As you read this essay, you will notice that I did not name names, refer to circumstances or explain in detail– for my readers are capable of doing that for themselves. As you read, names will come to mind, people will pop into your head, stirrings may arise in your consciousness, events may be remembered. and partial-conclusions formed. Before you begin, ask your higher self (enlightened consciousness) to engage with you here. When names, people, circumstances, mental pictures arise, they will be correct.
We’ve discussed, here at Inner Michael, how there is always a prevailing atmosphere– a vibe– an underlying tone– that accompanies not just where, but when we are in the world. It is this very moment that we are all arriving at– a journey through the past that brought us to this unique moment never to exist again and to this very destination– this juncture in space/time. The past led us here and what is the past but a collective sum of choices we have made along the way? There is a pulse that indicates the health of the collective world, her body, our bodies, the atmosphere we breathe in and live from.
I’ve often referred to this prevailing tone of the world or perhaps tonal is a better word– it is the collective chord struck in the vibration of being. Everything oscillates. Everything flows. Everything sings. It is this song of the world that we are feeling, that we are living in. It’s the hum. Hear it? Feel it? Is it harmonious? Discordant? It’s the vectoring of all the consciousness of all the souls alive on this planet in this moment. It is those collectively that make up the cloud of consciousness we live in, breathe in and have our being. It’s the sum of human consciousness formed of the parts– all of us. It’s the soup we live in– the blended ingredients or sum of human consciousness. We are an interdependent web and who shakes the web here creates a shiver in the web there. It permeates and and determines the collective mind, the collective body, the collective pulse.
Let’s take the pulse and see if we can determine the state of the body that is us– the state of humanity. It’s hard to love right now. It’s hard just to keep one’s equilibrium. But if soldiers of love, this army unified by the truth and the Grand Love demonstrated by the special human beings who once walked here, are to conquer and prevail we must stand tall, stand up and be the love. Who are you waiting for?
That was not rhetorical. Who are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? Whose permission do you need? Are you still waiting for the ones who would save us? That is us. We are the ones we have been waiting for. Now, act!
Every once an era or so, a human arrives on this planet who interacts with the world in a way that leaves a huge indelible mark. Some have that extraordinary wisdom or charisma or magnetism and power that they wield that impacts the world in a profound way. They make an impression, leave their mark, and thereafter things are never the same.
We humans have arrived where we are by selection through choice, by the choices we make and through what we choose to serve. That last part is important– about what we choose to serve. Power is either wrested or bestowed. Wrested power is taken by force, by manipulation, by strategy and once tasted, craves an accumulation of more. It is the food of the ego that seeks to be important, noticed, have impact which gives meaning to a life. Bestowed power is given freely, earned, warranted, and is a gift. Which kind of power would you rather have? Like to cultivate? Who has demonstrated that for you? Who has not?
When fame accompanies power, a platform is created where the impact is greater than an individual without fame might ever have. The power of an individual is amplified by fame. When fame comes, the individual with power now has a grander audience and his or her influence is proportionate to the attention that individual can garner and in some cases, that audience may be the whole world. With extraordinary fame and power, the world can be changed significantly. In that place where power is amplified by fame, a choice must be made about one’s place in the world and about one’s life mission. Part of the life mission of the human is service. So the $million dollar question becomes: Will you use your fame amplified power to serve the world or to serve yourself?
Everyone has a life mission. Some people know theirs, some people don’t. Life mission is the reason you came, the reason you incarnated in a body, the reason for your being. Those who accumulate power and fame often have a life mission related to teaching or demonstrating something to the world. The question this kind of person must ask himself or herself is this: “Will I (or have I) live out my life mission in the world in service to others or in service to myself? Will I teach or demonstrate something that will heal or harm the world? Will I share myself and my platform for the betterment of the world or to serve myself and my own needs?
There are those who come and who, because of the audience they command, and the attention their mission demands, that become a mirror of the collective consciousness. They do not contain the collective consciousness nor are they are attached to it. Shamans might call this the hollow bone– a being capable of holding an emptiness that reflects back to those observing the reflection of their own consciousness. When this happens collectively, the vector of the entirety of the consciousness is reflected back. We have seen that phenomenon at work. Where? Who? For what?
In the current state of evolution , human consciousness is not yet evolved to a state of enlightenment. We must oscillate at a high spiritual frequency to reflect back the pure, unadulterated love that is enlightened consciousness. We’re not there yet. But the collective purpose of life is to get there. Some individuals glimpse this world mission– Anima Mundi– and once glimpsed, they are compelled to serve it. When everybody finally “gets it,” the world will be filled with light and darkness will find no home in anyone or anywhere.
