Rhythm / Devotion is a series of interviews intended to illuminate the connection to ritual & rhythm in our daily lives. This series explores the intimacy of routine, the magic of the ordinary, & how these small acts of devotion set the stage for larger workings in the world ~
What is your name & where are you in the world?
I’m Corinna Barsan and I live in Kingston, NY. I’m a born and raised New Yorker who only just left the city in 2021 after thinking about it for a few years. But if you told me twenty years ago that I would move away from NYC, I would have called BS. It’s funny how life takes you on journeys when you’re open to discovering more.
How do you define yourself & your work?
There are two halves to my work life that used to be diametrically opposed and are now moving closer together. I’m a multidimensional channeler, crystal guide, and writer, and I’m also an independent book editor and writing coach.
Will you walk us through what a day in your life looks like? Begin with how you greet the morning & guide us until you close off the day in the eve ~
Something I like to do when I wake up in the morning and I’m still lying in bed is to greet the day with a prayer of intention, which I’ll offer to you as well. This originated from Sonia Choquette: Divine Spirit within me, move me in the direction of my highest good today. Move my words, move my thoughts, move my body, move my emotions, so that I may be my best, do my best, experience my best, and serve my best. I then cleanse my energy from dreamtime by imagining a light (it can be any color that arrives in the moment) that moves from my crown to feet. I ask to clear any energy that I have taken on consciously or subconsciously and anything that isn’t serving my best and highest, and I call back all parts of myself, all my energy, and I welcome them home with love. I also repeat this clearing at night while I’m lying in bed.
My days are unstructured and look different depending on whether I’m editing a book project for a client or if I have sessions booked for readings or crystal attunements. Some days, I have neither and the day becomes a wild card that allows me to take advantage of working for myself (I left publishing in 2018 to go freelance and to build my spirit-led biz Aligned Light). On those free-floating days I could be catching up on admin, doing my own personal healing and self-discovery, walking the rail trails, or whatever the Universe brings to my attention. I try to keep time and space open so that I can pursue what I feel called to do.
In Human Design, I’m a Manifestor and part of that energetic type is about following those moments of inspiration and visioning. For the majority of my work life, I’ve been in industries that demand so much of you in terms of time, focus, and commitment. Those 60+ hour work weeks conditioned me to move against my natural flow and I’m now realigning so that I can honor myself fully and what I came here—this planet, this life—to do.
That said, there are some constants in the day-to-day. Our cat, Mercury, will always wake me up with little paw taps to the face, mornings are quiet with a few pages of a book and watching a metaphysical video with breakfast, something astrological or a tarot reading or an interview. Lee Harris is a favorite. Also Nicholas Ashbaugh and Pam Gregory. Another constant is sitting in meditative stillness at some point during the day. And then evenings at home begin with an early bird dinner and end with “couch time,” which is basically catching up on shows and movies. I guess a full day in the life seems to be bookended with routine.
You are a writer, a crystal guide, & an intuitive, multidimensional channeler who works with the Akashic records ~ how do you prepare yourself &/or your space to enter into these practices?
My ritual begins with prepping the physical space. So that looks like burning incense to cleanse and lighting a candle to bring in the light of the Divine. If I’m doing a crystal healing, I set up the massage table, place a grid around it, and get my singing bowls and crystal pyramid. If I’m working in the Records, I set up my cushions on the floor and layout some crystals around me for support. These days it’s: Red Calcite, Phosphosiderite, Cavansite, Amphibole Quartz, Tektite, Selenite, Mookaite Jasper, Iolite, and Angelite. They all have different vibrations and intentions, but the overall vibe is one of grounding, clearing, creating a channel to Spirit, and protection.
The second part of the ritual is centering through meditation or “sitting in the power,” which is a mediumistic approach of expanding your consciousness and connecting with Source energy. I often listen to binaural beats and Solfeggio frequencies, and I then call in my helping guides and say a series of personal prayers. So much of what I do is about staying open to receive guidance without filter or interpretation. It’s like delivering the mail and allowing Spirit to move through me.
What do you do/not do if you are feeling stuck around your work?
