Grounding Meditation: The Fracture That Holds You

For The Wound That Proves You Care – March 8, 2026

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For the reader: Speak slowly and gently. This meditation asks people to stay with difficulty rather than move away from it, let your voice model that steadiness. Pause generously between sections. Approximately 5-6 minutes.

[Arriving as you are]

Everything offered here is an invitation. You are the sacred steward of your own experience. Come as you are, tired or angry or numb or grieving or all of it at once. You don't need to arrange yourself into something more presentable for this space. This space was made for the real you.

Let yourself arrive. Feel the weight of your body wherever you are, in your chair, your feet on the floor, your hands in your lap or resting somewhere. Let gravity do its work. You don't have to hold yourself up right now. You can be held.

If connecting with your body feels hard today, that's information worth noticing. Just notice it. You might rest your awareness on sound instead, what you can hear near or far. Or the quality of light in your space. Just: here. Just: now.

[Finding the breath]

When you're ready, let your attention find your breath. Not to change it. Just to witness it moving in and out of your body — this ancient, automatic act of staying alive.

Your body has been doing this through everything. Through the news. Through the fear. Through the nights when sleep wouldn't come. Through the moments of rage you didn't know what to do with. Your breath kept moving. Your heart kept beating. Notice that.

[Locating the fracture]

Now, I want to invite you into something that might feel unfamiliar. We are not here today to move through difficulty. We are here to be with it.

Somewhere in your body, there may be something that has been waiting for permission to simply exist. Fear. Grief. Anger. The particular ache of a world that has broken faith with something you counted on.

With gentleness, I invite you to scan your body. Not to fix anything. Not to breathe it away. Just to ask: where is this living in me right now?

Maybe it's tightness across your chest. Heaviness behind your eyes. A clenching in your jaw or your gut. Heat in your face or hands. A kind of hollowness somewhere you can't quite name.

Whatever it is, you don't have to move it. You don't have to resolve it. You only have to acknowledge it. To say, quietly, to yourself: I see you. You are allowed to be here.

[Permission to be broken by breaking things]

Here is something true: the fact that you are broken by this is not weakness. It is the proof of your values. You can only be fractured by something that violated what you actually care about.

Your pain is moral information. It is your integrity, speaking.

So for a moment, instead of trying to feel better, instead of moving toward action or hope or solutions, I invite you to simply honor the fracture. Let it be real. Let it be witnessed, here, in this community, without rushing past it.

You are not alone in this room. Others are here, holding their own fractures. That is why we gather.

[Returning]

When you're ready, gently begin to return. Feel your breath again. The contact between your body and what holds you. The sounds around you.

Let your awareness expand to take in this space, these people, this moment. You brought something real here today. That matters.

Wiggle your fingers. Shift your shoulders. Take one breath that's a little deeper than the last.

You are here. You are held. You are not alone.

The Wound That Shows You Care

Homily prepared for "The Wound That Shows You Care" Spiritual Feast – March 8, 2026

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Welcome, friends.

Today is International Women's Day. It is not lost on me that women have always been among the first to say not in my name. Across wars, across policies, across the long history of other people making decisions with devastating consequences, women have shown up and named what was being violated. Gold Star Mothers. The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. Reproductive rights activists. Anti-war organizers. Women who looked at what was being done in their name, with their tax dollars, with their silence, and said: no. Not this. Not me.

And today, March 8, 2026: women are striking and marching again, in France, in the USA, acting on the IWD theme "Rights. Justice.Action.".

We are a part of that lineage today.

I want to talk about something that doesn't always get named correctly. We call it a lot of things — burnout, despair, outrage fatigue, anxiety. But I think what many of us are carrying right now is something more specific, and it has a name.

Moral injury.

Moral injury was first named in the context of soldiers: people who were made to do things, or who witnessed things, that violated their deepest moral commitments. But it belongs to a much wider human experience. Moral injury is what happens when the world breaks faith with a value you counted on. When something you believed was a guardrail turns out not to be there. When you are made complicit,  through your taxes, your silence, your inability to stop what's happening, in harm you would never choose.

It is not the same as guilt. Guilt says I did something wrong. Moral injury says something wrong was done, and I am somehow inside it, and I cannot get clean.

It is not the same as despair. Despair says nothing matters. Moral injury actually says the opposite. You can only be morally injured by something that violated a value you hold. The fracture is proof that the value is real. The hollow place, the wound, is in the shape of your integrity.

And it is not helplessness, though it can feel that way. Faithfulness is still available to you, even when action feels impossible. Even when you cannot stop what is happening. You can still be in relationship with your own values. You can refuse complicity where you can. You can witness. You can name. You can gather in communities like this one and say together: this is wrong, and we know it is wrong, and that knowing matters.

Not hope. Faithfulness.

I want to be clear about what I mean by that distinction, because I think it's important. Hope says it will get better. Hope requires a belief about the future. And right now, for many of us, that belief is hard to summon, and maybe it should be. Premature hope can be a way of not fully reckoning with what is real.

Faithfulness asks something different. Faithfulness says: I am committed to these values regardless of outcome. I will stay in relationship with what I love and what I believe even when the world violates it. I will not let the violation teach me that nothing is worth protecting.

You can be faithful without being hopeful. You can grieve fully and still show up. You can be broken by breaking things and still, deep in your bones, know that your love matters, what you hold as sacred matters.

Not in my name is an act of faithfulness. It doesn't fix anything. It names what you hold.

