Celtic tradition holds that the earth’s geography contains “thin places.” Heaven and earth are only three feet apart, the adage goes, but in such liminal zones, the distance is even less. Thin places are thought to be those areas where the temporal and spiritual converge, where the invisible and visible worlds coalesce. It could be a mountain or a river, some geographic axis, some threshold of rock, earth, or water, some pleat in the river or fold in the land that has the capacity to advance human spirit. It might be a place that becomes the site for a temple or monastery or shrine, but it could just as well be the snow settling on a frozen lake, an eclipsed sky, an unexpected conversation. Thin places refer not simply to geographic features but to how these allow people spatial and psychic realignment.
When Nesta uses scrying—an ancient form of divination—to locate the Cauldron, we learn the stones symbolize the three faces of the Mother, and we’re left to wonder what the four bones mean. Some of us have theorized the Mother may go by other names, such as Chaos and Cthona, and Chaos in particular gives us a clue about what complementary force the bones might channel. Apollion refers to Chaos as his dam (translation: mother) and this seems to be the same force that speaks in threes as the second half of the Book of Breathings. Her magical counterpart is Void (nothing, darkness), and we’re told this force existed in the beginning. Before.
So, I believe that after Amren says, “Three stones for the faces of the Mother,” it should be followed by, “and four bones for…the Father.”
Or even better, because these seem to be witchy tools, and different creatures have different terms for the same forces, “and four bones for…her heart of Darkness.” A nod to the Eye of the Goddess sacred to witches in Erilea.
Invoking those opposing forces (Void and Chaos) creates the necessary balance to access the place where they meet:
The space between, where reality and dream entwine.
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Accessed through real and invisible doors and pathways. In Erilea, they are called Wyrdgates and they can be summoned and accessed through a secret language called Wyrdmarks.
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These pathways in the Wyrd are also called Ley Lines. Wyrdgates, the black spaces where life can pass through (where Void and Chaos meet), are known as Thin Places.
Those with powerful sight seem to access these pathways and places, as I (here), @offtorivendell (here), and @merymoonbeam (here) have suggested, and they are connected to the Cauldron.
Wyrd.
She is many things: a mother to all, a force winding between worlds that constantly shifts form, a language of creation, and a cauldron brimming with life.
The Cauldron is older than the Suriel and they are ancient. The Suriel tells us they are older than Prythian, older than even the bones of this world.
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But Silene said the Cauldron was of the fae’s world, their heritage—is this simply a retcon from hofas, or did the Cauldron come from an even older world of fae? While it wasn’t known broadly in Midgard (Bryce had never heard of it), the Under-King knew what Wyrd was and described it in the various terms I mentioned above, including a cauldron of life. He also just happens to be from what he refers to as the old world (Erilea). Did the Cauldron come from Erilea or an even older world, like the realm of the gods? Is that why the Asteri/Daglan (near gods), feared it and sought to warp it to their advantage?
I cannot wait to learn more about this hidden history in Elain and Azriel’s story.
I talked about how Elriel might be connected to mist and ley lines in this post and then I remembered another quote that has mist in it...
“A bird of burning feathers,” I said.
“Firebird by day,” Rhys mused, “woman by night … So she’s held captive by this sorcerer-lord?”
Elain shook her head. “I don’t know. I hear her—her screaming. With rage. Utter rage …” She shuddered.
Mor leaned forward. “Do you know why the other queens cursed her—sold her to him?”
Elain studied the table. “No. No—that is all mist and shadow.”
This is about vassa and why the other queens sold her to Koschei.
You might ask how this connects to ley lines...
Look at this quote describing what ley lines are.
