“For a long time now, artists and sculptors, storytellers and poets have described the virtues of My cloak – specifically its powers of protection. My cloak is thrown over the shoulders of those who seek shelter. Its warmth comforts those who seek solace. And, on occasion, I have been known to conceal those who sought safety from their pursuers or persecutors within its folds. But all those paintings and sculptures fail to grasp its true nature.
“If you venture out into the woods at a certain time of year and remain very still, occasionally you will find a mother possum whose babies have grown large enough that they will no longer fit in her pouch and must be placed upon her back. In this way, she carries them about. She climbs trees while they cling to her, or crosses the stones of a stream. It’s a comical sight, so many small possums all clustered and clinging to her back. They always seem about to fall off. But she never loses them. She carries them all to the place where they are going. Between the place where they began and the place where they eventually arrive, her body is their home.
“You have long misunderstood the nature of our relationship. Granted, that misunderstanding served your culture in certain ways. Hiding beneath My cloak, seeking My protection under the eaves of churches or other institutions, was your way of staying put. It was your way of putting down roots—of building towns, building towers, building cities, and building empires. Going forward, you will not be able to do any of these things. Very few people will remain living where they are now. Those who are older may be able to live out their lives in their homes, but a great many others will be forced to move.
“You must understand that you are clothed in My robe by virtue of having a body. Nothing can take that away. You have always had a body. You always will have a body. There is no such thing as a spirit divorced from this world. The robe of My protection is the Earth you stand upon. Going forward you must know that what your feet touch is the warm body of your Mother. The Earth that rises to meet your footsteps, to support you and carry you forward on your way, is nothing but that mother possum’s back.
“The world is My body and your body is one with that body. Nothing can alter that. Nothing can destroy it. Nothing can take that away. So you must not seek protection under the eaves of structures and institutions that, even now, are in the process of being destroyed or dismantled. What you see happening in your own culture is happening, or will happen, in all other cultures throughout the world.
“I will carry you where you must go. There really isn’t any other readiness but that. I will take you where you must go.”