If you went to my blog “One Wordsmith” (dot) com … then you know that as a writer I take on some interesting subjects. I write to “simply change the world.”
I’ve taken some interesting journeys in my life as well, some pretty outrageous risks and dared to dream of making friends with “the enemy” and then collaborated with them to destroy weapons of mass destruction. I have drunk Vodka with those from a country who vowed to annihilate me and my countrymen with nukes while someone in that very country saved the world from nuclear destruction (read the story- “Not On My Watch” at One Wordsmith and at Voices Education in the “Playback” section which features “stories that should be told.” http://voiceseducation.org/content/stanislav-yevgrafovich-petrov-not-my-watch )
I have hung out with Tibetan Monks in private audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, done Satsang with Shri Shri Ravi Shankar, spent a weekend wtih Michael and Rickie Beckwith, studied with many spiritual teachers and learned from many Shamans from different traditions. I have been so fortunate in having some amazingly spiritual mentors and teachers in my life and I thought I knew what love felt like. But I have never witnessed or been in the kind of embrace that has made its way into my world these days through my encounter with Michael Jackson fans. I am awestruck at the stunning heart and hope that comes from the “Sparkle People” which is my new name for Michael Jackson admirers and fans. You are a Force to be reckoned with! A power for LOVE in this world like I have never witnessed! Here is my message to you…
I received so many touching responses to my column and piece about Michael Jackson; your comments brought tears. Thank you. Sharing the writings about Michael represents a leap of faith and sidestepping writer’s performance anxiety that comes with taking the risk to stand up and take the path that is the just and true one even though it may provoke uninvited drama. I am humbled and touched by your responses and how raw and genuine they are. Some of you took the risk to write and share your deepest self and I am very honored by your trust. You all have no idea how you have helped to restore my hope. I feel the loss of Michael too. On many levels. Some of you have asked questions or raised issues that I will try to personally respond to as soon as I am able. Until then, there is a collective message that I sense I might share…
Many of you wrote to say that you are having a surprising and acute reaction to the loss of Michael and you are puzzled by it. Your stories are similar. You are also feeling some kind of urge or impulse that you don’t understand. There is a reason and an explanation…
I was trained in two non-traditional seminaries and ordained in a seminary with mystical training. My education has included metaphysics, mysticism and esoteric traditions, energy work and working with “fields.” My career began as a nurse and it was the miracle of the human body and the psyche that led me on a lifelong spiritual quest. I have been in training with shamans for about 6 years now, have been initiated into several traditions and have reached a level of understanding that traditional doctoral programs do not offer. Not all of what goes on in this life is visible or occurs completely in the physical realm. Complex dimensions and realities interpenetrate what we call physical “reality.” There is a metaphysical reality that lives coincidentally with the manifest or material world. There are energies, energetics and frequencies that live in this invisible world that can be felt acutely by those sensitive enough to “tune in” to the “vibe.” A Healer and empath all my life, I too feel it acutely. Collectively. I also feel your pain. It is deep and complex. And yes, for you and for me, “the pain is thunder.”
There are those on the planet who are the peacemakers, the revolutionary evolutionaries, the placeholders for Love, the keepers and holders of the Light. The Dalai Lama is the most recognizable, prominent and visible one at this time and the list includes Desmond Tutu, Barack Obama and others. And believe it or not– some of Madonna’s work embodies light. Others less known are Shamans, aboriginals from many cultures, medicine men and women, native peoples and those obscure heroes who go quietly about their work in the world of holding the light for humanity. Lady Diana was a very public keeper and placeholder for the light. Martin Luther King was, Gandhi was. As was Michael. There are also animal species holding unconditional love to share it with humans so that humans may learn by their example.
In this period in history, light is being infused through the medium of film. Michael knew this and I believe he was contemplating his own film contribution/s when he passed. Film would have been his next project, I’m sure. It appears he recognized the potential in film. Movies like “Lord of the Rings,” “Star Wars,” “Chronicles of Narnia,” the Harry Potter films and others embody and communicate light. While I haven’t seen the movie yet, the trailers indicate that the new movie “Princess and the Frog” may also have it. As “Michael’s army” you may get some relief from the overwhelming sorrow by watching some of these films. You are listening to his music and trying to recapture his essence. Yes, his essence is in his music but it is also in you. That is part of Michael’s legacy– for you to hold his light now. And for you to come to own it. I meant it when I said “Tune in to your Inner Michael.”
