"are you marked?"

by beth pichie

Do you have a mole in the middle of your back? Are you sure? Maybe you should double-check. I’ve encountered an alarming number of people who have a mole situated somewhere along their spine. I applied for a government grant to study the proliferation and ramifications of such a phenomenon. I was denied. This denial further enhanced my suspicion that there is something significant about the placement of such a marking. Unlike birthmarks, these markings don’t appear on the body until about the time one begins to be self-aware - after the first year of life. Most of the people questioned in my drastically under-funded study can recall a time when they discovered the mole.

Some people choose to believe that this is just a place on the body where the cell growth rate and pigmentation are boosted through a natural fluke of nature. I do not. I believe that this is the mark of a special kind of person. Some studies show that 60% of Americans believe that reincarnation is a possibility. The numbers are much higher in Asian countries. Why would so many people be willing to believe that they existed before they were born into their present bodies? Is it because they are seeking a connection, an explanation behind their loneliness? One could say, "I am lonely and empty inside because I have not been able to reconnect with the current incarnation of my soul mate. Or perhaps I am ugly because fate is teaching me a lesson which I can take into my next life."

Some homosexual men believe that they are attracted to men because their soul is that of a woman. Some bisexuals believe that a body is only one aspect of who a person is - they can love an individual for the spirit which that person carries - regardless of the vessel the spirit is carried in. So why are some people marked so peculiarly? The mole does not signify homosexuality. I have personally interviewed several "Marked" individuals who are decidedly NOT gay or bisexual.

In my life journey over the last 24 years, there have been individuals whom I’ve befriended, and individuals who were forgotten before they had even disappeared from view. Why is this? And why does my brother have a persistent affinity for non-Caucasian women? Why does Waldo feel this driving need to hide? From whom does he hide? And why, if he’s hiding, does he wave? The mole marks those who were once a part of a race of beings from a planet that was destroyed a few hundred years ago. Not all of us were good. Most, but not all. Every bag of oranges has one dry, tasteless one. And we had ours.

But we have been reborn again and again on this earth. We need to reunite and find one another. We need to connect with our own kind. We who share The Mark are brothers and sisters in spirit.