Who was Mary-Margaret Moore?

Before delving into the Bartholomew material in future posts, it seems appropriate to focus first on the main actors of this adventure, i.e. Mary-Margaret Moore and, in the next post, who (or what) was Bartholomew.

Mary-Margaret passed away on May 8, 2022, at the age of 88. She is known as the "channeler" through which the entity known as Bartholomew transmitted his wisdom, which he liked to call his "teachings". But who was she before? What was her life? What were her accomplishments? 

On August 13, 2022, a memorial service was held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to honor her memory and her legacy. In attendance were her four children, family members, and longtime friends. The service was also available online for the people who couldn't attend in person.

One of her two sons, Doug, spoke on behalf of his brother David and his sisters Ashley and Justine. Most of what follows is excerpted from his eulogy.

Mary-Margaret was an extraordinary woman who lived a life full of adventure, spirituality, and service to others, but few people really know the breadth of this adventure. 

It's been observed that all too often people of great accomplishment and great compassion have had a very difficult entrance into this world. Mary-Margaret Moore was no exception. 

She was born in San Francisco and given up for adoption. This experience perhaps more than any other had a profound impact on her as it stayed with her for the rest of her life. She was adopted by a family who lived on the Dole pineapple plantation on the island of Lanai, Hawaii, and brought there before her first birthday. Fortunately for her, she was met there by an amazing sister who would become her best friend, play companion, and protector when the need arose. 

Photo by Josephina Kolpachnikof on Unsplash

Early on, Mary-Margaret stood out as very smart, earning outstanding grades in school with what appeared to be little effort. Her childhood was magical in many ways in beautiful Hawaii, learning to swim and surf in the ocean, snorkeling, learning how to saddle and ride horses on the ranch, gardening, taking care of the animals, and so on.

But there were also challenges, particularly from the other kids since her father was the manager for Dole, the main employer on the island. 

Between the blessings and the challenges of her young life, she showed an interest in understanding the meaning of life. Her sister remembered her sitting on a low wall outside looking at the ocean and thinking about God, wondering why there are so many different religions instead of just one that would celebrate the oneness in all of us.

She went on to college on the mainland, starting in the San Francisco Bay area at Mills College. However, it wasn't a good fit, and she transferred to Stanford University. 

In her junior and senior years, she did very well, excelling again in academics, and even making the dean's list. Among other studies, she spent a lot of time studying comparative religion.

She also had extra-curricular activities, such as when she auditioned for and was chosen as a billboard model for Chesterfield cigarettes.

Not necessarily Mary-Margaret herself. Just an example. (Source: https://tinyurl.com/2p9hwn9z)

During her senior year, she ran for class president. Still, she had the misfortune of competing against Dianne Feinstein, who would become the first woman mayor of San Francisco and then U.S. Senator from California. 

It was at Stanford that she met her first husband, Ed Small. He was an engineering student from southern California, and they were married just after graduation. Ed joined the Marines, so they moved to Quantico, Virginia, for a while and were then moved back to California to a base at Twenty-Nine Palms. When his time with the Marines ended, they moved first to the Bay Area, and then south to Santa Monica.

After ten years, Mary-Margaret and Ed divorced, and she moved with their three children to Montecito, close to Santa Barbara. There she met a recent Harvard graduate who had had a prophetic dream that he would marry a woman from Hawaii. That was Justin Moore. 

Mary-Margaret started a new life with him, having her fourth child, and many fascinating adventures. First, they moved to Greece, then San Diego, and then an ashram in Canada before moving to Taos, New Mexico.

It is at this point that Mary-Margaret developed terrible back pain. A dear family friend, Dr. John Aiken, offered to hypnotize her to help with her pain and she gratefully accepted.

And that's when Bartholomew appeared on the scene. As she described it in this video, while she was under hypnosis a presence spoke through her to Dr. Aiken. Mary-Margaret recalled:

"... this very kind voice says 'Would you like to know... different things? Would you like to know about the nature of reality? About God?'. Dr.  Aiken responded 'Absolutely! Just a moment!', and he got his tape recorder, and then we just started. He would ask questions, and they got answered. And all of a sudden, everybody was talking about this thing called 'channeling', which I knew nothing about because it does not feel like channeling. It feels just like a wonderful, natural state of expansion that is so broad, so vast, and still yet alive... unexplainable. 

But anyway, out of that silent space came these words, and they were answers to some really profound questions. And then people would say ‘Oh, it was really you, Mary-Margaret!', And I would say 'Wait a minute! Do you really think that I know about the nature of God, and about the destiny of life, and of the world, and what's the purpose...? These were way beyond my expectations and knowledge. 

And so, as the years went on, more and more people got interested, and so then ... there it was. And the simplicity of it was that... I don't know what it was. The only reason that I kept on going and... remember, I was a student of Zen at the time, and Zen looks down upon this kind of action: 'It's made-up stuff, don't pay attention'. So, I was tempted to drop it, but Dr. Aiken wouldn't allow that. He was actually excited about the whole thing, so it was his motion, his excitement that moved me forward to do this."

This marked the beginning of the Bartholomew portion of Mary-Margaret's life. For the next 17 years, she channeled Bartholomew, and out of this material five books were published.

With the help of her right-hand woman and friend Joy Franklin and her husband Justin, she led Bartholomew trips all over the US and the world, bringing friends along to learn from Bartholomew wherever they went. They went to England, Scotland, Peru, the Galapagos, Jamaica, India, Japan, Australia,  Bali, Fiji, Greece, Israel, Egypt, and Italy (see the complete map here).

The loving counsel of Bartholomew would help many people worldwide, in addition to her own family. 

Bartholomew had announced long in advance that he would stop coming through in 1995, and true to form, that's what happened. Nevertheless, Mary-Margaret continued from this point on until shortly before her passing to give educational sessions. With her deep knowledge of the Bartholomew teachings she had channeled for so many years, she was more than qualified to share her own wisdom. 

After her stroke, her daughter Justine asked what she thought the meaning of life was and she replied that it's up to everyone to figure that out for themselves. Justine followed up and asked “what was the point of your life?” and she said, "To get closer to God". Justine then asked if she had achieved that. Mary-Margaret smiled widely and said emphatically, "Oh, yes!"

Next week, we will tackle the other main actor in this play: Bartholomew. Who (or what) was he/she (or it)?