The heart of the royalty system has always been the idea of rule backed by God. Because of the divine right to rule, it is a really large thing to depose a king. Of course how that works out in practice is that a small group of lords with lineages and claims of lineage also feel that divinity favors them, and an even smaller group of lords usually exists that has very little to do with God anyway. So the clarity of divine right becomes muddled in most reigns. Yet that is not different in terms of ideal and outcome than any other political system. None of our political systems actually approach the ideals that the politicians utter and insist the citizens live by. We so routinely encounter corruption in our politics that many of us assume it to be the rule rather than the exception. It sometimes seems so.
There is something to be said for the divine right idea. It is clear that some men favor this idea. The question for these men is not whether or not there is a divinely backed ruler but how to identify him or her. If it is clear that the king has lost his way, then it becomes possible that God has withdrawn and the king's growing error is the signal of that withdrawal.
And what of me, of small men like me who nonetheless actually own property or space like kings own kingdoms? Make no mistake. Holdings of things of value and especially real estate can only happen when these things are directly removed from the king's possessions. We call certificates of ownership titles. We call royal holdings titles too. There were papers describing royal holdings, making them clear. What of the citizenry in republican democracies, who have "divine" rights? That is what we claim, that the Constitution delineates rights that are sacred in this way, and thus we have all been promoted to royal status in this sense. We are all titled. What of us? Can we make errors that sever our divine rights? Of course.
The King's Mistake
I am king, enthroned
enrobed, enacted, royal
in my ways but lost,
in error, dismay.
There is tension in the chords
of the band playing
on my stage, yearning
in the echoes of my heart
for the healing of
the severed silver
thread that was mine, whole before
I cut it in two.
February 11, 2009 10:38 AM
Contraction
1 week ago
When you are the one who severs, be it in error or not, you learn to accept the consequences.
ReplyDeleteOff with his head? I am all caught up in this guitar that poem has placed in my head now.....
ReplyDeleteI will come back and re read this one. After the guitar has gone :)
xxx
Divine by right, never severed from the light that makes us kings till sold for silver.
ReplyDeleteVery thought-provoking, and besides the message, I love the sounds of this one, Christopher.
Personally, I find it good to be Queen of my domain. (Ye gods, my home is paid for! Hallelujah!) LOL! That's a recent accomplishment that only took a lifetime...or so it seems.
ReplyDeleteChristopher, even the King is human and makes mistakes. Interesting post, Your Royal Highness. Blessings!
TB, Also as one who causes the break, is it error? Maybe not. Done in ignorance, perhaps? I have unknowingly created disaster before in my life. You are quite right, no matter the cause, the outcome requires acceptance when there can be no rectification. It requires wisdom to discern whether there is a possible fix, whether the fix is worth the cost.
ReplyDeleteMichelle, I am going home soon. When I get there I am going to make sure all three guitars are still there...
Karen, I aim to keep this blog interesting. I am glad you thought this post interesting. I do think it not obvious until you think a little but then it makes sense. Royalty is not deposed so much as the commoner is elevated in modern society. That whole process is fundamentally spiritual. That is royals and commoners alike are measured by their relationship to God. The politics follows. That is how it developed and how it should be viewed. It is a matter of respect and civility. We forget at our peril.
Marion, I am happy for you that you own your house. It would be a good thing for me if I did. I suffered a major financial setback as I started my fifties and there has not been much I could do since.
I was once in the position that I would have owned my house by now. I lost that to financial emergency by remortgaging in order to avoid bankruptcy. I was stripped of my retirement in the process. In an effort probably too little too late, I am agressively chasing a high yield on what I can afford to risk now. Otherwise I have only social security and the equity in my devaluing house.
Isn't that where we all are, when we allow ourselves to think back? Remorse, regret-- whatever you want to call it. It drives us to drink, or a toke, or poetry.
ReplyDeleteRachel, I wish to be free as possible from the driven part of my nature, to leave only those drives which are age appropriate biology. I am informed that I pick up over my life, perhaps my many lives, various psychic, emotional and spiritual drives which distort my original nature. If I allow myself to look back over my life with a wide open heart I may find a place to stand where I can wield a healing power.
ReplyDeleteFirst I must know that this power if I can use it thus is not my power. It is a grant. Then I must understand that the root of my trouble is the persistence of a self-centered frame of reference in all my affairs.
I know this is to some extent true or else AA would not be successful with anyone, for that is precisely the way that AA works. It is also closely aligned with spiritual healing in many traditions. I have observed this sort of success for 26 years now.
So you hold the thread to your own fate, an you cut it as well sometimes.
ReplyDelete....One minute I held the key
ReplyDeleteNext the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand
I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can’t explain
Once you go there was never, never an honest word
That was when I ruled the world
It was the wicked and wild wind
Blew down the doors to let me in.
Shattered windows and the sound of drums
People couldn’t believe what I’d become
Revolutionaries wait
For my head on a silver plate
Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh who would ever want to be king?
Viva la Vida Lyrics by Cold Play
Hi Annie, been a while. One of the most deeply unfair aspects of this life is how I have to knowingly enter a complicated arena without sufficient information and make choices that have unintended consequences. When we are instructed that ignorance is no excuse before the law, that is a pale shadow of the darker trouble of ignorance before the law of nature. Quite often, just like right now, what is started in ignorance continues in full blown denial because stopping becomes too terrible. I am of course pointing to the coming consequences of our thirst for energy. We already know but the denial still runs the show.
ReplyDeleteThere are a great many people in the energy game convinced that if we try to do what we really need to do the disaster that follows will render the consequences of continuing moot.
GD, or a president. I think there is something in this that is difficult to see until you get very close to the possibility. There always seems to be someone that wants the job. What drives that?
If my experience is any guide, then part of it is an arrogance that generates a driving energy. I have suffered from arrogance before and could easily again. I have never been more ashamed than in the kind of crash that exposes my arrogance for people to see. But what if I didn't have that shame? Thank God for that shame.