The Historical Continuity of Monarchs

Royalty is history's red thread that connects us to the past. But it is also a characteristic. We are all noble at heart.

The Historical Continuity of Monarchs

By Charles E.J. Moulton

Royalty is more than a bloodline. It is an attitude.

In the true sense of the word, the bloodline of rulers destined to sit on thrones is, in this day and age, more or less destined to represent a country more than rule it. But they influence a country like Great Britain or Sweden to a great deal, more than we know: in the way the countrymen see their own place in history through the royal bloodline, the traditions the monarchs represent and the country's image abroad. Without the monarchy we might loose an important aspect of our conciousness. Who are we? The world needs to know. In the caleidoscope of countries that make up our world we have a place. If we are from different places, born in one place and raised in another, all the better. Then you yourself are the caleidoscope.

In the U.S., the president takes over part of the representational responsibility as well as the governmental work. The presidential campaigns are very much like the tours that kings have journeyed out on for ages, meeting the people and visiting their variety of palaces. Nowadays, neither the real kings nor the presidents journey out to collect the natural taxes like the real monarchs used to in the old days, but they still travel a great deal. And the president's inaugeration is certainly like a coronation. Every 4 or 8 years there is a new king and the U.S. president makes more judicial decisions than a monarch, but he is promoted like a king and the yellow press treats him and his family like royalty. Real royalty, however, is the red thread that binds much of European history together. It runs through a country and binds it together like white yarn binds a sweater.

We need the monarchy. Historically, we often relate to events by referring to the monarchs that ruled the country at the time. "Shakespeare lived during the time of Queen Elizabeth I." "During Gustav II Adolphus' reign, Sweden turned into a superpower." "The French Revolution occurred during Louis XVI's reign."

Royalty matters. We remember the kings we have experienced during our own lifetime and eventually we can tell our own grandchildren about who was king or queen when we were kids. We as a species need that consistancy. We need one single factor that remains faithful, true and traditional. Chaos needs order. Without order, chaos is lost. Accordingly, the point of a monarchy is, among others, its continuity. We live in a time where the old is often thrown away and replaced by the new. We want the newest and coolest things, while we actually go out of our way to throw away the old stuff. That can be a weakness. If we don't remember our history, our country's history, any history at all, we are doomed to repeat our mistakes.

One family traced through time can provide the necessary stability. Actually, your own geneology offers you the same thing. Sure, we need the fast rebel, the rocker, the provocative anarchist. But if tradition didn't exist, he would have nothing to rebel against. So even the anarchist needs the monarchy, the tradition, the stability. The old can provide us with the answers we need. History can be a teacher, a mentor that tells us about the hundred wrong ways to do something and inspire us to do that something right. And sometimes we just need a historical connection to see the wider scope of things. The perilous path toward dictatorship should, of course, be avoided at all costs. We should live in the now and look into the future.

We can connect with the past through people who experienced the past. We ask our parents and grandparents what it was like back then. They tell us about life when they were kids and history becomes more than just words in a book. History is the now in the making. But different people have different lengths of lives and here we receive help in what I would call the Collective Time Memory or CTM for short. The longer our CTM is, the deeper we will be able to relate to the past. My grandmother was born in the year 1900. Her brother was born in 1889. My father's grandfather remembered the American Civil War 1861. So my current CTM is 153 years. If you have someone old in your family who also has experience of life and of global travel, you have a real winner.

On a global scale, royalty is the CTM of the collective conciousness. Basically, it's all about being able to look beyond your own horizon. If you are capable of abstract thinking and empathy, you are on the right spiritual path. CTM helps you get there. So does music and art and the studying of languages. So, in actual fact, a person who only lives in the now and has no humanitarian interests runs the risk of becoming superficial, desperate and frustrated. Technique and mathematics educate the brain. Art educates the soul. We need both. And royalty is one key to CTM, the artistic perfection of the collective memory.

So, again, royalty is more than a bloodline. I know a few people, one person in particilar, who will disagree with me here. But fact of the matter is that the word royal is a characteristic. Something can be of "regal splendor". We talk of our children as "The Little Prince" and "The Little Princess". We have the "Lord of the Manor" in every household and "The Grande Dame" of every party. Your boss can rule his company like a king and somebody can be really noble in character. Nobility of spirit is your own inner Royalty with a capital R.

You might not be the king or queen of a country, but you are the king or queen of your inner microcosmos: your own inner spiritual royalty lies within you. Think positive, be creative, live in the now, keep moving, be thankful for the past, stay interested in life, love people for what they are, respect everyone for what they can become. If you fill those criteria you are truly a person that carries something important within. Spiritual Royalty.

Royalty is more than a bloodline. It is an attitude.