The WildMind Deep Nature Immersion 2025 - The Roots & Rites of Renewal
An Initiatory Rite of Passage
Ask yourself…
Am I ready to show up for myself, the life I wish to live and the world I want to create?
If so, this may be of interest…
6 places // Registration Closes 15th August // connect@pauljhowell.com
Summary / The Hero & Heroine’s Journey / An Initiatory Rite of Passage / It’s Not That / Poetic Interlude / Embracing Solitude / Schedule
Summary
The WildMind Deep Nature Immersion
If we choose or are otherwise called to live an authentic life rooted in curiosity, connection and creativity, mindful of our privileged place in the ecocentric web of life; a life echoing what Joseph Campbell called The Hero’s Journey, what Carl Jung called The Path of Individuation, and what Carlos Castaneda called The Path With A Heart, we must recognise the passing of time alone does not convey psychological and emotional maturation in humans; we don’t grow wise just because we grow old, we must confront the nature of change within ourselves.
As with all of nature, the human psyche in its fullest expression is organic - designed to change and grow, hardwired to evolve across the arc of our lives as we cross a series of biological, psychological and social thresholds - e.g. from embryo to infant, infant to child, child to adolescent, adolescent to young adult, young adult to adult, adult to elder, elder to ancestor.
That means, we must come to realise that rather than the Hero & Heroine’s Journey being an outward fight to prove something to the world, it it is in fact an inward quest to embody the roots of what is emergent, timeless and trancendent within us, and further, it is that inner quest that expresses itself outwardly in an infinte array of subtle yet potent life-affirming transfugurations and transformations that serve the world. And, that service, however large or small, is the reward in and of itself, simply the authentic experience of participation in lifes universal unfolding.
In this offering - to help individuals clarify and attune to their intention before undertaking such a journey a period of preparation takes place, some of which will be in the company of others, some of which will be undertaken alone, some of which is practical, some psychological, some online, some in Scotland under the big sky, gathered in council, sitting around the fire.
Then follows the wilderness quest / vision fast - a period of solitude, where only water is consumed and life is sustained with basic but adequate shelter in a semi-wild location beginning and ending at sunrise, over a period of 4 days and 4 nights.
Upon returning, individuals are supported to integrate their experience before returning home, when several months ongoing support and complementary resources are available to ensure the period of incorporation is respected, and adequately and appropriately tended.The Hero & Heroine’s Journey
The Creative Unconscious & Nature’s Deep Imagination At Play
“the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.”
Joseph Campbell - The Hero with a Thousand Faces
If we choose to live an authentic life rooted in curiosity, connection and creativity, mindful of our privileged place in the ecocentric web of life - a life we could say echoes what Joseph Campbell called The Hero’s Journey, what Carl Jung called The Path of Individuation, and what Carlos Castaneda called The Path With A Heart, we must recognise the passing of time alone does not convey psychological and emotional maturation in humans - we don’t grow wise just because we grow old.
Yet, as with all of nature, the human psyche in its fullest expression is organic - designed to change and grow, hardwired to evolve and move us deeper, as we epand out across the radiating arc of our lives, undergoing a series of biological, psychological and social thresholds - e.g. from embryo to infant, infant to child, child to adolescent, adolescent to young adult, young adult to adult, adult to elder, elder to ancestor.
Some thresholds we are conscious of, whilst others seem to pass by unrecognised, unacknowledged or worse, avoided at all costs.
For us to grow truly wise and know in our bones what that means - what gifts and grace we carry, what value we are to the world, what value it is to us, personally and culturally, and then honour that each day - for that to happen we need to undergo certain life affirming experiences that help us differentiate previous stages of development, as we also discern what the next stage might look like and what that then means for us and our world.
We can think of these thresholds in terms of three stages, which we go back and forth over - Severenace, Threshold, Incorporation - whilst the overall direction is not necesarily forward, but depth and expansion of identity.
If adequate, appropriate attention to this psychological aspect of our evolution is absent, thwarted or significantly distorted in individuals, communities and / or societies, we begin to experience the regressive consequences of navigating life with an outdated map, one that reflects the outdated values and beliefs underpinning the foundations of an increasingly worn out sense of identity - often revealed as the performance of provisional identity.
