In 1991, Clarence Thomas was nominated for the Supreme Court.

If you’re old enough to remember his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, you can probably recall how his onetime assistant, Anita Hill, came close to losing him his appointment after she revealed some pretty sordid facts about his behavior toward women.

Hill described how Thomas would brag openly about his sexual abilities, make suggestive comments about female staff members’ breast size, and discuss pornographic movies involving, amongst other things, bestiality and rape.

She also accused Thomas of making the infamous (and bizarre) comment, “Who has put pubic hair on my Coke?” Confronted by Hill’s allegations, Thomas reacted with fury, calling the process “a high-tech lynching for uppity black people.”

Though Hill willingly took a polygraph test and passed (twice), Thomas declined.

Which seems a little odd for someone undergoing a high-tech lynching. You’d think he’d have jumped at the chance to prove his innocence. (Very strange, too, to use the “lynching” analogy when Anita Hill is also black.)

Thomas went on to join the Supreme Court, and was one of the five justices responsible for the bloodless coup d’état in 2000 that put George W. Bush in office.

He’s always been one of the most conservative justices, coming out against affirmative action, for example (despite having previously benefited from it), and in favor of the recent ruling that allows corporations to anonymously pour unlimited amounts of money into political campaigns.

For many years after the hearings, Hill was subjected to “character assassination,” a term used by author David Brock, when he apologized for lying about her in his book, The Real Anita Hill.

He would later describe his role as having been that of a “witting cog in the Republican sleaze machine.” Hill became a professor of law at Brandeis University, and eventually all the unpleasantness of Thomas’s Senate hearing became just a distant memory. At least it was until Clarence Thomas’s wife, Virginia, had to go and stir it all up again.

In case you missed the headlines, “Ginny” Thomas left a voicemail message for Anita Hill, asking her to apologize to her husband. Here’s what she said:

“Good morning, Anita Hill, it’s Ginny Thomas. I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband. So give it some thought and certainly pray about this and come to understand why you did what you did. Okay, have a good day.”

The call was made on the same morning in which Ginny Thomas’s name was plastered all over the pages of the new York Times for accepting huge anonymous donations to her conservative group, the Liberty Foundation. (The problem, in part, is that Ginny’s husband was one of the five justices who made the receipt of huge anonymous donations actually possible.)

But why, after nineteen years, would Virginia Thomas call Anita Hill?

Didn’t she have enough on her mind that morning? What did she hope to accomplish?

To untangle the confusion, I’ve asked my Spirit Guides to shed some light on the matter.

I’ll begin by identifying the major players by their soul ages and soul types. Before I do, however, I want to state as clearly as possible, that when it comes to soul ages, old is not inherently better than young.

Although young souls, particularly those caught up in the corrupting influence of traditional power structures are far more likely to be in thrall to the Illusion. From behind the veil of Illusion, the focus is always more on “me” than “we.”

Clarence Thomas is a Level 5 Hunter soul type with a primary Thinker influence and a secondary Helper influence.

It can be expressed simply as: Level 5 Hunter, Thinker, Helper. As a Hunter type, he will be task-oriented, ambitious, and like the hunter in the tribe, able to work alone or as part of a team.

At this young-soul level, Hunters are about as mainstream as you can get.

They respect the established rules, and seek always to maintain the existing status quo. A primary Thinker influence makes Thomas analytical but not, at Level 5, an original thinker.

The Hunter inflexibility at this stage is pronounced. You have as much chance of changing a Level 5 Hunter’s mind as you do of reversing Planet Earth’s orbit around the Sun. His Helper influence will impel Thomas’s soul to be of service, though his Illusion-based identification with authority is unlikely to cause him to support the underdog. Yet, that is, in part what his soul had expected of him.

In this life, Thomas was born an African-American in Georgia.

But in a recent incarnation, he got to see another facet of southern life as a “good-ol’ boy” in the state of Mississippi. (It’s not unusual to have several lifetimes in the same part of the world. It allows a soul to undergo various lessons related to a particular culture.)

In his past life, Thomas was the son of a judge who persecuted blacks.

And though he, himself, was not as culpable as his father, his soul’s life plan this time around was to redress the balance in some way.

Sadly, the Illusion has acted to cut him off from his true purpose.

Through his power and influence, he could have made his current life one of immense benefit to others. Instead, he has chosen the path of comfort and conformity, his focus firmly on the “me,” not “we.”

Anita Hill is a much older soul. She is a Level 9 Spiritualist, Thinker, Educator.

At this stage of her spiritual evolution she has a strong need to do something bigger than herself—to influence others in a positive way. As a Spiritualist, she wants to do the right thing, and that’s why her personal integrity will always be of immense importance to her.

The Thinker/Educator combination is like having a double Thinker influence. It’s seen in academics, and those who enjoy both acquiring and imparting knowledge. It will make her fair and balanced in her judgments.

