“Be the change you want in the world”

Mohandas Gandhi (“Mahatma” is an honorific title)

A2FP81 Rare studio photograph of Mahatma Gandhi taken in London England UK at the request of Lord Irwin 1931

Symbols and Colors

• Background Image: A swirling opening to cosmic input
• Border Color: Violet – Indicative of the 7th Chakra
• Flame in Open-hand: The Priest Set.
• Mask: Roles Group.
• Pharaoh: Exalted Overleaves.
• Heart: Inspiration Axis

Interpretation of the Upright Position or the Positive Pole

An open hand and an open heart, outstretched. Compassion is offering a hand, but not forcing it on someone, grabbing them or pulling them along. Many religions pray, bless, or give benedictions with open hand. However, the greater good is ultimately attained as we reached higher toward Love and Compassion. In this way, there is a joining of hands and an ‘hand-up’ toward a more healing experience.

Card messages in the Illuminated position.

+ Compassion

(Caring, Ministerial, Guiding, Enthusiastic, Healing, Humanitarian, Inspirational, Nurturing, On a Mission, Visionary, Spiritual)

1. Compassion is the balm that can heal all wounds. You are being asked to bring it to the situation you are in. Could it be you are the one who needs the compassion?
2. Remember the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you! Said another way, pay kindness forward and you shall have sewn the seeds of love and goodwill; and flourish!
3. Listen to someone’s confession. Your kindness is giving the gift of release. Just be still.
4. If this card is making an appearance, the theme is signifying a review of your compassion, your zeal to save people, your judgment of others or a time to bring a sense of healing with forgiveness.
5. Take your medicine and follow what the doctor’s orders. Maybe it is just rest up or drink more fluids. In this case, conventional wisdom is on the mark. 
6. Mature Priest and Social Trends forecaster, Faith Popcorn noted the prescription to “S.O.S. (Save Our Society): In order to protect our endangered planet, we must rediscover a social conscience based on a necessary blend of ethics, passion, and compassion.” This prescription also applies to Save Our Selves.
7. If this card is making an appearance, the theme is signifying a review of your compassion, your zeal to save people, and your judgment of others. Forgiveness is the only balm that will bring a sense of healing. It may be you that needs the forgiveness. Ask someone for it if appropriate.
8. The humanitarian knows that to pay kindness forward you shall have made an investment in love and goodwill. The human race is in deep shortage of it. Give, give, give. Worry about profit later.
9. Mohandas (his actual name) Gandhi, an Old Priest, said, “A ‘No’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.” Here, principle is more important than safety.
10. In a moment of prayer you may have a vision of something inspirational. Your Spirit is moving you.

Quotes pertaining to this idea:

• “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” His Holiness, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
• “Everyone of us needs to show how much we care for each other and, in the process, care for ourselves.”  Princess Diana
• “A ‘No’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.” Mohandas Gandhi
• “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
• “Compassion is a verb.” Thich Nhat Hanh

Interpretation of the Reversed Position or Negative Pole

No one inspires a throng like a Priest on his/her soap box, preaching to a crowd. Self-righteousness is not limited to a Priest, but the person who occupies this position almost certainly believes his/her message is hallowed, sacrosanct, or in some cases actually guided from on-high. But on the rare occasion, in the presence of someone truly inspired, we are mesmerized and spellbound by their words and passion. The rest of us, captured by the crushing grip of such a speaker, just sit back and pray that this person shuts the hell up.

Card messages in the Shadow position.

– Righteousness

(Evangelical, Fanatical, Pious, Insular, Parochial, Zealous, Damning, Proselytizing, Contemptuous, Demagogue, Sanctimonious)

1. All jihads and crusades arise by stirred emotion from fomenting fear into a righteous fervor. Indignation is what carries mobs to atrocities. Where do you allow your moral absolutes to persecute others?
2. Pay attention if you or someone else is doing something hurtful and justifying it being for their own good.
3. Careful not to get up on your high horse and be preachy. You might stir the righteous, but you might also be driving people with guilt or shame.
4. Zeal might be effective for achieving a goal or finishing a task, but awful for dealing with people. Back off a bit! If you don’t care about them, then pick up the whip. It does work in the short term.
5. It looks like you are striving to be on the right side of an issue. The problem however is defined by you for you, and not necessarily for resolution but for victory.
6. Don’t confuse forgetting or feigning, as forgiving. A grudge hides under a façade of someone wanting to look holier-than-thou.
7. Circumstances appear harsh and are driven by fanatical motives. It doesn’t make sense but it is overwhelming. Realize that to stand with good sense you might face a lot of opposition.
8. An inquisition is being held. Someone is being held in contempt and judged unfairly.
9. Look out for someone on a high horse and being preachy. They are stirring up righteous resentment, manipulating people with guilt or shame for rabid identification with hate.
10. Righteous indignation is what carries mobs to atrocities. Where do you allow your moral absolutes to persecute others? Or, are you dealing with someone who can’t see through theirs?

