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 →
In this 6 year (2+0+2+2=6 which is the number of the Lovers in the Tarot’s Major Arcana), our guide for the season is Love in all its forms and phases. Love knows no boundaries, can be experienced with friends, partners, families, pets, the forest, a single flower, and the whole of the planet. Love’s waves flow from the energy of fresh connection through the testing of commitment and loss to the nurture that comes from sustained love. Tarot wise woman Ellen Lorenzi-Prince says, “Love is power made beautiful.”
This year’s Walking the Ways invites us to keep moving forward on the path of Love even as we encounter the inner and outer obstacles created by the turbulent times in which we live. Love beckons us toward a more beautiful, just, sustainable, and loving world we each can play a part in creating.
Walking the Ways Retreat supports you to travel this path by:
This is the 7th 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 third 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 lead us in making herbal preparations.
The hinge of Walking the Ways is the Summer Solstice on June 21st, 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.
Opening the Season ~ Sunday May 22nd at 5pm ~ FREE Walking the Ways of the Summer Light 2022 Intro
Wisdom Wandering with the Elements Seeking Questions ~ May 23rd to June 19
Pilgrimage to Find an Answer to Your Question ~ June 20th to July 1
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 →
The height of this moonth’s cycle comes with the full moon arriving overnight tonight, the 15th to the 16th (exact at 12:14am ET on the 16th), and offers a revelation about how the lunar energies initiated on the April 30th new moon are developing. The new moon, guided by its association with the Teacher face [...] Learn more →