“No,” Aidas agreed. “But Helena knew that Midgard possessed its own magic. A raw, weaker sort of magic than that in her home world, but one that could be potent in high concentrations. She learned that it flowed across the world in great highways, natural conduits for magic.” “Ley lines,” Bryce breathed. Aidas nodded. “These lines are capable of moving magic, but also carrying communications across great distances.” Like those between the Gates of Crescent City, the way she’d spoken to Danika the day she’d made the Drop. “There are ley lines across the whole of the universe. And the planets—like Midgard, like Hel, like the home world of the Fae—atop those lines are joined by time and space and the Void itself. It thins the veils separating us. The Asteri have long chosen worlds that are on the ley lines for that exact purpose. It made it easier to move between them, to colonize those planets. There are certain places on each of these worlds where the most ley lines overlap, and thus the barrier between worlds is at its weakest.” Everything slotted together. “Thin places,” Bryce said with sudden certainty. “Precisely,” Apollion answered for Aidas with an approving nod. “The Northern Rift, the Southern Rift—both lie atop a tremendous knot of ley lines. And while those under Avallen are not as strong, the island is unique as a thin place thanks to the presence of black salt—which ties it to Hel.” “And the mists?” Hunt asked. “What’s the deal with them?” “The mists are a result of the ley lines’ power,” Aidas said. “They’re an indication of a thin place. Hoping to find a ley line strong enough to help her transfer and hide Theia’s power, Helena sent a fleet of Fae with earth magic to scour every misty place they could find on Midgard. When they told her of a place wreathed in mists so thick they could not pierce them, Helena went to investigate. The mists parted for her—as if they had been waiting. She found the small network of caves on Avallen … and the black salt beneath the surface.” (hofas)
So it veils and mist is about where ley lines are at most...veiling is also important here bc Im gonna use it compare and add why elain used "mist and shadows" as an explaination why she couldnt see it.
We are gonna use the fourth dread trove and what nesta saw in acosf
A fourth object lay on the altar, veiled in shadow. But she couldn’t make out more than a gleam of age-worn bone—
This here I think connects to leylines bc the fourth dread trove was in crescent city so Nesta couldnt see it... only that it was veiled in shadows and what ley lines do? Veil the space between the world.
So...veil...mist...shadow....it is all connected.
And now shadows...I think it is pretty obvious. Azriel. Shadowsinger. And this connection I added in my thin places/ley lines post. Im adding the link again. You can find all the parallel quotes to this 👇🏻 in there.
Azriel didn’t give them a chance to exchange another word before murmuring shadows swept around them. Nesta couldn’t help clinging to Azriel, gleaning on some innate level that if she let go, she would tumble through this space between places and be lost forever.
And how Vassa connects to this...
I talked about Vassa and Elain connections in this post about the swan lake and how Sarah might use it for Vassa's storyline.
And another thing about Vassa and Elain is this...I connected it to book of breathings. You can read it here.
There is in Celtic mythology the notion of ‘thin places’ in the universe where the visible and the invisible world come into their closest proximity. To seek such places is the vocation of the wise and the good—and for those that find them, the clearest communication between the temporal and eternal. Mountains and rivers are particularly favored as thin places marking invariably as they do, the horizontal and perpendicular frontiers. But perhaps the ultimate of these thin places in the human condition are the experiences people are likely to have as they encounter suffering, joy, and mystery.
a staircase ascending upwards, framed pictures on the wall to the right. a pink haze over everything. the image is distorted by VCR static. white text reads:
[028] THE CURSE. A CALLER RETURNS TO A DARK PLACE. THE HOST DOES TOO.
listen here, or anywhere you find your podcasts. transcript under the cut:
[static, radio tuning]
[Traveling Sales Rep: Don’t touch that dial! We’ll be right back, after these short messages.] [static, radio tuning]
[click]
Hello and welcome to Thin Places Radio. I’m your host,
and it is the middle of the night. But don’t worry. You’re not alone.
[Thin Places theme]
[background thumps and buzzing]
I’m coming to you apprehensive from my studio, which is what I like to call this long, long staircase, built from decades-old creaking wood, descending down into the darkness below this antique store. I know I’ve been here before, even if I’m fuzzy on exactly when, or exactly how. Those memories I can look at out of the corner of my eye, if I don’t turn my head too fast. If I just let the road lead me back through my own mind, I think I’m getting somewhere. I’m its supplicant. I follow.
[creaking footsteps] [thumping]
If I turn around now, I can see the rectangle of light above and behind me, the first eight and a half steps down, the splintering railing and a few shelves. A mouth. But now I’m lost to the sensation of nothing, the damp, woodsy chill that’s engulfed me.
[feet scuffing]
There is a kind of dark so absolute it makes you forget you exist as a thinking, feeling creature. You are nothing more than a heart beating in your own eardrums. If I listen very carefully I can hear it speaking with a voice of its own. But I don’t know what it’s saying. The dark. I have to wait for my eyes to adjust to it. But I know they will. You can adjust to anything if you give it a little bit of time.
But it’d be nice if I could find a f***ing light switch down here instead.
