Sovereignty
At Blueprint Essences, we celebrate sovereignty, as part of what we honour & connect with in the Goddess & Divine Feminine Empowerment Journey.
Sovereignty is for all of us - women, men and children people from all walks of life from all around the world. Sovereignty is the most powerful state of being for all of humanity, and for the natural world.
What is it to be sovereign?
To be sovereign is to live according to our own knowing, and deep inner feeling - our own internal compass - living open to and wiling to deeply listen to these aspects of ourselves.
To be sovereign is to be able to live without being influenced by any external messages culturally, socially, politically, scientifically or spiritually that make us feel small, doubt ourselves, what we know to be true and our gut instincts.
To be sovereign is to live a live where we thrive and flourish because we have learned to live free from external influences, and can live guided by our inner compass that shines with the beauty, truth and love in our souls.
To be a sovereign is to not wait for others to make decisions for us, to be silent, and to do as others ask in order that we do not experience shame, humiliation, gaslighting, control, disapproval or rejection.
To be sovereign is to be able to say no to abuse, gaslighting, manipulation, controlling behaviours, and to draw healthy boundaries around the behaviours we accept, and will no longer accept. Respect is key and sovereignty is to know we are worthy of it all times.
To be sovereign is to not surrender who we are, and what we know to be true, but to own who we are, fully embracing the fullness of our beliefs and values and gifts.
To be sovereign is to be present; to listen to what resonates with us in each moment, and whether what we hear, feel and see from the outside world is reflective of your truth.
To be sovereign is to feel strong, to make no apology for who we are, for our truth and to be in our integrity, living our lives according to the values we hold dear.
To be sovereign is to allow ourselves to be seen just as we are. You being you. Me being me. Owning our shadows rather than projecting them onto others. Celebrating the totality of what it means to be human, whilst honouring and respecting others where they are in their journeys.
To be sovereign is to walk tall, to truly know ourselves, our wishes, needs, desires and to be able to express them, knowing that we are deserving and worthy of goodness in all ways.
To be sovereign is to embody the inner wisdom of living with Divine Truth, the Divine Mother & Pure Consciousness in all we do.
To be sovereign is to know deeply that we are worthy of great lives, great happy experiences, and that we live in an abundant world that can provide for us and those we love. We matter and are deserving of being cherished as the Divine beings that we are.
To be sovereign is to feel the call and rise when we see injustices, and a lack of care and respect for people, animals, children, nature, our beautiful planet and all that sustains us.
“ I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet”
We are not just standing tall in our truth when we are being sovereign, we also help shift the pain our ancestors lived with. It is now accepted that trauma is passed down through the generations, and so when we are sovereign, we are reclaiming power that our ancestors weren’t able to own. We don’t just bring deep and profound healing for ourselves, but we do so for past and future generations.
To be sovereign is to be free of what the patriarchy has conditioned us to believe.
To be sovereign is to have the courage to transcend all of these messages and to live a life we love, and rise powerfully for ourselves, others and our beautiful planet when the call comes.
How to live a Sovereign Life
1) Love Yourself. Fiercely. Inside & Out
It is an act of power, especially for women, to free ourselves of the gaslighting that causes us to want to hide ourselves away. To be able to accept the marks, scars and “imperfections” on our bodies as an important part of the story of our lives etched on our bodies is an act of love. Ageing is a celebration of the story of our lives and the wisdom we have gleaned etched upon our beautiful faces and bodies. To be sovereign is to own the beauty of our bodies.
We used to celebrate grandmothers - for they carry wisdom as well as beauty. We have been manipulated, groomed and gaslit into thinking the opposite, that we must avoid stepping into the elder years, that elder women are no longer useful and should be shut away. Cosmetic surgery to “defy” ageing is encouraged, and that it is only the young and conventionally beautiful that we should listen to.
Let’s celebrate bodies again. Bodies. Big, short, tall, small, thin, fat, lean, wobbly, elder, younger, every colour. Every body.
When making the film Good Luck to You Leo Grande, Director Sophie Hyde invited the two leading actors to prepare in really beautiful ways. The film is about a middle aged widow who has never had an orgasm who hires a sex worker. Before filming, the two main actors Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack spent a whole day sitting naked with each other, sharing the stories of their bodies with each other. Which bits they loved, which bits they struggled with and why. Could we do that with ourselves. Could we do that with a loving partner?
