About

Mary Ciesynski is an artist, photographer, empath, troublemaker and creator of The Shadow Work Deck. She has worked with dozens of students in-person and online through workshops, lectures and card readings over the years. Mary has been reading tarot and oracle cards since the age of 14. She resides in Warwick, Rhode Island with her family and friends where she enjoys photography, writing, walks on the beach and baking vegan desserts.

Tarot Linocut circa 2006

Shadow Work is the act of unpacking all of our emotional baggage, our traumas, meeting our inner child, naming them, bringing them out into the light and acknowledging that even if some of it is painful, if we feel shame about who we used to be or things we did in our past, those pieces contributed to our growth. They are a part of who we are.

Shadow Work can feel like a lonely process, no one else can walk your path with you, no one else can truly know what YOU experienced. It is our responsibility to own our own Shadows. At the start of 2021 when I truly started to dig in with my own Shadow I kept looking for a tool to make the process less dreary and lonely. 

The Shadow Work Deck is filled with a lot of the epiphanies I had while confronting my shadows, words I wish someone could have said to me when I was younger, (or that I wish my younger self had listened to!), statements I use to remind myself at present to unburden from my psyche and my heart an unchangeable history in order to heal and grow.

Shadow Work is deeply personal, and my hope is that working with the cards will remind you to accept yourself, to give yourself grace, to make your peace a priority, and to not be overwhelmed with the work of integrating your Shadow. Allow yourself to reconnect with your all encompassing beauty, your pleasure and joy; you are worthy of experiencing them.

I truly believe that making time for yourself, to sit with your grief, your hurt, your inner child, is a lifelong process. It is a daily practice for me. The tools I have created and offered here are to help you on your personal path, to enhance your spiritual or magickal practice, and express yourself. 

You are magic.

-Mary