So… what is Thin Places Radio? Well, you can call in about anything strange that you’ve got going on in your life - feelings, omens, premonitions, hauntings.
Is your new pet a ghost?
Does something bad keep happening to you when you pass through a certain place?
Are you trying to navigate a galaxies-long-distance relationship?
When the veil between worlds is thin, we get closer than ever to the strange and the unexplained - and also to each other. Call in, get it off your chest. Lines are open.
[click] [voicemail:]
Hi - first time caller, long time listener, love your show. Thank you. I was wondering: do you think that a place can be cursed? Or that somebody can be - I don't know, like, when someone goes through a place that it can affect them in a negative way. The reason I ask is, I am sitting in Waco, and Waco always seems to be a weird place for me when I drive through. So I'm sitting here, in the middle of the night. It's been 3 hours. I'm sitting behind a car wreck. And people go up there and don't come back and it's just been a long time we've been waiting. But, anyhow, this first happened probably 30 years ago. I was driving through Waco, and we stopped at McDonald's, and we're eating our meal and look out the window and a trailer is literally being backed on top of my vehicle. It like, actually climbed up on top of my car. And it was just like so weird. So we kind of avoided Waco for a long time. We had like several other incidents where we got in accidents or almost got in accidents just in passing through Waco off of a particular stretch of 35. So my question: Are places cursed? Can a person be cursed in a place? Thank you.
[click]
Hi, caller, thank you so much - it’s nice to be thought of. The answer to your question is exactly what you think it is.
Yes. Of course.
It’s hard to imagine a place with darker energies than Waco, Texas, but everyone has their own personal cursed places, the places that pull them in again and again to get them stuck and to vanish them and to eat cars. Sometimes you don’t even know where that place is until you pass over it, again, and your body remembers that something happened to you there.
[searching music]
Sometimes what happens in a place curses it; sometimes, you keep carrying out the curse yourself.
And sometimes, when something cursed happens somewhere, it primes you to keep looking for the curse – to keep your ears pricked and your eyes peeled for another stretch of bad luck. When you’re stricken with a curse, that very first time, it’s really hard not to always be ready for it to come back to you. You want to be ready for when it hurts you again. You learn to expect the pain.
Pain will always find you. That’s not something that your mindset can fix. It always comes back to you, and you'll keep carrying it with you. But that’s when it becomes more important than ever to search for the blessed. The relief. The strange small beauties, even in a place like Waco, Texas. The gift of three hours to yourself, in the dark, in a place you didn’t want to sit and think in. The energy of a McDonald’s meal. The saving grace of a near-accident that wasn’t an accident. The wildflowers on the side of the road. The person in the passenger seat next to you.
You’re still allowed to take another route home next time, though. That’s okay, too.
[click]
I could stay down here, you know. That’s what it’s telling me.
[echoed thudding]
In the dark you can be anything, and everything, and in the dark, it does not matter if you do not remember your name. It does not matter if you have a mystery to solve or food to find or a life to live. The forgetting lives in the dark, where there is no difference between sleep and waking. [buzzing, echoed words:] It wants me to stay. It would love me as a sponge loves water. There would no longer be a me.
[buzzing builds, then stops abruptly]
But - no. No, there was someone on the line, just now. Someone that I was someone to. There’s a job I have to do. And there’s a lamp on a desk somewhere, back here. I remember. There’s -
[steps]
There.
[lamp clicks on]
Oh. There’s nothing here. There’s nothing here.
That was weird. I’m gonna get out of here.
[lamp clicks off] [footsteps leave]
[click]
Thank you for listening, callers, and thank you for calling, listeners. I hope you feel a little bit lighter. I know I do. As always, our number is 717.382.8093. That’s 717.382.8093. Until next time. I’ll be here.
[static] [Traveling Sales Rep: visit us at the - diner just off -] [Various Garbled Voices: the - road - provides - the - road - provides -]
Thin Places Radio is a podcast written by Kristen O’Neal and produced by Kaitlin Bruder. The voice of Your Host is Kristen O’Neal.
Tonight’s voicemail was left for us by Kelly. Editing and sound design are by Kaitlin Bruder, and the music tracks you heard in tonight’s episode are: the Thin Places theme, by Miles Morkri, and Umeed by RANA. If you have a question to ask, a story to tell, or a suggestion for the host, give us a call at (717) 382-8093. The lines are always open.
