I cannot for the life of me figure out why CNN and MSNBC are so obsessed with the Trump hush money trial. But it is what it is.
I turned on the news for a few minutes today and I heard them discussing the Access Hollywood so-called pussy tape. I have my own little anecdote to pass along.
During the 2016 election, I got a phone call from TMZ or whatever it was that published the tape. They told me there was a section of it they had not been airing but in which I was mentioned, and they were wondering if I’d like to have it.
Apparently, Trump had said to Billy, “What about Marianne Williamson? Who is she?”
Bill replied that I was an author in LA and that I founded this organization called Project Angel Food and that I was an activist or whatever and Trump then just said “Really? Is she hot?”
Billy replied, “ Nah, she’s old.”
At the time of that tape (2005) I was 53 years old, as in the picture above.
When they asked me if I wanted the tape, I said no, that I wanted nothing to do with any of that. But now I wish I’d said yes! A bit of a time capsule if nothing else. I wish I had it to play for you now.
Some men will be boys…
Dear God,
May peace prevail tonight,
at Columbia University
and throughout the world.
Amen
The Presidential Debate on June 27th should include more than Trump and Biden. Here’s why…
Sacred Sunday Insights: As I read @sarahjakesroberts new book “Power Moves” I was inspired to share one of my favorite quotes that she shared in the beginning of the book by @mariannewilliamson
As I step into the fullest version of myself, I’ll be sharing what inspires me not to play small, people please or let my insecurities overshadow my insights.✨
What line resonates with you most?
Mine is: “Your playing small doesn’t serve the world” I think I need this posted on every room of my house✨
Have a beautiful day💞
Sacred Sunday Insights: As I read @sarahjakesroberts new book “Power Moves” I was inspired to share one of my favorite quotes that she shared in the beginning of the book by @mariannewilliamson
As I step into the fullest version of myself, I’ll be sharing what inspires me not to play small, people please or let my insecurities overshadow my insights.✨
What line resonates with you most?
Mine is: “Your playing small doesn’t serve the world” I think I need this posted on every room of my house✨
Have a beautiful day💞
Sacred Sunday Insights: As I read @sarahjakesroberts new book “Power Moves” I was inspired to share one of my favorite quotes that she shared in the beginning of the book by @mariannewilliamson
As I step into the fullest version of myself, I’ll be sharing what inspires me not to play small, people please or let my insecurities overshadow my insights.✨
What line resonates with you most?
Mine is: “Your playing small doesn’t serve the world” I think I need this posted on every room of my house✨
Have a beautiful day💞
In ACIM it says you can have a grievance or a miracle, but you cannot have both. Holding a grievance is a way of keeping your personal universe frozen. Continuing to attack someone else in your mind, you are attacking yourself. Why? Because there is only one of us here.
So when you think of people towards whom you hold grievances, your emotional salvation lies in letting it go. There is something profound about accepting things – and people – exactly as they are. It isn’t condoning anything, it’s simply allowing a power higher than yourself heal the situation. Once we get to this place, then even if we need to hold a person or system accountable we do it in a different way. We’re coming from a different place within ourselves.
Everything we do is infused with the energy with which we do it. If we are judging people for the way they acted, we are wrong even if we are right. Only when we give up the judgment, can we be a conduit for a miraculous shift in the situation.
The universe is intentional, always bending in the direction of the next best thing, the miracle, the healing, the repairing of the wound. But by holding grievances, we stop the action and stay stuck in the place where our victimization supersedes the possibility of a new beginning.
Whoever it is towards whom you hold any level of grievance right now, consider that it’s fine the way they are. At the deepest level, your pain doesn’t come from them being the way they are but from you wanting them to be different. By judging them, you are judging yourself. By releasing them, you are releasing yourself. Let it be. The universe will handle this much better than you can.
Hey, guys. My new book is published today!
Here’s another quote you might enjoy. I hope the book speaks to you. It’s from my heart …
“The world needs help—few are doubting that now—but religious dogma seems like an inadequate response to the challenges of our time. People long for a sense of spiritual immediacy, not some promise of a vague and far-off heaven. Nothing narrow, rigid, or inauthentic grabs the modern soul. If there’s something that bears witness to our horror at the pain of living, that speaks to our yearning to escape the trauma of simply being in this world, and delivers us to realistic hope that things could actually get better, then we’re definitely open. But not to stultified notions of an otherworldly benefactor who stands by while humanity suffers. Nope. Too late for that. There’s a sense among millions that that might have worked for others at another time, but it won’t work for us.
