Marianne Williamson: The Politics of Love
MARIANNE WILLIAMSON: Well, we’re all doing this. I mean, it’s a symphony, and it needs to be a symphony, so many people who feel called, as do you, as does your wife, as do I, to share our song which is universal spiritual truth. Whether through the teachings of A Course in Miracles, or any other path that reminds us particularly at a time like this, when humanity is so swerved away from a heart-centered consciousness.
It is a calling to all of us to come back home to the truth of who you are and that will automatically repair the world. Until we do that, the world will continue to do what it’s doing now, which is in many ways spinning out of control, realms of chaos, dimensions of chaos, that are at this point threatening the survival of the human race.
VICTOR FUHRMAN: Marianne, one of your famous quotes, from your 1992 New York Times perennial bestseller Return to Love – we alluded to it in the introduction – let me read this in its entirety for our listeners.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your plain soul does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. As we let our light shine, we unconsciously permit other people to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
VICTOR FUHRMAN: In these difficult times, do you think that this sentiment seems to be especially important to our world and that people must truly rise beyond fear and seek change?
MARIANNE WILLIAMSON: That paragraph is simply a paragraph out of many in my book A Return to Love as you said, the subtitle of which is Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles.
So that principle that it is our light that frightens us more than our darkness does, because the ego mind, which is how we filter most of our experience, is afraid of the light because in the presence of the light there is no ego. The ego is simply the belief that we are small, separated selves. So that which the spirit rejoices in terrifies the ego.
Now, on the one hand, I understand people’s excitement about that paragraph, but I can’t take personal credit for the philosophical essence of it because all I’m doing there, as I do throughout the book, is to reflect on the principles of the Course.
I will say this. As happy as I am that paragraph has meant so much to so many people, it’s important I think that we remember no one principle that is going to, at the deepest sense, liberate us from a fearful existence. Spirituality is a set of principles, so while I’m very glad that the paragraph has meant a lot to people, I think that we’re all aware that there is a deeper search involved.
It is equally important to remember that our function on this planet is to forgive. It’s equally important to remember that our function on this planet is to love one another. It’s equally important to remember that our function on this planet is to give our hands and our feet, our arms and our legs, our minds and our hearts to
God to use as a conduit or as a channel for the love that heals all things.
I think that more and more people realize that there is no quick fix, including one paragraph that makes everything OK. The spiritual search is a deep, deep transformational process.
VICTOR FUHRMAN: You are so congruent in your lectures, your writing. Let me ask you, in the exploration of this possible, Presidential run, does it require confidence and courage, or is it about following a call to action that is bigger than the person?
MARIANNE WILLIAMSON: First, I think that anybody who listens to my talks or reads my books is very aware that I would have moments of doubt like anyone else. The beauty of the Course is its honesty about what it takes days for all of us to apply the principles that repudiate the thinking of the world. The answer to that is ‘absolutely, and.’ God cannot use us to do that which is not already within us, so ‘absolutely.’ I’m a 66-year-old woman. I’ve had a long and varied career. Confidence and courage, yes, but I think that confidence is based on the level of my experience, the length of my life so far, and as far as courage is concerned there are two things that I think are an issue for me.
Someone told me that when I turned 50 that 50 is the age when you don’t care what anybody thinks anymore, and I found that to be oddly true. You’re just not as concerned about other people’s opinions after 50, but something else additional happens I found at 60, and that’s not only done you not care so much what people think about what you say, you have to say it.
There’s a line in the Gospel of Thomas where Jesus says, ‘that which is within you if you bring it forth will heal you if you keep it within will destroy you.’ So, I’m at that age. I’m at that fierce, female age. I’m at that crone age. You know, some of my girlfriends say: “Don’t use that word.” I like it, the cool crone, and the fierceness that comes with a certain kind of age. I suppose there’s a level of courage, but it doesn’t feel courageous. It just feels like you are spreading your wings at last.
I’m very aware as an American woman that what we’re able to do is so far beyond what millions in this world can do regarding legal and social permission. I say things, and I do with this campaign, this exploratory, completely expect humiliation, mockery, lies, mean-spiritedness, embarrassment.
People throwing tomatoes at you, but what is that compared to what some women in this world would go through if they even walked out of their house dressed the way they wanted to dress, or without the presence of a male relative. So, for an American woman, it seems there’s something that I could never go there and think it takes so much courage.
Not only are there women who could suffer the worst kind of punishment, even unto death, for doing things American women can do because we want to, or Western women can do just because we want to. So, when you look at what some women in the world dare to do, I think it would be presumptuous and unattractive for me to talk about this being the same as their courage. Chutzpah, yes, but real courage I think we’re underestimating what that word should mean.
VICTOR FUHRMAN: You’ve been contributing to the transformation of individuals in our world for many years. You have millions and millions of followers who respect you and your work. Regarding your exploration of the candidacy, how do you think this will translate?
MARIANNE WILLIAMSON: I don’t know, but I know that when I started my career, I never from the beginning or even today, asked myself what other people are going to think if I say what I believe.
I had an interesting experience many years ago. A man who is quite famous in certain circles – I won’t say who he is – he came up to me one Saturday morning after a lecture in Hollywood in the late ’80s, and he said I want to congratulate you and I said why. He said: “I came to hear you three years ago, and I thought you were crazy. I thought you were a crazy lady out of your mind”. He said that after that about a year later my boyfriend – he said his boyfriend – went to rehab and I had to be with him and go through some sessions and because of that I went through my transformation. I came back to hear from you today, and I understand what you’re saying, and I’m so impressed that you didn’t change your language for people like me.”
Continue to Page 3 of the Interview with Marianne Williamson
