Absolute power corrupts absolutely

Dear One,

Surviving times of absolute power requires a focus on absolute beauty.

In 1887 Lord Acton writes a letter to Bishop Creighton regarding how to write historically and morally about the Inquisition.

“I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way against holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.”

Since the time I can remember having self-awareness, around 5, I have been present to the danger that we are in.  It just all seemed so obvious to me that this whole thing was a set up. Of course, as I colored in my wonder woman coloring book, I was listening to the women at the kitchen table, drinking wine, and smoking cigarettes late into the night, talking about revolution. Danger and power over paradigms.

Yet this awareness goes further back than that, because as I breast fed, my mother was engaged in conversations of safety, of food, of welfare, of shelter, of care. Not just for herself, but for the other women in the community who had even less than we had. And it seemed we had so little, because we were on welfare, but then, because my mother and my grandmother were artists, we were surrounded by the beauty of their creations. They built a lot of all our furniture by hand with wood and sewed some of our clothing, and our bedspreads and embroidered our pillowcases.  Beauty goes a long way.

I think my somatic memory goes even further back, because my mother was attacked when she was pregnant with me. Research from the womb shows that the fetus has awarenessess of the things that are happening around them, that they react to the energies and language, and physical environment, how the mother treats herself and is treated by others. How could that not be the case, yet it is only recently that prenatal studies have proven the impacts on the fetus.  I think I was born hypervigilant. I feel like I was born watching.

Born watching bad men do bad things. To themselves and to others.

There is a part of me that finds myself surprised about what’s happening in the United States right now. Not because I ever trusted the government, but because the blatant arrogance and ugliness is being televised and tolerated. Yet that part of me that remembers, has been anticipating actions like this, that continue to erase anyone who is not the white male authority of the day, who declares himself in charge, regardless of the structures set up to protect us from such behavior.

Of course the system was already broken. Of course, there was already corruption. Yet, in my view, what we are we are witnessing, and experiencing in our bodies, our hearts, our brains, our communities, our stories, is absolute power corrupting absolutely.

Many of us may not have seen something like this in our lifetime. But it’s happened before. Over and over and over and we never learn because the history of what happened is written by the conquerers. Of course since there are over our over 100 armed conflicts right now, we are certainly not the only place that is experiencing something like this. I think the irony is that the world and we, have viewed ourselves as somehow an elevated nation. Then there is this: "We do not have to invade the United States, we will destroy you from within." This is a quote attributed to the late Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

This kind of dominance has been happening for over 10,000 years. Since the first people conquested, since the first oppressors oppressed others, since the first colonizers colonized land. It is worth noting that these were Tribes that were indigenous to their land, conquering other indigenous tribes, because if you go back far enough, we’re all indigenous to earth.  Those with light skin only evolved into light skin about 8000 years ago. And yet it seems that those who became “whiter” developed theories of supremacy that have absolutely zero basis in anything whatsoever other than inventing systems of power.

The loss of matrilineal cultures, the evolution to light skin, the fabrication of wars and borders, isn’t actually very old. Yet the harm that was created and has never been healed and has shaped our lives and altered the fabric of creation - to such a degree that many of us barely recognize ourselves in this tragically unfolding story.  We are in shock again. 

The metal age invader blood in my bloodline, remembers things like this and how they begin. I am humming with the remembrance of violence.  This remembrance is why I do what I do in my work with women, art, story, and healing. We turn that humming into songs of resistance.  We make beauty out of what we have to work with. My grandmother assured me that we could definitely make a silk purse out of sow’s ear.

My family left Africa over 80,000 years ago and settled in the area of Ukraine, Ireland, and Scandinavia.  All of these places have been a part of being conquested and conquestIng just like most of the places on earth. We’re not really talking about other people, these are our ancestors and there’s no getting out of it, our global family is in pain. we are living out intergenerational trauma. There does not appear to be any logic or reason or therapy that can solve the minds of the men who declare themselves in charge.  Instead of a spear, it’s a pen.

A pen that creates orders that destroy lives and rewrite history.

The reason for sharing this today is because I want you to take care of yourself. We have a long journey ahead at this time. I know that you can feel it in your bones. I know that so many of you are so worried. For good reason, and I’m asking you to turn toward beauty every single day anyway. The empaths Experience is registering such a high level of despair. The healers are inundated with the needs of other healers.

Find your village. chop wood and carry water and bring your gifts, and do not turn away from the labor of the day. Listen to your elders right now if they are wise ones. Ensure that your little ones have plenty of art supplies, and lots of unstructured time with you. By unstructured time, I mean time that is not enforced by an agenda. Time where you let the elders and the children choose how the time is spent. 

For you, the women in my life, in my village, and on the edges of my village. I call you to gather and to really talk. Talk deep into the night at the kitchen table. Tell stories on walks in nature, come together in each other’s art studios and paint and pray and gather your beautiful powers around you. As Alice Walker says, hard times require various dancing!  I had the pleasure of illustrating the cover and the images inside of that book of poems.

I remember times like this vibrating in my bones. I think you probably do too, even if you have a different language for it.  you must do what you must do to care for yourself. Only you know what that is. Yet, it would be very helpful if you had a village, where you encouraged one another to care for yourselves. Today, walk outside and connect with the Earth beneath your feet. Connect with your head in the stars. And put your hands into the garden soil, or into the creative mediums, or into the making of soup. Create!  creating will offer you tools for reflection, and resilience and offer you the kind of joy that guides us through the hard times.  join the council of wise ones and become more wise  together.

Surviving times of absolute power requires a focus on absolute beauty.

beauty will be found every time you look for it, but you need to decide to look. I am.

Thinking of you with love. This love, the most powerful frequency on earth, is real. Let’s share our love.

Shiloh Sophia ♥️

Curate at www.MUSEA.org

Sonoma, California

This painting above was painted in Teotihuacan Mexico, it is called The Cosmic love affair between the sun and the moon

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