#MeToo is a global movement, millions of women sharing their stories of sexual harassment, and abuse.
Remembering our perfection, wholeness, the peace and the Love, as the old comes up for release can be difficult.
Jesus Sananda, through Linda Dillon channel for the Council of Love, explains a way to that peace within and without by thinking and feeling forgiving — being both forgiving as an action and as a constant state of being:
“I come to speak to you this day about ‘forgiving’. Not forgiveness, but forgiving as an action and as a state of being, for as you advance and expand into the wonderful wholeness of your mighty self, your capacity to stay in the heart of forgiving is Infinite and that is important.
“It is critical and it is part of the shift to the place of Love. When you live in the place of Love, when you finally acknowledge and fully embrace that Love is all you are, it is all you ever have been, and all you ever will be.”
As Jesus Sananda teaches, overcoming trauma is possible with focused intention, by staying in the constant state of forgiving:
“When you remain in the place of forgiving, in the heart center of forgiving, you are able to forgive your sweet self and to see it in the light of expansion that it is; to see it as bringing to light something that you wish to expand into.
“Rather than lack, it is expansion.” (1)
When we extend mercy, Jesus says we are extending “compassion + forgiveness + Love.” (2)
Mercy — the forgiveness, the compassion, and the Love, which is the healing — enfold all with comfort, the victims, #MeToo, and the perpetrators.
Jesus says we receive exactly
and more than what we give.
We expand ourselves — by being the peace, the constant state of forgiving, and the embodiment of Love, seeing only Love, breathing only Love, speaking only Love, touching with Love, holding space with Love — with the intention for the entire planet to experience only peace and Love.
I invoke Jesus Sananda
and the Universal Law of Intent
to be the constant state of forgiving,
the embodiment of Love,
mind, heart, will
in alignment.
Below are three articles illustrating acts of forgiveness, compassion, mercy, Love, the speaking out about rape and sexual harassment.
Thordis Elva and Tom Stranger:
Our Story of Rape and Reconciliation
httpss://www.ted.com/talks/thordis_elva_tom_stranger_our_story_of_rape_and_reconciliation?inf_contact_key=1c6ea60de4489507f8c8544e0c28cf46b3efe048d1ee8235bc63280bb33951bc
httpss://www.ted.com/talks/thordis_elva_tom_stranger
In 1996, Thordis Elva shared a teenage romance with Tom Stranger, an exchange student from Australia. After a school dance, Tom raped Thordis, after which they parted ways for many years. In this extraordinary talk, Elva and Stranger move through a years-long chronology of shame and silence, and invite us to discuss the omnipresent global issue of sexual violence in a new, honest way.
****
Thordis Elva is one of the two authors of South of Forgiveness, a unique collaboration between a survivor and a perpetrator of rape. She is also known to Icelanders as a writer, journalist, public speaker and Woman of the Year 2015. Nine of her plays have been professionally produced. Her book about gender-based violence, Á mannamáli (The Plain Truth) was one of the most awarded Icelandic books of 2009.
In 2011, Thordis Elva founded an equality campaign that sparked a national debate about equal rights. In 2012, she was commissioned to reinvent the approach to violence prevention and sex education in Icelandic schools. The resulting short films ‘Get Consent!’ (Fáðu já!) and ‘Stand Up For Yourself’ (Stattu með þér!), have won local and international awards.
Thordis Elva was elected Chairman of the Board of the Icelandic Women’s Shelter 2012-2014 and has served on government committees working with the issue of violence. She is a sought-after speaker on subjects like equality, sexual violence and non-consensual pornography, giving lectures to audiences such as the United Nations and the Nordic Council of Ministers. She currently resides in Stockholm, Sweden with her partner Vidir and their son.
****
After a history of working in outdoor recreation Tom Stranger’s focus shifted towards working with young people with complex needs-drug and alcohol rehabilitation, homelessness, neurological impairment and mental health challenges.
Building upon his BA of Social Science, Tom has recently completed and thoroughly enjoyed a Master of Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney. His personal history, professional experiences working in Community Services, and tertiary studies, have seen his interests narrow upon the heightened public discourse surrounding gender based violence. He currently lives in Sydney with his dear wife Cat.
Tom is donating what he receives from sales of South of Forgiveness to a women’s shelter in Reykjavik.
****
South of Forgiveness
One ordinary spring morning in Reykjavik, Thordis Elva kisses her son and partner goodbye before boarding a plane to do an extraordinary thing: fly seven thousand miles south to meet up with the man who raped her when she was just sixteen.
Meanwhile, in Sydney, Australia, Tom Stranger nervously embarks on an equally life-changing journey, wondering whether he is worthy of this meeting.
****
South of Forgiveness is an unprecedented collaboration between a survivor and a perpetrator, each equally committed to exploring the darkest moment of their lives. It is a true story about being bent but not broken, of facing fear with courage, and of finding hope even in the most wounded of places.
Pat Mitchell, former head of the PBS and current chair of the Sundance Institute, says this about South of Forgiveness:
“A profoundly moving, open chested, and critical book. An exploration into sexual violence and self-knowledge that can only shine a healing light into the shrouded corners of our universal humanity. There is a disarming power in these pages that has the potential to change our language, shift our divisions, and invite us to be brave in discussing this pressing, global issue.”