Quotes pertaining to this idea:

• “Every zeal or passion brings with it a superstitious conviction of having to face a day of reckoning: even the zeal of a disbeliever.” Pavase
• “Faith is never identical with piety.” Barth
• “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”
  Mohandas Gandhi
• “Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks.” Karl Marx
• “If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
• “All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.” Adolf Hitler

Relevance in The Michael Teaching

Of all the Roles, it is the Priest who values the subtleties of spirit and how it affects morality, and has the greatest need to seek contentment within the Essence. Ever seeking re-unification with the higher realms and more expansive horizons, the Priests instinctively to seek objectively the available options . Yet, the curse of the Priest is to feel superior and hence fall prey to being arrogance and hubris leading to feelings or acts of zealous fanaticism toward others.

Bound internally by an unmistakable sense that the Universe, God, and all its creatures are inextricable linked, the Priest seeks greater beauty by verifying in the tangible world that which faith has informed exists in the ethereal realms. Emotion can govern the Priest as to lift them up to the platform essence-actualization of all their inherent qualities; or launch them in the confused and vain abyss of idolatry. In this century a person of the more negative qualities of Priest was are as follows: The quest for Spirituality can render the Priest with an Arrogant “holy than thou” Pride that causes a essence righteous identification as being a “soldier in Gods war.” This permissive vanity is the source of all ideological zealotism. This quality was embodied in Rasputin and Hitler. And, in this negative pole, anyone may pick up the mantle of divine messenger and yet act more like the Angel of Death, all in the name of whatever God or principle they invoke.

Assaying  the Priest Archetype as an aspect of the TAO, is to assign the functions of judgement, mercy, and forgiveness, to it. Yet, it can also hence be the wrathful and vengeful manifestation in its fanatical or absolutist declarations. No one person is likely to entirely display all of these qualities but as a historical representation, we can recognize these hurtful propensities in such gods as: Loki, Pele, Kali, and Lucifer.

Cultural Archetype – Exalted Arcana

While not to confuse the Priest archetype with that of a clergy in any particular religious sect, they might certainly consider themselves crusaders for various points of view or causes. Currently, the public attention on two priests: Sarah Palin and Barack Obama is a spectacle in Priest of differing Soul Age (the former a Baby and the latter a Mature). Each have created a following of ardent supporters and each have visions of America in total contrast to the other. The similarity is the degree of faith and rightness each has regarding their chose path and mission. When frocked in the uniform of a particular sect, Priests may be a unifying factor for a congregation, community, movement, cause or cult. The traditional Tarot might call this character the Hierophant or the Pope, depending upon the designation of that deck. In the real word, the Priest might be the most covertly dangerous of the seven roles while at the same time be the most inspirational, magnanimous, and forgiving. When someone is bound to piety or righteous indignation, the negative expression of the Priest reveals itself with a fury.

Life Metaphor and Implied Motto

Life is a gift. Life is a blessing. Spirit is to be obeyed.

Examples of this Archetype

1. Famous People: Joan of Arc, Joan Baez, John Calvin, Carol Burnett, Julius Caesar, Princess Diana, Linda Evans, Steven Hawking, Adolph Hitler, Napoleon Bonaparte, Malcolm X, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Oprah Winfrey, Reba McEntire, Imelda Marcos, Priscilla Presley, Stevie Wonder, Lily Tomlin, Nancy Reagan, Desmond Tutu, President Barack Obama, Edgar Cayce, Bob Dylan, Jerry Falwell, Mahatma Gandhi, Sigmund Freud, Alger Hiss, Barbara Marx-Hubbard, Bono, St. Francis of Assisi, Diane Sawyer, Suzie Orman, Tony Blaire, Dr. Bernie Siegal, Denzel Washington, Princess Diana, Kevin Costner, Ralph Nader, Robes Pierre. (For more visual examples see: PersonalitySpirit.net)
2. Mythical or Cartoon characters: Sherlock Holmes (pictured above), Jessica Rabbit, Aphrodite (Venus),
3. Institutions: Religion, torture, ritual (Catholic Mass, Jewish Seder, funerals, baptism)
4. Familiar Occupations: Ministers – from Televangelists to Clergymen or women, Inspirational speakers, Doctors, revolutionaries,
5. Animal Totems: Flamingo, praying mantis, sail fish, octopus
6. Inventions or works of art: churches, whip, corral signing, chanting, courts and justice systems,
7. Cities and Nationalities: Rome, Tehran, Johannesburg, Machu Picchu, Angor Watt, Lhasa, Jerusalem

Identify Statements of the Priest Role Energy
(Not every aspect may be in play.)

