All About EarthCraft Residency

Apply for 2026

A Vision

“If we will have the wisdom to survive,

to stand like slow-growing trees

on a ruined place, renewing, enriching it,

if we will make our seasons welcome here,

asking not too much of earth or heaven,

then a long time after we are dead

the lives our lives prepare will live

there, their houses strongly placed

upon the valley sides, fields and gardens

rich in the windows. The river will run

clear, as we will never know it,

and over it, birdsong like a canopy…”

-Excerpt from “A Vision” by Wendell Berry

A Vision Made Manifest

Imagine a community of abundance where all contribute and all are supported, where each individual’s calling is celebrated, where the young are watched with generous eyes and the elders overflow with wisdom. Imagine a culture of listening, of reflection before action. Imagine a village where Earth’s vision is expressed in the ways we plant and harvest, laugh and cry, raise our voice in song, and dance to the rhythm of the ceremonial drum. Imagine a people who build their homes as wild temples, whose ancestors speak to them in dreams and who raise their young to always remember their names.

Imagine that this is “no paradisal dream” but a real possibility whose seeds we can sow today and with hard work, and someday harvest. This seed-vision is EarthCraft.

Photo Credit: Melanie Hardy

We Tend Soul.

An organism can only thrive as much as the health of its individual cells. At EarthCraft Residency, we do the work to heal our wounds, to step into wholeness and discover, uncover, and bring forth our unique gifts. We tend Soul by:

“Wholing” (to make whole) & Self-Healing practices from The Wild Mind Map of the Human Psyche
Foundational Soulcraft Practices inspired by the work of Bill Plotkin and Animas Valley Institute
Earth-Centric Dreamwork
Wild Somatic Embodiment / Coming home to our Animal Bodies
Personal and Group Mentoring with EarthCraft Guides
Support of discovering, understanding, and bringing to life your particular calling

We Tend Community.

Trees only grow as strong as the mycelial connections between them. At EarthCraft Residency, we go beyond beautifully romantic ideals and get down to the foundations of creating community that is as functional as it is culturally vibrant:

Community Fundamentals: Co-operative Leadership, Life-Affirming Communication and Deepening Relationship through Compassionate Conflict Resolution
Deep Sharing, Listening, and “The Way of Council”
Practical Skills and Collective Effort: Wildcrafting, Tracking, Food Preparation, Land Tending, and other Ecologically-centered skills
Culture Container Crafting: collective visioning, creating safer space, and positive boundary holding - Hands-on experience in creating and tending ecological soul-centric community from start to finish
Tracking, tending, and weaving community “soul threads” for deepening communal cohesion between Human, Land, and Mystery

We Tend the Wild

In the words of Joanna Macy, “We are not talking heads at that end of a stick.” We are living, breathing, dancing, weeping, laughing, singing, imagining manifestations of a thread in Earth’s dream. We are embedded within a wild and wise family of beings who are equal and sovereign actors in this great story in which we all play a part. At EarthCraft, we consciously turn towards the innate aliveness of the world around, cultivating genuine relationship with Earth and her Children:

The Art of Wandering on the Land, with the Land
Natural Meditation and Contemporary Animism
Living Ritual and Ceremonial Conversation
Land-based practices for building Generative and Reciprocal relationship
Opportunity for Wilderness Solo

A Day in the Life

In the flow of the days, we cycle from individual inquiry to collective collaboration, from human hearth to wild wander, exploration of soul to “hands-in-soil.” The physical planting of a food forest brings us into the living vision of feeding our descendants. A morning Dreamwork session inspires the direction of our ceremonial journey into the forest. Sharing our personal visions in Council generates collective action. As we gather around the evening hearth to break bread, we raise our hearts and voices to so that the spirits of the land too are fed.

Each day (or collective days) typically has a theme with some structure to support the exploration of that theme, with ample space for emergent possibility. Our explorations circle around Individual, Communal, and Wild with a healthy balance of heart-centered discussion, sharing, and visioning with hands-in-soil activity.

Days are structured around a Morning Session and Afternoon Session with appropriate breaks for meals, rest, integration and attending personal needs. We often gather around the hearth in the evenings for integration, ceremony, story, and song. Days begin and end with meditation and we tend the dreaming in the nightly quiet hours. Each of the main morning/afternoon sessions typically orient around one of three modes of exploration:

1) Learning, Sharing and Discussion sessions explore our inner wilds and knit our foundational community web. Picture us sitting in council in the Mountain Yurt or engaged in a passionate fireside visioning session.

2) Embodied Action sessions work and walk the land to bring our vision of community into being. Imagine collectively planting a food forest for future generations or bringing in the wild harvest on misty mountain paths.

3) Wild Communion sessions tend the depths of soul - ours and the land’s. Forest wanders, wilderness solos, ceremonial conversation, and more…

Photo Credit: Melanie Hardy

Food and Lodging

FOOD
All meals are included in tuition. We form meal teams to prepare meals daily: breakfast, packed lunch, and dinner. As one would in any village, everyone participates in the planning, cooking and clean-up of all our meals while at Spirit Hollow. Midway through the program, we will make a grocery run to town, so you may be asked to support with creating lists or shopping.
We attempt to accommodate most dietary restrictions, but if you have a very specific diet (very high protein or particularly restrictive), you should plan to bring your own foods to supplement our basic meals. The application has a section to apprise us of your dietary needs. There is limited refrigerated space for your personal use.
You should also plan to bring your own favorite daily snacks.
Spirit Hollow is a rustic retreat center with our resident-director Tracey’s family home on site. We ask for you to kindly refrain from entering clearly designated private spaces without prior invitation.
Lodging options are as follows:
- Shared space in the Brook Yurt (with electricity) Shared accommodation for 4-6 people. Cots provided or bring your own personal sleep system - air mattress, ground mat, sleeping pad, etc. This is a shared space, so if you need more privacy, we suggest staying in your own tent.
- Camping on the land, tent not provided Please bring your own tent, sleeping material and any other essential gear.
- We have two tent cabins with cots (no electricity) that are shared between two people.
There are four outhouses for your use and two hot outdoor showers.
We have an outdoor kitchen with a two-burner propane stove, a cold water sink for washing up, picnic tables and tables for food preparation.
Earthcraft is a much needed time-out from the over-stimulation, anxiety and stress of conventional modern life. Our remote rural location offers a rare opportunity to be fully present, to step OUT of the consumer-conformist culture and into the deeper stream of soul, community and nature.
Though we are not anti-technology, we are for bringing mindfulness and intentionality into what we give our attention and energy to. There is no access to cell service while at Spirit Hollow. We do have WIFI for occasional check-ins with chosen or blood families.
7:30AM Morning Meditation
8:00AM Breakfast (Dream Sharing/Theme of the Day)
9:00AM Cleanup/Pack Lunch/Prepare for Day
9:30AM Morning Session
12:30PM Lunch
1:30PM Afternoon Session
4:30PM Rest and Dinner Prep
6:00PM Dinner
7:00PM Cleanup
7:30PM Evening Session - Gather around the Hearth for story, song and sharing, close with Evening Meditation
10:00PM Quiet Hours for dreaming