Mood:
crushed outTopic: Symbols of Liberty
Maybe there's a difference between the "American" flag and the flag of the United States. I know that the flag stirs powerful emotions in me and in many other people. It's an archetypal symbol, and therefore it's powerful. As an archetypal symbol, it actually stands for different things to different people, and at different times and places; as an archetypal image, it's linked to something too large to be seen from any one perspective. That means it's also magically and spiritually powerful, and (like Libertas), be a sovereign key for work to bless and transform the United States.
To me, the flag is well designed and aesthetically pleasing. Its symbols and colors resonate with many ancient symbols and usages. It evokes many positive associations and can still provoke contemplation of the higher values the United States is supposed to be committed to. At the same time, I recognize that the flag is sullied by the hypocrisy of the government and people behind it, who are not fully committed to self-evident ideals of equality, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Too often, this flag has intimidated others and flown over scenes of their economic or military colonization. Because of these betrayals of our own historical values, events like 9/11 come back to haunt us. I grew sick of the flag in the months after 9/11, partly because I saw it so frequently disgraced by the ignorance of those who flew it as a justification for rage and supremacy rather than as an emblem of a democratic republic. These same people signed away our democratic sovereignty to George W. Bush, a traitorous "president" and stood for the radical dimunition of civil liberties (including that most vital principle of habeus corpus).
But it is time to reassert the values of the ongoing American Revolution, and that means reasserting our ownership of the flag, as citizens committed to democracy and constitutional government. We are the heirs of the Revolution, not the corporatarchs in power, and we are the future of this nation.
Here's a flag blessing that I wrote to help me, as a Pagan, to reclaim, cleanse and sacralize the flag of the people, my flag.
An Isian American Flag Blessing
Annuit Coeptis.
BY THE POWER of ISIS-LIBERTAS, I bless this flag.
May it be cleansed of blood's miasma--
The blood of those who have died under the spell it weaves
The blood of those who have died at the hands of those who fly it.
I liberate this flag from its contradictions--
This blue is Nuet, Grand Mother of Heaven,
These stars the glories of Her compassion, the ascended souls
who wait to guide us.
This white is the purity of Ma'at, true justice and true balance in all Her particulars.
This red is the knot of Isis, which protects us in Her womb.
These stripes are of the Union in Diversity we seek to realize:
E Pluribus Unum.
These grommets are the eye portals of the Infinite One;
May Godhead see and guide us in all we do.
This hem binds my spell of blessing,
And I shall hang it on the Tree of Life,
Beneath the eagle of Horus,
That it may fly into the wind
And bless my peoples
And bless my world.
Long may this blessed flag wave--
Novus Ordo Seclorum--
So mote it be!
