Messages 2002
William Shakespeare in the spirit world.
December 27th, 2002
Santa Cruz, California
Received by F.A.B.
I am here, Joseph.
It is our desire to channel through you messages that will be of interest to mortals, and the aspects of these messages will be in harmony, of course, with your own interests.
Last time we wrote about great composers. Today we wish to talk about William Shakespeare. As you have discerned, he did not put a priority on spiritual themes in his writings. He did write the plays attributed to him, despite the various controversies. He had his hands full on earth, and therefore did not put a priority on spiritual matters. But when he came over here, he was extremely curious, and had a great desire to know things. He thus did find his way to the concept of the New Birth of the soul, and, of course, the resultant happiness. When he is ready, he will write you himself.
But he is here now, and wishes to say that he wished he had understood the importance of spiritual things while on earth. He had on earth an inkling of his greatness as a writer, and knew that his work would live after him. As he observed his reputation grow on earth, he was very happy to know that he had produced a work that would bring pleasure. He was a keen observer of human nature, and, of course, had a natural facility with words. He never thought, as some more modern people have felt, that somehow creative writing or art was a form of salvation; he simply saw himself as an observer, that is, he simply recorded what he noticed in human nature. He is saying that his felicity with language was simply a gift which was second nature to him, so he never saw it as extraordinary, since it came as naturally as breathing.
He is saying that he did not discern the greater importance of the spiritual in life, and so he chose subjects to write about more in keeping with the humanism of the time.
As I have said, he came over here extremely curious about this world of spirits. And then, as a result of his desire to know, he discovered certain inharmonies of his earth life that caused him some regret and suffering. But this did not last long, for his curiosity had attracted bright spirits, who told him about the Divine Love and the New Birth. He was actually able to override his regrets to try the experiment, and succeeded, to the point where he is now in the seventh sphere and working hard toward the First Celestial.
You may wonder, if he was so curious, why, after 400 years, he did not reach the Celestial Spheres. Well, first of all, his curiosity took him to many other forms of learning, and thus found the New Birth idea after many other searches, through trial and error. And secondly, he had to account for certain inharmonies, which also took some time. But he is now free of these sins, and is saying that from his new vantage point, life looks very different to him than it did on earth. As a mortal, he was unsure about many things and didn’t realize many things about life. But now, life seems clearer to him, and he has felt that spiritual things are the most important.
His earthly fame, as you can imagine, does not concern him - he cares now about his spiritual progress. When he is ready, he will come to you and write in more detail about his life. But he is saying now that mortals must see the spiritual as the most important aspect of life.