I was talking with my husband recently, turning over all of this, the weight of it, the question of what we're even supposed to do. And I said, maybe the question is: what would Mr. Rogers do?

He thought about it for a moment. And then he said: Maybe we are Mr. Rogers.

I've been sitting with that ever since. Because he's right, isn't he? Fred Rogers was a person who looked at a frightened, fractured world and decided his job was to be a safe place in it. To say, over and over: you are worthy of love. You don't have to be anything other than what you are. There are helpers. There is goodness. I'll be here.

He couldn't fix the world either. But he was faithful to what he believed about human dignity, every single day. And dang, but his act of loving his corner of the world faithfully made a difference... a difference that resonates through the years.

The baton has been passed. Not just to us as individuals, but to all of us who believe that every person is worthy of care. Who believe that parents should be able to send their children to school without fear, no matter where in the world they are. That no one should be disappeared. That families should not be separated. That killing should not be done in our name.

We can carry it with honor.

Not because we know how it ends. But because we know what we love. Because the wound we're carrying today is the proof of it.

May you let your fracture be witnessed today. May you find in your injury the shape of your integrity. May you be faithful, not hopeful, but faithful to the work that must be done, to what you love, to all you hold holy. And may you know you do not carry it alone.

Is Your Care Squad Complete? (For Spiritual Independents)

 Is Your Care Squad Complete?

Think about the team of people you turn to when things get hard. A doctor or massage therapist for your body. A therapist to help you heal old wounds or navigate the tangles of work and family. Maybe a rabbi, minister, imam, or elder when you need guidance on your spiritual path.

But who do you call when the question isn't about your body or your childhood or your tradition, when it's about meaning? About purpose? About ethics and what you actually believe? Who helps you uncover what you already know is inside you about the sacred, about truth, about why you get up in the morning and what direction to move in next?

That's what a Spiritual Companion is for.

And right now, you can experience spiritual direction for free, by working with students in the Cherry Hill Seminary Spiritual Direction Certification Program.

These are trained, supervised practitioners who work with people navigating earth-based, Pagan, multi-religious, and non-traditional spiritual paths. They're serious about this work. And they need practice partners, people like you, to complete their training.

[Learn more about how Praxis works → https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/01/embark-on-spiritual-journey-with-free.html]

Meet the students!

Lisa Lake has over 20 years of experience in counseling, mentoring, 12-step work, and community facilitation — and she brings all of that into her spirit tending with warmth, grit, and deep commitment. She is ordained through Sacred Well Congregation and has dedicated much of her work to the LGBTQIA2S+ community, running groups that provide safer space for queer and questioning individuals and care for their allies.

Lisa also has a particular gift for walking alongside spiritual and health workers: nurses, therapists, chaplains, social workers, people who spend their days holding space for others and rarely have anyone holding space for them. She is passionate about justice and particularly wants to support activists: people doing justice work who need a witness for the spiritual dimensions of that calling, the grief it carries, and the way it reshapes your sense of the sacred over time. Her philosophy is direct: "I am dedicated to walking with you on your spiritual path, not forcing you down mine."

Her home is Portland, Oregon (home base of Spirit Lights, the organization she founded), and is proud to offer a welcoming space for veterans and military families as well. You can find her at https://spiritlightsorg.wixsite.com/lady-lake-spidir .

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Tracy Bleakney spent decades as a psychiatric and mental health nurse, first in hospital settings, then in the community, walking with people during some of the most vulnerable and courageous moments of their lives. She later became a certified school nurse, learning early in her career how profoundly young hearts need safety, presence, and gentle understanding.

She is a Unitarian Universalist who discovered spiritual direction almost by accident and found it transformed her own spiritual life. She's also a single mother and grandmother who understands the grind of a full life: "how we push forward even when weary, and how love can anchor us." She retired early from nursing due to a physical disability, and that experience of navigating life's unexpected turns with grace has deepened her capacity to companion others through their own.

Tracy is a beautiful match for UUs and spiritual independents, people who value theological openness, atheists, agnostics, and humanists, and those who want a companion who won't flinch at complexity. She's also a tender companion for people navigating complicated family systems, the particular loneliness of caretaking, and the spiritual questions that arrive with illness, limitation, or major life transition. Her invitation is simple: "Your journey is sacred, and you do not need to travel alone." tracybleakneyspiritualcare.com

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Gail Livesay Renfrow brings a beautiful framing to this work: spiritual companioning, she says, can be a mirror, a mentor, or a midwife... depending on where you are on your path. Sometimes you need someone to reflect your own wisdom back to you. Sometimes you need a more experienced guide. Sometimes you need someone to help you birth something new.

Gail is a wonderful companion for working professionals: people whose spiritual lives often get crowded out by the sheer fullness of their days. For moms who give so much and often struggle to find a single hour of sacred space for their own inner lives. And for anyone who has a spiritual practice they love but wants to tend it more intentionally, to fan the flames, as she puts it, rather than let it remain something they do alone.

Her practice, Spirit Care for You, is rooted in interfaith spiritual companionship that honors the divine spark in everyone. Find her at spiritcareforyou.org.

Four People Who Might Be Exactly Who You've Been Looking For

I want to introduce you to some of my students.

They're in their second year of the Cherry Hill Seminary Spiritual Direction Certification Program, which means they've completed 170–200 hours of formation studying contemplative practice, multi-religious frameworks, justice-rooted practice, ethics, and the sacred art of deep listening. They've done their own inner work. They're receiving monthly supervision. And they're ready.

