HESTIA SPRING ZINE - 2020
Seeds of Inspiration
We're so excited to be launching an online magazine for Hestians to highlight their Soul gifts and explore what it means to live from our authentic depths.
DRAW FROM WITHIN
A boundary is not the same
as a border.
It is something you draw
like little fish,
like water
gurgling
from inside
your own
well.
No one teaches you
how to draw
these lines.
They have not already
been inked
on your skin,
or drilled into
your veins.
Before you can draw
boundaries,
you must
understand
there is something
inside you
worth loving
and protecting.
Yes must be
buoyed
with nos.
You must
listen to
the water
within.
Boundary-making
is sacred,
a ritual
that needs practice
again and again,
no different
than bathing
a tired body,
your tired body.
To speak boundaries,
you cannot wait
for someone
to ask
or listen.
You must sing
new rivers
into existence,
where before
someone else
always
lay claim to
the shore.
- by Nicole Wong
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU ANSWER THE CALL OF YOUR SOUL?
I enjoy gardening and observing growth. The flowers are Alstroemerias, part of a series of fauna I've been drawing in Oakland.
This particular drawing was made in Big Island, Hawaii inspired by the lush greenery and spiritual nature of the island. The stones in the drawings are Onyx stones – symbolizing protection of energy.
- Savio Alphonso
THE MOTHER
“Hush…shush…hush…
I’m here.
I’m here.
It’s ok. Everything is going to be ok.
Hush…shush…hush…I know it hurts.
But it’s going to be ok.
You’re ok. I love you.
I love you.
I’m here.I’m here.”
How long ago did we forget the mother?
Our Mother
of EveryThing.
The soul within the seeds of nature, and all of our natures
We’ve forgotten that we ALL, every person,
are FROM The Mother,
Individually
and collectively. Biologically and geographically. Earth and Africa. The origination of our soul.
So now, we are aching for The Mother.
Sometimes as an UNbearable pain.
That crumbles one’s entire world
That has been crumbling this world.
In so many, many endless ways
the mother has been TAKEN AWAY.
In different forms and points in life.
Through violation, injustice,
brutality, prematurity, defense,
shame, ignorance, neglect,
persecution, fear, time,
inexplicable instances.
From men and women
Generation over generation
Cycle repeating cycle
Spanning our evolution.
Leaving us feeling hopeless to overcome this loss.
So, how can we ever bring The Mother’s nurturing, gentle, love — to this suffering?
She is there, even if not in the immediate.
She’s in the collective, in each other, in the self, in the self within the self.
In the imprint of the centuries of mothering that survived fiercely through times of so much pain,
To bring us into this time of a shifting.
[…]
Now we REdiscover where we came from.
And realize that THIS —
all of consciousness —
IS A WOMB.
And we remember that so much of the human journey
is teaching our bodies, and minds, and cells of infinite frequencies
to trust the wisdom that’s being gestated patiently,
As we interweave and Form together within The Mother.
[in my deepest listening, I feel the lulling rhythm of the earth breathing me — in this place I hear her]
“I know it hurts. I see your pain. I love you.
Everything is going to be ok.
You’re ok.
You are loved.
Shh….shh…shh…
Hush…hush..hush….”
Excerpt from THE MOTHER by Marisol MacGregor
EXPLORING HESTIA
When I first visited Hestia, I spent time walking the land, and did some journaling around what I saw, thought, and felt. I grew up walking the woods around my house with my mom, and still do so when I’m in a new place.
That process of looking closely to discover treasures that the land holds informs my art making practice as well. I wanted the illustrations for the Hestia zine and map to convey a sense of wonder for the natural treasures found there, and serve as touch stones for self-exploration.