“In turning away from the dogma of organized religion, however, people don’t necessarily mean to be turning away from God. Many are scanning the landscape now for new, more vital spiritual experiences, including a revelation of Jesus that is more relevant to their lives. They’re finding this revelation both inside and outside the Christian religion. Surely there’s something beyond the false choice between a calcified notion of a “Son of God” and the modern de-juiced assignation of “a great teacher.” We’re looking for a deliverer not just from our individual sins but from the world’s insanity. And nothing less will do.
“We understand that the problems of our world cry out for something deeper than either the shallowness of institutional religion or the bromides of popular culture. The quest for that something deeper relates to every collective challenge we face now, and people know it. This book is an exploration of the role of Jesus in helping us find what that is.”
(In addition to the book, I personally read the audio version. Both are available at HarperCollins Publishers or in the link tree)
Our political establishment seeks to obfuscate the very issues it should clarify.
We need President Biden to call the archivist to direct her to publish the Equal Rights Amendment. It has been ratified now by 38 states and all we need is one phone call to make it officially an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The text of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) states that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex” and further that “the Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”
It’s so important and would help to change so many lives…
Thank you, kids!
Thank you, kids!
Our greatest power during times of chaos is to cultivate internal stillness. Finding that space within ourselves – whether through prayer, mindfulness, meditation or however – we claim a magnetic power that attracts harmony and good. You can’t bring order to a pile of iron shavings by sticking your fingers into it and trying to rearrange them. You can only do that by using a magnet. In human affairs, the Light within us is that magnet.
The Light within us has many names, but in essence it is Love. Compassion. Forgiveness. Peace.
Love is so needed now. We are starving for it. It’s painful living in such a tumultuous moment, particularly in the absence of strong institutional voices expressing moral reasoning. The scariest thing about this time is not just what’s happening, but a lack of leadership pointing to a better world ahead.
Yet even that brings a teaching, when we think about it. In AA it says that every problem comes bearing its own solution. The solution is that we ourselves are the voices needed to articulate a higher vision for the world. Finding Love within ourselves we can express it to the world.
The Light within us will cast out all darkness. But the Light within us is the light of compassion; the miracle does not emerge from hate. The voices of hate that fill the world today are the voices we must eschew. The small still Voice within is the voice of Love, and it will guide us to a better place.
Thanks for having me on this morning, News Nation!
We’re still on the ballots in eight states. President Biden has won the Democratic nomination, but people who vote for me in the later primary states such as New Mexico, Oregon, etc., can still use their voices to express an alignment with whatever agenda they agree with. Your votes still have influence!
See my statement in the homepage at marianne2024.com.
(Captions available on my YouTube page)
It was over five years ago when my editor at HarperOne asked me if I’d like to write a book about Jesus. It had always been in the back of my mind that one day I would like to try, but it seemed an effort so daunting I never proposed it to a publisher.
I was told that in the book world, what had become obvious was that people wanted to read more about Jesus separate from the context of Christian dogma. As a student and teacher of A Course in Miracles, would I be interested in taking on the project?
The publisher began sending me books about Jesus. But the more I read them the more I realized that my understanding of Jesus has little to do with traditional Christianity. I understand him within one context, and that is the material of A Course in Miracles. As a student of the Course, I feel I know him. But that is all I know, and therefore all that I could write. This book is an introduction to the metaphysical Jesus.
After a few detours (running for President a couple of times sort of knocks you off your publishing schedule!), the book is finally ready to make its appearance in the world. I’m very happy – and just a tad nervous! – to report that the book will be published on May 7th.
For those of you who read my first book, A Return to Love, or are yourselves students of A Course in Miracles, you will recognize THE MYSTIC JESUS: The Mind of Love as a continuation of a conversation I’ve been having with readers for the last thirty years. Spiritual growth is a continual mining of the mystery at the heart of Creation, and I hope that with this book I have done that.
The picture above was me in the studio when I read the audio. Both audio and book are available on Tuesday!
