Finisterre — Standing at the Edge of a Timeline

Re-reading and reflecting on this poem by David Whyte — worth sharing.

It echoes the theme of Timelines that’s been strongly on the grid.

It also mirrors the astrological frequency of this New Moon in Leo, opposed by Pluto — death, rebirth, and the dismantling of the old map. Pluto retrograde in Aquarius asks us to reconsider how we walk forward, not just where.

David Whyte names this place perfectly.

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‘FINISTERRE’

The road in the end taking the path the sun had taken,

.. into the western sea, and the moon rising behind you

.. as you stood where ground turned to ocean: no way

to your future now but the way your shadow could take,

.. walking before you across water, going where shadows go,

.. no way to make sense of a world that wouldn’t let you pass

.. except to call an end to the way you had come,

.. to take out each frayed letter you brought

.. and light their illumined corners, and to read them

as they drifted through the western light;

.. to empty your bags; to sort this and to leave that;

.. to promise what you needed to promise all along,

.. and to abandon the shoes that had brought you here

.. right at the water’s edge,

.. not because you had given up

.. but because now, you would find a different way to tread,

.. and because, through it all, part of you could still walk on,

.. no matter how, over the waves.

—

This is the moment where the old road ends —not because you’ve failed, but because you can no longer walk it.