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Liam Dawson's avatar

I've been on a bit of a journey these past 10 days.

I started with a visceral hatred of the monarchy, that possibly surfaced as a consequence of my upbringing and perhaps some latent ancestral trauma - my catholic ancestors from both sides had to abandon Ireland during the plantations and settled in Glasgow and Liverpool respectively and my family have never really forgiven the crown for their part in that (my Mum didn't watch the funeral).

So I've tried to work with this deep seated anger when I've been sitting and it culminated with a vision a few days ago of a young Queen at her coronation with gold literally streaming out of her, reaching heavenward, as she walked down the aisle at Westminster Abbey. I felt calm. Don't know what it means, but it soothed me.

So I watched the funeral, even though 10 days ago, I never would have imagined I would and I'm glad I did.

I think the monarchy might be helpful in the sense of Aquinas' 'analogy of proper proportion'. I think they teach us about majesty, how this version of what we suppose it to be can be both pretty amazing and pretty daft at the same time. If this is our notion of majesty, proportionally, how great might God's be? Also, I think it's helpful to defer glory to something. Ultimately, the glory is all God's, but it might be helpful to have something earthbound to chuck the glory at and keep you humble. And if you've got somebody who is fairly humble themselves to chuck all the glory at, more the better.

I'm still not sure about monarchy, but these monarchs, Elizabeth and Charlie Windsor, grounded as they are in a sense of spirit, might have a purpose. I'm new to all this though, but at least it's got me thinking and the hatred seems to have gone.

Good stuff. This article and the one before it helped thanks.

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Rebekah Berndt's avatar

You say you think the new King understands that power derives from the spiritual plane. After reading his book, Harmony, this past week, I would say he absolutely does. I was quite surprised by the depth of his holistic spiritual vision.

A big part of my experience of being a lifelong Christian is understanding that death and resurrection are constantly taking place around us. What seems like the final defeat of death turns out to be the seed that falls to the ground and dies so it can be reborn. As the world fragments and things fall apart, I think we will see people turn to older forms of leadership, the kinds our spirits and psyche have been craving. Unfortunately, that means countries will be susceptible to dictatorial strongmen. We're already seeing that happen.

But I think we may also see a rebirth of sacral leadership in a various forms, and Charles may very well be the man (or at least one of the people) who helps to bring that about.

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