For today’s post I decided I wanted to do something that would work well with my YouTube video that I will be posting today! My video is focusing on the relationship between Morgan le Fay and Guinevere. In it I speak about Morgana’s role as a Dark Lady of Sovereignty. So for this post I want to look deeper into this, and also cover how this archetype can be applied to our daily lives for transformation!
The Dark Lady of Sovereignty is the term used for the Goddess of Sovereignty in her aspect as a tester of knights. We often see Morgan le Fay in this aspect within the Arthurian legends. She is the one who tests knights to make sure they are worthy, and can prove that someone is a worthy contender to become a King of the land. One of the most important examples of Morgan fulfilling this role is within the medieval text Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
She originally sent the Green Knight into Arthur’s Christmas court desiring to play a trick on those gathered in celebration. In addition she wanted to attempt to “frighten Guinevere to death.” When Gawain chose to take the Green Knight up on his challenge of the Beheading Game, Morgan saw a plan forming in her mind. She would use this time to test Gawain and his ability as a knight representing the land. She would also test his fortitude and right to possibly rule in the future! As the nephew of Arthur, and son of his sister in particular, Gawain is in a prime position to succeed Arthur in Kingship! Once Gawain has proven himself Morgan le Fay “the Goddess Morgan” is now his protectress, and he serves her instead of Guinevere. In fact in later texts Gawain has an animosity towards Guinevere, largely seen as him siding with Morgana instead!
Just as the Dark Lady of Sovereignty helped Gawain reach his full potential, she can help us in attaining our goals. We just need to heed the lessons learned from the tales of the Dark Lady. If we can learn from these stories we can apply it to our own lives. We must learn fortitude, endurance, belief, and determination. If we can embody these traits we can achieve most any goal we set for ourselves!
I hope you have enjoyed this short post, and that it inspires you to take guidance from these age old stories to plan out how to reach your goals. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is Dark Morgana from BBC’s Merlin. I found the image on https://heroes-and-villain.fandom.com/wiki/Morgana_Pendragon.
Further Reading
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Anonymous
- Sir Gawain: Knight of the Goddess by John Matthews
- Arthurian Magic by John & Caitlin Matthews with Virginia Chandler
- The Secret Tradition in Arthurian Legend by Gareth Knight
White Rose of Avalon 