Artwork Description
Swoon – Oracle Deck: Garrdenia-Loyalty
Dimensions: 17 x 11″
Year: 2024
Medium: archival digital print on Moab Entrada 300 gsm
Edition: ed. 1/20
Garrdenia has a bottomless sort of loyalty. He’s Caleum and Terra’s stepdad, and yet you’d never know he wasn’t their birth father. And herein lies the secret to this big hearted Garden Gnome’s magic. His is a chosen love, and yet one that’s every bit as loyal as blood.
When Garrdenia loves you, he loves you for life. You always have a place with him. You can roam, but you’ll never be truly lost, because somewhere out there you’ll always have a home.
This card celebrates the loyalty of the true heart. The people in your life who are there for you through thick and thin, regardless of how you may have ended up on each other’s doorstep.
It points toward one of the best things in human nature – the ability to make the world right for one another through love and steadfast dedication.
In this part of the Sibylant Sisters tale however, there’s another layer to examine. Garrdenia also shows us that loyalty must be balanced with boundaries. When the Ogre Minkie was a menacing presence, or when the Wee Witch Katarina was losing it in dangerous ways, Garrdenia was not able to access anything beyond a blind loyalty toward them, and so he wasn’t able to assert the kind of boundaries that could keep the Grey House safe.
So let this card be your call to celebrate loyalty, especially when it’s tempered by wisdom so that it might become the truest force that it can be.
–Swoon