Walking the Ways of the Summer Light

A retreat-in-everyday life

to cultivate personal and collective healing

with Carolyn Cushing and Yesbelt Fernandez

You are invited to join fellow seekers in honoring and opening to the illumination of the Summer Solstice. We’ll be wandering, connecting to nature, divining, and herb crafting in the places where we live. Then gather virtually for ritual and sharing our experiences. The retreat runs for 5 weeks from May 26th to June 29th with a final circle on July 6. Join us for all or some of the weeks.

2025 E-retreats ~ Different prices for different situations
$47 for those that need a LOWER rate $77 A MIDDLE-way fee to make this affordable to many $107 for those that can assist with making this work SUSTAINABLE for facilitators Find the KEY word in the drop down below and your price will pop up in the cart.
Price: $47.00
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Cultivate the Wisdom of the Season

This year’s season starts with a Lovers new moon and moved us into the next lunation passing through the 2 of Cups. In this flow we are called to cultivate Love even as we live through times of cruelty.

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.

Walking the Ways Retreat supports you to travel this path by:

Creating support for pausing within our daily lives for reflection and gathering inspiration from oracles like the Tarot.
Cultivating a connection to the Greater Than ourselves to receive guidance for going beyond our current limitations, including about what we believe is powerful.
Supporting us to connect with the Power of the elements through prompts for nature practice and drinking teas crafted to attune us to Earth, Air, Water, and Fire.
Connecting us to a community of fellow seekers through our weekly virtual tea parties and sharing circles.

This is the 10th 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 Flow of our Retreat in Every Day Life

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.

When – Our Schedule

Wisdom Wandering with the Elements Seeking Questions ~ May 26 to June 22

Daily emails to prompt practice.
An invitation to connect with a weed and its devilish (i,e, trickster healing) qualities.
Sunday Sharing Circles starting on June 2 at 11am ET (time zone converter) via Zoom to share our insights and questions from the week. The first section of the gathering where we share an overview of the theme and meet our weed teacher will be recorded, but the sharing circle will not.

Pilgrimage to Find an Answer to Your Question ~ June 23 to June 29th

Emails to help you plan your pilgrimage.
Gathering on Sunday, June 30 via Zoom to charge and bless each other as we begin our time of seeking answers to our questions.

Closing Circle to Bring It All Together ~ July 6

How

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:

An overview booklet to see the flow of the whole season.
Daily emails to bring a burst of inspiration into each day.
Sharing Circles via Zoom to connect with others walking the ways.

About Us

cac-in-arcadia 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.