I'm calling Christians on /monarchy/, specifically all Christians who adore monarchy for its ceremonial value and heritage: respect the pagans, and be polite in religious discourse.
Europe's pagan heritage deserves respect. We ought to appreciate the pagan origins of the ceremonies and beliefs surrounding it. These deistic beliefs like the scepter and orb, along with the symbols and beliefs. Don't disparage the spiritual culture before and after Christianity. And Christianity does hold weight for the benefits and consequences we see in Western civilization.
Pagans have ground in criticizing the civilization in its current state. I'm not asking Christians to take criticism lightly. Just take the weight of being polite first.
This thread will remain for a mutual discussion on pagan and Christian influences on monarchy as a structure.
Pagan monarchies in Europe had a ritualistic divine right between a king and a feminine goddess. In Ireland, Celtic kings also partook in ceremonies where their kingship had a right in a ceremony with a bond between a feminine power. It isn't too patriarchal or matriarchal. It is a simple unity of the sexes. This rite of passage became a king's right. In Arthurian legend, the Lady of the Lake gives Excalibur to King Arthur, for example.
The origin of the scepter and orb ceremony also originate with pagan influences and Christian ceremony in its own right. There is a Germanic explanation that the scepter resembled a hammer and the orb was a rock, and power coming down from lightning and thunder.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globus_cruciger
To citizens of the Roman Empire, the plain round globe held by Jupiter represented the world, or the universe, as the dominion held by the emperor. A 2nd-century coin from the reign of Emperor Hadrian shows the Roman goddess Salus with her foot upon a globus, and a 4th-century coin from the reign of Emperor Constantine I shows him with a globus in hand. The orbis terrarum was central to the iconography of the Tetrarchy, representing the Tetrarchs' restoration of security to the Roman world. Constantine I claimed to have had a vision of a cross above the sun, with the words "In this sign, you shall conquer" (Latin: In hoc signo vinces), at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312. His soldiers painted crosses upon their shields, and then defeated their foe, Maxentius.
With the growth of Christianity in the 5th century, the orb (in Latin scriptures orbis terrarum, the 'world of the lands', hence the word "orb") was topped with a cross (hence globus cruciger), symbolising the Christian God's dominion over the world. The emperor held the world in his hand, to show that he ruled it on God's behalf.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronation
The corona radiata, the "radiant crown" known best on the Statue of Liberty, and perhaps worn by the Helios that was the Colossus of Rhodes, was worn by Roman emperors as part of the cult of Sol Invictus, part of the imperial cult as it developed during the 3rd century. The origin of the crown is thus religious, comparable to the significance of a halo, marking the sacral nature of kingship, expressing that either the king is himself divine, or ruling by divine right.
Christianity helped build monarchy we love. It adapted and helped build its own form of absolutism. It begins with the Divine Right of Kings and coronation ceremony with oil. These symbols were adapted and sometimes already consisted with the Christian tradition even back then. I'm calling for mutual respect between all spiritual cultures to not shitsling for a bit and appreciate all origins of monarchical practice.