Marianne Williamson

Marianne Williamson first came onto the scene in the 1980s and is now an internationally acclaimed author, lecturer, and one of the most respected female voices on modern-day spirituality. Marianne’s wisdom is based upon and steeped in A Course in Miracles – a self-study program of spiritual psychotherapy, based on universal spiritual themes. Marianne already has a distinguished legacy with a legion of books under her wing, each flying its flags in its own right with 4 New York Times best-sellers respectively.

Today on Luminosity we’re breaking down what it means when Marianne Williamson says “God is the water, you are the faucet.” What does that mean to you, me, and I? And how can we reap the gold from these words in a way that will inextricably weave its blessings into our own lives. On Luminosity we get real on the whimsy and make the esoteric palatable to the modern-day spiritual seeker’s daily living. In this article, I’ll utilize the word, God, as Marianne uses in her teaching, but feel free to insert whichever word resonates with you best – be it Universe, Spirit, Source, etc.

The opposite of love is fear. Every human thought, and every human action, is based on either love or fear. Everything else is but a derivative, a different shade or color if you like, of these two fundamentals. In the teaching “God is the water, you are the faucet.” I find the easiest way to understand this, is to understand the water as love, and the faucet as fear. Meaning as a soul having a human experience, by the way of free will it really is our decision; a decision of whether we are to blast ourselves open to love, or be seduced by fear.

Love is open, expansive, fluid, free, and joyful. Love is the energy that expands, opens up, reveals, shares, and heals. It is the flowing effervescence of life that permeates us all. And God is love. Therefore we can say that if God is water; by law, God is in each and every one of us as a human being who is physically made up of water.

It is interesting (and fun!) to even note some of the key concepts of water according to the British Society for Cell Biology, and I invite you to replace the word water with God. Its p-r-o-f-o-u-n-d: “Water is the single most abundant chemical found in living things. Virtually all chemical reactions in life processes take place in solution in water. Some organisms can live in a dormant and desiccated state for long periods of time but require water to become active. Water is present both inside and outside cells.” Ref 1.

God is powerful – but so are we! We are powerful enough to stop God’s flow i.e. God as love and God as water. We are the faucets that have the ability to turn off the tap -to halt, quench, shrink, shrivel, block and manipulate. But why do we do this? Stop the flow of love? It is always the opposing thought to love: fear. Fear grasps, love lets go. Fear rankles, love soothes. Fear attacks, love amends.

Remember that love cannot exist without fear – because one cannot know itself without the other. We have incarnated as experiential beings, and so according to law of relativity, have come to experience the opposite ends of the spectrum. You cannot know your utter magnificence without experiencing it. Otherwise, it is only concept, an idea. So let that water flow!

Love is a relative term. We do not know love without fear. In the absence of fear, there is love, and vice versa – because they are experiential. We need a reference point outside of love to know love. This is once again why the ‘spiritual bypass’ of ignoring the bad, the ugly, the fear, the shame, and the guilt, never serves us. If we’re riding the wave of fear we have to choose to climb out of it with the knowledge that this isn’t all there is, and this isn’t why we came here. We didn’t come here to feel scared, or twisted and manipulated by neurosis.

It is from the experience of both love and fear that we reap knowing, and it is in the knowing that we feel safe. Assured to know that if we’re ever experiencing fear – it’s not all there is and not all that we are. There is another way. And we know it. We know this at a soul level, and perhaps we’ve been blessed enough to experience it before in this life. To know ourselves as love is powerful beyond measure. God gave us free will and this is where it comes into play. We can choose to turn on the faucet. We can choose love. And we can.

We can choose to know our most magnificent self experientially through love – which means stopping trying to squeeze and contract ourselves, and turning on the faucet. We can stop bending over backward to fit the imaginary mold of who we are ‘supposed to be’. Because we are supposed to be in love.

So in conclusion, how can we make this teaching real? Make this tangible to our own lives? I like to ask myself a question whenever I’m faced with a decision: “Does this make me feel expansive, or contracted?” Expansion is love. Contraction is fear. And I invite you to try and catch yourself next time you’re in the moment before action. The former is turning on the faucet to the flow of God – water – love. The latter is turning the faucet closed and tightly shut, and by default blocking any way of awe and wonder into our lives. So tune into that feeling the next time you’re faced with a decision. It will always lead you to the next right action. Even if it’s in opposition to what you may want to do. What is ‘small self’ or ‘ego’ may want to do or feel it needs, because the truth is, love never lies and love always prevails. “God is the water, you are the faucet.” Stop getting in the way of yourself!

For more information go to www.marianne.com.