Earth Intimacies: Apprenticing to Life – 2026

Description

Earth Intimacies is a 6-week interactive course dedicated to intentionally re-inhabiting the animate web of life. We will deepen our ecospiritual intimacies by tending sacred relationships with the other-than-human world (including Water, Moon, Lichen, Fungi/Mycelium, Feathered Friends, Soundscapes, Emergence, and more), practice cultivating belonging and honoring longings, and proliferate imaginal buds for what is emerging in this Great Turning.

I created Earth Intimacies because I am tickled by a wondering: How do we, with wild nature hearts & humble courage, practice remembering what we’ve forgotten, cultivate ecospiritual intimacies, and intentionally reinhabit the animate web of life. This third round adds new other-than-human kin with whom we will apprentice, an exploration of soundscapes, and a new section on becoming “Emergence Aware”, the mirror of being ‘Collapse Aware.’ 

Over 6 weeks, we’ll explore through Online Gatherings, Council Circle, Naturalist practices, ecotherapy, Somatic & Soulful Practices, Creative Expression & Integration activities. The style is emergent, playful, curious, vulnerable, and honoring.   

Among the Foragings:

• Deepen our ecospiritual intimacies by tending sacred relationships with the other-than-human world (including water, slug, lichen, mycelium, moon, feathered friends, emergence, and more)
• Cultivate an earth-centered, purpose-anchored, and ecosensual life.
• Cultivate deep belonging to pace, place, purpose, people, pleasure, and possibility.
• Tend the lessons and imaginal buds in the chrysalis of our personal and collective transformation.
• Re-align with our wild purpose and inhabit our unique gifts as an ecological niche.
• Explore your inner wilderness and expand your toybox of exploration.

When: 6 Fridays – February 20 – March 27
Time: 9:00am – 11:00am PT (12pm – 2pm EST)
Where: ONLINE – Zoom (and practices with the land between classes)

*Maximum 10 participants to ensure an intimate experience.

THEMES WE WILL TEND:

• Ecological Intimacies and Sacred Kin Apprenticeships (Water, Lichen, Mycelium, Moon, Feathered Friends, the Smalls, Soundscapes)
• Sacred Pauses and Deep Listening
• Becoming Emergent-Aware 
• Cultivating Our Imaginal Cells
• Sacred Grief and Pleasure as Portals to Liberation
• Story & Sacred Apprenticeship Council
• 7 Ps of Deep Belonging: Pace, Place, Purpose, People, Play, Pain, and Possibility

The program includes: 

• Six 2-hour group Zoom gatherings with a small group of peers
• Sense-based and soul-expanding practices and invitations that help us re-connect to inner and outer wild nature, drop deeper into our body and senses to build embodied capacity; and reclaim aspects of our wholeness and wild purpose.
• Creative prompts and practices for the in-between to deepen our ecospiritual commitment and journey
• 1:1 consultations on program material and the solo wilderness ceremony experience
• Private online group to connect, share, learn, and ask questions between calls
• Additional poetry and decolonial/uncolonial and ecopsychological resources
• Discount on future Wild Nature Heart Courses and Wilderness Programs

Recommended Investment: $199
Other options: $189-$269

Equity Pricing for BIPOC and LGBTQ2+ (Enter EarthEquity at checkout for 50%)
If you have participated in a Wild Nature Heart course before, you can enter EARTHINTIMACY for 20% discount at checkout.

A Note on Justice Pricing Structure:
I wish all Wild Nature Heart offerings could be free for everyone! I hope to work towards that reality. In the meantime, I am offering this course experience on a system of sliding-scale justice pricing to make it as accessible for as many folks who want to join us as possible.

Acknowledging historic and on-going structural harms for certain people, in particular black, indigenous, and communities of color, as well as LGBTQ2S+, I support leveraging economic and white-bodied and hetero-cis-privilege to support others in our community, and ask that you pay on the scale according to your ability, in order to support access, and engage in co-liberatory interdependence-in-action.

The practice of choosing a rate that is both affordable and heartfully aligned is a mindfulness and liberation-seeking practice. I will not question your self-determined rate.

This helps make offerings accessible to more people and also allows portions of the course proceeds to be given to black and indigenous-led organizations and campaigns.

About the Facilitator:

My name is Ryan Van Lenning, Founder of Wild Nature Heart, and I am an earth-lover with a deep desire to be of service in the work of re-connection, re-membering, and re-inhabiting the animate web of life. I started Wild Nature Heart to support people at a crossroads to re-connect with the wisdom of both inner and outer wild nature, to live their soul callings into the world, and to assist in the work of repairing broken belonging. I am a threshold guide and barbarian poet of the Great Turning (author of Re-Membering, From Inside These Wild Ones, One Bright and Real Caress, An Ambition Silence, Trust the Ceremony, F*ck the Ceremony, and Trust the Ceremony, and High-Cooing Through the Seasons: Haiku From the Forest. I am trained as a rite-of-passage/wilderness ceremony guide through the School of Lost Borders, certified as an Ecotherapist through The Earthbody Institute, where I teach the Level 1-3 ecotherapy courses, and am a Certified Wilderness First Responder through Foster Calm. Prior to moving to California 18 years ago, I taught Comparative Religion, Philosophy, and Environmental Ethics at Sinclair College in Ohio. I live among the forest and rivers in northern California, ancestral Wiyot and Yurok land. I like cinnamon ice cream, fantastic fungi, and river ottering.