For April '26 to February '27, each of them is offering free, supervised spiritual companioning to a small number of seekers. Maybe one of them is exactly who you've been looking for.

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Scott Waterhouse carries this definition of spiritual direction close: "Accompanying another on their spiritual journey; witnessing, sharing, and collaboratively exploring another heart's relationship with The Sacred: with respect, integrity, and love."

What I want you to know about Scott is that he understands systems that grind people down, and the particular kind of spiritual injury that comes from navigating the justice system, whether you're incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, a family member watching someone you love disappear into that world, or a professional trying to do good inside a broken structure. He brings respect, integrity, and a witnessing presence to people the wider spiritual care world often overlooks.

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Cedar Monroe offers something rare: a space that truly holds all of it: your ancestry, your relationship with the land where you live, the sacred connections you carry from wherever you've come from, and the divine in whatever form (or formlessness) it takes for you.

Cedar is a particularly good match for religious professionals (ministers, chaplains, spiritual leaders) who are quietly losing their spiritual home because their identity as LGBTQ+ people isn't welcome or safe where they serve. Cedar is also a beautiful companion for immigrants and refugees navigating the profound spiritual dislocation of building a life in a new place while your soul still knows another landscape. Cedar's commitment is simple and deep: "I respect all spiritual paths, including those that are non-religious or undefined."

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Helena Domenic describes herself as an Artistic Mystic, and I think that tells you a lot. She understands that the sacred shows up in creative work, that art-making is a form of prayer, and that the creative process itself can be a site of profound spiritual inquiry.

Helena is a wonderful companion for artists, writers, makers, and anyone whose relationship with the sacred runs through image, story, craft, or beauty. She's also gifted with people who are navigating the spiritual questions of later life, finding meaning in aging, discovering who you are after the roles of career and able-bodied 'doing' have shifted, sitting with what it means to have a legacy and a remaining season. Her companioning is described as gentle guidance, not direction from above, but presence alongside.

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Mysti Downing calls herself a spiritual co-voyager, which is beautifully right. Her practice is rooted at the intersection of nature-based spirituality, theosophical wisdom, and the mysteries of consciousness, and she holds the door wide open for people who approach these questions from multiple angles: quantum physics, Jungian depth psychology, Pagan tradition, or plain old awe.

Mysti is a good fit for working professionals navigating a season of change: people who have studied, led, achieved, and now find themselves at the edge of something they can't think their way through, whether that change is externally imposed or internally unfolding. She's also a natural match for people living in red states, where your spiritual life may feel invisible or unsafe in the surrounding culture. She won't tell you where to go. She'll help you hear your own inner authority more clearly. Her work, she says, is "less about being led and more about exploration, navigation and interpreting the compass."

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Cedar, Helena, Mysti

All four of these companions are available now. You can read their full bios and book a get-to-know-you conversation, with two or three of them if you like, before you commit to anything.

👉 Meet Scott, Cedar, Helena, Mysti! and book a free exploratory session

Questions? Reach me at abeltaine@uuma.org

Beloved, you are whole, holy, and worthy. — Rev. Amy

The Most Spiritually Enriching Experiences Happen Outside the Box

You know that feeling when you've been searching for spiritual depth, and the places that are supposed to provide it just... don't quite fit? Maybe the language is wrong, or the framework too narrow, or the theology at odds with what you know in your bones to be true.

You've been looking for formation that honors earth-based practices, that makes space for complexity, that doesn't ask you to check parts of yourself at the door. You want to serve as a spiritual companion, but the training programs you've found feel like they're preparing you for a world that doesn't exist, or worse, for work you don't actually want to do.

What if there was a different way?

Cherry Hill Seminary Spiritual Direction Certificate

A 24-Month Formation Outside Institutional Containers

One of our current students, Matt, just wrote something that stopped me in my tracks: 

"Some of the most spiritually enriching experiences I've ever had have occurred outside of institutional religion. This course would be one of those experiences." (Matt, Class of '26)

This is what we're building. Not another institutional program that asks you to conform. Not another certificate that checks boxes but leaves your soul untouched. This is formation for people who seek something the traditional containers can't provide.

Applications due February 15 for Cohort 5 starting March 4, 2026

Two Ways to Join

Year One (New Students): Begin the full 24-month journey with live classes twice monthly, supervised practice starting in Year 2, and a cohort community of up to 14 international students. You'll move through four semesters exploring contemplative practice, diverse spiritual traditions, trauma-aware approaches, and sustainable ethical vocation.

Year Two (Already Credentialed): If you're already a credentialed or partially credentialed spiritual director from another program, you can join Year 2 of Cohort 4 (currently in progress) or wait for Year 2 of Cohort 5. This option is for practitioners who want the specific training in earth-based, multi-religious, trauma-aware, justice-rooted approaches that most programs don't offer. (Learn more about this option, here.)

What Makes This Different

We begin with the truth that you are already whole, holy, and worthy. Your formation isn't about fixing yourself first... it's about deepening your capacity to witness that wholeness in others.

The program grounds you in three sources of wisdom: Moon (teachings and traditions), Forest (relationships and community), and Bone (your own inner knowing). Everything we do is consent-based, trauma-aware, and rooted in justice work.

You'll learn from diverse faculty: Pagan, Indigenous, Catholic, Sufi, Animist, and other traditions. You'll be prepared for the actual complexity of contemporary spiritual companioning, not an idealized version of it.