When this happens - because it is supposed to happen, we can easily become disoriented as the beliefs and values that once seemed to work so well disintegrate, no longer supporting or carrying us forward. The ‘who we are’ in our life stops making sense, as no matter how much we will ourselves we sink deeper into patterns that serve only the past and seem irrelevant or even counter to what we need in the present, and a major hinderance to our ability to percieve, grasp and claim the potentials of the future.
Instead, we begin to experience dead ends, repeatedly go over old ground or unknowingly return back to where we started. It seems we have to put more effort and energy into standing still, forcing ourselves to continue even though we are increasingly less fulfilled, more tired and uninspired.
If we are attuned to our inner world, in the quiet moments we may sense that some aspect of us is experiencing a kind of death or diminishment.
Yet, as part of the human race we also know that we are part of a lineage - that our ancient ancestors lived in nature based cultures, that were deeply attuned to the cycles of life, death, rebirth in the material and symbolic sense - subtle yet powerful wisdom that evolved over thousands of years.
Central to their ability to thrive, before the written word existed, this deep wisdom was expressed as life affirming rituals and ceremonies which spoke directly to the somatic and symbol aspects of our consciousness and supported individual maturation, growing capacities for personal responsibility and a sense of coherence and cohesion as a tribe - from the ground up.
Their shared vision, values and purpose continued to evolve and be expressed in different, yet complimentary ways, taking on fresh meanings as they learned to appreciate the world anew - yet still rooted in a primary relationship with the life sustaining gifts of biodiversity, replenished and revitalised via a dynamic web of stories, symbols, songs, crafts and skills.
It makes sense then that their best creative attention went to crafting rituals and ceremonies that communicated from the deep imagination of the tribe; infused with the transgenerational wisdom of natures teachings, directly to the deep imagination of the individual, helping the initiate to welcome and embrace these thresholds passages, knowing they provide not just access to helpful information, but communicated the direct lived and living experience of what it means to belong as a fully-fledged human, to this landscape, to these people, able to respond wisely to the needs of this time and place with a unique way of honouring life.
These rituals were far from entertainment. In themselves they embody and express the deep living roots of cultural evolution, not only ‘the what’, but also ‘the how’, by incorporating core ecocentric human values and traditions, honouring the gifts and beauty of the natural world and the creative meaning making expressions of an emergent collective identity - expressed in mythology and encoded in a people's personal and collective consciousness - their art expressing a generative, shared vision. They render not a mere hope for the future, but specifically they are co-creating the future by weaving, in one movement nature, psyche and culture, honouring the earths life-giving source of inspiration, infused with the elements, the land and an exquisite sense of nature's beauty, rhythms and cycles.
And so the WildMind Deep Nature Immersion continues as a contemporary, initiatory rite of passage; a generative process guiding initiates to attune to their deeper nature, removed from the myriad distractions of modern life - it’s pacifying and confusing comfort and convenience in order to cultivate a sense of courage and curiosity and to explore their inner landscape and meaning making resources, supported by the elements, the rhythms of nature, and like minded traveling companions - human, eagle, salmon, raven, seal, spider, heather, pine, oak, birch to name a few.
It invites you to become fully present, to listen, reflect, and respond to the wisdom emerging from the deeper realms of your knowing, helps you create simple rituals, meaningful to you and that honour what has been, and mark your readiness to embrace the emergent, expansive, yet more deeply rooted sense-of-self necessary for the next stage of your journey.
An Initiatory Rite of Passage
Not a rehearsal…
The WildMind Deep Nature Immersion is, in essence a unique and important invitation to undergo an authentic initiation and rite of passage, intended to awaken and embody a unique generative identity by way of a poetic remembering of our deeper nature, specifically, the aspect of our nature that seeks to honour the life affirming human potentials that flow to, through and from that deep place which resides within each of us - and then live it.
In this expression it may take one of two major forms: an intitiation - the awakening and embodiment of a new, and emergent identity, or an affirmative rite of passage, which asserts and revilatises the next stage of an already established identity, though we can never be sure which one it will be before we begin.
The WildMind Deep Nature Immersion stands in its own ‘rite’ as a contemporary expression of all true wisdom traditions, echoing and importantly embodying the deep lived experience, intentions and outcomes of those who sincerely meet the ordeal, guided by contemporary understandings of depth, somatic and applied psychologies and a practitioner with over 28 years of dedicated study, experience and exploration.
The first attention throughout is the body - the pre-verbal, somatic realm of experience - the ‘thing’ below the neck which is the ground of our being, the vehicle of our consciousness and both keeper and creator of our dreams and memories, as well as the storehouse of our ancestral wounds and wisdom.
