I call to Cybele Kourotrophos, Great Mother,
Mother of Madness, Mother of All, You whose very nature it is
To kiss cold foreheads, to clasp limp hands, to hold the dead,
You whose children throughout time tear their bodies apart for the love of you,
I call to you, Cybele, to let the wild waves of the ocean of you
crash over me, to visit the small madness upon me, to teach me to hold the dead,
I call to you, Cybele.
I call to Agdistis, God of the Lost,
You of Starvation, You of Frenzy, You of the Rock,
You who will not be abandoned, you whose howls echo off the walls of the world,
I call to you, Agdistis, to lend your mad blood to slick my way
Into the underworld and back, to dance with me over the threshold and over again,
To hold me by the spine as we plummet, I call to you, Agdistis.
I call to Persephone and Ereshkigal, Queens of the Dead,
The only things alive in the Underworld, Kores Cthonias,
Mistresses of Souls, shadow sisters of the Great Below, twin maidens
Who call the dead up before you and untangle
the red threads of trauma that trail behind them,
I call to you, Persephone and Ereshkigal,
to open your doors and hands to the troubled dead,
to light the way before them.
I call to the red thread, the tangled bonds that hold the living self to the dead,
The stalled self to the vibrant, the howling to the still,
That drag through time and reverberate with body memory,
That twang and echo with pain so great it exists outside of time,
I call to the bonds that hold Agdistis to Cybele,
That hold Ereshkigal to Inanna,
That hold ETLE to Professor Boundless Gorgeous,
That hold this Dead Thing to me,
The threads that swing us across the boundary,
Each to each in a jolting, nauseous flow, I call to the red thread
To guide me, to open the way, to become channels for information,
To lead me blinded and shivering out of the underworld.
Protect me in this work, I pray,
I have tasks yet in this world.
Guide me in this work, I pray,
Lend me your sharp compassion
And the wisdom you pour like bull blood over your beloved dead,
Your cold children.
Teach me in this work, I pray,
I will take this boundary and break it over the edge of myself,
I will take up the torch and lead,
I will not look back.
gracieabrams
theartofmadeline
2087
stormborns
titsay
kianamaiart
