Sovereignty and Loving the Loathly Lady
The Arthurian Tradition
Wild Wisdom Two, Saturday 14th May
We started today with our practice of self-reflection; travelling back to the last time we met, checking in with where we’re at today, and imagining ahead to the story of ‘The Loathly Lady’. Within the rich and varied world of King Arthur, The Loathly Lady is one mythic motif amongst countless others, and it is our doorway into the imagination today. Before meeting the hag in the story to whom the story owes its name, we looked towards the ‘loathly’ aspects of ourselves; areas of our character and our life that are perhaps neglected and calling for our love and attention. We also asked ourselves at the beginning of our day together, ‘what is it that I need from today?’. There was a common theme of needing to feel connected, needing soul friendship, needing community and needing to feel that we belong. As beautiful as it can be at times, soul work can also bring loneliness as the soul invites us into decisions that sometimes sever relationships, or draws us down paths that are distant to that of others. There was acknowledgement and deep appreciation for the community that we feel amongst ourselves in our Wild Wisdom School, and how essential this is for each of our unique but interconnected soul journeys.
Our wider community in the garden of Wild Wisdom School
Moving into the story itself, we followed Arthur’s quest to discover the answer to a question given to him in threat of his land and ruling. The question was this… “what is it that women most desire?” After asking many women and receiving as many answers, he finally receives the one true answer from a hag – ‘the loathly lady’ – who asks for the marriage hand of one of his treasured knights in return. Arthur accepts and offers her Gawain, and then receives her answer which is this… what women most desire is the freedom to make their own choices, their own power, their own sovereignty.
This is a story I have heard a few times now since I arrived in the storied land of Devon. The first time was during a pilgrimage on the moors that I took with my fellow students at Schumacher College as we began our exit from the college and into the world. Martin Shaw came to visit us one evening and brought with him this story. Being with many non-native English speakers, the most prominent question after the telling was ‘what does sovereignty mean?’. Interestingly, I actually had this same question in my head too but I felt stupid asking. I knew what it meant on a political or societal level, but it is less familiar on an individual level, and I see now requires an unravelling of meaning. In our Wild Wisdom study pot, we unravelled the idea of what sovereignty really means, leading to us asking ourselves “What is my sovereignty? And what do I have that I can share in the service of all beings?”
Moreover, within the many layers of meaning and symbol of the Loathly Lady, the hag is often seen to represent the land. When she asks Arthur for one of his knights in marriage, she is also asking ‘are you willing to serve the land?’. When Gawain marries the hag she becomes beautiful for one half of the day because a spell she was under is half broken in the act of marriage. She asks him – would you prefer me beautiful by day and ugly by night, or ugly by day and beautiful by night? Gawain passes the question back to the hag, and in doing so grants her the freedom to choose her own path, her own sovereignty, and the spell is broken completely. I feel this is such a significant story for our times, both in relation to women and to the land we depend upon. It grants voice to the previously silenced, and empowers us into relationship rather than dominion.
We ended our day in ceremony, which we co-created and weaved together from the various strands that had emerged since the morning. And we sung:
May the hills rise up;
May the lakes fill up;
Ayo Rio
In thine own way.
May all evil sleep;
May the good awake;
Ayo Rio
In thine own way.
Words and images by Beth.