1. I seek to serve the highest good as I know it.
2. Whatever my position, I know it to be of the highest moral rightness.
3. I want people to come together for common cause and I have that cause.
4. Inspiration and hope is what people most need to make life work.
5. I have compassion for all those who suffer.
6. I help people face their fears with optimism and a greater resolve so that they are unafraid of the things that once scared them.
7. I sense the pain of others and want to guide them to healing.
8. Helping a person reach their potential is my highest path.
9. The world could be healed if I can just get enough people to listen to the truth I know.
10. I would use any “bully pulpit” to spread the word: politics, business, media, church, schools, and interest groups.
11. I often feel like I’m on a mission, directed from some higher power or overriding purpose.
12. I can be so insistent about how other people can fix themselves or connect with something higher, that I am told that I am sometimes really intense.
13. I love to get people turned-on and moving in the right direction.
14. When I am really riled up, I can sound like a preacher sermonizing.
15. My mission is to help people and show my compassion for their plight, but I sometimes get carried force my beliefs on others.
16. In issues of morality and proper conduct (as I see it at least) I can get self righteous and indignant even falling into the trap of thinking my way is superior.
17. Friends and family might describe me as inspired, compassionate, a visionary, a natural healer, a leader of the congregation, someone that could inspire global healing.
18. I am adept at healing others, both psychologically and spiritually.
19. My choice of profession might be as a political or religious spokesperson, psychologist, spiritual teacher, founder of nonprofit organization, caretaker, someone who wants to save the world.
20. Sometimes it can feel difficult to be in the world. It is almost as if I’d be better off as a spirit to effect things here.
21. My passions feel like edicts from on-high. Whatever I undertake, those who I effect I look at them as if I were their shepherd and they my flock.
22. Faith is a far too important attribute to overlook or not have.

The Priest Set

The Priest Set comprises the fundamental energies listed below. These subordinate Overleaves are second-nature to the Priest Role. They are embedded in, and native to, the construction of this Role as design defaults. Visually displayed under the Priest column on the Card Color Chart in Section 1, realize that if no other Overleaves were chosen from other categories by a person of that Role, they would
be automatically orient to these nested qualities.

The Priest Cards, are all Cardinal/Exalted, Inspiration-oriented, and focused look to the Heavens for guidance. Believing themselves to be directed, they look the Goal of Growth to expand the number of people or possibilities then can touch and explore. Sensing that their direction is guided from on-high, the Attitude of Spiritualist facilitates their intuition being open, receptive and informed. Demonstrating their conviction in what they believe to be right, the Passion Mode is their preferred vehicle to deliver their message and to achieve peak experience. To express charismatically, they reverberate from The Higher Emotional Center wanting to shower everyone with the connection to divine love. No better vehicle conveys the statuesque quality of a sainted person than the Saturn Body Type which towers in its presence and radiates a formidable certainty.

The Chief Feature of Arrogance is second nature to the Priest who wants to display of assurance of their way of being and promotion of their ideas. It bolsters the Priest’s sense of superiority, but also numbs them against the fear that their faith is less than complete and that they are vulnerable to criticism. When a person has chosen any of the Priest characteristics, they are engaging these aspect to utilize or evaluate an Inspirational or emotions based quality that may borders on morality self-esteem.

Notice the particular card you draw. If you chose the Priest Role, your inner most sense of place in the world is up for some review, with your needs to be loved and feel connected at the forefront.

From One Archetype to the Next…

The TAO, now almost complete but needing the final command of excellence embodying the all that totality has to convey, the King represents the highest manifestation of mastery. Now that all the other players have been set upon the stage, every aspect and function covered, a director is needed for strategic placement of the other characters to initiate the play. We move to the participant who exercises the centered sovereignty to make those decisions and decree them. This final aspect is that of the King Role – Card 7. 

by Stephen Cocconi © 2011, Updated, 2024

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