Angels are everywhere. That’s what Billy said to Seane Corn in a sex club called Heaven. His story and her retelling is so profound, inspiring, and moving that I did not wait until finishing the whole book to write this article. Angels are everywhere and it’s a good time to remember that.
Internationally-acclaimed yoga teacher Seane Corn’s new book Revolution of the Soul hit the shelves September 2019. I started reading it this week and her friend – her angel – Billy’s story so moved me that I wanted to share it with you.
Meet Billy, Seane’s Angel
Back in the 1980s, we knew very little about this disease. Even now there is still stigma, taboo, prejudice, and ignorance. Billy had AIDS and his conversation with Seane took place about three weeks before his death.
So close to the end, Billy was not sacred. Sad, though not even a bit scared, he told Seane. Because he believed in God and he saw God in everyone. He pointed to Danny the Wonder Pony. People paid him a dollar to ride on his back while he trotted around, saddle and all.
He pointed to a 6’5″ cross-dresser named Violet who tipped Seane who bartended silver half-dollars. And two men in suits, drinking beer, who Seane wrote looked “so similar to my very straight, conservative brothers, who would never set food in a place like Heaven.”
Then he placed his hand over Seane’s heart and lays hers over his. He said to her, “Ignore the story and see the soul. And remember to love. You will never regret it.”
That is gold. Sometimes we forget. That we are not this story we choose to tell. It’s not that our story holds no value. It’s just that we so often limit ourselves by what we believe we are, when it is only a story we tell. AIDS was Billy’s story, as Seane writes, not who he was. The thing is, like Billy told Seane, we can always change our relationship with our story and with the world, our perceptions. We can grow, be more forgiving, love better. We are all doing our best, to remember who we are, and in doing that, come to see who everyone else is. The soul that we all are, not the human story we have chosen on some level to experience.
We often forget, especially when we are caught up in drama or have bought into the overculture and conditioning of this human life.
Angels are everywhere; we just have to open our heart to see.
Over the years, I have sat at the feet of saints and sages. I have travelled to meet beloved teachers and guides, but never have I awakened to the sweet and simple truth of seeing the God within the way I did that night, through the eyes of an angel, my angle, in a place called Heaven.
Seane Corn, Revolution of the Soul
Angels are Everywhere
Everyone in our life is our teacher and we are a teacher to those in our life, even in passing. They are all opportunities for us to remember to see the soul, past the story, the human. It’s not always obvious how people are angels, guides, and teachers to us. Seane also reminds the reader that “often the lessons will be incomprehensible, always they will be potent and necessary of the evolution of your soul.”
For me, that’s not focusing on why someone does this or that. This takes practice as it is a deep programming for many of us. We do this partly to feel safe and secure. If we can determine someone’s motivations and intentions, then we know to steer clear or move closer. Underlying these thoughts and tendencies is a survivalist mindset. Whether we believe the universe is friendly or not is the most important enquiry we can make, according to Albert Einstein. This is a pivot point. How we live our lives and engage with others flows from that. Albert Einstein also said we will either live “as though nothing is a miracle” or “as though everything is a miracle.”
What will happen if we start seeing everyone as an angel?
