Control — Control is power used to serve personal agendas over collective interests, wielded from a place of tightness or fear. This type of power is found in hierarchies and patriarchal models where resources are controlled at the top of the pyramid, generally managed, and maintained by fear and manipulation over others. Control is rooted in the instinctual defense of territory and resources including food, water, land, time, energy, reputation, and money. In relationships, dominant personalities attempt to hide their sense of inadequacy and distrust in life by controlling as many variables in their environment as possible. Control can be expressed through greed or repressed as a submissive personality. Submissive personalities give away their power to others, fearing the responsibility to stand in their authority. Controlling personalities attempt to manage every aspect of self and environment to maintain a sense of security, inevitably coiling up their own anger to the point of disease and broken relationships.
Authority — Authority is the strength to take full responsibility for one's life, and the impact of one’s choices on the whole. In this way, Authority is to be the author of one's own life. Though no one can control the external environment, each individual has the ability to control their own emotional responses to life's circumstances. Authority unites people together and inspires loyalty from heart-centered communication. True authority is asserted through trust, not through fear or force of will. Authority may assume the power to lead, but both leader and follower are in deep service to the communal vision and do not fall into the victim patterns of dominance and submission. In this way, Authority may assume the role of decision maker for the group, and thus take on the responsibility for the collective impact. Acting alongside all others involved, the true leader surrenders personal agendas and power struggles to be in service for the greater good.
Valor — Valor is nobility in action. It is the expression of virtue, wisdom, love, and sacrifice in the world. Valor is the courage to see the divine in all beings, even in the darkest and most unpleasant reflections of the human experience. Valor does not excuse the injustice of violence and would gladly sacrifice itself as a living example of humanity's highest ideals. Valor represents the surrender of the masculine need to control, into the feminine wisdom of trust in life. To be truly sovereign is to be at ease inside oneself, no longer tempted to try and control others, but simply emanating virtue in every breath.
