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Dominion

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 At one session, Dr. Blakey told us the story of “Sir Gawain and the Hag.” Sir Gawain was unsuccessful in love, so he went to the Hag and asked her “what a woman truly wants.” She promised to tell him . . . but only if he first agreed to marry her! Then magically, the Hag transformed herself into the most beautiful woman Sir Gawain had ever seen.

Falling instantly in love, Sir Gawain proposed to her on the spot. “There’s one catch,” said the Hag-turned-Princess. “I can be a hag in public and a princess for you, in private; or vice versa. But if you still want to marry me, you get to decide in which setting I’ll bewitch.” And to give reality to the decision now before him, she began flashing back and forth, from Hag to Princess, and Princess to Hag.

“I love you, my darling,” said the smitten Sir Gawain. “And I give that choice right back to you.”

At once, the Hag turned beautiful again, even more beautiful than before. And stopped flickering.

“You have liberated us both!” she exclaimed. “By giving me my dominion – by loving both the Princess and the Hag, you have broken the evil spell that had me cycling back and forth between the two.

“And to answer your question,” she continued, “what a woman truly wants . . . is to have her dominion.”