One way of thinking about it that I've picked up from Krebs/Kerning and reading about Iamblichus's theurgy (in Shaw's Hellenic Tantra) is that the submission is more about repressing the earthly so we can rise to the divine.

Or to put it another more Christian way, emphasising our divine eternal part, the soul, in favour over the lower part which is this current bodily incarnation, ie rising to the divine is about contacting with something higher that is already within us. So following my Valhalla is within us thought the other week, seeking to have our inner Valkyrie choose us as worthy is as much about cultivating reverence for the gods within us (the mapping of the tree of life/Kabbalah onto the 9 worlds could probably fit in here).