I like Anita Hill. Virginia Thomas, on the other hand, scares me! Not because she’s a Level 5 soul, or that she’s a Spiritualist, Hunter, Creator. What disturbs me is the way the combination of influences impact one another in someone so in thrall to the Illusion. Everything I said about her husband’s respect for the establishment applies to her, too. Her involvement in the Liberty Foundation may look a little fringe-like, but it’s rock-solid conservative at its core.

The Tea Party and organizations like the Liberty Foundation allow people like Thomas to pretend they’re mavericks, when the bottom line is that they’re doing very well just the way things are, and they don’t want it to change. 

Why Virginia Thomas gives me such an uncomfortable feeling is that when a young soul Spiritualist—especially one who is caught up in the Illusion—gets their teeth into something, they do it with the kind of righteousness you might associate with a fire-and-brimstone preacher.

From behind the Illusion, inexperienced younger souls shoot from the emotional hip rather than seeking out facts (which might weaken their resolve).

They’ll reduce a complex argument to black and white, and fight for their cause (whatever it might be) with passion and conviction. Virginia Thomas calling her husbands confirmation hearing a battle of “good versus evil,” is a perfect example of young-soul Spiritualist outrage at perceived injustice.

When you add the impact of the Hunter influence to the mix, you risk getting someone who is both righteous and intransigent.

Great if it’s Mother Teresa of Calcutta, obsessed with the care of lepers. But a little unnerving if it’s the wife of your nemesis calling unannounced to give you an early-morning wake-up call with a chirpy, “Have a good day!”

Then there’s the Creator influence impacting the Spiritualist. What you’ll get in a person like Mrs. Thomas is a great deal of sensitivity. Unfortunately, when someone is caught up in the Illusion, that sensitivity is rarely extended to anyone beyond the individual herself. She will have been genuinely hurt by the “torment” her husband went through. (Much more than he, I would imagine.) And that young-soul Hunter in her is not going to forgive and forget very easily.

Does Ginny Thomas believe her husband is truly innocent of the charges made by Anita Hill?

The answer is probably not. But since he’s not likely to offer her an apology, even behind closed doors, she has to vent elsewhere. So, what does she do? She blames Anita Hill for humiliating her husband, and that way she has somewhere to channel her frustration without upsetting the domestic balance of power.

Young souls respect authority figures.

Lacking Physical Plane experience, they look to strong Gods to keep them spiritually safe, and powerful military rulers to protect their physical selves. As I describe in The Instruction, the tendency to identify with those in power is one of the main reasons why so many people will vote against their class or economic interests, and why the police will beat up striking workers, not their bosses.

There’s also a young soul tendency to see big differences everywhere: black and white, Christian and Muslim, straight or gay.

They tend to see what separates us, not the humanity that unites us. This block to recognizing true equality extends to gender. Younger souls consider women to be inferior to men, which was evident in the savage way Anita Hill was attacked by the powerful males, like Senator Orrin Hatch, who supported Clarence Thomas’s nomination.

Whether she knows it or not, Ginny Thomas looks up to Clarence Thomas. In her soul’s eyes, he is a powerful man and that makes him her superior.

And when he is perceived as foolish, weak, or ignorant, she will, by extension, feel foolish, weak or ignorant. So, by calling to “extend an olive branch,” as she put it, was she truly seeking peace between the Thomas’s and Ms. Hill? Not really. Actually, not at all. Her message was passive-aggressive, to say the least, and, coming almost two decades after the event, not a little disturbing.

Calling Hill’s office number at 7:30 am on a Saturday was not with the intention of actually talking one-on-one, and if Thomas really wanted to bury the hatchet (somewhere other than between Hill’s shoulder blades), she might have considered writing a letter instead.

During his Senate Confirmation Hearing, Justice Thomas played the martyr when he complained of a high-tech lynching.

In fact, he was afforded protection and privileges few others would have received. Witnesses who could have supported Anita Hill’s version of events were not allowed to testify, and in some cases were even intimidated. Evidence concerning pornographic movies was kept out of court.

Clarence Thomas stuck rigidly to his role as victim, rather than telling the truth and confessing to behavior that would have risked derailing his political ambitions.

Will his wife have the humility and courage to apologize to Anita Hill for harassing her? Or will she continue, like her husband, to play the martyr, convinced that she’s the one who’s being hard done by? Doing the right thing isn’t going to come easily, especially when her beliefs are reinforced by those around her.

Already Virginia’s supporters are blaming Anita Hill for over-reacting by going to the authorities with the voicemail message. She’s even been accused of being some kind of a publicity seeker.

Yet, who do you think was responsible for the story getting into the papers in the first place? Ginny Thomas, of course. Should Ginny Thomas have called Anita Hill? No. But Clarence Thomas should have.

And here’s what I think he should have said:

“Good morning, Ms. Hill, it’s Clarence Thomas here. I want to apologize for everything I put you through. It was bad enough to sexually harass you in the office, but to lie about you under oath, and to keep that lie alive for almost twenty years is utterly shameful. I’m deeply sorry for having allowed others to question your honesty and credibility, and for all the pain my selfish behavior has caused you. I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me. Have a good day.”