This is infrastructure for resistance. The companions we're training aren't just supporting individual seekers; they're tending the souls of justice workers, activists, and organizers. They're creating fierce support in safer spaces for people whose spirituality doesn't fit traditional religious containers.

The Practical Details

Investment: $3000 for the full program ($375 quarterly payments)
Format: Online, with live sessions and recorded content
Time Commitment: 24 months for full program, 12 months for Year 2 only
Cohort Size: 8-14 students

Application Process:

1. Schedule a discovery call to explore fit
2. Submit application with two essays and references
3. Admissions interview

Applications close February 15, 2026, or when the cohort fills. Six spots remain.

• Schedule Discovery Call - https://SpiritualTendingWithAmy.as.me/SpiDirInquiry
• Begin Application - https://cherryhillseminary.org/academics/certificate-programs-at-cherry-hill-seminary-2/#spidir-anchor

Some of the most spiritually enriching experiences happen outside institutional religion. This could be one of those experiences for you.

Rev. Amy Beltaine
abeltaine@uuma.org

From Helping to Witnessing: Transformation at the Heart of Spiritual Direction

From Helping to Witnessing: Transformation at the Heart of Spirit Tending

What does it take to truly accompany someone on their spiritual journey?

For many who come to spiritual direction from helping professions: ministers, therapists, teachers, healers, the answer requires a profound shift. Robert, a graduate of our 2024 cohort, describes this transformation:

"This program has invited me, over and over again, to ask Why Am I Talking, and to be more aware of the Witness that I am and practice intentional witnessing with seekers."

This is the heart of what we teach in the Cherry Hill Spiritual Direction Certification Program. Over 24 months, our students learn to rest into presence rather than rush toward solutions. As Robert discovered:

"The program has been, for me, about resting into more silence in the presence of another soul who is searching for ways to make meaning out of their life's unfolding. Their life's unfolding is not ours to 'fix' or direct or heal."

Our fifth cohort begins March 3, 2026, with 8 fantastic students already enrolled. We're now accepting applications and conducting discovery calls for the remaining 6 spots. The program is capped at 14 students to ensure intimate, personalized training.

This 24-month online certification program trains spiritual companions for earth-based, Pagan, and multi-religious communities, emphasizing consent-based, trauma-aware practices in safer spaces.

Application deadline: February 15, 2026

Learn more about Robert at Cor-Connection: Robert Patrick, M.Div, PhD 
https://www.corconnection.us/

Ready to start the journey? You can offer spiritual direction work [Click Here]. You can receive spirit tending [Click Here].

Beloved, you are whole, holy and worthy,

Amy

Thunder Candles and Ginger Cookies: Reclaiming My Grandmother’s Light

My paternal grandmother was known for three things: her warm hugs, her ginger cookies, and her complicated relationship with where she came from. She was first-generation Slovak, born to immigrant parents, and she spent much of her life embarrassed by them, their accents, their old-country ways. She got teased. So even though she still cooked traditional Slovak foods like cabbage rolls, she never spoke the language to us, never taught us the folk traditions her parents would have known. What she passed down was ginger cookies and the best hugs you’ve ever felt.

Her birthday was in February. And I have a friend in Ontario, Canada, whose grandmother did pass on the old traditions, Slavic practices her maternal grandmother taught her. My friend tells me that in Ontario right now, there is absolutely no sign of spring. Just the Snow Moon, the traditional name for February’s full moon because this is when the heaviest snowfall comes. Just cold and white and waiting.

But something else happens in February. Something my friend’s grandmother taught her, and something my grandmother’s parents knew about, even if it never reached me directly.

On February 2nd, the old Slavic peoples celebrated Gromnica, the feast of the thunder candle. The name comes from grom, which means thunder. Families would bless thick beeswax candles on this day, then save them throughout the year for protection. You’d light one during fierce thunderstorms to guard your home from lightning. You’d light one during illness. You’d light one at births and deaths, those threshold moments when we most need the reassurance of sacred flame.

Gromnice "Thunder Candle"

This is the day when the goddess Dziewanna, protectress of wolves and wild animals, Mistress of the Wild Wood, begins her slow dance back toward spring. Some say this is when she and Marzanna (the death goddess of winter) start switching places, a transformation that won’t complete until the spring equinox. This is also Bear Day in the old traditions, when the bear emerges from hibernation to check for her shadow, predicting six more weeks of winter or the early arrival of spring. (Yes, our Groundhog Day comes from these ancient Slavic and Germanic bear traditions.)

The Christian church painted over these practices, as it often did, renaming the day “Matki Boskieg Gromnicznej”—the Festivity of the Holy Mother of the Thunder Candle. But underneath that veneer, the old knowing persists: that light grows even in the deepest cold. That we protect what is vulnerable—homes and travelers, wolves and wild things, the dying and the newborn. That transformation happens slowly, goddess by goddess, week by week, as winter loosens its grip.

I didn’t learn any of this from my grandmother directly. The thread was fragile, nearly broken. But here’s the beautiful part: in her seventies, my grandmother went back to Slovakia. She reconnected. It’s never too late to find your way home to what your people knew.

And I’m finding my way there now too. I’m learning about Gromnica from my friend whose grandmother kept the practice alive. I’m researching the traditions my grandmother’s parents would have known. And when I make ginger cookies in February, her recipe, her gift, I light a candle. Not just for nostalgia. But because this is the work of honoring: claiming both what was passed down (the cookies, the hugs, the Slovak foods, the love) and what was nearly lost (the language, the rituals, the sacred knowing).