The benevolence in sorrow is letting it have its way with you and experiencing it fully so that will “crack open” your heart. The mystical poet Hafiz explained this well. This kind of flooding heartbreak clears the way for a high game- for high compassion. Michael’s life and work breaks your heart– deliberately. It is not easy spiritual work but it is yours for you are a fan– more deliberately than you know. It is a high game you play. Especially now.
Michael anchored a great deal of light and certain energies on this planet. The energy he held has now been released onto the planet and that is part of what you feel. You feel the loss of Michael the individual, the entertainer, the light being, the holder of hope. The energy feels like and is, in some sense, dissolution. But it is still here and as his “army” of fans, it is your job now to hold the light for him, and for you, and for the world– finding a way to share it for the spiritual evolution of humanity. This is a metamorphosis and you are in the midst of it.
Many of the letters I received were from “new fans” or fans who lost track of Michael and found him once again after his death. And some insisted they are “loyal” fans who have been MJ fans for years or decades. Some said they feel guilty for either waiting so long to reacquaint themselves or for missing his message altogether for not knowing of his work. In the realm of spirit and spiritual things, there is no concept of time as we understand it. There is no distance. All is here. All is now. The ego of course takes pride in its being “right” or “loyal” but the spirit doesn’t recognize such things. It doesn’t matter when we awaken it only matters that we do.
I too, feel some of this same regret having waited so long to reconnect with his work. I was a young single mom trying to navigate through a world that presented drugs, gangs, violence, drinking and early sex to my children as potential paths they might take. Instead I took them to “Hands Across America” that Michael helped to organize and we played and sang “We Are the World” in our home. We were on board. My daughter and I were involved in the Peace Child project and I was working with Russians as a citizen diplomat trying to forge peaceful relationships with the “enemy.” My children grew up with Russians and with a Peace Activist mother.
I grew up with the Jackson Five and my children grew up on Michael’s music. Then I lost track of him as my life became busy with my career and the Russian-American Sister Cities project. Eventually I wrote the grant and we traveled to Russia to establish the social infrastructure necessary to move forward with the START II Cooperative Threat Reduction Treaty and the decommissioning of chemical weapons. We worked with the Russian and American military, with Healthcare, Physicians for Social Responsibility, educational and other civilian organizations to build the first chem-weapons decommissioning facility in Russia. Ironic that I lost track of Michael during those years because I know what it is like literally, to be a “stranger in Moscow.” I too wandered those streets deliberately alone.
As a minister, peacemaker and metaphysician who is myself an empath, I empathize with those of you who feel an overwhelming loss. I feel it too. Michael’s passing also infused and released a great deal of grief into the field of the planet. You are also processing this collective grief and the loss of light coalesced in him.
Make no mistake, Michael’s hand is in this. His Spirit is also very much here and alive. His leaving was likely a soul contract. It was one more way that Michael found to serve; staying might not have served the world nearly as well and perhaps Michael new this. He left around the Summer Solstice- a most auspicious time. He sacrificed much. All for Love. All for the world. All for us.
There are no mistakes and everything is in Divine order. Watch closely while this all unfolds. Pay attention. Hold Michael’s light which has now become yours.
I am so moved by my own journey and yours and what I have learned since his death! By what I have recognized. The research has revealed some fascinating things that have deeper meaning when looked at through a different lens. Thank you so much for your responses to me. You all hold so much LOVE! It is palpable. I would like to continue to research and if you are interested, I may share more of what I have learned and know in the future.
One person asked about what I meant by “Michael Jackson embodied Light, Shadow, Bright Shadow, the Divine Feminine, the aggressive masculine and androgyny.” The answer to that is a whole other article and will take another writing to accomplish. That is the only way to do justice to the question. Since you asked, that tells me it may be really important to share. But I can’t do it cavalierly in an email; I will take some work to write it because I sense it is an important piece of who Michael was. I will share it later with you if you are interested. Please let me know your thoughts and responses.
And please know that you are not alone and that this journey is purposeful. I send you angels and wish you comfort along the way when it is needed in order to keep on. Michael would want that.
Never stop shinning. You are the change. You are the world.