On Nature & Sovereign Authority
Nine days before she transitioned from this world in October of 2020 I stumbled upon the poetry of Diane di Prima and felt immediately resonant with, and refreshed by, one of her poems. That particular day I was pondering my relationship with the undomesticated world, the living world of plants and creatures as well as the imaginal world of thought and dreamscape. I took a long walk through my own conditioning, from social conversation to expectations of the self. I sat with the herbs and plants in my garden, all of whom I had either planted or who I had encouraged to stay (if they had volunteered) and noticed my conditioning around order and disorder, around beauty and chaos. I found myself randomly looking for inspiration online; I mostly turn away from the digital world when I am seeking to be inspired however on this particular day I felt drawn towards an online search, and there was the celebration of nature offered through Diane’s LIFE CHANT.
In all I do I seek to honor and celebrate the immense beauty we have and experience here on Earth. I am an unyielding romantic who has cared for the non-human world for as long as I remember. It has always felt like a calling, to honor, protect, and partner with the natural world and I have often wondered if there is a weaving within me, an inheritance from my Celtic ancestry.
Sovereignty is a concept and path woven deep within the heart of Celtic mysticism and Irish mythology, as one example, is rich with goddesses of sovereignty and the sacred marriages and duty of mortal kings to protect, nourish, and honor the goddess of the land or Earth in service of harmony between nature and human. If the mortal king betrayed his duty to the sovereign goddess of the Earth then discord would ensue resulting in a loss of health of the natural world and famine, disease, and a loss of the kingdom’s prosperity. The sovereign has authority over its domain and though it is unique it is able to and often seeks to live in reverent partnership with those around it.
One blessing of this human walk is that we can reclaim our own sovereignty with each dawn that rises. It is our divine birthright to live in harmony with ourselves and the world around us. This pursuit of sovereignty lays no claim over any other being; this is not about the pursuit of control and condemnation of humans or the Earth. This pursuit lays claim to all that is yours; every piece of your heart and mind, every word you speak, every action you undertake. To live a life replete with sovereignty is to live as a whole human in full accordance with the splendor of one’s soul. This reclamation of self results in inner peace and prosperity that begets outer respect, contemplation, patience, and honor.
The sovereign claim does not live in fear. It is not bound to or controlled by an outer authority; it has full authority over itself. This action, full authority over oneself, is an extraordinary pursuit. To be able to sit with all that presents or arises on any given day and to not be impacted by it; to not be controlled by the demons of one’s past or the propaganda of the vicious and insidious news media and cultural engineers who would have you surrender your authority to their control. To not be hijacked or overwhelmed with inner storms but to have space and peace as each issue, and conversation, and care, and piece of information crosses your table. To be sovereign is to be whole and offers honor to the sovereignty in others without question. I feel that our inextricable inseparability from the natural world is exalted when we live lovingly and completely within our own authority.
When I read Diane’s poem it felt like a celebration of nature and of sovereignty to me; a call towards the beauty of all that is free, i.e., the sovereign world (there is more to share on beauty, I will write of it soon) and a call away from the corruption of power and desire for control that has slowly poisoned the core of our society. Farewell control. Welcome honor.
Diane, though you have now passed and I only met your words days before you left this space and time, I sing your chant, I honor your heart, and I offer it here, for all. My own journey is inspired by poems and writers such as this. Diane, may your care and heart and fierce love for sovereignty offered through your words, well, may it continue.
Revolutionary Letter #68, LIFE CHANT
may it come known that all the radiances
will beknown as our own radiance
–Tibetan Book of the Dead
cacophony of small birds at dawn
may it continue
sticky monkey flowers on bare brown hills
may it continue
bitter taste of early miner's lettuce
may it continue
music on city streets in the summer nights
may it continue
kids laughing on roofs on stoops on the beach in the snow
may it continue
triumphal shout of the newborn
may it continue
deep silence of great rainforests
may it continue
fine austerity of jungle peoples
may it continue
rolling fuck of great whales in turquoise ocean
may it continue
clumsy splash of pelican in smooth bays
may it continue
astonished human eyeball squinting thru aeons at astonished nebulae who squint back
may it continue
clean snow on the mountain
may it continue
fierce eyes, clear of light of the aged
may it continue
rite of birth and of naming
may it continue
rite of instruction
may it continue
rite of passage
may it continue
love in the morning, love in the noon sun
love in the evening among crickets
may it continue
long tales by fire, by window, in fog, in dusk on the mesa
may it continue
the night music
may it continue
grunt of mating hippo, giraffe, foreplay for snow leopard
screeching of cats on the backyard fence
may it continue
without police
may it continue
without prisons
may it continue
without hospitals, death medicine: flu and flu vaccine
may it continue
without madhouses, marriage, highschools that are prisons
may it continue
without empire
may it continue
in sisterhood
may it continue
thru the wars to come
may it continue
in brotherhood
may it continue
tho the earth seem lost
may it continue
thru exile and silence
may it continue
with cunning and love
may it continue
as woman continues
may it continue
as breath continues
may it continue
as stars continue
may it continue
may the wind deal kindly with us
may the fire remember our names
may springs flow, rain fall again
may the land grow green, may it swallow our mistakes
we begin the work
may it continue
the great transmutation
may it continue
a new heaven and a new earth
may it continue
may it continue
DIANE DI PRIMA, 1968 from Revolutionary Letters