The history of Mother’s Day is about a whole lot more than brunch or flowers. It was about war and peace, life or death.
So let’s reclaim it and make it real…
MOTHER’S DAY PROCLAMATION
Boston, 1870
“Arise, then… women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
whether our baptism be that of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies.
Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage,
for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.
From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: Disarm, Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.
Blood does not wipe out dishonor,
nor violence vindicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
at the summons of war,
let women now leave all that may be left of home
for a great and earnest day of council.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them then solemnly take council with each other as to the means
whereby the great human family can live in peace,
each bearing after his own kind the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
but of God.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask
that a general congress of women, without limit of nationality,
may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient,
and at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
to promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
the amicable settlement of international questions,
the great and general interests of peace.“
~ Julia Ward Howe
This year, let’s embrace the meaning of these words more deeply than ever before. May they blossom in our hearts and turn our tears into powerful action. This is a good one to read aloud, by the way, to each other and to our daughters.
May peace prevail, today and forever. 💙
This was my mother, Sophie Ann Williamson, and my daughter, now India More Nisbett. The picture was taken in 2001.
I read recently that your children and grandchildren have a piece of their brain left in yours or something like that, I’m not sure exactly what it was. Something about brain cells being left behind. (Martha in the comments informs us it’s DNA)
It makes all the sense in the world to me, actually. My feelings about my granddaughter are some love beyond “Oh isn’t she cute?” Nature has evolved over millions of years in such a way to ensure the highest possibility for survival of the species, and the fact that we’re as obsessed about our grandchildren as we were about our own children is part of that.
Sophie Ann didn’t live long enough to meet India‘s daughter, Elizabeth. But my older sister was named Elizabeth and I know my mother would’ve loved that. In my mind’s eye, I see the same picture as that above but with little Elizabeth sitting on her mother’s lap.
Yesterday I walked out of my apartment building and someone had done a grand sidewalk mural in front of it in colored chalk. I don’t know if it was celebrating someone’s mother or grandmother or what, but whoever she is her name is “Sophie.”
On this day I remember her. The older you get, the more mysterious it all seems. Happy Mother’s Day, Mommy. You will always be that to me.
💖💜💖💜
I was shown this picture today of me officiating a wedding in the 1980’s. 36 years later the couple is still married. We laughed at the idea that I tied a tight knot!
We talk a lot about childhood these days, our childhood dramas and figuring out what they mean. But every decade and every phase are dramas leading up to the next one, and they all seem to me as important as childhood. Figuring out the years between 30 and 60 seems as meaningful as figuring out the years before then.
Age feels in many ways a time in which you’re trying to understand what just happened! The middle decades of your life – the ups, the downs, the successes, the losses, the pains, the joys, the failures, the sorrows, the loves. What WAS all that?!
i’ve been in New Mexico this week; I lived here one year in my early 20s. I’ve experienced here that I often feel walking on the streets of Manhattan. I keep sensing the ghost of myself back then. I see a young woman and I think “I was her once.” I remember my father once saying, “When you’re old, you don’t feel old.” You’re the same person at 70 that you were at 20. Who you are inside doesn’t age.
I turn 72 in a few weeks and as with every decade, it takes a year or two to feel like you’re settling into it. The Seventies are some profound shift and I’m only just beginning to discern their meaning. I remember reading a line from Ralph Waldo Emerson, “As I age my beauty steals inward.”
I think of the archetype of the old woman on the edge of town, using a stick to stir some concoction inside a large metal pot. I never asked myself before, what would be in that pot? And I think I know: she’s stirring the experiences of her life into an alchemical brew that might be of service to others. That stick is her depth of understanding. Young travelers will come to her house & she’ll give them some brew to help strengthen them on their journey.
She lives in a house on the edge of town. She’s often there with other older women right? And she’s usually seen as a witch of some sort. Of course she is, by those who have no understanding of wisdom. She’s an important part of the mosaic of life. And these are actually some of her most magical years yet.
In Martin Luther King Jr.’s words, “Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.”
I believe that too.