We all have days when we feel we radiate and shine the best of ourselves, and feel fantastic. We also all have days when we are triggered, feel scared or vulnerable - days when our shadows emerge. Can we find the courage to walk through the shame and pain and allow ourselves to be truly vulnerable, in order to, as Brene Brown discusses, truly allow ourselves to connect with others? To live with a deep love for, and acceptance for all of you is to live with sovereignty.
2) Dropping the people pleasing and fanning the flames of our fire
The Divine Mother sent her Shakti (the primordial cosmic energy; Source energy) the mother Guari, to help the Gods. Guari listened to what the gods told her, and then assumed the ferocious Kali and destroyed the evil forces of Shumbh and Nishumbh and their two generals Chand and Mund.
Kali is an expression of Source, capable of destroying darkness. Endings (death) are an important part of transformation, which are essential for the renewal of of energy, new life and spiritual growth. Hindu teachings about Kali remind us that attachment to the material form causes a fear of death, which is the basic insecurity for the first chakra.
The teachings of Hinduism celebrate the power of the feminine - of the Divine Mother - to bring an end to darkness, which culminates in the celebration of Diwali, the coming of light. The feminine has been written out of conventional understandings including religion, something we uncover in the Goddess & Women’s Empowerment Journey. Kali is one of many examples of the power of the Divine Feminine, and the Divine Mother that we explore. The true Source of all of life is the Divine Mother. All life is birthed from the Feminine.
Being more sovereign is to be more Kali.
3) Love & Relationships
To be sovereign is to stand as we are and allow ourselves to be seen when we are deeply in relationship. Taoist and true tantric practices that involve spending hours devoted to massaging, loving and honouring a partner’s body, mind and soul even before any intercourse even happens is heart and chakra-opening and can be life-changing. To adore another is be calling on the Divine feminine aspect within us - whether we are a man or a woman - to take the time to deeply celebrate, be open and truly vulnerable with another is a sacred practice that is in great contrast with how we have been taught we can express ourselves in relationships.
Society has been manipulated away from from deep wisdoms about relationships and intimacy and towards a highly sexualised, less committed experience. We have been told it makes us more powerful to be transient, that attachments are a sign of weakness, and of being in the ego. Healthy attachments can help us to thrive. We are focused on the physicalities of sex, which can be very masculine energy focused. Women are gaslit into believing they are weak for wanting committed relationships. The feminine thrives when the healthy masculine can provide a stable, supportive, loving, solid base and grounding that enables the feminine to feel safe and then rise, radiate and thrive. And so the power that women and the empowered feminine can have becomes weakened because there has been an erosion of there being a powerful and stable masculine base from which her energies and vibrancy springboard into a life and world-changing force for great light and transformation in our world. An ever-expansive spiral of evolution is possible when the masculine and feminine align in these ways, whether in same-sex or opposite-sex couples.
To know who we are, to understand and own our sexuality, and to stay true to who we know ourselves to be is to be sovereign. Change is part of the wonderful ever-evolving nature of life. To make changes about ourselves, who and how we love based on fear, reactions to pain, fashion or gaslighting, manipulation, grooming and control is not sovereign. Choosing change from a place of true presence and deep listening to our inner selves……that is sovereignty.
It is not sovereign to cause others pain, to be unfaithful, controlling, abusive in relationships. These behaviours are an expression of fear. To be sovereign is to powerfully hold ourselves up to express the greatest love that we are, to find the courage to look at our shadows, to evolve.
To be sovereign takes courage. It takes courage to love. It takes courage to be loved. It takes courage to listen deeply to ourselves and others. It takes courage to allow ourselves to be fully seen. It takes courage to walk through the challenges of life with another, deeply listening as to how to take the next steps forward. It takes courage not to run, jump or hide when the challenges of life knock at our door.
To be sovereign is to know love and live it.
3) Being our own authority
To be sovereign is to no longer seek approval from others for what we know to be true, or be triggered when others we care about disagree with our truth. To be sovereign is to accept that others will disagree, to accept this, stay in our truth and not react.
