A therapist and wilderness guide, Bill Plotkin has developed a new approach to nature-based spirituality which combines modern psychology, ceremony, and wilderness experiences, to support people in uncovering their deepest personal truths.

Soulcraft is an approach to the psyche and the world that embraces both wild nature and the depths of our souls; it could be called an eco-depth psychology.

Written for people in search of their true selves and for those at a crossroad or transition in their lives, Soulcraft outlines a journey, drawn on ancient traditions, that takes the form of a ceremonial “descent to soul,” uncovering and retrieving the passion and wisdom of the heart. The descent can also reveal the unique gift that each individual can bring to the world. To accelerate the descent, he offers “practices for ‘leaving home’—loosening your attachment to your current personality and the worldview within which you have operated.” Soulcraft explores over 20 pathways to soul encounter, specific methods for discovering and investigating soul’s dark mysteries.

Although they spring from the traditional waters of nature-based cultures, these pathways are presented here in contemporary Western containers. The methods range from soul-oriented dreamwork to trance rhythms and dance, and include self-designed ceremonies, soul poetry, the way of council, the modern vision quest, and communicating with nature through signs and omens as well as through direct dialogue.

Stories from the author’s life and from others who have lived these practices help to illustrate this “contemporary path to initiation for people of Western cultures, a nature-based way to a soul-rooted adulthood and, eventually, elderhood.”

“In Soulcraft we find a new language, a new therapy, and a burning passion to get to the very heart of the universe.” —Stephen Foster, School of Lost Borders

“Here is an abundantly wise and carefully crafted survival guide for the wild soul currently dozing (or dying) at the heart of your civilized life. Plotkin has wandered again and again into the nourishing darkness, and has returned with this earthly bundle of insights and images, alive with ritual intelligence, thick with useful tools from a host of courageous comrades.” —David Abram, author of The Spell of the Sensuous