Interview with Zuzanna Vee : Soulful Artist & Founder of “Cycles of Healing”

Hey there, Goddesses! Today’s interview day and today you’ll be hearing from Zuzanna Vee, the soulful artist and founder of “Cycles of Healing” an online community and website dedicated to healing the divine feminine wound within all women.

Zuzanna really intrigued me when I first found her through a group I belong to and read a couple of her blog posts that incorporated astrology, tarot, and how to put them together to find divine healing messages within. She is a fantastic writer, painter and tarot reader with an avid desire to help us dig deep into our traumas as women and come out on the other side healed, empowered, and recollected. Look in her eyes and you can see that there is a woman of great power and understanding of the divine feminine. She pierces through your spirit and sees the real, unhidden YOU. There is both a safety and a fear in that knowledge, isn’t there? But a beauty in knowing that all at the same time. Before I ramble on and on, let me bring you what you came here for! The interview! haha! Onto the questions!

1) How did you come onto the path you are on and the place you’re in right now? Tell of your journey to where you’re at right now and how you got there.

I was spiritually inclined as a child and really worried that what I saw around me was all there was. It distressed me no end. When I was 15 I did a year’s experimentation with various drugs and discovered there was indeed something else. I then determined the best course of action would be to find the doorway without the use of anything but my own natural efforts. Thus, my path began.
I am Slovak Roma on my mother’s side, Celtic Brit on my dad’s, and have spent a great deal of time travelling, specially when younger, meeting diverse people of all nationalities and economic persuasions. This has been very important to my path – to embrace differences as well as to celebrate similarities amongst all. Nature always played a huge part in my connecting to divinity and I am happiest alone with Her.
Always interested in myths, and legends, I felt there was truth behind what was called fairy tale. Around the age of 12 I began reading ancient history, archaeology, the Christian bible, and mythologies. I could often feel another story between the lines and soon realized there was a unity to the many stories I was reading as well as a grain of truth somewhere hidden.
At 16 I studied meditation, asana and pranayama. They have been foundational in my life ever since and I continue daily practice. I also began my interest in tarot and astrology at this time and that has remained part of my learning path. The Theosophical writings were a real comfort to me in the beginning, and I have been influenced by mystic Catholicism, Gurdjieff, Meher Baba, quantum physics and consciousness (specifically The Holistic Universe by Michael Talbot), and so much more, all of them informing my present concept of the true nature of the universe. But it is an ongoing process, joyful in its ever-widening scope.
When I was 19 I went to England and worked in the rock music industry for a few years. I studied homeopathy there in the late 70s, and herbalism in the late 80s/early 90s as a way to keep myself out of the mainstream medical paradigm. These and acupuncture are my medicines of choices.
In 1986 I began studies with The Yoga for Health Foundation in Bedfordshire, England, to become a yoga instructor, then a yoga therapist, eventually living and teaching there for over three years until my return to the states in 1991. This was an emersion into New Age thought and practice and I had a great time there, the first and only residential yoga center in Europe at the time, now sadly closed. I taught classes and did one-on-one work from 1988 – 2008.
I have kept a dream journal without interruption since the late 80s, but also noted down my dreams from an early age. Dreams are an important doorway into the dimensional realms for me. They teach, warn, affirm and comfort me almost nightly.
I studied Native American culture, Lakota spirituality, and learned this language. I also studied the sacred Sanskrit language and yoga philosophy in depth. Not having anyone with whom to share these languages on a regular basis, I am not fluent in either sadly.
Animals have had a big impact upon my heart opening process and I trained in shamanic techniques, animal communication and animal/people Reiki in the early 2000s; Now I often housesit; caring for animals when their people are away. This is a true joy. Because I tend to be mobile, I do not have animal companions of my own and this helps ease that dilemma.
From late 2008 I lived in NYC for four years studying art, and art technique, realizing a life-long goal of becoming an artist. I showed, sold, and won awards, including Best of Show for a watercolor in 2012. When I returned to North Carolina at the end of that year, I began using my art for personal healing and accessing my inner world. I cannot be thankful enough for that art school opportunity. I had top-notch teachers who encouraged and mentored me without being lenient by any stretch, and I grew as an artist and as a woman.
Experiencing the Goddess consciously in the early 90s, I am dedicated to her re-emergence. Sekhmet called me to Her December 30, 2012 and I studied Egyptian mysticism for a year soon afterwards with a teacher in Cairo via Skype.
Currently I am developing work involving the Great Year and the reclamation of our women’s past and our place in it. I use my art and writing to accesses this past as well as a lot of in depth conventional research for my blog, Cycles of Healing, a year old August 2015.
I have a daughter who remains in England with her family, and am a grandmother of four lovely children. I live a contemplative life in a woman-shared house, and my learning path continues daily both joyfully and with challenge.

2) How do you define being a woman? What does womanhood mean to you?

