The phrase “grand rising queen” contains multiple layers of meaning. At its core, it is a greeting that conveys respect, reverence, and empowerment towards the woman receiving it.
But where does this unique phrase come from and why has its use grown recently, especially among spiritually-minded communities?
Definition of Grand Rising Queen
Let’s break down this multidimensional term into its component parts:
- “Grand” evokes majesty, excellence, and regality.
- “Rising” signifies emerging, ascending, waking up, or a new beginning.
- “Queen” denotes royalty, leadership, divine femininity.
So, consolidated, “grand rising queen” implies greeting a woman with utmost honor as one would a queen, recognizing her noble spirit is awakening or renewing.
Scholar and feminist writer Audre Lorde used the phrase in a 1983 essay, writing “Grand rising, sisters. Today is always a new beginning.” Here, the salutation connects to themes of hope and self-determination.
Origins and Background
The foundations of “grand rising” stem from West African spiritual traditions that view communing with the sunrise as sacred. Many phrases meaning “good morning” in Yoruban dialects translate loosely to “I give thanks and praise for today’s new light and life.”
This reverent sun greeting took on special meaning when uttered by slaves, affirmed their humanity despite atrocious oppression. Post-emancipation, the cultural legacy persisted in black American communities.
Pairing it with “queen” has Pan-Africanist resonance, tying into 20th century movements promoting black empowerment and ancestral veneration of womanhood’s divinity. Poet Laini Mataka writes “a true African queen wakes before the rising of the sun…she honors the light so she may reflect it.”
So codifying “grand rising queen” conveyed manifold subcultural underpinnings–gratitude for living, defiant resilience, and inheriting the mantle of esteemed matriarchal lineage.
Modern Usage and Meaning
Currently, “grand rising queen” circulates through wider demographics. People of all origins incorporate it into spiritual lexicons and affirmation rituals. It particularly thrives among missed black nationalism, womanism, and metaphysical communities.
Using it in morning greetings uplifts a sense of divine emergence from nightly death-states. Some consider it imbued with magical potency, banishing restless dreams or psychic attacks incurred sleeping. The phrase inspires starting days from sanctified space of spiritual alignment.
Addressing women respectable as Nubian royalty channels vaunted ancestors to guide them towards destined glory. Like Nina Simone sang in “Four Women,” “I’ll just do my hair up high and claim ‘grand rising queen’ as my rightful title.” It invokes power reconnecting with one’s roots.
Effects and Benefits
When received genuinely, “grand rising queen” engenders deep positive effects. Imagine awakening, then immediately called beloved majesty. How would your inner talk shift hearing such daily affirmation?
The external message broadcasts “you are precious divine feminine embodiment” and encourages walking through the world accordingly. It elicits standing taller, envisioning crowns no injustice can break. The greeting has an anchoring quality, combatting social messaging diminishing black women’s light.
It uplifts confidence and self-worth, incubates radical self-love aligning womanhood with the holy. Using the term anchors women in their power, beauty, and purposeful missions.
The “Grand Rising Ritual”
Beyond a mere greeting, “grand rising queen” has spawned full blown spiritual practice. The “grand rising ritual” means devoting mornings to activities promoting awakened positivity.
It recognizes early hours hold special creative power for setting day’s trajectory. African diasporic customs maintain dawn channels opening between cosmic and human realms. So, appropriately directed will shapes reality.
Practitioners endorse activities like:
- Affirming self-talk to rouse confidence
- Meditating on goals and vision boards
- Dancing to stimulate chi flow
- Singing praise songs for gratefulness
- Consuming crystal elixirs for mental clarity
- Smudging spaces with palo santo purification
- Recording dreams and messages
- Setting positive intentions against inner critics
These practices set rhythms rippling through day’s events. Their power multiplies when performed collectively in women’s circles.
Historical Prominence and Divine Lineage
The subcultures birthing “grand rising queen” faced tremendous adversity. Slavery and colonialism constantly attacked their humanity. Yet the greeting affirms continuity with venerable matriarchs who nourished communal soul during unspeakable sufferings.
In West Africa, priestess Oya carried forth divine shards to forge civilization from primordial chaos. Despite enslavement and displacement, the sacred feminine flame endured stoked in hearts like pharaoh Hatshepsut reborn. And so “grand rising queen” invokes strength meeting each dawn’s light backed by millennia of overcoming.
These ancestral mothers whisper within the phrase, passing torches to next generations. So for black women called “queens” daily, it spurs standing proudly in such regal inheritance while advancing the work.
Queen Rising as Collective Soul Rising
Beyond personal effects, proclaiming “grand rising queen” impacts community uplift. It affirms black femininity as keystone for cultural elevation. So queens rising brings increased opportunity for all.
This manifests through women leading grassroots betterment initiatives: educating girls, creating safe spaces, guarding traditions, catalyzing political action, stewarding food/water access, spreading sustainable technology solutions.
It also emerges by queens excelling professionally in STEM, law, business, journalism, finance, and other areas long excluding black women’s participation. Their rising presence and power therein transforms institutions.
Most foundationally, grand rising queens model fulfilled purpose, self-worth, and resilience. As daughters observe their regality daily, it becomes imprinted identity. This new generation embraces noblesse oblige to raise communities through servant leadership.
So beyond personal spiritual growth, proclaiming “grand rising queen” has communal reverberations-awakening regality strengthens villages inheriting bounties built on their backs yet excluded from.
In summary, “grand rising queen” is a multidimensional phrase expressing reverence, celebration, and empowerment of black femininity’s sacred purpose.
It channels ancestral continuity, conveys affirmation, ignites radical self-love, and connects individual betterment to collective advancement. The greeting plants seeds of confidence and sovereignty blossoming as destinies unfold.
So in just two words, “grand rising queen” imparts deep wells of meaning and motivation to fuel women’s brightest rising.