Meanwhile– the dark side of human nature is the shadow side of the ego. The ego struggles to be relevant, to be appreciated, to be recognized and to feel worthy. Falling short, which is painful to recognize, the frustrated ego may take to expressing its shadow side– envy, jealousy, sabotage, shaming, bullying, corruption… The pastime of a wounded ego engaging the shadow is to project it onto other people because to look at one’s own ugly side is to enter despair and self loathing, a condition anathema to the ultimate desire– to be loved.
When a figure with fame and power becomes beloved, those whose ego is suffering the agony of worthlessness, meaninglessness, and not loving or being loved, will resent that person’s something that they will never have– to be embraced as worthy of admiration and love collectively. The mere presence of such a person is a constant reminder of the shortcomings of self. Each reminder a prick of pain within that dark state of suffering and agony.
When the collective consciousness needs a target for its shadow side, it will project that shadow onto someone who will represent it (and mirror it back) for those dispossessed of love. It cannot reflect off of darkness, it must reflect off of light as a mirror. So it finds a bright soul to project onto the collective shadow of humanity. It happens when humanity is desperately in need of a shadow figure to represent “out there” what they can’t bear to acknowledge in here.”
There have been a few of these in history.
There are also those who carry the shadow and represent the shadow side of humanity. These also are dispossessed of love and they can’t bear to be meaningless or worthless and so engage their shadow in acquisition mistakenly believing acquiring things will end their struggle with their need to matter. They think “things” will fill up the emptiness inside. They can envy others “wealth” and will jealously try to destroy those whose light is too bright. They disrupt, bring chaos, feed shadow, make war.
We are living in an interesting time. A challenging time.
Look around you. Notice the struggle between embracing the light or wrestling the darkness. Notice the choices being made by people– is their life mission aligned with the good of the world? With its betterment? Does it serve humanity? Is it serving the commission of love in the world or the omission of it? Is it serving the darkness, the bitterness? Or the light and love? Is the work being done in service to the world and its enlightenment, or is it in service to the self and its selfish interests? What about you?
Are you aware enough of your own shadow to see it? To recognize when you’ve allowed it off leash? To see when you have projected it on to some unsuspecting character whom you’ve implicitly, silently or unknowingly asked to wear it for you? (What annoys you about another is a quality of potential you refuse to recognize in yourself.) Has someone in the collective been singled out to wear our shadow so that it never has to be acknowledged or faced? Is there someone incessantly ridiculed because his goodness shines too brightly? Because her benevolence shames those who will never share treasure?
Worth is not related to money, fame or power. It is proportionate to the dividends of service. What do you serve? Who are you serving? Why? Are you worth enough? Are you enough?
There is someone on this planet who learned how to amass wealth by peddling shadow, by creating a famous and powerful mirror for collective shadow and then selling the stuff of that shadow back to those who gratefully bought it in order to distract from and avoid their own. This person caught on to how creating a target to project collective shadow onto was appreciated and brought relief from ever having to face your own unbearable shortcomings. There is someone too, who does not serve the world but serves only self and who employs shadow in all endeavors. That selfishness is being demonstrated to the world very effectively. What do you suppose is the purpose of those demonstrators and their demonstrations? Imagine what the world might have been like had they chosen to feature human brilliance instead of shadow.
What is all this in service to, you may ask? It is in service to awakening, to seeing without clouded eyes, the reality of our condition. It is to identify once and for all what the ugliness of shadow run amok actually looks like. It is to become sick-to-death of the wounding that shadow inflicts on individuals, cultures and the world.
And it is to become so sick of the ugliness that one commits to working toward turning things around. In what one does individually, what one does in cooperation with others and the collective that is humanity because if forms humanity. It is to become so saturated with the shadow as to long with every ounce of one’s being for the brilliance, the bright shadow of humanity to come out of hiding and express itself on this planet.
Then this way of treating self, others and the planet with this kind of indifference, disdain or evil will be over.
I deliberately did not include any names in this essay. They will occur to you as you read. And you will be correct. I deliberately did not give direction or urge you to do anything; you must discern that for yourself.
What I have done here on the tenth anniversary of Michael Jackson’s passing, is create the greatest tribute to him (not about him) I could think of that he might be inclined to love and bless himself.