Even before the beginning rumblings of the 2016 presidential election in the United States, this country’s political and related social climates were leaning ever more deeply into a dystopian nightmare. I know half a dozen modern Cassandras who began speaking of a future that would be dark and ugly, especially for women.
With uncanny timing, the televised versions of literary works such as The Man in the High Castle and The Handmaid’s Tale brought those predictions into common awareness. There was a scene in High Castle where the Nazis performed a twisted cleansing ritual to begin what they called Jahr Null (Year Zero). They accomplished this by annihilating the Statue of Liberty in an attempt to destroy everything she represents. I remember watching that scene and feeling horrified and angry, but I also remember thinking that the Goddesses who embody that colossus will never be defeated.
Statue of Liberty [Wikimedia Commons]
I have never seen Liberty in person in this realm. However, she was part of my childhood American mythology. I loved to see images of her, not because she was a symbol but because she was as real to me as every ancestor, every folk hero, and every being I knew intuitively but could not define. I remember seeing a poster of her towering figure with her torch held high. She was the welcoming light on the path to freedom, and I was in awe of her power. Even then, I sensed the determination in her gaze and her unwavering promise that she would forever protect the ideals of liberty and justice.
Over the half-century since then, she has moved in and out of my awareness. Like the Guardians of the Watchtowers, hers is an ever-present energy that requires no directed attention from human beings. She has forged her own connections with this land, its spirits, and its people, and she stands as a beacon of hope and a symbol of freedom that has endured through the darkest times.
There are many theories about the feminine inspiration for French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s creation of Liberty Enlightening the World. Educated in France, Bartholdi later traveled to Yemen and Egypt, where he first became interested in colossal figures. Shortly before he began to develop the plans for Liberty Enlightening the World, he served as an officer during the Franco-Prussian War and took part in the defense of Alsace from Germany. The war in his ancestral homeland is believed to have further influenced his interest in independence and liberty. He eventually became a member of the Freemasons, which led to more speculation about the mystical influences on his work.
His travels and experiences during the war undoubtedly lent a profound emotional resonance to his creative process. Every artist knows the transformative power that drama, trauma, spirit, and spiritual anguish can have on a body of work. Whether or not he ever worked with magic and whether or not he intended to make her so, Bartholdi’s Liberty has coalesced into a vessel for powerful organic and divine energies.
I am struck by the belief that Bartholdi’s mother, Augusta Charlotte Bartholdi, was his inspiration for the face of Liberty. There is no recorded confirmation of this, but such a simple, compelling tribute to the compassion and strength of the feminine divine Mother would lend even more power to the vessel.
In historical and contemporary conversations, the Statue of Liberty has been associated with these goddesses, among others: an unnamed earth-mother Native American, Columbia, Ishtar, Inanna, Astarte, Isis, Seshat, Libertas, and Eleutheria. Some of these connections are based on reports of unverified personal gnosis, and many other people probably have their own UPG-based beliefs about which divine beings inhabit the vessel created by Bartholdi. One only needs to look at her to realize that her existence is a summons to divine power.
T. Johnson and W. Kurtz, portrait of Emma Lazarus, 1889 [public domain]
Indeed, the sonnet of Emma Lazarus as part of the fundraising effort for the statue’s pedestal rings in my ears with the voices of a thousand Goddesses who have loved and cared for their people, especially those threatened by injustice or power imbalances. Mother of Exiles is a Goddess in her own right.
“The New Colossus”
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Adalia Tara’s soulful musical interpretation of the piece lends a much-needed and timely new breath and voice to the summons and prayer in Lazarus’s words. Listening to this anthem stirs my spirit and steadies my feet upon my path.
I am often amazed by the way this country’s people have weathered the years since the 2016 election launched us further into the shadowlands of hatred, racism, misogyny, bigotry, and terror. I am equally amazed by how those years have weathered but not beaten us. The fear-mongers push their wares into minds and spirits battered by cycles of repetitive, concussive trauma. It is easy to understand why so many people feel numb or overwhelmed. It would be easy to believe that the dark side is winning because they make so damned much noise in their efforts to drown out the voices of reason, courage, and Liberty.
I have a small, trusted circle of wise women with whom I share thoughts and have conversations about personal and political issues. Our recent discussions about the threats we face – especially the threats women, Witches, Pagans, people of color, and LGBTQ persons face, took an interesting turn when we realized that each of us has, in some way or another, been focused on the power of the Statue of Liberty.
Since 1886, she has been there on the edge of every new day that America faces, and now, when it seems we need her most, the Goddesses within the statue have awakened. Her true form radiates an aura of power and determination. With her lion-like features and unwavering gaze, she stands as a guardian against the forces of oppression, ready to unleash her wrath upon those who seek to extinguish the flame of freedom. This is no mere metaphor – the Statue of Liberty has become a living, breathing entity, a divine protector who will not rest until the scourge of fascism is purged from the land.
Face of the Statue of Liberty [Ronile, Pixabay]
In this war for our freedom, we must each do our best to attend to the practical matters that will help: register to vote, help others register to vote, help with transportation to polls, vote, participate in campaign work such as phone calls or postcard writing, contribute financially, and continue to build and maintain small community connections. Take care of each other. Lift each other up. Walk each other home.
We must also continue the magical practices that will help carry us through to the end and into new beginnings. To this end, the members of my Circle are creating altars for this Goddess in her many manifestations and states of being. A hundred thousand billion prayers and tears have created this being of power from the collective psyche of those who long for liberty. We will continue to honor her as a representative of the unbreakable will of the people to resist injustice and fight for their rights.
As my good sister, Reverand Jen Schrad, wrote, “I feel she’s out in front, leading those of us who believe in actual freedom. That feeding her is good and strategic.”
Continue to speak your truths, dear Cassandras. Those who hear and support you will feed and nurture freedom through altars and services dedicated to equality, truth, hope, love, and peace. The Statue of Liberty is more than just a symbol – she reminds us that even in the face of adversity, the spirit of liberty will never be extinguished. Neither will ours.
Booya, Witches.
Booya, citizens.
Booya, Americans.
You have been summoned. Do the work you can do.
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