This is the invitation I want to offer you: You don’t have to be Slovak to do this work. Most of us come from people who had complicated relationships with their heritage. Who got teased for their parents’ accents. Who lost the thread of their grandmother’s grandmother’s grandmother’s practices somewhere along the way.

Ginger Cookies CC0

But February is a threshold month. The Snow Moon hangs full and bright. The bear checks for her shadow. The goddess of the wild wood begins her slow emergence. And we, too, can emerge from what was buried or forgotten.

Maybe you don’t know your people’s February traditions. Maybe they were lost, or never spoken aloud, or sit in that complicated space between shame and pride. That’s okay. You can light a candle anyway. You can bake the thing your grandmother was known for. You can honor what survived and grieve what didn’t. You can research and reclaim. You can hold space for both the silence and the sacred flame.

Not to appropriate someone else’s practice. But to find your way back to your own.

My grandmother gave me ginger cookies and good hugs. She went back to Slovakia in her seventies and reconnected with what she’d distanced herself from. That’s a powerful teaching: it’s never too late. And now I’m adding the thunder candle back in: her parents’ practice, my reclaimed inheritance. I’m lighting it for protection, yes. But also for remembering. For the slow transformation from winter to spring. For the wolves and the wild things and the growing light.

May you find what your people lost or set aside. May you honor what they kept. May you light your own candle against the February cold, knowing that spring is coming, slowly, goddess by goddess, bear by bear, cookie by cookie.

You are whole. You are here. 

When Relationships Change Us: Why Justice Workers Need Spiritual Direction

Andrew Schulz is not someone I ever expected to quote in a blog post about spiritual companioning. The podcaster and comedian who interviewed Donald Trump before the 2024 election and publicly voted for him has spent the past months becoming one of the administration's sharpest critics. This week, he called the killing of Alex Pretti (a 37-year-old Veterans Affairs nurse shot by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis) "murder in cold blood" and the administration's response "fucking disgusting."

What changed?

Schulz recently became a father. His Netflix special "Life" explores his journey through fertility challenges and into fatherhood. And while I can't speak to what's happening in his heart, I can observe this: relationships change us. Being in loving relationship with other people, a partner, a child, opens us to caring about other others. It builds the muscle of empathy.

When Schulz looks at footage of federal agents in masks interrogating children in New York City parks, when he sees the administration rushing to label a murdered American citizen a "domestic terrorist," he's not just seeing policy. He's seeing someone's child. Someone's person. The capacity to hold the humanity of strangers grows from the practice of holding the humanity of those we love.

This is why spirit tending matters so urgently right now.

Spiritual direction work: the practice of accompanying someone in their unfolding relationship with the sacred, with justice, with themselves, is fundamentally about building connection. It's about creating the kind of fierce support in safer spaces where people can metabolize their experiences, name their truths, and reconnect with their deepest values. It's about relationship as the container for transformation.

And we need this work everywhere, not just in private offices and church basements.

We need spiritual companions among activists who are burning out from bearing witness to cruelty. We need them in organizing spaces where people are navigating moral injury and collective trauma. We need them with justice workers who are trying to hold hope while the world feels like it's unraveling. We need them creating the conditions where people like Andrew Schulz, people who are waking up to their own capacity for solidarity, can keep waking up instead of shutting down.

Because here's what I know from 14 years of this work: people don't change through argument or shame. They change through relationship. Through being seen, held, and accompanied as they discover what they truly believe. Through having someone witness their courage as they choose empathy over tribalism, connection over cruelty.

The work of spiritual companionship is not neutral. It's not about helping people feel better so they can return to business as usual. It's about supporting people as they align their lives with their values, as they build the internal resources to show up for justice again and again, as they learn to hold complexity without collapsing into cynicism.

Ready to start that journey? You can offer spiritual direction work [Click Here]. You can receive spirit tending [Click Here].

This is why I'm so passionate about training more spiritual companions, and training them well. Through the Cherry Hill Spiritual Direction Certification Program, we're forming companions who can hold space across difference, who understand trauma and consent, who can work with earth-based practitioners and multi-religious seekers and people who've been harmed by institutional religion. We're creating a cohort of practitioners who understand that this work belongs in the streets as much as it belongs in sanctuaries.

Join Us

Our March 2026 cohort is forming now. We have 8 students enrolled and room for 6 more. If you've been feeling the call to this work, if you sense that your gifts belong in the service of others' spiritual unfolding, I invite you to apply. The application deadline is February 15th.

We need more people who can do this work. We need more spaces where transformation becomes possible. We need more practitioners who understand that accompanying people in their spiritual lives is also accompanying them in their moral development, their capacity for empathy, their willingness to see the humanity in those they've been taught to dismiss.

Andrew Schulz is learning what many of us know: relationships change us. Love expands our circle of care. Connection builds the capacity for courage.

And spiritual companioning is the practice of tending these relationships, with ourselves, with each other, with the sacred, with the world we're trying to build together.

If you're ready to learn how to offer this kind of companionship, we're ready to train you.

Applications for the March 2026 Cherry Hill Spiritual Direction Certification Program close February 15th. Learn more and apply at  https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/01/cherry-hill-spiritual-direction.html.

Beloved, You are whole, holy, and worthy.

Rev. Amy

The Reading Before the Reading: Tarot, Presence & the Holy Cup

Drinking the Tea: Card Reading for Spiritual Companioning

In spiritual direction and card-based discernment alike, there's a profound shift when we stop treating the tools, Tarot, oracle, images, even the question itself, as the point, and begin to see them as companions. We move from “reading the leaves” to drinking the tea together.