4) Listening deeply to our intuition
Learning to live and lead by listening deeply to our gut feeling, to our intuition, to our inner Divine Knowing is a true act of sovereignty. This requires stillness, in whichever ways we connect, be it in nature or meditating or some other way in which we can be still enough to hear that voice of inner truth. Leaning in to it. Allowing ourselves to receive it. Sometimes it can take time to come through, so allowing ourselves the space and time. Claim our right to time to make decisions until we are clear about our truth.
The patriarchy emphasises (and then defines) logic. This telling us how to think takes us away from listening to what feels true, and to listening to our gut. It is possible to unite the masculine process of scientific thought and the feminine experience of deeply listening to our intuition, as Einstein taught.
To be sovereign is to live and lead with the gift of our intuition.
5) Embracing Discernment & Resonance
Judgement causes division and is a tool of the patriarchy. We all do it - but to become aware of how and what we judge, and to move towards discernment is an act of sovereignty. Judgement is an easy compartmentalisation of what we are presented with into one of (often two) possibilities, usually “right” and “wrong”.
Discernment is a feeling into what resonates with us and what doesn’t. It is an expression of deeply listening to our truth, or presence with how we feel about what we are told, and a celebration of the power within us to not take at face value any of the messages we are presented with externally. It allows for the truth of situations to emerge, the complex, messy, full, beautiful, multi-layered truths of life.
It is an act of sovereignty to listen deeply to how we feel; how our bodies and hearts and souls respond to the messages we receive. And to only allow what resonates - what feels positive to us in our bodies and inspires our hearts to expand - to inform how we live.
6) Boundaries - saying no to experiences that constrict & yes to those that expand
Seting boundaries that love us is an act of sovereignty. We often say yes to what we don’t want to do, and no to opportunities for expansion because the patriarchal voice of self-doubt tells us we can’t or aren’t good enough, or because we are afraid.
One guiding principle is to notice whether what we are being asked to do would cause you to expand or contract. Saying no to that which causes us to contract, and yes to experiences that invite us to experience expansion. Expansive experiences can feel uncomfortable, as we grow into our greatest magnificence. But they are so worth it.
7) Cultivating feelings of safety
The patriarchy pulls us out of our power by making us feel anxious or scared by external terrors, diseases, wars, that we are “missing out” if we don’t follow what is fashionable or trendy, or even the “norm”, in order for us to give our power and sovereignty to something external. Our adrenaline response pulls us out of being fully in our bodies, because our anxiety is making us want to fight or fly or freeze. If we stop responding to those external triggers, we remain present, in our bodies fully. We become warriors - able to still listen to what the right next step for us is - what our inner compass, our inner knowing, is telling us to do as a next step. We listen to internal rather than external direction. That is sovereignty.
Exploring ways in which we feel safe within ourselves helps nurture strength and resilience. What activities do we do in which we feel safe? Which places do we visit that cultivate feelings of safety. How can we feel safe in ourselves, even if situations around us are challenging?
8) Discovering more about who we are
Enneagrams, Astrological Birth Charts, Archetypes and who we are constitutionally (something a homeopath seeks to identify), and strengths profiles all help us to know more about who we are. A really useful free tool to find out your strengths is the Values in Action (VIA) Tool. Seeing a therapist if that resonates to do so. To be sovereign is to be on a journey of uncovering who we are, and accepting all of ourselves. It’s a life-long beautiful adventure if we allow it to be.
Owning our shadows. What happens when we feel scared, or triggered, or angry? How do we react? When and how does loving ourselves and others and the planet turn to hurting ourselves and others and the planet? What choices do we have once we become aware? How can we love ourselves even when we are in pain and reacting? What steps can we take to own and heal our pain?
9) Being here now
We are encouraged to plan and set goals that put us on a clearly defined path. This is a masculine focused approach that can limit us close us off to the vast, colourful, varied possibilities that life would like to gift us, if we haven’t first allowed ourselves to remain open to all possibilities. To be sovereign is to ask ourselves
“What feels like the right next step for me?”
“How can I best serve (the Divine Mother) right now?”
It is OK to accept that the answer right now is “I don’t know”'. That allows our hearts and gut feeling to stay open to possibilities we haven’t thought of to emerge. In a world where we are encouraged to “know” everything, it is an act of sovereignty to be able to say “I don’t know the answer to that right now. And I feel completely alright with that”.
