ARCHANGEL MICHAEL AND THE SCALES



As well as the sword of the spiritual will, Archangel Michael carries a pair of scales. And scales are balancing implements.
There is much in our world that’s out of balance. Just take male-female relationships. Humanity has lived with with 3000 or so years of patriarchy and the strong-arm leadership of aggression – of ‘male’ or yang domination out of balance with its yin polarity.
Archangel Michael is traditionally portrayed as male, but that’s not the reality. This painting by Monika Bisits captures something of the reality. A spiritual being is not male or female. Spirit is one. Really, we need a new word for such a being. ‘He’, ‘she’, ‘it’ or the clumsy substitute ‘they’ are inadequate terms. Female and male, yin and yang, all polarities unite in one whole. 
Spirit is always active in the world and the power of Archangel Michael works specifically in this age, in our lives. Right now, we are in a liminal zone, approaching a threshold alive with promise. When I look at women breaking their silence, speaking out for radical change in male behaviour and attitudes, I think something revolutionary is in the air. A rebalancing is underway.  
Oh, there’s resistance, 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. Yet slowly, or maybe not so slowly, our greedy, power grabbing, domineering cultures are crumbling, potentially to be replaced by a holistic, unifying world view. Potential does not always lead to fruition. Fear, resentment, anger and battles on both sides of an unhappy divide only block the process and make it more painful – for everyone. 
There is another way that involves us as individuals taking to heart the ancient inscription at the temple to Apollo at Delphi: Know thyself.
And here’s the significance of Archangel Michael’s scales. On a deeper level we are dealing with the soul and our striving to know and express the spiritual self. This self is in harmonious balance. It’s our true humanity that can only be discovered when we embrace and then unite the polarities in our soul. Recognition will inspire us to live in harmony with one another.
In our everyday lives the scales tip and we express various degrees of maleness or femaleness. On the level of the spiritual self we are not divided. As with the mighty archangel, we need that new word for the human being who knows the Self as one.


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