Morning Star Woman & Ivan the Youngest Son is, in its original bones, my own telling of the Russian fairytale "The Maiden Tsar," as explored by Robert Bly and Marion Woodman in their book The Maiden King. I will admit, however, that I've taken it and run with it.

You will see flashes as far afield as the Fisher King of Arthurian legend, and admittedly a few further too. And you will see that its Maiden Tsar, its swan queen, became merged with my imaginings of Venus in her recent descent below the rim of the horizon, out of sight, in mid-September, as if Venus's passage through the underworld were the story of a woman coming down to earth, becoming human. Today she meets the heart of the Sun, and begins climbing toward evening.

So this is a story of swan women and eggs and fishermen, of wise old men in huts and the oldest woman in the world who lives in the moon; of how to mend broken things; of learning how to love, and love well.

It is a prayer for fatherlines and motherlines and heartlines, a prayer for all the people I love, a prayer for the women and men in the streets of Iran standing and fighting for their freedom and the radiance of their lives, a prayer for something we perhaps all together have nearly forgotten, a prayer for what we cannot afford to lose, together on this Ark, our holy ground, our home.

In my introduction, I mention the release of a new collection of mine that steps deeper into the movements of Venus as well as my own heart. It is available for pre-order here: https://www.sylviavictorlinsteadt.com/shop

PODCAST SOUND EDITING: Simon LinsteadtPODCAST ART: Catherine SieckPODCAST MUSIC: Antonis Leontidis (Cretan lyra composition from the album Krifo: antonisleontidis.bandcamp.com/album/krifo)

ABOUT THE PODCAST:

Welcome to Kalliope's Sanctum, a story podcast hosted by writer Sylvia V. Linsteadt. This podcast is dedicated to Kalliope, primordial and first Muse of epic poetry and ecstatic song in ancient Greece. This podcast is a place of sanctuary for her oldest stories. It is a return to the wild garden, to the spring, to the ground of being & the source of inspiration in the Earth. Here, we honor Kalliope as Muse of Earth. Here, you will find some of the stories beneath the stories of Old Europe: short fictional/poetic pieces written and read by Sylvia that explore elements of indigenous Old European mythology, with a focus on pre-Hellenic (pre-Patriarchal) Greece.

Come sit with us in the honeyed light, among the ripe pomegranates, in Kalliope's sanctuary, where the stories that arise directly from the ground of being and lifeforce can still be safely told and celebrated. Come lean against the sun-warmed stones, with the fragrance of propolis & myrrh in the air, and the trees heavy with autumn quince. This is the garden before the fall, a sanctuary for all hearts in this time. Join us, and be revived.

ABOUT SYLVIA V. LINSTEADT:

Sylvia V. Linsteadt is a novelist, poet, scholar of ancient history, myth and ecology, and artist. She divides her time between California & Crete, where she is currently working on a novel set in Minoan times.

Her published fiction includes the forthcoming collection, The Venus Year, the middle grade children’s duology The Stargold Chronicles— The Wild Folk (Usborne, June 2018) and The Wild Folk Rising (Usborne, May 2019)— Our Lady of the Dark Country, a collection of short stories (January 2018) and Tatterdemalion (Unbound, Spring 2017); her works of nonfiction include The Wonderments of the East Bay (Heyday 2014), and Lost Worlds of the San Francisco Bay Area (Heyday, Spring 2017).

Website: www.sylviavictorlinsteadt.comSubstack: https://sylviavlinsteadt.substack.com/Instagram: www.instagram.com/sylviavlinsteadt/Newsletter: tinyletter.com/sylvialinsteadt