People would often say to me, “Why would you want to go into politics, Marianne? Don’t you know how toxic it is?” Of course I knew that politics is toxic. But having seen up close the ways in which bad public policy creates intense human suffering, I felt it was something good people couldn’t in good conscience avoid taking on. I also thought it might take someone speaking from the deepest moral commitment, to move people on the level required to create genuine political force. And I still believe that. I have seen how audiences respond to a political message grounded in the pursuit of justice and love.
The American people are not the problem; the problem is a political system that’s like a fist holding down the will of the people lest it become too pesky. Audiences might be moved by talk of principle and compassion, and recognize the relevance of such things to politics and to their lives. But America’s political establishment is not about justice and love; it’s about power and greed. And it’s difficult to change Washington when the opponent owns it. I’ve tried, and what I have seen is disturbing.
Towards the beginning of my campaign I received a call from the FBI asking me to come into their office in D.C. I was told I would be given the exact same briefing they gave every other candidate; then was informed of all the dirty tricks I should expect from foreign adversaries such as China, Russia or Iran.
I did experience those dirty tricks, but they weren’t from there. They were from here.…
(Please go to my substack at mariannewilliamson.substack.com to read my article “Love, Democracy and Gangster Politics” or read it in the link tree!)
Hey, everyone. If you live in or know anyone in Oregon, Kentucky, New Mexico, D.C., South Dakota, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands or Idaho, please tell them how important it is to vote in your primary!
Please read my statement on the homepage at marianne2024.com. Martin Luther King Jr. said our lives begin to end on the day we stop talking about things that matter most. The issues we’ve been talking about all year are definitely in the category of things that matter most.
There are so many ways we are suddenly and insidiously silenced today. Don’t let it happen. Every vote matters, not necessarily towards a win but definitely in terms of influence…and that is a win in and of itself.
I will be in New Mexico all week this week. Details will be posted on Monday. Please spread the word.
Thank you!
Marianne2024.com
The search for purpose and meaning should apply to our national life as well as to our individual lives.
The problem with our political establishment is its shallowness, cravenness and solely material focus. It considers itself supremely sophisticated yet will be remembered one day for leading our march backward, blocking the path to a sustainable future, acting like an iron fist suppressing the will and the yearning of the majority of people.
We are living at a critical time in history, where nothing is more important than that we get that fist off us and free ourselves of its power to constrain. The chains by which it shackles us are mainly invisible but they are there. The uprising, the throwing off of the chains begins inside our minds. Only there can a new birth of freedom be born.
My new book hit #1 in the Mysticism category at Amazon, although I must say the concerns of this moment dull the excitement I might otherwise feel. From Gaza to the increasing dysfunction of our own domestic politics, there’s more darkness than light on display these days. More crucifixion it seems than resurrection.
Today I found myself reaching for my own book for solace. The part of the brain that writes the book is a different part of the brain than the you who needs to read it!
I’m very happy to hear the reactions to the book from those who have begun to read it. Thinking of Jesus beyond the confines of organized ecclesiastical traditions has moved people to say, “YES! That’s what I’ve been waiting for!” Those comfortable with more traditional notions of Christianity are appreciative of the psychotherapeutic aspect of the book’s perspective.
I’m so clear we need to rethink everything. I see the re-thinking of Jesus as part of a larger quest to re-think the world, including who we are and the purpose of our lives. We are re-thinking the world in order to repair it, and the fact that we are trying is what will make us whole. The role that Jesus can play in this rebuilding is gargantuan, given that the intersection of the human and divine is key to everything we yearn for individually and collectively.
For those of you who wish to ask me questions about THE MYSTIC JESUS, please comment below with your questions. I will go on Instagram Live THIS Saturday at 4pm ET to answer a few of the top questions. I’m delighted that people are now reading the book and pondering its message.
The book and audio (which I recorded) are available now at your favorite booksellers.
Much love to all…
Join me in London on June 19th & 23rd!
Wednesday, June 19th
7:00PM
Live at Saint James’s Church
Sunday, June 23rd
10:30AM – 4:30PM
The Institute of Education, Logan Hall
Tickets available at the link in bio and at Alternatives.org.uk.
Join me in London on June 19th & 23rd!
Wednesday, June 19th
7:00PM
Live at Saint James’s Church
Sunday, June 23rd
10:30AM – 4:30PM
The Institute of Education, Logan Hall
Tickets available at the link in bio and at Alternatives.org.uk.
