Red Heart Soulcraft: July 25 - 29, 2026

Artwork by Doug Van Houten

Come join us in the red sands and wild gorges of Eastern Arrernte desert country, land shaped by the Caterpillar Dreaming, held by Eastern Arrernte Traditional Owners as a living current and Law.  Here the ancient rocks speak in the language of deep time, the gnarled river gums beckon to the deep imagination, and the rumbling subterranean waters invite you to your sacred edge, calling for you to dive in…This is an opportunity to wander under the vast, open skies and to listen closely to the wild indigenous spirit of the land, where you may offer yourself up for psycho-spiritual transformation and to be reshaped by the image of your own Soul.

A residential, fully catered intensive held on Inteye-Arrkwe (Eastern Arrernte Country) at Ross River Resort, Yepenyere (East MacDonnell Ranges), Northern Territory, 85 km east of Alice Springs. Maximum of 16 participants. 

Program Fees - Soulcraft Australia & New Zealand Inc is a not for profit, volunteer association: 

• Early Bird: $1,995 plus GST

• Full Price: $2,100 plus GST

• Concession: $1,875 plus GST

We encourage you to pay the full price if you have the means to do so. This will enable us to cover costs and offer some concessional places to those in need. If you are challenged financially, please contact us to discuss. 

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The Soulcraft Intensive is our popular five-day experiential plunge into the wild depths of Soulcraft; a synergistic set of nature-based practices designed to evoke the life-shifting experience of soul encounter. Your soul is your true self, those qualities that most deeply define and express who you are and the unique gift that you were born to bring to the world, a world so much in need of the socially transforming contributions of initiated, actively engaged adults.

To encounter the soul is to discover the mystical image you were born with, which reveals the path to your greatest personal fulfillment as well as the essence of your true service to society (the cross-cultural wisdom traditions say these are one and the same). 

Soulcraft practices spring from nature-based cultures, modern depth psychology, the poetic tradition, and wilderness rites of passage—to comprise a truly contemporary Western path to soul discovery and soul initiation. For a full discussion, see Bill Plotkin’s book Soulcraft: Crossing Into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche.

The Soulcraft Intensive is highly experiential and—well—intense. 

We alternate between practices utilised in group, practices explored in solitude in nature, and sharing and deepening those experiences. 

What you discover through one practice is carried into and amplified by what you learn in the next. By the end of the intensive, you will understand yourself and your place in the world from a more soul-oriented perspective, be clearer about the gifts you were born to bring to the world, and have new skills to enrich your life and to defend the health of the more-than-human world.

Soulcraft practices include:

·        Soulcentric Dreamwork

·        Deep Imagery Work with Animal Guides

·        Talking Across the Species Boundaries

·        The Way of Council

·        Soul Tasks in Nature

·        Self-Designed Ceremony

·        Shadow Work

·        Soul Poetry

·        Sacred Wound Work

·        Synchronicities: Working with Nature’s Signs and Omens

·        Befriending the Dark

·        Ecstatic Trance Drumming and Dancing and many others! 

Photo: Ross River Resort

Venue:

Ross River Resort in the East MacDonnell Ranges (Yepenyere), Northern Territory, 85 km east of Alice Springs. The resort is built around the historic 1898 Loves Creek Homestead and covers 18,000 acres which includes dramatic red cliffs, dry creek beds, ghost gums and access to stunning gorges and swimming holes. 

Ross River Resort is easily accessible via sealed road from Alice Springs (Mpartnwe). Carpooling from Alice Springs to the venue will be arranged.

Food and Accommodation:

The program is fully catered, providing hearty vegetarian food. Our caterer is experienced in looking after those with special dietary needs and will be provided with details of dietary restrictions advised by you at registration.

There is dormitory accommodation in shared bunk rooms or camping if preferred. 

Your Guide:

Jules Howatt

From her earliest memory, Jules has been spellbound by wild places, following the call of wind, water, and stone into the ever-unfolding mysteries of the living earth, the untamed depths of the psyche, and the shadowed realms of the Underworld. Storm-shaped and drawn toward horizons without fences, she has braided her life from the edge of the land’s fierce beauty, the deep currents of soul, and the dark shimmer of what cannot be seen, yet is always felt. She walks beside others as they turn toward their own wild truth, into landscapes both inner and outer where longing and Mystery conspire to weave a deeper story. An ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide, wilderness guide, and photographer, Jules makes her home in the Monashee Mountains of Canada, on the traditional territory of the Sinixt people. Here, she listens to the songs of the peaks and rivers, her two adventurous adult children keep her deeply moved and wildly entertained, and she is held in awe by the land’s enchantment.

We acknowledge the First Nations Peoples of this Country and their connection with land, sea,community and story. We offer our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty has never been ceded. It always was and always will be, Aboriginal land.