It is a sovereign act to take a next step because it feels resonant and the right next step for you, even if we don’t know where that next step is taking us. It is an act of power to listen to our inner compass and follow where it guides us, for, as Joseph Campbell said
How to use the Blueprint Essences & stay Sovereign
How do you work with these and any other essences? Are you using them from a place of need because you don’t feel you can connect with what they represent? Or to enhance and connect you with what you wish to invite, knowing that you are powerful and can?
We would invite you to consider that you are sovereign, and that as a sovereign being the Blueprint Essences are a reminder of all that can be accessed from within you; courage, radiance, abundance, joy, self-love, peace, power, fire and all the many qualities they celebrate.
The Blueprint Essences are an invitation to welcome all these parts of ourselves that we already have within us, but might have forgotten or become disconnected from. The Blueprint Essences mirror all that we already have within, giving those qualities an opportunity to shine.
Copyright (C) Danica Apolline 2023 All rights reserved.
“It’s extremely rare to see two people in a relationship for the pure expansion of human consciousness, but when you do, the magnetic energy they emanate is nothing short of holy.
Most people use relationships as coping mechanisms. They haven’t grieved something from their past and instead of confronting their inner world they grasp outwards, sometimes clinging to whatever object their hands find.
Anytime a relationship (or friendship) is used as a form of escapism, it slows down your path and eventually causes chaos in your field.
Holy relationships, or friendships, emerge through radical self honesty. When two people are willing to not only open their hearts to one another, but to source itself, the connection becomes a transmission for elevated consciousness to enter through. This creates a prism effect, where the light their fields emit cascades farther into the collective. Connection has the potential to unroot human consciousness from the medieval/dark ages of consciousness, bringing it closer to an age of divinity.
Often, people go into relationships by way of hiding themselves, pretending to be that which they are not. This produces a subtle tension throughout the relationship that resorts in blame/shame tactics which turn a once romantic connection into a battle with the “enemy”.
The ego subconsciously wants an enemy to cast its shadow upon. This way the ego doesn’t have to take responsibility for its own path. The incapacity to take responsibility for the path you walk is a mode of living in denial.
In a holy connection, both parties take full responsibility for their shortcomings and calmly grow into healthier states of consciousness. Relationships, friendships, can be one of the most powerful catalysts for metaphysical growth, so long as both people are willing to look at themselves.
When I see two people who are raw and vulnerable with one another, who are unafraid to delve into their shadows without casting blame or shame onto each other during this fragile yet powerful process, I see incredible potential for humanity. ”
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
“We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.”
It is an act of defiance to see ourselves as beautiful just as we are. Refusing to see ourselves as ugly, or old, or in need of “fixing” in some way because we feel there is “something wrong with us”. Just this one act alone makes us powerful. To be able to stand in a mirror, naked, and to truly deeply, fully, love and accept ourselves, just as we are is life-changing. It’s a life-changing practice, to stand naked in the mirror every day and say “I love you just as you are”.
Venus of Willendorf
Kali is one of the Goddesses in the Goddess series of Blueprint Essences that we connect with in the Goddess and Women’s Empowerment Journey.
Kali is a Hindu Goddess who it is said was sent by the Divine Mother to help when none of the male gods and sub gods could conquer two demonic forces. The story is told in Devi Bhagwat Purana, Sanskrit text and one of the eighteen major Puranas of Hinduism. It was realised that no man could conquer these forces, and so Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer, gathered on the bank of river Ganges and prayed to the Divine Mother, for they had been unable to destroy the demonic forces.
“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”
It is possible to experience deeply fulfilling relationships and love in ways that open us up so magnificently that we become power itself. Taoist sexual practices celebrate the ability for two people who hold each other in deep love, care and respect, to have transcendent relationship and love-making experiences that are truly mind-blowing.
True intimacy (“into me I see”) involves allowing ourselves to be fully seen by another, including our shadow. It is when we are truly deeply seen that shadow can transmute. The Naav’i people in Avatar who, like indigenous tribes, celebrate the Divine Mother and deeply connect and honour each other with the powerful phrase “I see you”.
“Choice is your greatest power. It is an even greater power than love, because you must first choose to be a loving person.”