“I was not the High King, that my doing should bring evil on the land.”

(Artos the Bear, in Rosemary Sutcliff's Sword at Sunset)

 

Pagan leadership is sacrificial leadership, and I'm not just talking about the kind of petty sniping and backbiting that dogs pretty much anyone with the audacity to step into a position of leadership in pretty much any pagan community.

All those stories about the King Must Die aren't really talking about cutting out hearts on altars; not literally, anyway. What they're really talking about is the price of leadership.

If you're not willing to lay yourself down on the altar, you have no right to lead.

Only those willing to sacrifice themselves are worthy.

That's why—rightly or wrongly—the Old Ways saw a direct connection between the actions of the leader and the well-being of the land and the people.

So look at the current situation in America.

In the highest office, a notorious ill-wreaker with neither honor nor greatness of heart, who gives nothing, but only takes. Would the Troll-in-Chief ever lay himself down on the altar, for anyone? You know that he never would.

No wonder there's blight in America. As the ancestors would have put it, the misdeeds of the High King have brought evil on the Land, and this is literal truth.

Those who cannot make the sacrifice are unfit to lead: that's what the ancestors said.

In our day, we see the truth of their words.