Faeries Oracle

Card 44 - Lys of the Shadows

Healing the shadows. Addictions. Bondage. Self-esteem.

Lys works hard. She has a very tough job to do, and she puts a great deal of tough love into it. She prowls the night streets, looking for those in need of her help - and finds far too many of them.

Lys is the patron faery of social workers, therapists, healers, and all others who try to help alcoholics and drug addicts and other souls caught in the darkness of their own inner shadows or who are abused by those who should have protected them. However, she doesn't sit in an office somewhere - she is out there on the dark and dangerous streets, lending a healing hand here, soothing an anguished brow there, whispering comfort and encouragement into a lonely ear, and bringing a touch of hopeful rainbow light into the deepest shadows, including those in darkened human hearts.

Like the Laume (Card 30), much of her work flows through the hearts (and then the hands and words) of humans who make themselves available for such work. She inspires souls to connect with one another in a healing way. Her specialty is help for the hopeless, for the ones that most everyone else (including themselves) has given up on - the street people, the lost children of our society, those who have fallen through the cracks and rips in our feeble social safety nets. Like the Laume, she often works through human hands and she may call upon you for help in her work.

Out of Curiosity, I asked Lys why she chose to have her card in this particular group of faeries instead of the one before, where I might have expected her to be more at home. She shrugged, gave me a cheeky grin, and said, "These guys know where to find the best nectar and nuts." Even though she has wings, our Lys is very down-to-earth and practical.

Starter Reading

Ultimately, Lys is trying to help people develop true self-respect and self-esteem, but she has to start much farther down the scale of idealism than that. She tries to inspire practical help for those who need it most. She is the inspiration for the first wobbly steps taken by a damaged soul toward healing. Her presence in a reading indicates that something that had seemed lost and fixed in that loss is now open to healing. Someone is ready to begin, with help, the climb out of the inner mire. There is hope here, and a need for loving kindness tempered by practicality.

If you call upon Lys for assistance in helping another, she will always give it, often by encouraging that person to be receptive and others to also be helpful. She always has time to support those who have time for others.

Reverse

Reversed, this card signifies bondage to addictions, compulsive and self-destructive behavior, anger directed toward self (and probably others), and hitting the bottom of the cycle. It may even seem that there is no possible way up. It can also indicate false friends who lead one astray. Separation, loneliness, and isolation are also usually present.

A person may sink to this level because of feelings of guilt. If so, she needs to consider the value of atonement (at one-ment with self) instead of dividing ourselves into judge, criminal, and executioner. It is not always possible to make reparation to those we have hurt, but it is always possible to begin working at developing a better balance with the cosmos through action. We can, for example, work to help others who may have been similarly hurt. This takes courage and determination, but through such action selfrespect can be regained. The Singers of Courage and Healing are with us if we open ourselves to them. Helping others is one way of opening our hearts.

The Help-Line Troupe