🏴 Sovereignty 🏴
I was talking to my mother this weekend about what it means to be Welsh, to be a Welsh woman.
Wales is in its essence a matricentric culture- where the home and social life is centred around the women and their doings. Historically Welsh women had much more rights than their English counterparts, they could get a divorce for adultery and once widowed could not be compelled to marry again.
Why so different in Wales?
In the tales of the Mabinogion, the Welsh myths and legends, if you peek through the Christianised telling of the tales about fickle and treacherous women, you can see the Goddess clearly. Whatever happens to them, these women belong to themselves.
In Wales the Goddess is named Sovereignty and what appears to be unacceptable behaviour to men is the divine feminine choosing the best steward for her land. The mistake these men make is expecting loyalty - the Goddess has her own interests at heart and belongs to none of them.
In the Arthurian legend of Gawain and Dame Ragnelle, Arthur searches desperately for an answer to the riddle that will save his life - what do women most want? It takes Gawain literally kissing a hag (embracing the dark feminine) for them to get the answer.
Women want sovereignty. They want to belong to themselves.
My aunt at my wedding warned my husband about marrying a Welsh woman - she wasn't wrong.
Dear woman, the mistake everybody makes is thinking that you belong to them.
With love from Wales x