This movement is not about interpretive authority or even structured layouts, though those have their place. This is about presence. The real magic often happens before the reading begins or without a formal reading at all. The act of sitting together, sipping metaphorical (or literal) tea, is as sacred as the moment of revelation. Maybe more.

In my own Tarot practice, and this extends to any form of contemplative card work, I find that a single card, drawn with attention and held in shared reflection, can be as rich and complete as an entire spread. There’s power in asking: Where do you feel this in your body? What word stands out? Which image unsettles or comforts you? A one-card pull becomes an invitation into lived wisdom, expanding insight.

Seekers often arrive hoping for answers. But what unfolds is a mirror of wisdom they already carry, just waiting for permission to be perceived.

The card helps hold the space, but it is the sipping, far more than the scrying, that builds trust and transformation.

It’s less about divining the future than about making room for the present. Less about providing solutions, and more about lighting gentle fires of self-knowing. What we offer is never a prescription: it’s a hot chocolate for the soul.

Sometimes, the reading happens before the reading. Sometimes, the ritual, the breath, the shuffle, the image, the shared pause, is what reveals the wisdom that’s already waiting. Tarot, like all sacred tools, is not the thing itself, it’s a companion The cards become image-bearing, question-holding, moment-making partner on the spiritual journey.

This post explores three movements that I’ve found especially helpful in using Tarot or oracle cards as part of spiritual direction. I've moved away from divination or prediction, and toward soul witnessing and presence. Each movement is optional. But each, if entered with care, has the power to shift the whole shape of the conversation.

Movement 1: Choosing a Card to Represent Yourself

Rather than starting with a card, layout, or interpretation, sometimes the most powerful opening is simply: Who do you feel like right now?

If using Tarot, invite the seeker to reflect on what is most alive within them at the moment. How would they describe themselves in terms of what is present for them right now? Perhaps they arrived at this moment with a burning question. Perhaps they have a gentle curiosity about their true self or path. Or perhaps they are grappling with meaning or connection.

Who Am I in this Moment?

To begin, invite the seeker into discernment about who they are in this moment. This is a contemplative act that can be deeply illuminating, sometimes even more so than the reading itself.

Before laying out a single card, we can pause and ask: who am I, right now? What archetype reflects my current soul-place? Am I beginning something, nurturing something, letting something go? Which element is stirring in me, water’s emotion, fire’s longing, earth’s groundedness, or air’s clarity? These questions guide us to choose a card that represents our current self, as a truth-telling

Steps and Insights

Ask if they’d like to choose a card to represent themselves (rather than drawing one at random). This gives them agency and insight.

1. For example, you might focus on the court cards (Page, Knight, Queen, King) of the traditional Tarot deck. In this case, invite reflection on:

• What stage of life they feel they are in

Ask them to choose one that feels like it represents who they are in this moment. If using other cards, adjust the below model to fit those cards.

This isn’t about hierarchy or medieval identities. It’s about spiritual season and elemental resonance.

• Are they feeling tender, just beginning something, exploring (Page)?

• Are they in motion, carrying fire or change, pursuing a mission (Knight)?

• Are they sustaining something, consolidating or expanding an already established domain, working with sovereignty, or deepening a skilled role (King)?

• Are they witnessing, reflecting, integrating, aging or saging (Queen)?

2. Which element resonates for them in the moment: Earth (body/practicality), Air (mind/ideas), Water (emotion/connection), or Fire (spirit/inspiration)?

• Do they feel most connected to the clarity of Air, the warmth of Fire, the depth of Water, or the steadiness of Earth? If working with other types of cards, you might be looking at associations from other cultures or traditions. Earth/Air/Fire/Water is not the only system of suits/elements!

You might offer some descriptions of the suits and roles, but often, simply placing the cards in front of them and asking Which one feels like you? opens a profound moment of self-reflection.

The chosen card becomes a spiritual name tag, a gesture of self-recognition. The chosen card becomes an archetypal mirror, inviting the seeker to honor who they are and what energies are most present for them in the moment.

And from there, the reading, if one happens, has already begun.

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Movement 2: Settling in and Meditative Shuffling

“Would it be all right if I just shuffled for a bit?”
Her voice trembled slightly, but her hands were steady on the cards.
“Yes,” I said, “you don’t have to draw anything unless you want to.”
She breathed. Sat back. Shuffled. It became rhythm as the sounds of cards tapped on the table, the shirring of paper slipping past paper, and then snapping into place, repeated. Ten minutes passed.
She never did draw. But something opened.

Shuffling as Prayer

Sometimes, we never draw a card.

The act of shuffling can be its own practice. I’ve watched seekers sink into the rhythm, not ready to pull and grateful for the silence. The shuffle becomes a centering bell, a way to move from anxious mind into contemplative body.

Settling into the practice can be as rich and revealing as the reading itself. The shuffle is more than just preparation, it is prayer, meditation, and alignment.

When we are on Zoom and I'm the one shuffling the cards, I accompany the shuffling with an invitation for them to enter into meditation. When you are in person and your seeker is open to shuffling you might offer an invitation like:

“Take as long as feels good with the shufflin.? Being with the cards in this way is an important part of the practice."

Encourage the seeker to let their hands move while their heart settles. This is an opportunity for them to feel into the sensations present in their body, the movements in their heart, mind, and soul. You can encourage them to notice shifts and emergences as they dwell with the question or topic.

