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Post by Heron on Sept 4, 2017 8:07:01 GMT -1
In ancient Brythonic - as in other European societies at that time - rule was seen as being subject to approval by the Sovereignty Goddess. In my recent devotional post for ROSMERTA on the Blog I asked that she bless our attempts to challenge sovereignty which is exercised without love of the land. In my commentary on that post I suggested that we need an alternative view of sovereignty for our own time. After all, we no longer live in tight-knit tribal groups and most of us are quite remote from the exercise of sovereign power. Nor does this power any longer reside in a single person or even a central location. Political power is exercised at different levels in different places and, arguably, is shared with other less accountable locations of power in global corporations and financial institutions. None of these, as far as I know, have any sense of allegiance to a sacred source of their power, at least not in the so-called 'democracies'. Some have no sense of any responsibility for the power they exercise, though their P.R. departments may pay lip service to this.
How do we see a sovereignty goddess (ROSMERTA, RHIANNON, BRIGANTIA; appropriately in their spheres of productive, magical or administrative power) exercising this role today?
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Post by potia on Sept 4, 2017 9:02:50 GMT -1
I think sovereignty has a lot to do with choice and decision making. This can be as much a personal thing as it can be a national, civic or political thing in my opinion. Many people in the world no longer turn to deities for guidance in making choices, no longer look carefully at the possible ramifications of their decisions. As individuals we can still do this. As individuals we can turn to our deities for help in making the best decisions for our circumstances and if we listen carefully I believe we will hear and feel their guidance as we negotiate the choices in our lives.
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Post by lorna on Sept 6, 2017 17:00:23 GMT -1
In ancient Brythonic - as in other European societies at that time - rule was seen as being subject to approval by the Sovereignty Goddess. In my recent devotional post for ROSMERTA on the Blog I asked that she bless our attempts to challenge sovereignty which is exercised without love of the land. In my commentary on that post I suggested that we need an alternative view of sovereignty for our own time. After all, we no longer live in tight-knit tribal groups and most of us are quite remote from the exercise of sovereign power. Nor does this power any longer reside in a single person or even a central location. Political power is exercised at different levels in different places and, arguably, is shared with other less accountable locations of power in global corporations and financial institutions. None of these, as far as I know, have any sense of allegiance to a sacred source of their power, at least not in the so-called 'democracies'. Some have no sense of any responsibility for the power they exercise, though their P.R. departments may pay lip service to this. How do we see a sovereignty goddess (ROSMERTA, RHIANNON, BRIGANTIA; appropriately in their spheres of productive, magical or administrative power) exercising this role today? You raise an important point about the disconnection between those who exercise sovereign power - ie. the monarchy, the government, and the many different levels of political power and the sacred source of their power. How can we challenge this? And how might be this connected to your question about the way we see a sovereignty goddess exercising that role?... I'd certainly like to think that an alternative conception of sovereignty could be found through turning back to our sovereignty goddesses as powers of and within the landscape on whom we are dependent and acknowledging our dues to the land as our source of food and water even though these don't always come from our immediate localities at present. Asking the sovereign goddess of the land for permission to build more roads and houses etc. would be a fine step! Also acknowledging their role in guiding their people. I've got quite a strong sense of Brigantia being essentially a northern sovereignty goddess and bound up with the identity of northern people. Not just the landscape bit, but as a goddess of fire and forging with industry too and the pride northern folk had in industry. One problematic aspect of sovereignty goddesses I've come across is folk putting into question whether we can legitimately venerate Britannia anymore due to her association with the British Empire and colonialism - a case of sovereignty overextended and gone wrong. When I think of the 'god-kings' of Britain such as Bran and Lludd I tend to think of them in that role in relation to a sovereignty goddess although I'm not clear who that is. I don't think the myths mention that either had a wife or lover... maybe it's because they were 'married' to the land although of course Nudd/Lludd had several offspring if we want to look at it literally.
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Post by Heron on Sept 10, 2017 11:49:07 GMT -1
potia I agree that if we listen carefully we can ask for guidance for our individual choices. I think modern-day polytheism mainly takes that aspect of individual relationships between devotees and their gods. Perhaps that is all we can hope to achieve and that we are all, essentially on a solitary path, or one shared by only a few others. The Sovereignty aspect is more social and about how power is validated. I don't know if we can develop a shared sense of how that happens in the current state of things and without a wider social recognition of the presence of the gods in our lives. But I did wonder if we could challenge the way Sovereignty is exercised today because it lacks power validation. lornaI like the idea of asking a sovereignty goddess for permission to build on land and the acknowledgement that our relationship to the land we live on is held in her name. Brigantia could certainly be addressed in this way. I can see the problem some might have with 'Brittannia'. I wonder if she is not an abstracted figure representing the British state? After all I don't think the Brythons actually thought of themselves as 'British', rather their identity would have been as member of their tribe.
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