Doug Van Houten
The singular dream that has been a perennial guide for Doug van Houten’s own guiding practice is one where humans thrive in a mutually enhancing relationship with Earth, know our cosmic origins, and see ourselves as integral and yet necessarily unique participants in the ongoingness of the universe. His lineage of teachers and inspirators includes: Bill Plotkin and the Animas Valley Institute, Joanna Macy, Matthew Fox, David Whyte, Mary Oliver and Brian Swimme to name a few. In co-creating wild, ceremonial and soulcentric spaces for human development, Doug draws upon the wisdom of deep imagery and dreams, somatic and embodied knowing, poetry and art-making, and many pan-cultural, soul furthering, nature-responsive practices. Doug’s true calling manifests in a devotion to supporting others to transform themselves toward wholeness and maturation as they descend into the mystic wellspring of their imaginations, drink deeply from soul’s source, drench in their own unique grief and gifts and return to outpour their particular powers in service to what Thomas Berry called, ”The Great Work” of our time. In addition to guiding and mentoring Doug expresses his own soul’s longing as a visual artist, a wily wanderer, an intuitive dream tracker, an occasional beekeeper, a heart-centered activist, an emerging yogi and cosmic dancer.
> Bringing words to life — thank you, Dr. Hilary Leighton, Animas Board Member.
Events with Doug Van Houten
An Animas Quest in the Sonoran Desert – November, 2025October 27 - November 7, 2025
This Program is FULL. Please sign up for the waitlist. THE ANIMAS QUEST This contemporary Western embodiment of the ancient, pan-cultural vision fast is a dynamic wilderness rite for all who are seeking greater depth and clarity about life purpose and meaning. As a rite of initiation, the quest is a ceremonial descent to the underworld, in which you die to your familiar way of belonging to the world, uncover the passion and wisdom of your soul, and retrieve the gift that is yours alone to bring to the world, enhancing personal fulfillment and genuine service. The Animas Quest catalyzes…
Prayers In The Dark: Tending Our Visionary Fires, Online - December, 2025December 2, 2025 - January 13, 2026
WE LIVE AT A PIVOTAL MOMENT IN EARTH’S HISTORY, a time of extraordinary challenge and uncertainty in which our precious world — with its endangered creatures and imperiled ecosystems — hangs by a precariously thin thread. The human species has entered a collective dark night — perhaps a necessary one. At an hour like this, each of us must dare to walk directly into the fires of love, bravely relinquishing old modes of being and surrendering ourselves to what is beckoning from the human soul and from what Thomas Berry calls, ‘the Dream of the Earth’. While cooking in these fires, as…
The Dark Alchemy of Embodied Prayer: Dancing with Grief & Gift-Bearing – January 2026, AustraliaJanuary 27 - 31, 2026
WE LIVE IN A PIVOTAL MOMENT ON EARTH, a time of immense challenge and profound uncertainty, in which this precious world, with its endangered creatures and imperiled ecosystems, hangs by a precariously thin thread. This is a time of both a great unraveling and a great turning, a time when humanity has entered a collective dark night — perhaps a necessary one. And yet, this moment is not only about collapse. It is a summons – a mythic invitation to return to the body as a sacred vessel of memory, movement, and metamorphosis. A call to embrace our full participation…
Wild Mind Intensive – February 2026, AustraliaFebruary 3 - 7, 2026
Based on Bill Plotkin’s third book, Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche, this 5-day intensive is an experiential exploration of our human psyches as unique expressions of the universal forces and patterns of nature. We will work with what we call the Nature-Based Map of the Human Psyche, which is, among other things, a comprehensive inventory of what can be right about a person, a ‘shadow’ version of mainstream psychology’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), a list of what can go wrong with people. Our wild minds possess astonishing resources, untapped potentials and depths that we might…
An Australian Animas Quest – February 2026, AustraliaFebruary 10 - 21, 2026
The Animas Quest catalyses the encounter with soul by temporarily displacing everyday consciousness through five primary means: (1) solitude for three or four days and nights while (2) fasting (i.e., drinking water only), (3) being fully exposed to and enfolded within the forms and forces of nature, (4) enacting a series of ceremonies, and (5) employing a set of practices (Soulcraft) that support you in crossing into the mysteries of nature and psyche. The Quest takes place over a total of 12 days. Preceding your time of solitude are five full days of preparation activities that enhance your ability to benefit…