ARCHANGEL MICHAEL'S SCALES

Church tradition states that the scales Archangel Michael carries were to weigh our good against our bad deeds at our death and so send our souls to heaven or hell. More accurately spirit is always active in the world and the power of the archangel relates specifically in our lives and our thoughts and actions as they impact on events around us.

There is much in our world that’s out of balance. This inevitably ensures an ongoing state of conflict. Here’s just one example: humanity has lived with 3000 or so years of patriarchy and the strong-arm leadership of aggressive ‘male’ or yang attitudes out of balance with its yin polarity. Yet in our time, what has been a long struggle is bringing us to threshold of a shift alive with promise. When I look at women breaking their silence, speaking out for radical change in male behaviour and attitudes, it’s clear something revolutionary is in the air.

Archangel Michael is nearly always portrayed as male, but that’s not the reality. Monika Bisits accessed the truth in her evocative painting of this high being. Micha-el, the face of God is not male or female. Spirit is one. Female and male, yin and yang, all polarities unite as one whole in spirit. Really, we need a new word for such a being. ‘He’, ‘she’, ‘it’ or a singular ‘they’ don’t do it.

Monika’s archangel looks out upon the world with a non-judgemental, compassionate gaze, eyes alive with an almost sad questioning. ‘Will humans learn the truth that sets them free?’ they seem to say.

There’s always resistance to change, a self-protective backlash to preserve the status-quo. And it may take a long time for societies worldwide to catch up with those taking the leap, the pioneers. Fear, resentment, anger and battles on both sides of an unhappy divide only block the process and make it more painful – for everyone.

At its best change happens because of a strong desire for balance in society. But potential and promise too often remain only words because the imbalance in the world is an outcome of what lives in our souls. Know thyself was the ancient inscription outside the temple to Apollo at Delphi, and it still applies. We discover how to bring balance by looking inward. On a deep level we are dealing with the individual soul’s state and the need to know and express the spiritual self. In our everyday lives the scales will tip dramatically when we think and feel via dualistic notions and opposition. The ‘battle of the sexes’ is only one example of conflict-filled outcomes.

Archangel Michael represents the spiritual will at work in the cosmos and in our soul. And here’s the significance of the scales. We activate them. It is never done for us.

Our spiritual self is our true humanity that can only be discovered when we embrace and then unite the polarities in our soul. We can achieve this through our inner work that will ultimately bring about inner balance.

Then the balanced scales unite with the sword of Michael consciousness, enabling us know and to express our ‘I’, to live in truth beyond opinions and see the world through the eyes of compassion and empathy, to be inspired to extend that consciousness to others and acknowledge their spirit. Then we can live in harmony with one another. Then slowly, or maybe not so slowly, our greedy, power grabbing, oppositional cultures will crumble, to be replaced by a holistic, unifying world view.