The Return of the Sovereignty Goddess
The Goddess’s Call to the Marginalized
Utrecht’s Domtoren, with its imposing presence and historical significance, became the backdrop for a shamanic trance that led me deep into the earth’s energies. At the base of the tower stands a statue of Libertas, a representation of Feronia, the ancient goddess of sovereignty, freedom, and the protection of the marginalized. Feronia’s energy is one of empowerment, particularly the empowerment of those who have been oppressed or disempowered. As I stood there, my drum pulsing in rhythm with my heartbeat, I felt an electric current run through the very streets of the city. It felt like the land itself was alive, whispering ancient truths to those attuned enough to listen. A moment where everything almost felt frozen in time. The trees standing and waving their branches, the doves and crows flying through the air.
Walking Among the Oaks
As I slipped deeper into trance, my mind’s eye opened to a world far beyond the urban landscape I was in. I found myself walking through an ancient oak forest, its gnarled branches reaching out. Oaks, were revered as sacred trees. Dodona, who was the oldest Hellenic oracle during classical antiquity, was an oracle devoted to the mother goddess Dione. According to various accounts of her, priestesses and priests in the sacred grove interpreted the rustling of the oak leaves to determine the correct actions to be taken. This is something she shared with Diana who was also associated with oaks. As such Dione is a goddess of fate and prophecy, connected to the wild and water. She has been also considered the original, Indo-European consort of Zeus, and also the mother of Dionysus. Much Like Feronia is the ancient form of Juno and consort of Jupiter.
The King-Priest and the Cosmic Order
There is a deeper significance as well with the oak tree. The ancient Roman figure of Quirinus, who is the father of the people, is with his name connected to the oak tree as well, meaning he who wields the oaken spear. In a more ancient form Quirinus as king-priest figure links back to the ancient Manu, but also to Yemo (so Dionysus), as the king is both scapegoat and sacred vessel for the cosmic order. The sacred king embodies wholeness, he is the leader of the Koryos, the wolf-warriors, that fall under the warlike aspect of the ancient deity called Mars-Quirinus. He who kindles the flame of the soul, the figure of wholeness and cosmic order, yet also the mediator between the realms. Between the mortal and divine realms, to restore the soul’s fire and land.
Oaks represent strength, wisdom, and resilience. For the ancient Indo-Europeans oaks are seen as the center of the world, connecting the realms of the heavens, the earth, and the underworld. In this sacred space, I felt not only a sense of grounding but also an intense current of energy. A recognition of the divine feminine running through both the land and the city. It was in that moment when I felt Feronia’s sovereignty and energy move through the very geography I stood upon, an invitation to align with this power, both in the physical world and within my own being.
The Grief of the Goddess
As I journeyed further, something unexpected happened. As tears began to flow, streaming down my face uncontrollably. These tears weren’t born from sadness, but from a deep catharsis. It felt as though something ancient was being released within me. The oak forest, combined with Feronia’s sovereign presence and energy, brought up an emotional release that connected me to something much larger than myself. I felt the grief of the goddess, the wholeness lost in the land, the suffering that plagues it, the agony the goddess feels in her exile from her people. I felt the deep burdens of oppression, both collective and personal, that I had carried for so long. The sound of crows soon filled the air. They are associated with goddesses of death, rebirth, and wisdom. Goddesses of both darkness and light, like Feronia, the Morrigan and Diana.
There are some who honour the feminine in some form or another, but only few truly do the depth of work, the rite of passage necessary to truly connect with the goddess in her full form. The Sovereignty Goddess in her pre-patriarchal beauty and strength. Not because people could not technically do so, but because so much trauma and distortion happened that she is rarely fully seen, acknowledged or connected with. As to truly connect with her, is to become whole oneself. To be outside the cosmic order, yet within it. To be like the kings of old, who embodied Phanes, Mars-Quirinus, Orphic Dionysus in his full glory, the lord of the wilderness and underworld, as much as the king of the realm of wholeness, happiness and rejuvenation. That his mother Juno, and in the most primordial sense Nyx as sovereign goddess brings to the world.
Mourning Her Absence and the Loss of True Nurturing
Yet the Netherlands has long forgotten about her, few do remember let alone truly honour her. Those souls who do are truly a blessing to the world. My ex Paula is one of these people, as she feels deeply about the Goddess too. Planting trees and caring for her small oaky. Sadly in the Netherlands the old oak forests have been long cut down. For warships, commerce ships, and ships of slavery and conquest. They did not only disrespect the goddess by cutting down her sacred oaks, but desecrated the very values she stood for. The protector of the marginalised, the oppressed, the liberator of those enslaved and held in bondage. Protecting with her daughter Artemis the young children of the tribe and all those who are vulnerable.
She is not just a symbolic force, but an archetypal pattern. The deep grief that young people feel, that I felt for most my life, that deep sorrow that women feel, it is not just for the personal mother, or the trauma, even if this is a personal part of it that is very important for the person. On the deepest level what they feel is the deep sorrow and grief for the absence of the Goddess. As her absence does not only create suffering and the fragmentation of society and the soul, but it leads to a lack of the true nurture that any child needs. Where those souls, the children of Eros, the Dionysian, sensitive and empathic souls, are cast out. They are children of the Goddess, of Feronia and Nyx.
Those who like I myself have, yearn for the unconditional love and compassion that we needed as children, thus don’t just mourn for that, but the archetypal energy that so many women lack. Not due to a fault of their own, but through the patriarchal wounding of the collective unconscious. The demonization and scapegoating of the feminine, nature and the full depth of the Sovereignty Goddess as true Mother. One that is fierce, sovereign, independent, nurturing by holding space for the shadow, a strong protectress of the marginalised and of all traumatised by life. The queen of the heavens, the wilderness, with her sacred daughter, and of the underworld. It is really no wonder that so many children live in broken homes, feel lost in a world that never held them, that never truly saw them. Where all they can is cry for the archetypal mother they never had, yearning to be held, as any child deserves.
Honoring the Dignity of All Life through the Goddess
Something we can see has been long lost. Women got murdered for their connection to the Goddess, for being a priestess of her, to honour nature and the wild. To honour the wisdom of nature and the earth, to weave the fabric of society and its social order, which the king would have to honour. As even Odin was not above the Norns, the old weavers of fate, who served his wife Freyja, the ancient Sovereignty Goddess. And in that moment with my drum, I felt the grief for all what is lost. The grief the Goddess has for those marginalised, for the voices of women, queer people and many others that went unheard throughout time. To be seen for who they are, honoured for their existence, and not just for what they do. This is the wisdom of the Goddess, as she sees the dignity and divine spark in all living beings. To honour her and her daughter Artemis is to honor the dignity and sacredness of all life. To be a leader is to serve her.
A Benediction for the Forgotten
I write this for all the women burned, silenced, used, or forgotten. For the oak groves, the exiled priestesses, the daughters who were never protected. For the love they needed and never received, from their mothers, the earth, or the divine. For all the women reading this; You are sacred. You are sovereign. You are grieved for. You are part of a myth older than time. And the Goddess has not forgotten you.
Blessed are the tree planters. Blessed are those who remember.
I am the Dionysian child long exiled returning with their ancient mother. I see you in your grief, in your sovereignty, in your power and sacred wildness, as I have seen the deep grief of my Anima, my own inner feminine. My dear Artemis. What I see in you, I have had to see and reclaim in myself, through suffering and truth.