Soul Path Mentoring

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 →

Tarot Guidance

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 →

Whoever you are and where ever you are from, welcome to Soul Path Sanctuary. You are invited to bring your whole diverse self into our virtual space.

We hope you find support for tending your soul. 

Shining Tribe Exploratorium 

A Year-Long Encounter with the Wisdom of Rachel Pollack’s Shining Tribe Tarot

The Shining Tribe can’t really be taught. The deck must be experienced. And the best way to experience its depth of wisdom is in the company of fellow seekers. 

The Shining Tribe seeks to open a sense of mystery, an awareness of the sacred life energy underlying every moment of our lives. It draws us into the fifty thousand years of human encounters with the divine. Through readings and meditations with the ancient images, the cards help each of us discover our own paths.

Rachel Pollack from the Shining Tribe companion book

Running from the September 2023 Equinox through the June 2024 Solstice and into Fall 2024, the Exploratorium will …

  • Ground participants in the deck’s images of power and the companion book’s words of wisdom.
  • Introduce practices for gaining understanding of and working with the deck.
  • Offer prompts for taking the deck out into the world for seasonal ritual, wisdom wandering, and connecting to the sacred in the place where you live.
  • Support you to tend your soul and walk your unique path through the world.
  • Be a gathering place for lovers and students of the Shining Tribe 

The container for our connecting includes:

  • Eight virtual sessions—an octavo—two around each of the equinoxes and solstices. The first session will include orienting information about the deck and guiding cards, meditation, and prompts for planning a meaningful outing in the world. The second session will be a sharing circle for exchanging stories about your working with the deck. See schedule below. 
  • A private Facebook group for keeping connected between sessions.
  • A culminating in-person gathering is being planned for summer/early 2024 in the Hudson or Connecticut River Valley.

Schedule

All sessions are on Wednesdays. They will run about 75 – 90 minutes. To accommodate the range of time zones of participants, times of the first two session will alternate. If that works, the pattern for the following session will be the same.

  • Fall Equinox Sessions: September 20 and October 4 at 5:30pm ET (time zone converter).
  • Winter Solstice Sessions: December 13 and 27 at 2:30pm ET (time zone converter).
  • Spring Equinox Sessions: March 13 and 27 5:30pm ET (time zone converter).
  • Summer Solstice Sessions: June 12 and 26 at TBD.

First sessions will be recorded in their entirety. Second sessions will begin with a private/unrecorded sharing circle and continue with a group discussion that will be recorded only for sharing with other Exploratorium participants. 

Exchange

An offering of $54 enrolls you in the Exploratorium. Invitations will be made at each session to offer sustaining funds for the facilitator / any guest presenters or make gifts to the fund to prepare and place a headstone for Rachel Pollack (suggested sliding scale of $9 – $30 per session). 

FAQ

How can I get a Shining Tribe deck and companion book? At the moment, the Shining Tribe is out of print, but—good news!—Weiser is bring out a new edition by spring of 2024 with a color palette close to Rachel’s original paintings. There are copies of the Shining Tribe published by Llewellyn still circulating, if you want one sooner. Check your local metaphysical shop or do a web search.

Do I have to have a copy of the Shining Tribe to start participating? You actually don’t. You’ll get information about the deck from presentations and you can use another deck for the experiential activities between sessions. You will want one eventually, but you don’t have to have one to get going.

Are any other resources/materials needed? Rachel’s The Body of the Goddess will inform the sessions and activities. If you can get a copy—it’s hard to find—I recommend snapping it up. But not at all essential for everyone to have.

Let me know your questions! Email me using the contact form on this site to get through spam filters.

Carolyn Cushing, Facilitator

In Greece for Fall 2022 Equinox on the pilgrimage that Rachel sent us on.

Carolyn Cushing is a soul care practitioner, seeker of justice, and poet. Through Soul Path Sanctuary, she offers spiritual mentoring, Tarot sessions, and online and in-person offerings to attune to the wisdom of the seasons and lunar cycles. For over 20 years, Carolyn has taught Tarot and facilitated ritual in Western Massachusetts., on-line, and at Tarot conferences across the United States including the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies. Her Tarot practices and writing are included in The Gaian Tarot Companion Guide and Tarot for Troubled Times. She is cofounder of the Massachusetts Tarot Society and completed the Spiritual Direction Internship at the Spiritual Life Center in 2010. 

Carolyn has collaborated with many Tarot luminaries and most extensively with Rachel Pollack. In 2021, Rachel said of Carolyn’s work with the Shining Tribe Tarot: “[Her] interpretations are brilliant, wide-ranging, deeply felt.  I think she may be the Tribe’s foremost interpreter (and yes, I’m including myself in the group of everyone else).  Thank you, Carolyn, both for the message about how we keep moving through such difficult times, and for using my cards to discover it.” 

Be Inspired

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 →

A CEASEFIRE CENTO

PALESTINIAN POETS WRITE A RESOLUTION WHEREAS, the house / next door no longer / stands. It’s lying like an old carpet / on the floor of the earth, / trampled by missiles, fat slippers / flying off legless feet; and WHEREAS, every time we leave the house, / it’s suicide. / And each return a [...] Learn more →

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