Coronations: A Ritual Crowning

 

The crown on Charlemange

A coronation is swirling around us in the UK even as I write this. Golden carriages are trotting along the Mall past cheering, waving citizens as a new king and queen go to be crowned. Although Charles acceded to the throne at the moment of his mother’s death, the coronation is the symbolic ceremony that marks his new role. Kings and Queens have been turning up at Westminster Abbey since William of Normandy hastened there; keen to get that crown on his head before someone else snatched it – or snatched away his life.
The ritual behind a crowning is meaningful, even for those who don’t believe in monarchy. As a lover of ritual, I’m at least respectful of other people’s need for ritual, ceremony, tradition and  pageant. All pagans who have read their Frazer know that the idea of ‘The King is dead –– long live the King!’ goes back a very long way indeed, as does the symbolic headgear worn to demonstrate that superiority, rule, and reign. 

The word coronation means the act or occasion of crowning - putting a crown on the monarch's head. It is a most universal ritual of governance, used all over the world in times gone by. In fact, its origins are pre-historic. 

In those past times, kings were far more common than they are now –– almost two a penny –– there were 800 kings in Ireland alone in the Dark Ages. And although it was understood that these kings were human, or at least had been human before the crown was  placed on their head, they often became far more than that.

In Egypt,  the Pharos were semi-divine and worshiped as gods. After their deaths, they were buried as gods, and still revered. 

the Copper Age Crown

I was interested to know just how far back the idea of wearing something on one’s head might signify one’s  dominion.  In 1961, a copper crown was discovered in a secluded cave near the Dead Sea. Dating to around 4000 BC during it  has  vultures extending from the top. It is breathtaking, although perhaps not quite as breathing as the crowns of Silla from the around the 6 century BCE and discovered in an excavation in Korean.

The crown of Silla

Until more recent centuries, crowns have always been ‘open’, as indeed are the paper crowns children wear in play. But in the coronation today, both crowns are enclosed, with an inner fabric area, possibly to help both the comfort of the wearer and the pomp of its look. 

Almost as soon as the Queen died, conversations started about King Charles's coronation especially its cost and meaning in this secular, finance orientated world. 
How big a state occasion should it become; should we invite dignitaries from around the world? Or those who dedicate their lives to good deeds in Britain? 

King Charles has asked for a smaller ceremony than Queen Elizabeth had but it seems to have grown like topsy despite this. It’s in progress as I write this, an extremely grand event with pomp and pageantry, colour, music, prayers, anointing, and vows to be made. 

As someone who understands how important ritual is to my own life, I can have at least some empathy with the idea of making this a big occasion – the touching and holding of symbolic artefacts, the anointing with oil (or spring water), the wearing of ritual robes. These things solemnify important occasions and fix them in the minds of those who undertake them.