Heart-wise and Head-strong.

In the Filianic and Déanic community, Sai Sucri¹ is the Angel² associated with love. She is often represented with images like those of Venus or Aphrodite, as these are considered to be manifestations of her presence within our world in antiquity. Sai Sucri presided over the last liturgical year. (This year is under the auspices of Sai Rhavë, the Angel of discipline and austerity.) Sai Sucri is the guardian of the Path of Love, a mystical road that the soul might travel to the presence of Dea.

A person who lives under the auspices of Sai Sucri is driven by their heart in many ways. They are given to feel things deeply and have a mystic sense of emotional connection with others. They are empathic in their primary psychic gifts. Those who are under the care of Sai Sucri may find their challenges in life revolve around cultivating a greater sense of love and compassion for the world at large in imitation of this Angel.

Deep emotional qualities do not render the person who is guided by Sai Sucri incapable of rational thought. Their rational thought is not divorced from their emotions but rather informed by them. The heart-wise is someone who can navigate their emotional storms without being consumed by them. They may find themselves cast upon the shoals of indifference but they will always return to the depths of love when given the opportunity.

They are like the mermaids of myth and legend. Beings who can exist with in the depths of emotion and on the surface of 'normalcy' with equal ease. They are, however, at their strongest and greatest ease within emotional thinking. They have an intuitive understanding of how the emotions of people interact and combine to create the emotions of the group at large. These people also have a gift for influencing the hearts of others and their passion for life (and their chosen causes) is infectious.

Now, the question arises, what of people who don't fall under the direct auspices of Sai Sucri? How do we cultivate these strengths within ourselves. The first thing we can do is ask Sai Sucri to take a hand in our lives and to soften our hearts so that we might be more receptive to the emotional tides in our lives, more aware of our feelings. In paying attention to our emotional response to the world and what we encounter and taking the time to honor that response, we become heart-wise. We learn what provokes our emotions. We learn what evokes positive, warm, and loving feelings. And we become aware of what gives rise to negative, cold, and caustic feelings. Also, we learn to recognize the things that lead us to feeling vulnerable, hurt, and afraid.

As we become aware of what inspires these feelings and the feelings themselves, we can also become aware of how our thinking is influenced by these emotions. We can disentangle our response to the emotional stimuli to give one that is in greater accord with our values rather then what ever kneejerk response comes with the emotion. This is especially valuable when dealing with unpleasant or painful emotions. It takes a special measure of mental fortitude to pause after an emotional button has been pushed and consider one's response to a situation. This is a crucial skill to acquire as one walks the Path of Love because it allows them to remain loving in their responses despite what ever anger or pain they might be feeling at the time.

Our goal in striving to act in accordance with what Sai Sucri teaches is to become wise in the ways of our hearts and strong enough in our minds to think before we respond in a situation. Thus, heart-wise and head-strong.

May Dea bless you and keep you in the palm of her hand.

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1. Another variant of her name is Sai Sushuri.

2. I use the term Angel in place of Janyati because it is more familiar to most of my readers. Please refer to this excellent article by Miss De Rosa for additional details.

Note: Sai Sucri shares many characteristics with Freyja. I'll try to talk a bit more about that next Sunday.