, go to the Animá Healing Arts Blog and enter your email address in the subscription box in the right-hand column.

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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 just a new adventure but an ancient, essential, ultimately unique personal purpose.

We are called upon to embody a sensibility 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, Animáting 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.

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