Steps and Insights

During the time of shuffling you can offer quiet prompts:

• What are you noticing in your body right now?

• Is there a word or image you’re holding as you shuffle?

• What are you hoping the cards might help reflect or hold?

I often say: The reading begins with becoming present to what is.

• Invite them to breathe, feel into their body, and name (silently or aloud) what is true for them in the moment.

• Encourage visualization: what unseen forces are helping bring these cards into alignment with their truth?

• Trust that the process of sinking into presence is already a form of spiritual direction.

In the act of shuffling, breathing, and asking what is true for us right now, something aligns. The cards become almost secondary, their magic is in the way they give form to the insight we’ve already begun to claim.

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Movement 3: Choosing a Layout

Card work becomes spiritual accompaniment through presence, consent, and shared reflection.

Offering different layouts helps the seeker clarify the scope of their question or the sense of their questing. 

Once you've settled into your self-knowing and drawn (or chosen) a card to reflect who you are, the next question is: what do you need help seeing? This is where the layout comes in, a structure to help you frame your curiosity, receive insight, or open to mystery.

Choice and Honing

Layouts are not maps showing us answers, instead they're invitations into deeper presence. Always, we begin with choice, offering the seeker options. Let the structure serve the question, not the other way around.

Steps and Insights

• Check in: Might a single card suffice today? Is the "Yes/No" layout resonating? Or the "Know Thyself" layout? Or perhaps a modified Celtic cross? Or perhaps no layout?

• Offer Options: Sometimes, a seeker is drawn to a complexly structured layout, like the Tree of Life. It offers a series of placements, splendor, strength, understanding, mercy, each one a prompt, a doorway.

• Get Creative: Would they like to pull a card today from one place that resonates, say, “wisdom” or “foundation”?

• Allow for Spaciousness: Perhaps for the Tree of Life layout it would serve to draw one card per session, letting each sphere speak across a season of spiritual direction?

• Let go: Or is today a day for simplicity, a single card, no layout, just presence?

Whichever layout is chosen, remember, it’s not necessary to “do the full spread.” In fact, this part of the discernment is asking the seeker what they need. 

Offering these options becomes part of the companioning itself. It honors agency and asks for consent. Practicing consent in the logistics of the reading, engenders a practice of consent in the soul-level work of being met and seen.

The deeper shift, always, is from seeking answers to seeking presence. And from presence, comes offering.

In this kind of practice, the cards do not offer a verdict or a prescription. They offer a mirror. A gentle reflection. A story waiting to be explored together. As companions, we are not “reading” for someone. As companions we are making room for what their soul already knows, and may be ready to say aloud. As always, the companion is discerning when and how much observation to offer. We avoid interpretation and offer comfort or invitation. We do not force the experience toward a goal of clarity, but offer company. We offer tissues, snacks, and meaning and connection for the soul, something warm and companionable to let the hidden truths come forward and sit at the table with us.

That’s the tea. Literally and metaphorically.

It’s not just about the cards, or the layout, or the leaves at the bottom of the cup. It’s about what happens when we sit together. When we sip and wonder and listen without fixing.

We don’t just read the tea leaves.

We drink the tea.

Try It: A Mini Practice

Next time you sit with someone (or with yourself) and a deck of cards, try this simplified flow. It contains the three movements, a reading, and a reminder:

1. Who Are You Today?
   Choose a card that feels like it reflects who you are right now. No need to explain. Just name it.

2. Settle & Shuffle.
   Spend 3–5 minutes in quiet. Let your hands shuffle. Feel into the sensations in your body, the movements in your heart, mind, and soul. Notice shifts and emergences as you dwell with the question or topic.

3. Choose Your Framework (or Layout)
   Sense what kind of structure might support you: a layout with multiple cards, a single card in response to a question, or simply silence.

4. Lay Down One (or more) card(s)
   If and when it feels right, draw a single card. Sit with it. Let the card lead you to a word, a memory, a gesture, a story. If you chose a layout, pull a second card and after spending time with that card, spend some time letting the cards talk to each other, and interact with the placement they are in. Repeat to fill the frame and then back up to take in the whole picture.

5. Sip, Don’t Rush.
   Treat this like a conversation with a wise friend, not a quiz with a right answer.

Coda: One Card, One Cup

You don’t need a ten-card Celtic Cross to be a deep companion to someone’s unfolding story. You need presence. A good question. Maybe an image. And a mug.

Whether you're drawing from Tarot, oracle decks, art cards, or simply from your own deep listening, this work is about mirroring someone into remembering themselves.

Sometimes you’ll draw a card.

Sometimes you’ll hold space.

Sometimes you’ll say, “Here. Have some tea.”

And every now and then, you’ll watch someone’s soul peek out, blinking, ready to speak.

