So I thought I would try and tackle the concept of Personal Sovereignty again. But for a lot of different reasons than before. I have mentioned before that part of personal sovereignty means that you have the ability to say “No” to anyone. The Gods, your fellow magickal practitioners, the guy wanting to buy you a drink at the bar – anyone. At any time. You are in control of you. Wikipedia defines the concept thus:

Self-ownership (also known as sovereignty of the individual, individual sovereignty or individual autonomy) is the concept of property in one’s own person, expressed as the moral or natural right of a person to have bodily integrity and be the exclusive controller of one’s own body and life. Self-ownership is a central idea in several political philosophies that emphasize individualism, such as liberalism and anarchism.

Ok. So it seemingly is a central concept of political schematics such as liberalism and anarchism. Whoopee. Its the first two sentences that I am most concerned with. Not just in the matter of how one handles dealing with Gods (and in my case, two Trickster Gods that can make soccer hooligans appear to have no sense of humor), but also in relation to a lot of other perspectives – especially in our manners of discourse, online and face-to-face.

Photo by John Beckett

This whole concept of personal sovereignty seemingly revolves around the concept that you control you. Or in more Libertarian terms, you are the sole individual responsible for your actions and words. Excuses such as “The Gods told me to do it” or “The Devil made me do it” are essentially you giving away the control of you to something else. Or using this concept of momentary “possession” as an “explanation” for your bad behaviors. I do believe in possession of an Otherworldly fashion, and I do believe that it can happen involuntarily. I also believe that such occurrences are few and very far between. In more open terms, I believe it to be an excuse of convenience rather than a norm of behavior. In my mind, allowing an entity to utilize your physical entity as a means of communicating is much more likely – you provide permission for that to happen. Which means you can still say “no”. Hopefully, I’m as clear as mud on all of that. I am not a professional or an expert on any of that – except where it relates to me.

No one knows me better than I do. After all, at this point, I have lived fifty-two and a half years in this body – with this wonky brain. I understand who I am, and I do the best that I can to articulate my position on issues, so that others can have a moment or two to add to their own thoughts on an issue. I am not compelling anyone to respond to my thoughts – people will respond if they want to. Nor am I compelling them to even think about the issue that is on my mind. They will decide whether its an issue worthy of being turned over within their mind. I am; however, responsible for what I write and post here. I am also responsible for what I do and say in my everyday life. I can be just as controversial as the next person. But If I run away from what I say, do or write…I am not owning up to my responsibility for my own sovereignty. Let’s put that in a more palatable way. When I make excuses for my actions or words, I am not living up to the responsibility of taking ownership of myself.

I hate that last sentence. For me, it has connotations of wrapping chains around me, but the statement is truthful. I am responsible for me. Even if I do not like the terminology in use. For me, its more than imagery that comes to mind under the word “ownership.” But that’s my own ax to grind within my own mind.

So, some baseline thoughts here. If I say it or write it…I need to mean it. Especially on difficult, serious topics. I have a pair of Trickster Gods with me – I tend to lean towards the humorous in a lot of discussions. But even Trickster Gods have serious moments. So do I. We currently live in a time where people with power (however that power is denoted, defined and/or provided to them) are purposefully creating barriers and hardships for others whom they do not like. Skin color, eye color, hair color, the amount of nose hairs someone may or may not have…the reasons are out there (sometimes well hidden, sometimes not). There are definitely times to be quite serious, and there are times where levity can be injected into a situation. Those individuals of power have some degree of sovereignty over us, but that sovereignty, that power is provided to them by us. Typically, these people of power get their position of authority from those of us that vote at the ballot box. We hand over a part of our sovereignty to them when we vote to have these people represent us. Sometimes, the vote doesn’t go our way, and we accept the outcome because that is how elections are handled. Its a process that we as a collective group of people agree to abide by. Otherwise, we would have risen up and thrown off that aspect of sovereignty that we provided in this process – and chosen some other measure.

Now, all of that is politics. When we decide to hate others, simply because of who they voted for. Or because their ideas of how to solve a problem doesn’t match ours. We hand a piece of sovereignty over to an emotion – we allow the emotion to control our thoughts and actions towards these people. When we cross the lines of a law, we blame it on the emotion and claim we were’t in control. We say awful things to people we held in esteem and considered to be friends or allies – all because they didn’t fit in completely with the puzzle piece we currently hold in our hand. We create a litmus test for who is the “correct” kind of person, and who is not. Granted, there are monsters among us. There are people that do serve to be shunned for their actions and words. But I would hope – and pray – that we hold that particular cage for people that truly deserve it, not just because their opinions differ from our own.

I am who I am. Good and bad. There is a quote from the Highlander TV series that sticks with me, when I consider things like this:

Life is about change, about learning to accept who you are: good or bad.  –Duncan McLeod to Methos

I am no saint. I am no paragon of virtue. I am a simple man. Trying to live a simple life in a complicated, out-of-control world. I am not responsible for you, and you are not responsible for me. You are responsible for you. I am responsible for me. For my part in all of that – I own who I am. Both the good parts and the bad parts. And within my own personal sovereignty, I get to say “no” to others, including the Gods, including myself. Because what I say and what I do matters. #TwoQuid