“Every man, woman and couple should read this book. And the woman and man that wrote it ought to be garlanded with medals. It’s an unprecedented achievement.”
– Sandi Toksvig, comedian and TV presenter
“A book that confronts the stigma of victim and perpetrator, a nuanced path through the minefield of sexual violence, how to confront and speak about these issues is one of the greatest challenges of our time.”
– Andri Snaer Magnason, author and Presidential candidate
“Written with sensitivity, courage and compassion, this book is a shared, outer and inner journey of recovery. In this intimate account of that journey, the story draws attention to one of the most overlooked perspectives regarding the act and meaning of rape: the shame of rape, harbored by the victim, belongs in fact to the perpetrator. Without any leanings toward self-indulgence, it is a deeply honest exploration of the dynamics of forgiveness and personal transformation. I felt as if I was with them (and their loved ones) on their journey. I will remember it and recommend it for a long time to come.”
– Ian McCallum, psychiatrist, environmentalist, writer and poet
#MeToo Movement
Named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year
Molly Redden and agencies, The Guardian, December 6, 2017
Time Magazine celebrates anti-harassment movement by naming ‘The Silence Breakers’ on its cover after millions shared stories of sexual assault
“The Silence Breakers”, the vanguard of a global movement by millions of women to share their stories of sexual harassment and abuse, was revealed on Wednesday to be Time magazine’s Person of the Year.
The announcement comes as many industries and power centers around the world are still reeling from an unprecedented reckoning with sexual harassment and abuse that came in the wake of the revelations about film mogul Harvey Weinstein in October.
Even as the image of Time’s cover spread across the internet, Weinstein faced a fresh lawsuit on Wednesday from six women and, separately, a group of female US legislators publicly demanded Senator Al Franken resign over accusations that he groped constituents and co-workers.
Time’s Person of the Year cover features Susan Fowler, a former Uber employee whose blog post about Silicon Valley sexism led to the departure of CEO Travis Kalanick; “Isabel Pascual”, a pseudonymous agricultural worker who has been stalked and harassed by her boss; and Adama Iwu, a corporate lobbyist who inspired dozens of women to expose sexual harassment in California’s state capitol.
There was also Ashley Judd, who was among the first women to accuse Weinstein of sexual harassment and Taylor Swift, who was celebrated for her testimony against a former DJ who she accused of groping. Just out of frame – only her arm is visible – is a hospital worker who wished to represent those who can’t speak out.
Bollywood Sexual Harassment:
Actors Speak Out on Indian Cinema’s Open Secret
Swara Bhaskar: ‘Now I understand why actresses used to take their mothers on shoots.’ Photograph: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images
Michael Safi in Mumbai, The Guardian, December 13, 2017
The casting director had one hand pressed to the phone at his ear; the other, according to a police complaint, he rested on Reena Saini’s thigh.
“He was casting for TV serials,” Saini, 26, recalls. “One day he called me for an audition. And when I reached the place he said, come into my car and talk, I’m in a hurry.”
While the car idled in Mumbai traffic, and his young nephew sat in the backseat, Saini says the casting director, Sohan Thakur, started to grope her. “It made me so embarrassed,” the Bollywood hopeful says. “I didn’t know if it was intentional, or by mistake. I was numb, I was freaked out.”
After she squirmed from the vehicle, she says Thakur called her with a warning not to share the incident. “He told me, if you say this to anyone, it will be your minus in the industry,” she says. “People won’t see you as a good girl.”
Thakur denies the allegations, and has said in a detailed response on Facebook that CCTV evidence supports his account of events and that he will be suing for defamation.
Swara Bhaskar is now an established, award-winning actor in Bollywood, the Mumbai film industry. But she was fairly new to the business when one director started incessantly texting her on set.
It soon escalated to requests for “intense” one-on-one meetings. “He started saying he needed to fall in love with my character,” she says. “He would always call me on the pretext of discussing this lovemaking scene – and I’d go and he’d always be drinking.”
Late one evening he knocked on her door while drunk, she says, and demanded she hug him. To endure the project, Bhaskar was forced to enlist another crew member as her chaperone.
“Now I understand why in the olden days the actresses used to take their mothers on shoots,” she says.
The Mother’s Blue Diamond Energy
The Mother’s Blue Diamond energy of hope, forgiving as an action, as a constant state of being, forgiveness for victim and perpetrator.
An Invocation
I invoke Sanat Kumara
all Universal Law, blessings, virtues,
qualities, and dimensional growth patterns
for elimination of sexual harassment and rape on Gaia.
Footnotes
(1) “Being in the State of Forgiving,” channeled by Linda Dillon for the Council of Love, May 27, 2011, https://counciloflove.com/2011/05/being-in-the-state-of-forgiving/
(2) “Jesus Sananda’s Gift of Mercy,” channeled by Linda Dillon for the Council of Love, June 19, 2016, https://counciloflove.com/2016/06/jesus-sanandas-gift-of-mercy/