Beloved, you are whole, holy and worthy,

Rev. Amy

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For Further Exploration

• Greer, Mary K. Tarot for Your Self - A classic in the world of introspective Tarot work. Encourages personal insight and spiritual growth rather than prediction.
https://www.tarotpassages.com/marykgreer.htm

• Arrien, Angeles. The Tarot Handbook - Integrates cross-cultural archetypes, psychology, and spiritual development with the Tarot.
https://www.angelesarrien.com/tarot.html

• Pollack, Rachel. Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom - One of the deepest dives into the layers of Tarot meaning and spiritual reflection.
https://rachelpollack.com/tarot-books/ 

• Beltaine, Amy. Ethical Tarot Practice: An Evolving Perspective - Explores how tarot can support spiritual direction without slipping into prediction, projection, or appropriation. Offers practical tips and grounded reflection for ethical engagement.
https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-ethics-of-using-tarot-cards.html

• Matthews, Caitlín. Untold Tarot: The Lost Art of Reading Ancient Tarots - Offers insight into historical approaches to tarot as conversation and presence, not just divination. Grounded in Marseille decks and soulful inquiry.
https://caitlin-matthews.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-untold-tarot.html

• Beltaine, Amy. Ethical Spiritual Companioning: A Foundation of Trust and Integrity – A vital exploration of spiritual direction ethics, including consent, boundaries, and integrity. This underpins the compassionate, consent-based approach to card practice shared in Drinking the Tea.
https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/03/ethical-spiritual-companioning.html 

• Beltaine, Amy. The Heart of Spiritual Direction – An introductory guide to spiritual companioning, highlighting deep listening, sacred presence, and the relational space that sets the stage for contemplative practices like card work.
https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-heart-of-spiritual-direction.html

Finding Your Guide: Understanding Spiritual Companioning vs. Pastoral Care, Life Coaching, Counseling, and Mentorship

On our life's journey, we often seek guidance and support. But with so many support options available, it can be confusing to know which path to take. This blog post intends to clarify the distinctions between spiritual companioning, pastoral care, life coaching, counseling, and mentorship, helping you find the right fit for your unique self in this unique moment.

Spiritual Companioning: A Journey Together

Spiritual companions, sometimes called spiritual directors, travel alongside you on your spiritual journey. They provide a safe and confidential space for you to build your relationship with what you hold most meaningful, and to explore your faith, values, and inner life. Unlike therapists or counselors, spiritual companions don't offer advice or solutions. Instead, they ask insightful questions, listen deeply, and help you discern your own path. This process of self-discovery fosters clarity of value and purpose and a deeper connection to your spirituality.

Pastoral Care: Nurturing the Community

Pastoral care, offered by religious leaders, provides spiritual guidance and support within a specific religious tradition. Religious leaders may offer brief counseling, officiate at ceremonies, visit the sick, and provide emotional and spiritual support to members of their congregation. Pastoral care often focuses on applying religious teachings to life's challenges and fostering a sense of community within the faith tradition.

Life Coaching: Navigating Towards Goals

Life coaches focus on helping you navigate towards specific goals in your personal or professional life. They employ various techniques to help you identify your goals, develop action plans, overcome obstacles, and achieve greater fulfillment. Life coaching is a future-oriented approach that emphasizes personal empowerment and accountability.

Counseling: Addressing Mental and Emotional Well-being

Counselors and therapists are licensed mental health professionals trained to diagnose and treat mental health conditions. They use evidence-based therapy techniques to address issues like anxiety, depression, trauma, and relationship problems. Counseling provides a safe space to explore your emotions, develop coping mechanisms, and improve your overall well-being.

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Formator/Teacher/Mentor: Guiding Growth and Development

Formators, teachers, and mentors share their knowledge and experience to guide your development in a specific area. Formators are often found in religious contexts, providing instruction and guidance to those discerning a vocation or deepening their faith. Teachers impart knowledge and skills in a particular subject, while mentors offer personalized guidance and support as you navigate a specific field or life stage.

Choosing the Right Path:

The best path for you depends on your specific needs and goals. Here's a quick breakdown:

• Spiritual Companioning: For making meaning and exploring your spirituality, values, and inner life.
• Pastoral Care: For spiritual guidance within a specific religious tradition.
• Life Coaching: For navigating towards personal or professional goals.
• Counseling: For addressing mental and emotional skills and well-being.
• Formator/Teacher/Mentor: For acquiring knowledge and skills in a specific area.

Remember, these categories aren't always mutually exclusive. You might benefit from a combination of approaches at different points in your life.

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Finding Help and Resources:

• Spiritual companions: Many religious communities offer spiritual direction programs. You can also search online directories of spiritual directors.
• Pastoral care: Contact your local religious leader or place of worship.
• Life coaches: Look for certified life coaches through reputable organizations.
• Counselors: Search online directories of licensed therapists or counselors in your area.
• Formators/Teachers/Mentors: Look for programs or individuals within your field of interest.

The Takeaway:

By understanding the distinctions between these approaches, you can make an informed decision about the guidance you seek. Whether you're seeking meaning and purpose, navigating life's challenges, or pursuing personal growth, there's a path that can support you on your journey.

• If you feel called to explore the meaning and direction of your spirituality with a credentialed companion, visit https://shorturl.at/pr0ue or http://UUSDN.org to find a spiritual companion.

• If you are thinking of professional changes for the new year... consider the 2-year Spiritual Direction Certification program through Cherry Hill Seminary. There are still a few openings for our March 2026 cohort. This program trains spiritual companions for earth-based, Pagan, UU and multi-religious communities.
  If you've been considering a career transition into spiritual care, or want to add spiritual companioning to your existing ministry or helping profession, I'm holding discovery calls.
  The program is trauma-aware, justice-oriented, consent-based, and designed for working adults. 6 spots remaining, applications close February 15.
  Schedule a conversation: https://SpiritualTendingWithAmy.as.me/SpiDirInquiry
  Program details: https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/01/cherry-hill-spiritual-direction.html

Beloved, you are whole, holy, and worthy,

Rev. Amy