Meet the #OrbGang Harnessing Marianne Williamson’s Astral Power to Shift the Election

What is human existence if not energy incarnate, composite stardust vibrating in a flowing stream of love? Of course, humans can’t stop the stream, but perhaps we can harness the energy and use it to influence others. And on June 26, 2019, Marianne Williamson did just that. 

Vibrations from the then-presidential candidate sent the following promise into the universe: “I’m going to harness love for political purposes. I will meet you on that field, and sir, Love Will Win.” And the universe quickly responded with #OrbGang. 

“Anyone who resonates with that [message] and chooses to act on it is an orbling,” says Sarah Marilyn, a neuroscientist turned social media consultant. OrbGang might have begun as a “distributed spontaneous reaction to Marianne Williamson’s closing statement,” Marilyn says, but it’s not so spontaneous anymore. If anything, the OrbGang is employing the universe’s energy to wield control over U.S. politics. 

Per Marilyn, there exists what the group “sort of jokingly” calls the “Orb High Council.” From above, it processes news and events and organizes in real time. “Such as preparing for one of the debates [by] putting Warren in the egg, or sentencing Chris Matthews to astral prison to think about what he’s done,” Marilyn explains. 

The rest of the OrbGang operates like a “cell network,” she continues. “Other squads of astral troops, sometimes anonymous, operate in their own capacities in harmony with the orb.” Of course, some choose to enter the cerebral plane of love in anonymous fashion, and so Marilyn isn’t sure just how many orblings are out there. 

“Maybe there’s an orb inside everyone, and maybe it’s activated at different times!” she theorizes. “In the high council, we have members from all over the continent, all kinds of careers, ages, genders. None of us knew each other before Williamson uttered those words.” But now, everything the High Council does is in accordance. 

“Whether something is or is not of the orb makes things pretty simple,” Marilyn explains. “We all just do our best to stay close to the orb. Anyone can put anything in an egg if they want, or undertake any orb-related task, and we are here to signal-boost.”  

Stephanie Palenick, another member of the Orb High Council, says the directions from on high aren’t orders so much as suggestions. “Would the egg work with fewer eyes on it? Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn’t,” she tells MEL. “We want everyone to actively engage in imagining good things happening, just to see what we can do.”  

After all, no one can control the universe. You can only hope it responds. Put another way: “Time is relative,” says another Orb High Council member, Cuán. “For a photon, there is no time at all. It travels across a frozen universe and that’s all it’ll ever know. The universe knows best when something has run its course, and it has a good track record of recycling!” 

But which astral plane, exactly, does the Orb High Council operate on? Is it reiki, The Secret or something else? 

“Each of us operates in a different mode and current,” Palenick explains. Sometimes astrology is taken into account, she says, adding that she’s not sure anyone in the orb network knows “how seriously we take any of this. It is both a LARP [live-action roleplay] and not a LARP, [so] maybe post-irony is the most important thing about us.” 

Cuán puts it another way: “We eat bad vibes, cleanse them and shit love back into the universe.” Marilyn says the network simply “draws power from the orb.”

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how the OrbGang draws power as long as they’re successful. And so far, they’ve claimed victory for Love over several key battles on the astral playing field. 

“Our first big success was our initial mission: to meme Marianne Williamson into the first debate that she missed. When Trevor Noah included her in the debate coverage as having astral-projected onto the stage, and SNL began including her in skits instead of some of the candidates who were actually still appearing at the debates, the memepower was real — and we just kept her trending and helping boost her signal,” Marilyn explains. 

Since then, many parts of the orb prophecy have been fulfilled. “Tulsi, Yang, Williamson and Bernie supporters — the four horsegangs of the memepocalypse — eventually formed an alliance, and we count Warren’s debate performance as a success,” Marilyn continues. “The egg of simultaneous empowerment and disempowerment seemed to prevent her from hurting Bernie, and she was definitely in her power when she dealt with Bloomberg. It was a good night.”  

Alas, the universe hasn’t always rewarded the gang. At least it seems that way so far. 

On Super Tuesday, the Orblings “tried to contain the dark psychic forces of the moderate endorsements corralling behind Biden” but came up short. Nevertheless, the OrbGang persists. Like the universe, their energy is limitless, and they will continue to fight. 

“Our agenda is always the same,” Marilyn says: “harness love for political purposes. Meet Trump on that field, and show that Love Will Win.”

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Quinn Myers

Quinn Myers is a staff writer at MEL. He reports on internet culture, technology, health, masculinity and the communities that flourish within.