The Sovereignty Goddess and the Balance of Divine Forces
Reconceptualizing Gender Roles in Myths
In the article Reconstructing the Proto-Indo-European Sovereignty Goddess, I wrote about the Koryos and Arkteia briefly. How her role is crucial in guiding the Koryos or any hero figure back into society, ensuring that the transformative journey aligns with the harmonious balance of the cosmic order. The Sovereignty Goddess and Wotan's partnership represents a balance between nurturing and dynamic, often chaotic forces. While Wotan (or Odin) is associated with the wilderness and the unpredictable aspects of nature, the Goddess complements and stabilizes these forces. Yet there is something much deeper at play. A larger pattern that connects these masculine and feminine energies within the divine. Especially regarding the rites of initiation.
Initiation Rites and Divine Oversight
When it comes to the Koryos for instance, there is a consistent link to wolves, small warrior-hunter bands, engaging in rite of passage activities in the form of hunting, cattle-raiding, martial or athletic training, dancing, feasting and poetry. All of these activities taking place under the domain of Wotan in the wilderness. We can also see this with the Fianna how they were not yet part of the túath (meaning assembly), who were the property owning members of the tribe. The Fianna roaming the wilderness as unmarried males without possessions other than weapons, that protect the tribe and are through this initiation prepared for manhood. This also being echoed with the cult of Wolf-Apollo, with members needing to go through initiations such as athletic competitions and other contests, before being recognized as full members of the warrior community.
The scholar W. Burkert, pointed out that the name Apollo, probably came from the Doric apélla meaning ‘public assembly’. This is also visible with Diana, Mars and Quirinus, all being linked to the public assembly. Where Mars linked to wolves could be seen as the leader of the Koryos outside the city walls. Quirinus (the peaceful Mars) was associated with the tribe and the assembly of all Roman people, as much as Diana was too. Quirinus and Mars really being one deity Mars-Quirinus, consisting of both a peaceful societal function and an active and dynamic warrior function linked to wild animals like wolves. All of this, in that sense, bringing back in the youth of the tribe, but also later the warriors of the tribe. Next to playing an important role for outcasts and scapegoats to reclaim their individuality and personal power.
There is with various such initiations rites such as the Hirpi, Salii, Fianna, Arkteia, Wild Hunt and the Korybantes (who are connected to Apollo but also Hecate originally), a consistent link to a goddess figure linked to sovereignty, warriors or hunters and initiation. Where Holda, Diana, Artemis, Athena, Leto, Hecate, the Morrígan, Feronia and Juno hold the strongest connections to these qualities.
Rites of Rebirth: Integrating the Primal Self
Yet regarding the Koryos or Arkteia, there is more to this, regarding these types of rituals. They served as important means of bonding, creating community, next to serving as rituals that connected us to nature, a sense of spiritual death and rebirth, and finally our primal and instinctual self. The Sovereignty Goddess then also played a key role in overseeing this process of rejuvenation and death and rebirth. Guiding them through the process of going into the underworld and returning back from it. Much how the Anima plays such a role within the unconscious, as such a guiding figure. The Anima for instance also plays an important role in the bringing together of the parts of the Self that got scattered or repressed after through shadow work we faced and understood them. This reintegration is something that she facilitates. And in the ancient sense this included the reintegration into the community. So the whole. Which included both the human and natural community. Where the Goddess figure also guided outcasts and scapegoats back into society, next to liberating and empowering them. Bringing back their authentic self.
So where Wotan and figures like Artemis oversee the rites in the wilderness, the Goddess rules the social order. Ruling with her husband the thunder-god (Wotan), whose domain was the wilderness when it came to the Koryos male rite of passage, where her daughter (a figure like Artemis) oversaw the Arkteia female rite of passage. Where both upon return would fall under the Sovereignty Goddess, regarding societal re-integration. Artemis as daughter of the Goddess also showing the continuity of the divine oversight from mother to daughter. Where a figure like Dionysus (which was her son) also played a role regarding the mysteries of life and death.
As I had written in The Korybantic Path, the Koryos as much as the Korybantes that protected Zeus and Dionysus are key when it comes to moving from the Kingdom of Kronos to the Kingdom of Zeus. From a state of duality and separation towards the deeper integration of the shadow. Where then Anima work further ties into the reintegration process, and with it also is connected to the Sovereignty Goddess. Who in the end together with her son Dionysus helps to mend the two halves of the Self, and with it take away the burden of the shadow placed there through projections. With both the Koryos and Arkteia these rites are about the protection and nurturing of the divine child and with it the authentic Self. Reintegrating the primal, emotional, sensual and sexual side of human nature. Masculine and Feminine.
