Why I’m Letting Go of the Word “Sovereignty” - By Francisca

This past year, I’ve used the word “sovereignty” to describe the kind of inner authority I help people reclaim

—the freedom to live, lead, and create from truth, not from trauma.

This work comes from a deep knowing: that we cannot build something sacred in a consciousness still carrying unhealed grief. That no true renewal can take root in a psyche where trauma has been absorbed, and forgiveness has not yet been spoken.

This understanding has always lived in me. But recently, I was shown something more.

I listened. I learned. And now I know that the word “sovereignty"—a word I once used to describe sacred autonomy—carries a particular weight.

It belongs first and foremost to the First Peoples of the Land. It is not simply a metaphor.
It is not a concept to adopt.
It is a lived truth that holds generations of pain, strength, and survival.

And while I used it with reverence, I now understand that even reverence is not enough—especially when a word carries the wounds of those who have been most displaced. And for us to renew our consciousness and heal our psyche, we must first acknowledge the trauma inflicted on the First Peoples on this land.

So today, I am choosing to let the word go.

And with that, I acknowledge:

🩾 That this land—every step we take on it—remembers.
🩾 That healing, leadership, and even art must be rooted in remembrance.
🩾 That no “new paradigm” can be built on spiritual bypassing.

Before we speak of transformation, we must recognize the original trauma.
Before we talk about heaven on earth, we must face the hell that was inflicted here.
Before we ascend, we must kneel.
Before we teach, we must listen.

I ask forgiveness—for any unconscious participation in a pattern that takes language without lineage, meaning without memory, or power without responsibility.

Moving forward, I speak of rightful power.
Of energetic integrity.
Of sacred autonomy, or soul alignment.

But mostly, I speak of listening.
And honoring.
And recognizing that the future we are trying to build cannot arrive until we’ve made peace with the past.

It all matters.
Together.

— Francisca