The principles and practices shared as part of this intimate journey of self-discovery are intended to support you in clarifying and articulating your deepest desires and intentions - for your life, for your reasons, to be lived in your way, by way of your resources - and in service to that, preparing you to water fast in nature, in solitude and to undergo that experience in its fullness, beginning and ending at sunrise over a period of four days and four nights.
Importantly, upon returning the WildMind Deep Nature Immersion will support you to incorporate and embody your experience in ways that ensure it continues to nourish and enrich your everyday life and the world around you in, subtle yet potent ways.
NB - Once registered, you will receive a comprehensive guide to support your timely preparations for the period in Scotland, both practical and psychological.
It’s not that…
The WildMind Deep Nature Immersion is not a well-ness, detox, bushcraft or survival programme. It is not a weekend ‘sheep-dip, follow the leader, one size fits all’ indoctrination experience pressured into a convenient weekend, intended to invoke intense but superficial catharsis.
It is not a version of any 12-step programme and does not confer belonging to a particular group nor associate you with any particular philosophy. It is not intended to make you a good, better or successful person - though wholeness, authenticity, integrity and presence certainly have lot’s to do with it - what that means is for you to discern.
It is not woo, new-age hippy bs, nor does it pander to fashionable cultural appropriations. or It is free from the unbound, disocciative experience induced by psychedelics and does not manufacture intensity, which is so often mistaken for intimacy.
It categorically eschews and will directly challenge notions of spiritual bypassing and other life / self-denying and avoidant strategies.
It’s also important to state - it is not a parody or a proxy for ancient rites, copied and repackaged from other cultures.
If you are looking to ‘retreat’, or an ‘escape’ - this probably isn’t for you - though it might be thought of as a Spa, for your soul.
It is not intended to be a proxy for psychotherapy, though it clearly has pstchotherapeutic benefits for many and is a powerful complement to anyone engaged in psychotherapy or indeed, a powerful gateway toward it.
It’s not a theoretical, academic, intellectual, philosophical exploration of what an initiatory rite of passage is, or might be…all of which may be very, very interesting but the lived reality of undergoing that experience - which in the technological age of dissociative, countefiet connection is a radical act."
And, it is not each of those things for a number of reasons, which all add up-to it being respectful of you and your journey, your needs, desires and aspirations - but specifically the authentic you: the ‘you’ that exists beneath and before the performance, reactive identity modern society insists you conform to. Which is why, in and of itself, it claims no particular insight or transformation, though they are common amongst those who invest the time and create space to prepare and sincerely commit to the journey - which is, every step of the way, designed to guide you home - to your deep, wise-self, and the life giving, life affirming wisdom that you embody.
The WildMind Deep Nature Immersion stands in its own ‘rite’ as a contemporary expression of all true wisdom traditions, echoing and importantly embodying the deep lived experience, intentions and outcomes of those who sincerely meet the ordeal, guided by contemporary understandings of depth, somatic and applied psychologies and a practitioner with over 28 years of dedicated study, experience and exploration.
Sweet Darkness - David Whyte You must learn one thing. The world was made to be free in. Give up all the other worlds except the one to which you belong. Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness to learn anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you.
Schedule
Each year the programme evolves, incorporating the wisdom of previous years. In 2025, The WildMind Deep Nature Immersion spans several months, comprising three distinct parts, each with a unique focus and supported by bespoke written, and recorded media such as guided meditations and YouTube videos for ongoing reference.
Preparation - We gather online to:
Get to know our companions.
Clarify our intentions.
Explore the principles & practices of WildMind Deep Ecopsychology, & shape them to the needs of our personal journey.
17th July / 31st July / 14th August @ 1930 - 2100
Wilderness Journey - Findhorn - Over thirteen days:
Four-days comprehensive preparation in primary base-camp
Four-days water fast - advanced base-camp / solitude, with minimal but adequate shelter.
Four-days comprehensive integration in primary base camp.
29th August @ 1230 / 10th September @ 1230
Incorporation - We continue online once a month to:
Maintain the integrity and wisdom of our wilderness journey upon returning to our 'every day’ lives.
Continue to discern & clarify emergent insight & wisdom.
Continue to cultivate our own generative principles & practices to support our future healing & growth.
25th September / 9th October / 23rd October - 1930 - 2100