For some time now, the Shoreline has been trying to tell me something.
It is difficult to pinpoint when it began – perhaps it was the change in the current towards the end of last year, or perhaps it was when the Shoreline manifested the Wheel Of Fortune, with its implicit suggestion of turning full circle, a cycle completed. And indeed I have been mulling that over ever since – only for the Shoreline to admonish this over-analysing, and push me to stop thinking and act. And now, two separate finds have made the message unavoidable.
The first is the beach ball shown above. As you can see, it is a representation of the world – and I found it not on the beach but in my back garden. It isn’t mine – my guess is that it was blown into its leafy hiding place during the winter storms, and then lay hidden for months amid the weeds and tall grass, until finally being revealed while I was cutting back the overgrown jungle of the garden a few days ago.
In the Tarot, the World is the final card of the 22 Major Arcana – the culmination of the journey that begins with the Fool. It represents completion, ending, the closure of one cycle and the start of another. Some of its pictorial language is familiar from previous communications from the Shoreline: the symbols of the four Evangelists arranged around the corners, and the presence of the great self-resurrecting World Serpent, Ouroboros.
Then on yesterday’s beach walk, the Shoreline presented me with this small, but highly charged, double-sided stone totem:
The head of Janus: two sides of the same coin
Many of the objects of wonder that have washed ashore and fuelled this strange quest have been in the form of stone faces, but here we have a stone with two faces, one on each side. This, then, is Janus, the Roman god said to rule all the other deities of the pantheon, the god who looks both forward and back, the god of portals and gateways, endings and new beginnings.
The message is now inescapable, and to ignore it, or pretend I have not seen it, would be a betrayal of my whole engagement with the Shoreline over the last two and a half years.
So this is the end of the Haunted Shoreline project. There will be one further post here, to reflect and sum up, and then your correspondent’s alchemical quest will take a new form. This new venture is currently taking shape, slowly hatching from the egg of Ouroboros, but that is all I can say for now.
Thanks to all those who have followed this peculiar saga, and I hope you will join me here again soon for the last rites.
The Haunted Shoreline 
Hi Shoreline
Sorry to hear that the circle is completed by glad that you have been given a chance *to* complete.
Interested to hear of your new venture / project.
Thanks James
One last act remains, to complete the circle – and then I will be done with the Shoreline… or, more accurately I suspect, it will be done with me. Hope you will stop by again soon to read about the last rites. All the best.
If the Shoreline has delivered such a clear message then it sounds like a new alchemical quest must be embraced. Look forward to hearing what that this and your final reflections on the Shoreline. It has been a fascinating and stimulating journey.
Thanks for all your interest and support fifepsy. I don’t know why, but if my site stats are reliable, the Shoreline seems to have had a concentration of readers in Scotland. I’ll continue to follow your explorations.
I’ve loved stopping by here, to read about the shoreline’s delicacy of expression and your subtle understanding. I will miss you, but these hints you have received are of the kind that cannot be ignored.
Your new project already fascinates me.
Thanks Aubrey. Yes, ich kann nicht anders, as Martin Luther is supposed to have said.
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