Into the unknown
Another part of an Ascension ethnography is the service aspect of our existence here. We’re all here for a reason, a sacred purpose.
One of mine is as a financial wayshower or steward of the Mother’s wealth, as are all … or most … foreign-currency holders.
It’s ironic because here I am, dearly wanting to go inwards and yet – puppet that I am – I find myself drawn more and more to thoughts about organizing the Michaelangelo Fund, thinking through how the Hope Chest will operate, and planning out the new Golden Age of Gaia. Here are some of the questions that arise.
And in looking at them, I’m responding to something Michael said in 2015:
“I beg of you, do not assume that when you write of what you are calling ‘the inner work,’ that this does not have profound effect because the focus of the leadership movement, right now is on the inner work.” (1)
OK. Inner work it is. This is the kind of reflection that’s arising in me. Just like a ten-minute sampling.
How will the Hope Chest service the lightworker community? In an additive manner? If enough lightworkers write in asking for aid for personal finances, (1) open a “Lightworker Department.”
If others write in asking for project funding, (2) we open a “Projects Department.”
If I come along and ask for a three-year Universal Basic Income Program, (3) we open up a “UBI Department.” Add on, add on, add on. Is that the way to proceed? That’s how I proceed with a database.
And what about the Michaelangelo Fund. What is its relationship to Ancillary Services (the Hub)? Its relationship to the Hope Chest. Is the Hope Chest independent or department of the Michaelangelo Fund? It has to be independent. Around and around my mind goes.
I need to … almost write a manual. I need to lay out in as much detail as I can what each organization is being created to do, what its mission is, and other related matters. (2) Otherwise how will I keep it all straight and have it unfold?
I also feel myself hitching up again to the discipline (not felt since the IRB) that an independent decision-maker follows and all that it entails. I know it involves supporting my independence, compassionately but rigorously.
For the most part it means seeing that I remain impartial – that is, uninfluenced by any external source. I can have no conflicts of interest.
Let me illustrate what a discipline that is. I plan to help set up the Lightworkers Congress. I’d remain its financier and I’d look forward to being a participant in its discussions.
Wait a minute. That raises the specter of a potential conflict of interest.
Probably deference will be granted to the financier in any discussion among participants. That’s a development to be avoided. That’ll skew the proceedings. It can have a corrupting, elitist influence.
The answer would be for me to choose either financier or participant, but not both.
I choose financier. So if I, as its financier, participate in any of the programs of the Lightworkers Congress, it would have to be at one remove – at arm’s length, in other words – so as not to invite even the appearance of a conflict of interest. I’m convinced this is one of the new paradigms in business: No conflict of interest or apprehension of bias. (3)
For me being an independent decision-maker goes much farther than just the financial. In the design of the Michaelangelo Fund, the new Golden Age, and the new Hope Chest, I also need to remain uninfluenced by outside sources.
I have very definite goals I’d like to reach and I’ll have to articulate them. I’ll have to communicate them to all new senior employees and everyone we deal with and seek buy-in.
Michael has already warned me that it’ll go from busy to busier. Yet, in reviewing notes from our readings through Linda, he says to me repeatedly that he still wants me to focus on communications rather than moving money.
Essentially an urban monk will be entering the business world. And, as with so many other things today, there’ll be no handbook for it.
When I told him I had no sense of any particular financial expertise (far from it), he said that I had a sense of fairness. As a refugee adjudicator, I regarded fairness as a synonym for justice. Yes, I know what fairness is.
OK, apply my knowledge of fairness, he said. Alright, I will.
Footnotes
(1) Archangel Michael in a personal reading with Steve Beckow through Linda Dillon, June 7, 2015.
(2) Immediately after this article was written I began work on a manual, which is now completed. It contains all of his advice on how to set up the Michaelangelo Fund and how to proceed afterwards. It’s just a private document, but very handy. I may post an article or two from it.
(3) I’m not sure how it all works. I could easily stumble into a conflict of interest (COI), given how many interests would be at play on any given day.
It’d be how I respond to it when I first become aware of it that would matter then, not predicting every situation that might lead to the appearance of a COI.