Recent Appreciations:

“Ryan created a welcoming environment that fostered a culture of connection, curiosity, and creativity. I so appreciated the passion that Ryan offered in his facilitation; he models to us the possibility of bravely taking steps to live our callings!” – Gemma A., Participant in Threshold: Earth Intimacies (Spring 2024)

“There were soo many valuable things. Encouragement and validation for my deepening relationship with the rest of the natural world. It took me deeper into myself and my connection to everything wild and breathing and alive… and I loved being in a small group of wilderness lovers and poetic travelers.” – Sky, Participant in Threshold: Earth Intimacies and the Great Turning (Spring 2024)

“Thank you for your dedication to this work and for modeling new/old ways of being in leadership and community! I gained a sense of companionship on the journey of exploring some of life and death’s biggest questions. The community formed in the group gave me a glimpse into how we can come together to unlearn, deconstruct, remember, and create more natural and balanced ways of being and relating. One of my biggest take-aways is understanding belonging as something inherent rather than “found” or “earned”. Being witnessed and witnessing others after our solo time on the land was very powerful and deeply meaningful to me on my/our journey.” —Leslie Hammer, Deep Belonging in the Great Turning (Fall 2022)

“Ryan is an amazing human being and teacher. This course will nurture your soul, challenge you, and open up new ways of seeing yourself and our wonderous planet. I will definitely be signing up for another Wild Nature Heart experience!” —Rob Daroff, MD, Deep Belonging in the Great Turning (Fall 2022)

“I loved this course! This is the second course I’ve taken with Ryan and both times I felt affirmed and supported as he led us on a journey delving into themes of belonging, being, grieving, healing, and growing. Ryan encouraged us to engage with the more-than-human-world on an intimate level of discovery and connection thus cultivating a more earth-centered life. I highly recommend this course to anyone seeking a deeper connection with self and with the natural world.” —Cecelia Futch, LPCC, Deep Belonging in the Great Turning (Fall 2022)

“Ryan was FANTASTIC. He was knowledgeable and most importantly, a great listener and guide. I greatly admired his mirroring skills, which have clearly been learned from Mother Nature herself. I have learned so much from Ryan and look forward to incorporating his techniques into my practice as well.” — Participant in Spring 2021 Earthbody Institute Ecotherapy Certificate Course

“I find myself repeatedly touched by the depth of your caring for Earth and all her beings and by your dedication to practice and evolving new pathways of relationship and culture. I am moved by the presence that you bring to deep listening and your willingness to explore different perspectives. Your ability to express through poetry and action what’s in your heart and your desire for healthy relationship among all beings is a source of inspiration for me.” —Marianne B. Rowe, MS, LMFT, Summer 2022 Level 3 Ecotherapy Training, Earthbody Institute

“Ryan’s well-designed course on Deep Belonging for the Great Turning was just what I needed at a stressful time in life. The facilitation, knowledge and materials shared were generous and truly a gift to enhance my nature connection and learn about myself. This course also provided support for a solo experience which was rich and rewarding. I appreciated being in a group and connecting with other like-minded people.” — Lezlie Scaliatine, Psy.D, California, Deep Belonging for the Great Turning Course Participant

“Ryan is a very thoughtful and sensitive instructor. His background in teaching and poetry, along with his ability to effectively “mirror” our stories about our journeys make him an excellent facilitator. Ryan helped us to organize our thoughts and feelings in this politically and environmentally challenging time, gave us hope, and guided us towards developing a personal plan for coping with the future of our planet.”
— Nan S., California, Deep Belonging for the Great Turning Course Participant

“Thank you again Ryan for your mentorship prior to this quest of mine. You empowered me to trust in myself, in the wild, and in the ceremony and it seemed so fitting to receive these gifts of yours just prior to a decent. I love and am sincerely grateful for your poem. It certainly helped give me courage to unflinchingly make those leaps over trees and off every known cliff and will continue to do so. I feel super motivated to continue on this path of mine and stay open to all the wild mysteries that present themselves within myself and within this more-than human world of ours. And to taking the next steps in unfurling my own gifts and presenting them to the world.”— Brady W., Wisconsin, 1-on-1 Ecotherapy Client and Course Participant

“This course is a deep-dive across 6 weeks. Ryan’s skill and generosity of spirit has guided me through a variety of themes and practices that have been both thought-provoking and empowering. I’ve valued this time immensely, and the abundant materials provided will keep me moving through this journey for a long time to come. I’ve developed a richer relationship with my Urban Wild environment in very unexpected ways, and for that I am so very grateful.” —Claire (United Kingdom) 

More Appreciations