The secret key to mastering life.
'The truth forbidden, in Shakespeare's verse is hidden.'
For thousands upon thousands of years great sages, masters, seers, prophets and teachers have been attempting to convey to us the ultimate truth about who we really are, where we come from and why we're here on this planet.
Yet, to most people, it still remains a mystery. More than a mere mystery - forbidden. It seems as if the power of the human mind has usurped the power of the human soul. All who attempt to liberate the soul are met with the harshest of resistance.
Thus, despite the miracles of science and technology, the promise of world peace and prosperity given to us in the scriptures seems as far away as it always has.
In 1610, King James and his team began working on a new translation into English of the Holy Bible - the year in which Shakespeare would have been 46 years old.
If you turn to Psalm 46 in the King James Bible, and if you count exactly 46 words into the psalm, you find the word "shake." If you count 46 words back from the end of that psalm, you will find the word "spear."
Was the world's greatest poet, playwright and humorist, somehow involved in the translation of the KJV? Did he have the chutzpah to leave a thumbprint in the text?
He certainly made constant mention of biblical texts throughout his plays. At least 1400 direct references have been noted. And countless allusions and allegorical usages of biblical motifs abound.
The true meaning of the wording of Shakespeare's will is hidden so masterfully in his plots. We think we're watching history or political satire or moral dilemmas, but we're being infused with timeless spiritual wisdom.
This was a dangerous game.
This was the era of the reformation. Any hint of heresy would have been given short shrift.
Yet, if you really examine what Shakespeare was hinting at, heresy would be an understatement.
Human beings have many conflicting desires. We want to obey and be good, we also want to rebel and feel good about being bad. We are curious and afraid our curiosity will lead to punishment. We need to express ourselves and, at the same time, conceal the deeper truth of what we express.
When I was about 12 years old, I discovered the secret delights of masturbation. I also felt it wicked and shameful. So much pleasure had to be wrong. I decided to limit my sin only to Sundays. Sundays for me became the best day of the week. I also kept a daily journal. I felt compelled to record my weekly adventure, but I was terrified of what might befall me if, say, my mother ever found out.
To protect myself while expressing my truth I simply devised a code word. In my journal, I called it a 'sun'. Now I was free to describe my experiences of self-discovery without fear of shame. She undoubtedly would have been totally cool about the truth, but had she strayed into my journal, she'd have found curiously poetic references to the 'sun' abound in my daily pages. Poetic doesn't mean meaningless.
Even at that tender age I must have had an attunement with Shakespeare. Whenever I see Romeo's immortal line, 'Soft, what light in yonder window breaks? It is the East and Juliet is the sun.' I wonder what his symbols conceal and simultaneously express.
Now, 400 years after his death, as I explore and write more and about his hidden message to his fellow travellers on earth, I find myself on an archaeological dig, uncovering a vast hidden civilisation.
This will be hard, but exciting, to hear, especially for those who have spent a lifetime devoted to exploring and understanding Shakespeare. At a deeper level, underneath the nexus of symbols and symbols of symbols, I have incontrovertible evidence of multiple expressions of the forbidden truth, culminating in The Tempest, that will liberate the soul from the tyranny of the mind.
In all his plays, he casts characters to represent the soul's battle with the mind. In Romeo and Juliet, in saying, 'What light in yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.' , he is delineating Juliet into the role of 'soul'. The 'East' is a well-known biblical symbol for 'God', as is the sun. With 'sun' also a pun of 'son', he is casting Juliet as the 'son of God' or the 'soul of man'.
The twin forks of the serpent 'mind' are here as the twin warring dynasties of Capulet and Motague. Romeo, it seems, is cast as 'Prodigal Son', the biblical motif of the soul's return home after its banishment from Eden, 'And world's exile is death. Then banished, is death mis-termed.'
This helps us understand why, 'Adam and Eve' (symbolising the soul of man) having been told they would die if they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, were banished, not slain. It also gives insight into our plight in the physical universe and the true meaning of 'death' - and of course 'life'. All this in one Picasso sweep of his quill!
The deeper theme, though, is forgiveness as the key to individual and world peace. Friar Laurence confirms the prologue, 'For this alliance may so happy prove, to turn your households' rancour to pure love.'
If you look again at the text through those eyes, more and more evidence to corroborate this theory shows up. While there's no room at the Inn for it here, there is in my forthcoming book 'Shakespeare's Will: the secret key to mastering life'. Here I take you on this dig through the depths of Shakespeare's true intention and into the forbidden fruit that can awaken your own soul.
I sincerely invite you to join me in the perfect way to celebrate the 4th centenary of Shakespeare's death - by reading his 'will'.
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paul@momentoring.com