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In 1999, while studying literature and psychoanalysis at Yale University, I suffered an acute identity crisis. This existential breakdown initiated my spiritual awakening.
Over the next seven years, I worked a number of dead-end jobs while I embarked on a sustained active imagination. Night after night, I wilfully journeyed into my “unconscious” and there discovered an entire world populated by mythical characters, settings, and stories. I made sure to always record the results of my inward journeys as dialogues, drawings, and narratives. Over time, I filled many journals with the creative contents of my unconscious soul. When I look back over these soul-artifacts now, I can see that I was giving birth to the myth of my own spiritual healing, initiation, and rebirth.
Through diligent active imagination, I developed a conscious relationship to a number of soul-guides. These soul-guides initiated me into the mysteries of the collective unconscious, guided my journey of self-realization, healed the painful fragmentations in my psyche, and dramatically enlarged and enriched my conscious personality.
This period of active imagination led me to discover the concept of shamanism and shamanic initiation. As I researched the phenomenon of shamanic initiation, I came to realize that my journey into the creative unconscious was, as far as I could tell, a contemporary equivalent of the shaman’s initiatory ‘descent to the underworld.’
When I realized that I was in the grips of a shamanic initiation, I began to explore various techniques for entering into non-ordinary states of consciousness. This exploration opened me to a radically expanded view of reality, brought me into a deeper connection with my soul-guides, and aligned me with the mythology of 2012 and the global evolution of consciousness that is now at hand.
In 2007 I emerged from my self-imposed solitude, and attended the Pacifica Graduate Institute (www.pacifica.edu/humanities.aspx) in order to learn how to bring the fruits of my solitary initiation into the healing service of others.
In 2009 I received my Masters degree in the Humanities (with an emphasis in Depth Psychology and Mythology).
Following my graduation, I embarked on another stage of initiation: I journeyed to the Brazilian Amazon, and apprenticed myself to the master shamans and healers living in the remote regions of the rainforest.
In 2010 I returned to Toronto, intent to devote myself to the work of tending soul in the world.
At the Pacifica Graduate Institute, I learned the theoretical and practical basis of Soul Tending. This education, coupled with the raw gnosis of my shamanic initiation, empowered me to formulate a healing practice that combines the theoretical and therapeutic model of Jungian analysis with the mysticism and animistic spirituality inherent in shamanism and esoteric alchemy.
It is with love, wisdom, and compassion that I now offer this practice—a practice I have chosen to call “Soul Tending”—to all who seek.
Yours in fellowship,
Andrew Camargo
Over the next seven years, I worked a number of dead-end jobs while I embarked on a sustained active imagination. Night after night, I wilfully journeyed into my “unconscious” and there discovered an entire world populated by mythical characters, settings, and stories. I made sure to always record the results of my inward journeys as dialogues, drawings, and narratives. Over time, I filled many journals with the creative contents of my unconscious soul. When I look back over these soul-artifacts now, I can see that I was giving birth to the myth of my own spiritual healing, initiation, and rebirth.
Through diligent active imagination, I developed a conscious relationship to a number of soul-guides. These soul-guides initiated me into the mysteries of the collective unconscious, guided my journey of self-realization, healed the painful fragmentations in my psyche, and dramatically enlarged and enriched my conscious personality.
This period of active imagination led me to discover the concept of shamanism and shamanic initiation. As I researched the phenomenon of shamanic initiation, I came to realize that my journey into the creative unconscious was, as far as I could tell, a contemporary equivalent of the shaman’s initiatory ‘descent to the underworld.’
When I realized that I was in the grips of a shamanic initiation, I began to explore various techniques for entering into non-ordinary states of consciousness. This exploration opened me to a radically expanded view of reality, brought me into a deeper connection with my soul-guides, and aligned me with the mythology of 2012 and the global evolution of consciousness that is now at hand.
In 2007 I emerged from my self-imposed solitude, and attended the Pacifica Graduate Institute (www.pacifica.edu/humanities.aspx) in order to learn how to bring the fruits of my solitary initiation into the healing service of others.
In 2009 I received my Masters degree in the Humanities (with an emphasis in Depth Psychology and Mythology).
Following my graduation, I embarked on another stage of initiation: I journeyed to the Brazilian Amazon, and apprenticed myself to the master shamans and healers living in the remote regions of the rainforest.
In 2010 I returned to Toronto, intent to devote myself to the work of tending soul in the world.
At the Pacifica Graduate Institute, I learned the theoretical and practical basis of Soul Tending. This education, coupled with the raw gnosis of my shamanic initiation, empowered me to formulate a healing practice that combines the theoretical and therapeutic model of Jungian analysis with the mysticism and animistic spirituality inherent in shamanism and esoteric alchemy.
It is with love, wisdom, and compassion that I now offer this practice—a practice I have chosen to call “Soul Tending”—to all who seek.
Yours in fellowship,
Andrew Camargo