I feel the definition of a woman is largely dependent upon where one is in the larger life hormonal cycle of the woman, her economic status and cultural conditioning. This is of course a false base line, but one from which we unconsciously operate most, if not all, the time. Male or female, we are ruled by the patriarchal paradigm interfacing with our chemical systems. Just as striking out is a patriarchal reaction, standing up for oneself is a feminine one. How many of us default to attack when we disagree with something rather than just leaving it? And how many of us try to keep the so-called peace rather than stand up for ourselves when appropriate? We are all brainwashed. I have struggled for release from this all my life, and continue to do so. It’s not easy. I am not saying all of these hormonal drives are wrong. I amsaying they are unconscious and therefore subject to question and scrutiny.
For me being a woman is having the innate ability to connect. Women are fortunate that our hormonal makeup is predisposed to this. We are all more or less driven by these tiny chemical imperatives and now, as a post-menopause woman, I do not have the same drive toward coupling that kept me subservient to ‘the other’ for most of my life. I always needed to connect outwardly, but now I connect inwardly, which is more yin. A very different route to the same destination and much more direct – for me.
A woman is someone who knows herself, as the Oracle at Delphi insisted we do. A woman is someone who has the future of the world in her body, in her conscious mind and in her spirit. A woman is authentically herself without the need of a veneer of subtle, or not so subtle, manipulation, cunning or coercion in the broadest sense of these meanings.
When we accept ourselves for who and what we are – powerful forces for life – we realize the patriarchal yardstick by which so many women still live. It’s a tough road to disallow 5000 years of conditioning. This hypnotic trance, with all its false promises, is literally mesmerizing. But we are coming to a time now where much is being shattered around us and our own natural feminine gifts of love, unity and harmony will be coming forward to save our world – not the Earth…She doesn’t need our help. But as we align with Her and learn from Her, we will realize how to ‘be’ as women. That will be different for each one of us, but will have the tell tale sign of peace and love for all – no ifs, ands or buts.
When we operate from this place of feminine strength within, we will once again come into our own and guide the world (the new paradigm in which we will live on Earth) toward balance, equality and true freedom of heart. That will start with shifting our focus from commerce and profit to the real needs of others whilst maintaining a dedication inwardly to ourselves that does not waver.
I do not have the whole answer, but I do know it is up to women to find the way now.

3) What is something you do to get yourself motivated when you feel down or lacking motivation?

When I am in an emotional funk, depressed or struggling internally, the best thing I have learned to do, through many decades of experimentation, is to really pay attention to my feelings. Reading is always a huge choice for distraction for me, so that is a no-no. So is the internet, snacks, phone calls, business and busy-ness, errands…. anything that takes my mind off the inner situation that is calling me to pay attention. Journaling is a yes-yes.
I stay with the feelings whatever they are, and often walk or sit alone in nature. Basically, I stop any and all distractions and ‘be’ rather than ‘do’. I listen inwardly and just twist and turn with the discomfort. It is amazing how quickly, though it shifts, what I learn about myself in the process, and there is always healing. When I do this, often crying will come up when it wasn’t even possible before. That’s when I know the issue is being expressed and I’m on the right track. There are layers and layers to distress, but this method is a sure-fire one for me back to health, healing and wholeness – which is my bottom line. In a day or two I’m back to my creative self with more understanding of my process.

4) What is something you’ve learned personally as a woman that you’d like to teach other women out there?

The most important thing I have learned is how to access and identify one’s intuition and inner guidance, distinguish it from ego concerns, and to strengthen it and make it a reliable tool. This is the single most important personal resource to cultivate now and is the foundation of everything I stand for.
Added to that, I have found the giving up of watching and reading the news to be a great source of freed-up psychic energy. I do not watch television either and haven’t for decades. It is nearly impossible to find oneself amidst the crap one willingly absorbs from what is presented via media outlets. I always find out, one way or another, that which I need to be apprised. Be very selective what goes into your visual and auditory systems. I cannot stress this enough.

WOW! Outstanding answers, Zuzanna! Thank you SO very much for taking the time to answer these questions and make time for this interview. It was a pleasure getting to know more about you and your thoughts on these questions.

If you would like to get in touch with Zuzanna about the tarot reading services she offers or would just like to ask her some questions, feel free to visit and like her Facebook page or visit her Website by clicking the links below!

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Zuzanna and her Teacher Tree

Zuzanna Vee grew up on the Gulf Coast of Florida and was always interested in comparative cosmologies. At a young age she became very interested in mediation and yoga practices. She traveled quite a bit, starting when she was 19 and worked for Pete Townshend of “The Who!” 
She was a yoga instructor in the late 80’s and studied under Rosemary Gladstar where she obtained a plethora of herbal knowledge and wisdom. A gifted herbalist, astrologer, tarot reader and shamanic practitioner, Zuzanna has acquired a depth of knowledge, worldly experience and spiritual wisdom which she has learned to channel through her in teaching and healing women of the world.

This interview was conducted by Jennifer Pennington, a spiritual life coach, and published to her website August 10, 2015. Please visit her at: www.jennifermpennington.com and see all the amazing things she offers.

Please check out my  Star Language Oracle readings.

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