-the spin -
“Augur the winds, sweet swanskin,
sally the winds, white-throat.
Earth took him from her, and Isolde wept the sky.
Isolde white-throat, Isolde swan,
Isolde whose eye was wild as her feet were strong.
In autumn the swans returned on the wind.
In autumn she bore a son.
She opened the axis, unknotted what would come.
But the father she could not name him,
that knot wouldn’t come undone.
Bard and warrior, he who was father to her son.
Until she was old she held him,
until she was bent she prayed.
And always would she carry him,
whole through the last of her days.
In her son she loved him,
web and shining thread,
her boy fathered in the greenwood,
and not the marriage bed.
Augur the winds, old Isolde,
Augur the winds, white-throat
you and your son are swan-made
and will never been alone.”
+
- the thread -
In another you recognize what you have lost; in another you recognize what you have found. But you will always have your swanskin and they will always have their pelt. When you try to possess the source of your greatest longing, it grows strange. There are seasons of love and there are seasons of loss. The way migrating geese come and go, so too the heart waxes and wanes. Allow yourself to go where the heart goes, even if it brings great pain. It is wise. Complexity is not to be feared or avoided. Complexity is the knotwork of growing into your feathers and into your soul. Seek the wind, the vastness of skies and star-lines to soothe confusion. When you cannot choose the way, do not fear sorrow. Look instead for the coat of feathers, the other in you that is lost, and the way that only instinct knows. Inside this is the egg. Inside this, what is fractured can become whole.
© from SOOTH, Sylvia V. Linsteadt 2024
Beloved readers, I’m sure you will be glad to hear that this is the last day I will be harping on about SOOTH, my divination cards with Rima Staines. It’s never my favorite when people are constantly emailing me about such things, but on the other hand, I am the kind of person who needs about 10 reminders and signs up for everything last minute, based on a sudden passion… so I imagine there are others of you out there who, like me, need a nudge on the last possible day.
Well, that day has come!
Tomorrow evening (Sunday, November 3rd) our two months of fundraising to print and ship our SOOTH deck will be complete. We are breathlessly close to our goal, wondrously so— and very excited and glad of heart. You have all been amazing, we are really blown away and so grateful.
If you’ve been waiting to gather up your own Sooth deck, now really *is* your last chance until 2025. We will eventually list the deck in both of our shops, but not until after this first big set of orders and shipments.
We also have three personal readings still left as well in our perks section— if you’d like a one-on-one, online Sooth divination with me and Rima, look no further. :)
Cards here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sooth-divination-cards--2/x/661592#/
Thank you, and bless you all.
May you feel held, in these days of honeyed light and ancestors near and the memory of loved ones both bitter and sweet, in this time of such injustice and loss and uncertainty around the world, by the Love that made you, and that has never left your side.
P.S. Mother Animal has not vanished! She’s just been dreaming, and gathering roots and acorns, and gestating new chapters and connections and research. I’ll have news about her soon, and also fresh writing…. Much magic is brewing. Stay tuned.
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