Changes in the natural world shaped by the shifts of sun and moon replace a physical structure to serve as sanctuary for our seeking. Learn more →
Changes in the natural world shaped by the shifts of sun and moon replace a physical structure to serve as sanctuary for our seeking. Learn more →
A mentor is one who has walked a bit longer or further along the seeker’s path. As a mentor, Carolyn Cushing offers support for how to travel, but the seeker determines their own unique soul path. Learn more →
Carolyn Cushing works in collaborative intuitive way with seekers and the Tarot. In both sessions and e-readings, she and the seeker are active, working with the symbols and the images on the cards to engage intuition. Learn more →
The Devil is associated with new moons at the very start and end of 2024 as well as two full moons this summer, including one within hours of the Summer Solstice.
With the height of lunar and solar light occurring at the same time, The Devil will become a light bringer shining into the personal and collective places that have been in the dark. Our shadow selves are there, but so too is our untapped power.
The figure of the Devil – in the Tarot and elsewhere – is complex and made of many parts: curved horns, bats wings, chicken feet. When we unravel the Devil’s parts and take a few moments with each’s origins and inspirations, we find positive power and potential layered into this image.
Horns guide us to vital deities connected to nature. Bats are sacred to goddesses such as Persephone who travels between death and life. And chicken feet, well, they are silly and so puncture the Devil’s power to control.
Weeds are small but mighty teachers of how to encounter Devils in our lives and coax forth their healing powers. We will let them lead us in exploration.
This is the 9th year of Walking the Ways. Carolyn has created a tested container for soul tending from her home base in a river valley in Western Massachusetts. For a fourth year Yesbelt Fernandez joins the facilitation team bringing her spiraling and herbal wisdom from the wilds of New York City. Inspired by the Herbcrafter’s Tarot, she’ll guide us in connection to weeds as teachers.
The hinge of Walking the Ways is the Summer Solstice on June 20, the height of light for our solar year, and a day to celebrate the earthly abundance made possible by the celestial sun.
To prepare for the Solstice, we wander toward this day of greatest light guided by the elemental energies of earth, air, water, and fire. Wisdom Wanders – which could be walks or sits or gazing out your window – loosen the hold of our usual roles over us. As we connect with the elemental wisdom, we are invited to listen, see, and feel in new ways. We travel seeking not answers but questions to inspire our healing.
On the Solstice, we select the Wisdom Wander question that will best serve personal and collective healing to focus on.
Moving out from the Solstice, we undertake a pilgrimage to find an answer to the question that can illuminate our path of healing as we emerge from the pandemic.
This is a retreat, an offering to help you slow down and tend your soul. You’ll never need to catch up or do something more. All aspects are optional. Find what works best for you and your unique rhythm, drawing from one, some, or all of these:
From Carolyn: When my partner John died in a car crash in November 2012, my beliefs about death were a flimsy paper cup, immediately ripped apart. But the practices I’d developed through working with Tarot, nature, and poetry led me through creative mourning to find in grief a “secret medicine for those who hurt too hard to hope” (to gratefully borrow Rumi’s words).
I spent a few years regenerating through a devotion to the dark. Tending of the dark offered me personal healing and a connection to the Divine, my beloved dead, and the ancestors that makes me feel very supported and loved. This tending also became the gateway for emerging into the light’s energy of creative flow, action, and service.
In 2015 I spent the summer wisdom wandering, taking a pilgrimage to Acadia National Park in Maine, and finding a new and surprising connection with the joy of the sun! This luminous time filled me with new energy. I felt a connection to the solar world that didn’t diminish my lunar devotions. You can read more in my Wisdom Wander posts from 2015.
From Yesbelt: Years ago I made the choice to say yes more often. Soon after I noticed a lot more invitations were coming my way and I was exposed to diverse subjects and people. This is when I noticed I was in a constantly evolving spiral of synchronicity, leading me on a path of Tarot, Yoga, and Herbs. I find them to be foundational to any lifestyle. Tarot facilitates a connection to the spiritual and mental realms. Yoga grounds the body and mind connection. Herbs preserve and support the body in self-restoration.
I was born, raised, and still live in Manhattan, New York, a a small and congested island filled with millions of people, thousands of skyscrapers, and hundreds of parks, amongst other things. Finding and sharing bits of nature and beauty amidst the paved streets and towers is of great nourishment to me. I have practiced Walking the Ways with Carolyn since 2017 and I look forward to sharing it with you.
The Soul Path Sanctuary e-news is a moonthly missive that will arrive in your inbox around the new and full moons with astro-Tarot-nature inspired themes, readings, and prompts for practice to walk your unique soul path in alignment with – or sometimes finding ways around! – the collective energies. Facilitated by Carolyn Cushing, the Sanctuary’s […] Learn more →
FREE virtual session on Sunday, June 9 at 6pm ET / 3pm PT (time zone converter). Benebell Wen interviews Mary Greer, Carolyn Cushing, and Terry Iacuzzo about the ingredients they are bringing to mix into this year’s creative cauldron that is the Omega Institute’s Wisdom of the Tarot week held August 5 – 9 in [...] Learn more →