Kaela & Ben Golden Thread Collage

Golden Thread: Kaela Malaki & Ben Johnson | Divined January 2026

Cards: Death, Eight of Knives (Black Tarot); Rigidity, Goddess of the West (Elemental Alchemist Oracle); Buffalo, Fish (Wild Unknown Animal Spirit Oracle); Strawflower (Dirt Gem Oracle); The Hanged Muse (The Muse Tarot); Forgiveness (Follow Your Heart Oracle); Black Walnut (Southern Gothic Oracle); Hydrangea (Southern Botanical Oracle); The Warrior, The Mask (Wild Unknown Archetypes Oracle); Artemis (Goddesses Gods and Guardians Oracle); Nun Yud Tav / Death of Death (72 Names of God Meditation Deck); Black Moon Lilith in Virgo (Black Moon Lilith Cosmic Alchemy Oracle); Sky Lightning Earth (Alchemy Elements - Shaman Derek); Sampung Rattay (Kapwa Tarot).

The piece is wide format and holds two Ancestral landscapes meeting at the center. The left side is the Philippines, lush green terraced hillsides and rice fields under dramatic stormy clouds and mountains, a traditional structure visible in the upper left. The right side is Ireland, dark volcanic rock meeting turquoise coastal water under a lighter sky. A crescent moon hangs where the two landscapes meet at the top center. At the heart of the piece, a large golden skeleton stands with arms extended outward, the death card made into a garden, the Ancestor tending what grows. Two vintage black and white children stand below it, a girl in a white dress and a boy in a grey sweater, the present generation in the company of their Ancestors. A large golden honeycomb circle glows behind them. Throughout the piece, living and skeletal versions of creatures and plants exist side by side, ravens in flight and a bird skeleton, lush botanicals and an animal skull, bees at the honeycomb and bones at rest, honoring both sides of the death cycle simultaneously. A deer stands in the Philippine landscape on the left. A small orange snake moves through the left side. A buffalo skull and a DNA helix sit at the base of the center. The lower portion of the entire piece is a dense and abundant garden, blue purple hydrangeas, wildflowers, straw flowers, tropical plants, and botanicals in every color. Colorful raindrops in orange, pink, yellow, purple, blue, and green fall from the upper center. A large striped feather and a white antlered skull rest on the right side. A black walnut botanical illustration sits in the upper right corner.

The reading relayed that the death cycle is not to be feared but tended to, that transformation and rebirth are the constant work of this partnership, and that the two lineages meeting in this union carry gifts and wounds that are ready to be honored and released together. The cards asked for releasing rigidity and perfectionism, for forgiving what has been held and for letting the warrior in each of them realign with true purpose rather than defensive battle. The Ancestors of both lineages are present in this garden. What is planted here will outlast the planters.