Over the years, I’ve learned what it feels like physically when I’m stuck and trying to force something—maybe to get it done right-now-just-to-get-it-done or maybe to get an answer on what to do. It’s a full body anxious feeling. And in those moments, I get up and change the scenery. Go for a walk. Prep a meal. Play with my cat. Something that will break the monkey mind cycle. And whenever I return to whatever it is I was doing, there’s usually a new flow and it falls into place. For instance, when I’m writing, there are sentences that don’t gel and I could spend an hour trying to make a paragraph work. Not the best use of my time! Whenever I leave it alone and come back later, the solution “magically” appears. I have to trust in that process.
Do you have a movement practice?
I need a lot of grounding as my energy is easily diffused and often it’s way up high connecting to Spirit. I have to remind myself to come back into the physical body, to be present in the 3D. This looks like: walking, pilates, Qigong, stretching. I used to push my body through hardcore fitness classes when I was younger, and that just doesn’t feel good anymore (my body is like: hell no). To be honest, movement is a work in progress for me. Some days it’s as if I forget I have a body that needs nurturing, other days I tend to my body more attentively.
What does structure mean to you, or what is your philosophy around ritual/routine?
I’m a creature of habit so I love routines and easily create them. But I also encourage myself to let them go so that I can make space for something new to come in. My ego can be strict and while I honor its skill set, I also try to allow my inner child to jump around. Most of my life has been driven by the former and I’m letting the latter play a bit more now. If I abide too tightly to a set structure, I can overlook subtle inspiration knocking at my door. Ritual, on the other hand, is something that grounds me. There’s an intentionality to it that transcends action and transforms into spirit-led movement. It feels like communion with my Higher Self and Spirit.
What are you listening to, reading, or watching these days?
Now listening to: the new Feist album
Just finished reading: The Cloisters by Katy Hays (tarot cards feature prominently)
Just finished watching: Beef (highly recommend) and Love is Blind (part of me loves reality TV)
Any last words of wisdom?
I read something the other day that said “cosmos” means the “good order of the universe” in ancient Greek. And it feels aligned with the intention of ritual, devotion, intention. I feel like a certain amount of order is necessary for creativity to thrive. And that could be creatively living your life, not necessarily making art. I don’t have children, but I’ve heard that routine can be an important framework for them. And I like to think it’s because a set structure grounds them so that they can be wild and exploratory and free to be themselves in other ways. Order as a foundation. Order as a canvas.
How can we find your work?
You can find me in a few places—at alignedlight.com; on IG @corinnabarsan; and over at YouTube.
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Thank you so much, Corinna, for your beautiful work in this world & for sharing your rhythm devotion with us ~
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I connect the essence of Wild Yellow Foxglove as a beautiful companion to Corinna Barsan, her rhythm/devotion, & her work in the world.
I made my Wild Yellow Foxglove (Digitalis lutea) on the first of July 2019 in Redding, CT with two blossoms placed in water that I then set upon two stones slabs which converged over a small, dark pool of water in the woods.
Wild Yellow Foxglove is a medicine for re-wilding, untaming, shapeshifting, becoming outside of what is expected from you—returning to your organic form. These expectations may be from the familial or cultural sources, & they may be the expectations we hold our own selves to. Wild Yellow Foxglove has left the captivity of the garden, & has adapted beautifully to the wild, ultimately claiming the wilderness as its home. It says, “I left because I was hungry, because it was I who I needed to know.”
Wild Foxglove is thus a lovely threshold medicine: especially nice for those who are setting out on their own, who are in between the tame & wild places of themselves or their lives. For those who are standing on the precipice of change & keep looking both ways, at the edge, but not taking action. Though fear may be present or plenty of “what if's,” there is also a curiosity & a fascination with shadow.
Wild Yellow Foxglove helps us to build trust in ourselves & our instincts--to take little & big leaps of faith. As an essence, it gently cloaks us & makes us feel held, safe, & grounded even amidst anxious thoughts or fears that may emerge. It shows us that we can be held in uncertainty, we can be surrounded & protected by something larger than us when we step into the unknown. Wild Yellow Foxglove tells us that we have lots of time, that our life is a journey, & that the journey deepens when we choose to go out on our own, forging our own way, finally making a move towards ourselves & beyond the boundaries of what has always contained us. These can be little or large movements. All things ripple.
Wild Yellow Foxglove also makes a lovely companion to scrying with water or other styles of divination that require sitting between worlds to peer in between or that require to us to reach into the darkness. It helps us to sit with the stillness, receive, & perceive with clarity & attention.
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Find a bottle of Wild Yellow Foxglove essence for yourself or a loved one here ~