Aspect

Self-Command & Devotion

The first house a woman keeps is herself.

Across Stoic Rome, Heian Japan and the Spanish cloister, the first measure of a woman's freedom is whether a promise made privately survives contact with her moods. Devotion here does not mean self-denial; it means the authority over your day is transferred from feeling to word. Teresa of Ávila called the untended soul a castle whose owner never went inside.