King Charles III’s portrait: A stunning warning of global warming or an alliance with the Knight of Fiery Hope or both?

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King Charles III’s portrait: A stunning warning of global warming or an alliance with the Knight of Fiery Hope or both?

PATRICK S. WOLFE

The first official portrait of King Charles III, the world’s most famous monarch, is a surfeit of red and a dearth of green. The work of artist Jonathan Yeo, it was presented to the world in May 2024. It is a stunning representation of humanity’s current moment, of humanity trapped in a situation of its own making, of humanity being hoisted, as it were, on its own petard.

“Remarkable,” was the King’s one-word assessment. The same CBC Radio news report included conjecture that the all-pervading red, from the King’s Welsh Guards uniform to the borders of the larger-than-life painting, was symbolic of colonialism and its mixed legacy. That’s certainly one interpretation, one that entirely dwarfs the monarch in relation to the venerable, historically scarred institution, seemingly denying the King’s environmentalism and his passionate commitment to various other causes. In ascending to the throne, have those personal interests been extinguished by the requirements of being king?

On startled, fiery first blush, the portrait spoke to me quite differently. The version I saw in my local daily newspaper, the Times Colonist (which serves Victoria, British Columbia, and the rest of Vancouver Island), was less vivid than the one shown here. I saw the King, on behalf of humanity, standing amidst the flames of hell in a portrayal of the absent devil’s apparent triumph. By referencing the devil, I’m not suggesting we are subject to his powers (except by our own choosing), but I am saying that we’ve gotten ourselves into a devilish situation that would seem to validate the devil’s famously low opinion of humanity or at least of that portion of it that might be called the ruling class, which has and continues to largely shape the human race’s trajectory.

The devil is known to operate through temptation, meaning that, as noted above, we are the ones who make the choices. Despite the very real advances humanity has made, we succumb again and again to temptation by making deficient choices, by thinking too narrowly or too short-term or in a way that gives insufficient attention to the negative, unintended, and/or delayed consequences of our actions—consequences that are generally felt less by the insulated prime movers than by other people and creatures and by Earth’s sub-systems and the planet as a whole.

In January 2019, I wrote a commentary, “The emergency of climate change is upon us,” in the Times Colonist. Over the next four years, ten more of my essays spoke to the same topic and audience. More recently, I have come to believe that we are presently trapped. I was going to add “or stalemated,” but it’s worse than that for we continue to pump harmful, heat-intensifying emissions into the atmosphere at an increasing rate.

We are trapped by interlocking problems. Although the scientists of the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change, along with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, Greta Thunberg and others, have been speaking truth to power for years, most national governments have preferred baby steps to more consequential action to rein in global warming. They do this to safeguard the socio-economic status quo, which is thoroughly intermeshed with and dependent upon the fossil fuel industry. Of course, the term “safeguard” is a devilish oxymoron given what is coming. Understandably, no national government appears willing to step out of line with others for fear of negative repercussions to its economy and society. Moreover, the need for collective action is pushed further afield by the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas Wars and by the increasing split between authoritarian and democratic states.

Being trapped doesn’t mean that there isn’t a way out. It only means that I don’t presently see it, although I am intrigued by the possibilities of geothermal energy as described by the Cascade Institute at Royal Roads University and impressed by progress we are making in other ways, such as major cities requiring buildings to significantly cut their emissions and wealthy countries finally achieving, two years late, their 2009 goal of providing $100 billion US to help poor countries both combat and adapt to climate change, to give two recent (May 2024) examples. Sometimes progress is straightforward, other times it appears daunting, especially when we’re looking for breakthrough progress.

Emergence is a mysterious process. Intention and hope, along with imagination and disciplined effort, are vital ingredients. We must change what we are doing to refashion our future and avoid the future of global warming that is already showing itself in ever-more destructive and costly ways. While the question of emergence has much to do with climate change, it has even more to do with human consciousness. Success will require maximizing wisdom and minimizing succumbing to temptation.

In his fiery portrait, there’s butterfly over the King’s right shoulder. It didn’t get there by accident. Perhaps it’s there with the King’s consent or even at his bidding. Rather than the flames of hell, perhaps the staggering portrait depicts the fire of transformation and the King, with his hands clasped atop the hilt of his sword, is in league with the Knight of Fiery Hope.

Who is the Knight of Fiery Hope? He is a non-physical being who appeared in “a visionary experience” to the American mystic David Spangler in December 2013. According to Spangler, he “looked like a knight out of a storybook, clad in shining golden armor, its face hidden within its helmet. On its chest burned a flame, as bright and radiant as a piece of sunlight. It said clearly, ‘I am a Knight of Fiery Hope! I speak to all humans. You are not entering a darkened age. You are entering a time when the Light of your creative spirit can manifest new vision and new life. Be what I am. Let fiery hope, not despair or fear, shape your world.’”

Note the word “can.” It’s an opportunity not a given. We must assertively choose the world we want.

Patrick Wolfe is a writer and historian in Victoria, B.C., Canada. The Knight of Fiery Hope is referenced in his essay “A New Silent Minute for the 21st-Century: Acknowledging and Holding Humanity’s Uncertain Future,” which is available on this web site under “COMMENTARY – SPIRITUALITY.”

 

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