Claiming our Crown & Stepping into the Light to Live our Royal Personhood

A Third Quarter Moon Devotional for the Via Positiva

Invocation

A crown of life as a blessing from our birth.
A crown of rejoicing as a blessing for our lives.
A crown of victory as a blessing for living in truth.

May the living crown bestow strength upon us.
May the rejoicing crown bestow joy within us.
May the imperishable crown bestow courage through us.

Our strength arises from our honest life.
Our joy arises from our love and support of others.
Our courage arises from our strength to live our soul's life.

Let us be ever honest in our life, our love, and our selves.
Let us be ever true in our support, care, and service to others.
Let us be ever rooted in our calling, work, and identity.

The Sacred Moment

Today, the third quarter moon rises, opening the middle way between light and darkness. May we feel the call to awe, to cosmic hospitality, to the art of savor, and to the kin-dom of God here and now. In the sacred light of the Third Quarter Moon, we walk the path of the Via Positiva: the way of wonder, the dance of delight, courage to speak the living Word of God into form. Our souls ache for blessing and community as we gather to taste the sweetness of life and share the joy with each other.

This is a moon to awaken, to bless, to behold.

Theme: Remembering Royal Personhood

Royal dignity was yours from the day you were born on the holy mountains, royal from the womb, from the dawn of your earliest days.

(Ps 110:3 TJB)

One of the things most tarnished by the lie of Original Sin is the celebration of our royal personhood. We forget we are created in the image of God with the Divine Breath in our lungs. Our soul, our very being, arise from God, and one day we will return to God. Everyone is born sacred. Everyone. No acception.

As the church learned to use sin as a control mechanism, it discovered that naming various aspects of human nature as sin allowed it more control over its adherents, society, and culture. It simplified sin and forgiveness into how well people obeyed its edicts and relied on its permission to exist.

Religion has always been a tool of control in the hands of the power hungry and the greedy. King Josiah’s people literally rewrote the words of Moses to enshrine the power of the Judean Kings: one king, one kingdom, one temple, one priesthood.

This is the root of the idea that the faith speaks with one voice in the Christian world view. I remember being taught about Josiah and his prophetess Huldah who confirmed his Book of the Law was from God, and the rhetorical backflips of my Sunday school teacher went through to explain how God used a female prophet even though God taught women shouldn’t have authority in the church and never over men. Something about his arguments didn’t sit right with me, but at the time I accepted them, because I couldn’t imagine or accept someone in the church lying to me.

That Sunday School teacher had to explain away Huldah’s vocation as a prophet so we would not see the royal personhood of the women in our lives and our society, and that prejudice was more important than even the scripture they claimed contained all truth.

It is a denial of what Peter says about our faith: “But you are an elect race (or family),¹ a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: who in time past were no people, but now are the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy (1 Peter 2:9).”

From our first breath, the Holy recognizes us as kin. We are bearers of the sacred, crowned with honor, and called good. We are royal persons called to a royal priesthood, carrying to love, mercy, and reconciliation of God to all people. Any attempt by people of “faith” to deny our royal personhood is a blasphemy against God.

It doesn’t matter what our gender is, our sexuality, our ethnicity, our ability. We are all made in the image of God. We all possess a royal personhood.

Unfortunately, the world and the imperial church tries to convince us otherwise. Many of us are told that something essential about us is wrong, broken, or lacking as a means of control and domination over us. These wounds run deep. The old stories about our supposed unworthiness cling to our spirit, eroding our confidence and dimming the light placed in us from the very beginning.

We don’t need the words of the psalmist to remind us of this truth: We are born in original dignity, not original sin. We are crowned not because of what we achieve, how we fit in, or what others say, but simply because we are. We are royal from the womb. The sacred is the core spark of our life. This royal personhood is not reserved for a few, but for all! No matter our journey, our gender, who we love, or how we show up in the world. Especially in Pride Month, when we remember the sacred courage it takes to step into the light of our true selves, we are invited to reclaim the crown that is already ours.

Paul talks about four crowns: the crown of life, the crown of rejoicing, the crown of victory, and the imperishable crown. They are not medals handed out to the select few. They are lived realities, spiritual blessings woven through our lives as we walk in honesty, support one another in love, and choose courage in the face of fear. Our invocation today reminds us that these crowns are more than symbols: they are sources of strength, joy, and hope.

To accept your royal dignity is not to boast, but to remember who you are. It is to look into the mirror and see not only your struggles or scars, but also the shimmering trace of Divine likeness. It is to affirm that your life is precious, your love is holy, and your journey is worthy of blessing.

So let us claim our crowns, not just for ourselves but for one another. Let us support and celebrate the royal personhood in everyone we meet, knowing that each act of love, each step in truth, each gesture of courage is itself a coronation. Let us serve faithfully, rooting ourselves in the identity given to us by the One who knits us together: royal from the dawn, crowned from birth, radiant in every season of our becoming.

Practice: Radiant Crown of Glory

Find a quiet place. Maybe sit in the sunlight or somwhere you are surrounded by light. Rest your gaze softly (maybe near a window, or toward the sky). Relax your body.

Notice your breath. Feel it fill your lungs. Sense the living energy within and around you.

Silently affirm: “My royal dignity is not something to earn. It is already here, as the radiance of my being.”

Let yourself rest in this truth. There is no effort, no need to change. Just see and feel yourself as already crowned, already luminous, already beloved.

If helpful, picture a gentle light above your head, like first rays of dawn or a rainbow glow, resting and radiating from your crown, filling you with warmth and honor.

For several breaths or minutes, rest in this awareness. Let the crown shine. If thoughts of doubt or old stories arise, just notice them, and return gently to the direct knowing:

“I am crowned from the dawn. I am luminous, a royal personage.”

When you are ready to end, affirm:

“May I remember this light in myself and see it in others. May my actions reflect this truth.”

Closing Blessing

May we always remember,
that we are crowned with glory
royal from the dawn of our days.

May the light within us
shine with the fullness of Divine being
a radiance no shadow can obscure.

May we walk boldly in our royal personhood,
cherishing our soul, honoring our story,
and loving the truth of who we are.

May the crowns of life, joy, and courage
rest gently upon us,
reminding us that our very existence is a blessing.

As we go forth,
may we see the same holy light
shining in every soul we meet.

So may it be.

1. Race: The word Genos is not a concept we have in English. It means family or offspring and by extension, tribe or clan.