Collage Doug van Houten, guide at Animas Valley Institute.
In Soulcentric Dreamwork you’ll learn what it’s like to enter dreams as mysteries, to boldly and vulnerably interact with its denizens and dreamscapes.
Animas Valley Institute Intensive in partnership with Efecto Mariposa
Dates: September 10 – 14, 2025
Location: Reserva Natural Amancara, Gachantivá, Boyacá
(on the outskirts of Villa de Leyva)
Program Description
The soul yearns to dream itself into the world. Every dream emerges from the mystery of the soul and is an opportunity for our conscious self, our ego, to be further initiated into the secret stream of our deeper life.
On this 5-day immersion, you’ll learn what it’s like to enter dreams as mysteries; to boldly and vulnerably interact with its denizens and dreamscapes; to be moved by the deep intelligence of its living images; to open to non-ordinary ways of perceiving; and to experience the underdream of your everyday waking life.
Soul speaks through images, including those that comprise dreams. While most modern forms of dreamwork focus on interpretation and analysis, soulcentric dreamwork invites us to do something radically different — to fully surrender to the experience the dream wants us to have, however strange it may be. A soulcentric approach holds every dream as an embodied invitation to our unfolding soul story.
In this intensive, we’ll wander slowly in the disturbing splendor of the nightworld’s rich symbols, images, and emotions. We’ll courageously commit to an extended stay in the soul’s mysterious domain, permitting the dream to do its formidable work on the ego. Instead of trying to figure out the meaning of the dream, we’ll submit ourselves to its atmospheres, landscapes, and characters.
Earth is always dreaming and inviting us to dive into our own dreamstream. The inner wilds of dreams and the outer wilderness of the world are two of the most potent guides to soul. Unlike any other Western form of dreamwork, we’ll enter both wildernesses at the same time, amplifying the initiatory effects of both. We’ll apprentice ourselves to the mystery held within our dreams while approaching the animate world as if it is listening and wanting to participate. We’ll re-enter our dreams while deepening our conversation with the other-than-human world.
Through a variety of modalities — including direct dialogue with the dream itself, expressive arts and movement, deep imagery, and wandering on the land with (and in) our dreams — we’ll explore how our dreams want to shift us, what doors they want to open, and what underworld thresholds they want to usher us over.
Join us and deepen into your dreams and your unfolding soul story!
“There is an opening downward within each moment, an unconscious reverberation, like the thin thread of the dream that we awaken with in our hands each morning, leading back and down into the images of the dark.”
–James Hillman, The Dream and the Underworld
Modality:
We will camp in individual tents in Amancara Natural Reserve in Gachantivá in the outskirts of Villa de Leyva, Boyacá, Colombia. Participants will be invited to bring their breakfast and lunch foods, and that together as a group we organize the dinners. We will have fun collaborating to cook together, as well as to maintain our spaces and ensure common care.
Investment: Sliding scale $ 2.920.000 – $3.690.000 COP
To apply for the course, you must complete the registration form. Efecto Mariposa will review your applications and confirm your spot with payment instructions. Payment is made by bank transfer or deposit. Send proof of payment to corporacionefectomariposa@gmail.com and you’re done!
The program includes:
- Tutoring, materials, use of the Reserve’s spaces, and meals.
Not included:
- Tents or camping equipment and transportation to and from the reserve.
What to bring:
Complete camping equipment for cold and rainy terrain:
- Camping tent
- Plastic to insulate the tent
- Insulating mattress
- Sleeping bag
Comfortable clothing for warm weather during the day and cold weather at night, with the possibility of rain, especially:
- Raincoat
- Jacket or poncho for the cold.
- Hiking boots.
- Camping shoes
- Food for the group (shared food for everyone)
- The 5 portable lunches in individual backpacks, according to each person’s taste and criteria. These lunches cannot be cooked or refrigerated
- Optional: your own snack
Others:
- whistle
- Headlamp with charged batteries
- Toilet paper
- Personal hygiene items
- Personal trash bag
- Bowl, plate, cup, and cutlery
- Water bottle (no disposable plastic)
- Small backpack for daily excursions
- Field notebook
- Musical instrument
- Power object or amulet
Facilitation
Doug van Houten
Doug brings knowledge of the natural world, depth psychology, ecopsychology, dreams, somatic awareness, poetry, and many pan-cultural practices that seek to delve into the depths of the soul: the art of Council, visionary fasting, shadow work, symbolic art, trance dance, and conversations with the more-than-human world.
Doug’s true calling is to support others in uncovering their unique gifts and understanding how, through doing so, they can transform their lives in service to what Thomas Berry called “The Great Work of Our Time.”
Doug is a beekeeper, a visual artist, a crafty wanderer, a trailblazer who follows the trail of dreams wherever they lead, an emerging ceremonialist, a heart-centered activist, and a dancing yogi interested in new forms of somatic practice.
The Efecto Mariposa Team.
For this intensive we will work in partnership with Doug, Adriana Puech, Diana Pizano y Alejandra Balcázar.