Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

My husband and I watched the first of the Cate Blanchett movies about Elizabeth I.  We hadn't seen them in ages, and after watching Flora Dobson's masterful performance in the Errol Flynn film "SeaHawk", we wanted to see more.  On Sunday we watched the opera Roberto Devereaux, so we're on an Elizabeth I bender.  The firm holds up marvelously, and the emphasis on symbol and the visual rings valid.  Again, we see the bloody times, when people were beheaded routinely, and Elizabeth's life was at constant risk, because she carried the blood of Henry VIII.  The brilliance is especially dazzling in the scene where her advisor more or less tells her that if she takes away the Virgin Mary and other symbols of the Catholic church, then the people will be bereft unless she herself takes on that powerful role.  From the beginning of history, in pagan times, there was the Virgin who was worshipped, and it's so deep in our DNA that it's an unconscious craving in most people.  When Elizabeth cuts her hair, applies chalky cream to her skin, and adorns herself with pure white pearls, she becomes the older icon.  She had a long, successful reign because she became a deity.  We are often ruled by symbols, especially if we don't recognize them consciously.  I guess we have a hunger for authority in the non-rational part of our minds.