As mentioned in our first essay on Shakespeare’s world stage, the real writer of As You Like It left out important facts in his play. Last time, we considered briefly the acts which every human experiences after death and prior to rebirth. Now, let us consider more deeply the most important “players” who do not act but stand behind the scenes on stage in our outer world life.

You and I are the actors passing through the seven stages mentioned – during physical existence as well as between lives. But, to get a sense of the Big Picture, we must pause to consider the Producer and Director and others.

You see, we think we run and control our own lives. But, that is really far from the truth. We believe so because we only see the surface of things – while the essence of existence is hidden from our limited vision.

Humans have become more and more materialistically oriented over the centuries, and have long since lost reverence and awareness of the spirit world. Oh, we may for moments allow ourselves to enjoy movies or films which entertain ghosts or goblins, witchcraft or magic. But with the reign of faith in science, we generally say, “This cannot be so. Someone had quite an imagination to come up with this story.”

Ah, but was it just a story. Any more than your life and my own are “just stories.”

Our plays in seven acts upon the outer stage – are actually laid out to a large degree before we are born. Our Souls with perfect understanding provide for the talents and flaws, opportunities and challenges which we express during our coming tour of physicality. Assuredly, those aspects of our lives are based on recent lives and allow us free will – however limited it may be – in the present passage.

So, we have helped quite unconsciously to “write” our current dramas. Then, we have some leeway how our lives unfold. But for the most part, that is in the “how” rather than in the “what” which occurs.

“How can this be so?” you may be asking. “It is my life, I do what and when I wish. Don’t I?”

But, do you?

Do we really have control? Do we really know what we are doing and where we are heading? If we don’t know whence we came, how can we really understand our roles in the present play, the acts yet to come, and the finale far ahead?

Then to get even more “technical,” we should seek to realize that we are in fact puppets on stage. We can draw an analogy to our own situations by considering geopolitical situations past and present.  

There is a fascinating scene in Oliver Stone’s film called Nixon. In it, Richard Nixon makes a late-night, unannounced visit to the Lincoln Memorial and talks with a group of young people. After trying to discuss football, the conversation turns to Vietnam. Nixon says that he wants, “peace with honor,” but it can require fighting and dying.

One young woman asks the US President, supposedly the most powerful man in the world, “You say you want to end the war, so why don’t you stop this war?”

Nixon became flustered when the woman inferred that he was powerless within the 'system' to stop the war: “Wha�t's the point of being president? You're powerless!”

If the “most powerful man” (actor on the world stage) was unable to end an unpopular and wasteful war, that might give us clues to the state of our own powers. Do we have any? How much? How can they be accessed?

If we step back in time a hundred years or so, we can also be reminded of Abraham Lincoln passing through a somewhat similar situation as Richard Nixon. But Lincoln seems to have recognized his limited role when he said, “I claim not to have controlled events, but confess that events have controlled me.”

Presidents Lincoln and Nixon surely thought they had power – at least for some time. Those who elected Lincoln and Nixon imagined similarly – as Donald Trump and the present electorate do. But, believe it or not, such are illusory ideas. Those are illusions because all of us, including presidents, potentates and popes, are only players not directors on the world stage. Real Powers-That-Be are quite invisible to common view.

Even Jesus Christ said as much that He wielded power only as an instrument. “I can do nothing of myself.” John 5

So, are the rest of us any different than Abraham Lincoln, Richard Nixon and Jesus Christ? Well, certainly not in regard to our roles on the world stage – even though they are minor compared to those three seemingly powerful beings.

Production and Direction of the world stage as well as our own local venues are in fact overseen by the Great Ones. Though they are unseen and largely unrecognized, They are the Cloud of Witnesses, the Rishis, the Hierarchy – the True Directors of Planet Earth. Standing alongside them are the Lords of Karma who insure that Divine Justice rules in personal scenes as well as larger dramas.

Rebirth and Karma place us in the right time, place and stage. Then, angels and devas act as Stage Managers to funnel the force needed to build and maintain our forms and to do our duties from moment to moment. It is as if they feed us the lines – so to speak – to fulfill our roles. All the while, the greater and lesser Directors of Karma and Justice govern our actions. Then, the Great Producer aka the Grand Architect of the Universe stands beyond all observing how the show meets intentions.

When we play our role as intended, life flows freely and happily. When otherwise, we fall into illness and injury, distress and divorce, mayhem and madness. Those may not be scripted occurrences, but are fallout from what amounts to poor performances. We need to learn, however ineptly, to play our parts clearly and believably. Not as we wish them to be, but as they are “written upon the Greater Scripts of Life.”

Since humans tend to learn their roles slowly, many, many repeat performances are required on our benighted planet. Fortunately, the Producer, Directors, and Stage Managers are in no hurry. Those are patient, loving, forgiving Beings Who have limitless time on their side and thus on our own. “ With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” 2 Peter 3