Arkteia Rite
With the Arkteia this rite was connected to a sacred grove with a temple dedicated to Artemis with buildings in which the young girls and priestesses would stay in and upkeep. The ritual itself was done in the grove, often at dusk or even at night, with torches lighting up the sacred grove, with the flickering torchlight amidst the ancient sacred trees. The dance itself, was made up of slow, solemn steps meant to imitate the movements of a bear and was performed to a tune from an aulos (double flute). The young girls also carried baskets of figs. The krokotos was a saffron robe associated with girls taking part in Brauronian maturation rites. During the dance the robe would be shed and that symbolized transition into womanhood. The krokotos as a robe had since the more ancient Neolithic period replaced bear fur, and thus came to symbolize their connection to the bear. By moving like bears, the arktoi heightened their sense of identification with the Animal. And thus the connection with the instinctual nature of the feminine. Which touches upon much deeper layers of Artemis and her rites, beyond the later egoic distortions tied to chastity and the pushing away of the primal and instinctual as being disruptive and to be feared.
Koryos Rite
The Koryos rituals were similarly deeply rooted in the wilderness, reflecting the primal and untamed aspects of nature and the human psyche. These warriors were often dedicated to deities associated with the underworld, death, and rebirth, embodying the themes of transformation and renewal. The wolf, as a totemic animal, represented the instinctual and primal aspects of the human psyche that the initiates were required to confront and integrate. This process of integration was essential for their development into fully realized adults capable of contributing to their community.
My own practice drew heavily from the traditions of the Koryos, particularly in its focus on wilderness rites and the confrontation of the shadow. Over the past years, I had engaged in rituals dedicated to Zagreus (a deity of death, the underworld, and wilderness), Yemo in the Proto-Indo-European sense, and the Sovereignty Goddess. These deities resonate with the core themes of the Koryos: death, rebirth, and the integration of primal energies. The Proto-Indo-European Koryos were in their various manifestations dedicated to both. Like how the Fianna of Ireland were dedicated to the Morrigan.
The Fianna served as a rite of passage into manhood and have parallels with similar young warrior bands in other early European cultures. The actual Fianna warrior bands also have been connected to the Morrígan, who had been also connected to a ritual surrounding dog sacrifice (known to be a Koryos ritual). One such example of a link between them is found at the burnt mound sites known as “the cooking pit of the Mórrígan”. These sites are found in wild areas, and are associated with outsiders such as the Fianna, as well as with the hunting of deer. Another site called “the two breasts of the Mórrígan"), a pair of hills in Meath County, further is suggested by scholars as a probable link between her and the Fianna as a sort of tutelary goddess, also known as a guardian deity. For me Feronia has been such a guiding figure, and I owe her my freedom and my life.
Healing and Integration
In the end how I wrote in The Unseen Burden: Grappling with the Scapegoat Complex, these rites are about cultivating assertiveness, reconnect back to instinct and with this overcome feelings of helplessness and cultivate the needed ego-strength to challenge the inner critic. At the same time really dismantling the Freudian super-ego in the process. To create that inner space to nurture our inner child, and with it the divine child within. Our authentic self and true potential, so it can unfold and we can truly meaningfully contribute our gifts to society. Within this process the Accepting Self, which for me was symbolised by Feronia, and in a deeper sense personally also symbolised by Renata and projected upon Amelie, plays a key role in the final stages of the process. This part of the process falls under the domain of the Sovereignty Goddess, who merges back together the two halves of scapegoat and redeemer. Though Iacchus as son of the Goddess can play such a role as well for people. Often it actually tends to be a collaboration of both archetypes, which facilitates this process of moving beyond Order and Chaos.
All of this in the end is about the healing of the victim-child aspect and the Anima or Animus which similarly is often wounded as well. To reconnect us, to deeper feelings of warmth and underlying care which tie directly to the platonic forms of the parental figures and the accepting Self. So this can arise from within the individual. Thus through this re-establishing the link with the Self, and the wholeness of the individual. It is a source of eternal love within us that is always present. Even if it is obscured by the fog of experiences of our life.