The Maat Continuum

                             THE PRIESTHOOD
                     Parameters and Responsibilities
                                 by Nema
                                  1985
                             with permission
    


 The Priesthood is a condition of a soul on fire with love.
 The Priesthood is a way of life demanded by a certain level of
 spiritual responsibility, a way of life that focuses action and
 non-action toward universal enlightenment.
 Like any other course of action and non-action, the Priesthood deals
 with the many aspects of illusion. or Maya. However, a Priest lives to
 eliminate the veils of illusion for him/herself and others, to ever
 strive for a better approximation to truth.
 In the dawning of our species, each human being was his/her own Priest,
 participating in the immanence of Intelligence and in the balance of
 nature. The Divine was ever-present in the physical world, evident in
 analogies of the human experience percieved in natural events. The
 earth, as both ocean and dry land. was Mother; living things come from
 Her, as children are born to women,
 The Sun was the Father; plants hidden from His light became sickly and
 died. Thunder and lightning, volcanos, floods and hurricanes were the
 play or the anger of the gods. Animals, trees, stones, and places had
 spirits animating them.
 The main emphasis at history's beginning was the Earth Mother--symbol
 of fertility and provision, love and nurturing, death and return. At
 this stage, the Divine, the Human and the Natural were an organic
 whole. There was enough space and food for all; with the bounty of the
 Mother providing the necessities of life, the rich inner life of
 family, tribe and clan aided spiritual development without the need of
 a special Priesthood. Some individuals assumed the responsibility of
 Shaman, calling particular forces to assist in finding game, healing
 and fertility; rituals and feasts were tribal.
 When population pressure forced tribes to move, there developed the
 image of the Divine as Sky-Father. Since man creates gods in his own
 image and likeness, the patriarchal, jealous and angry Father helped
 rationalize and even bless aggressive behavior.
 No matter that the Caananites were there first; the Israelites were on
 a mission from God to take the land as promised In the Covenant. No
 matter that the Dravidian peoples Inhabited the Indian subcontinent;
 the Aryans conquered in the names of Indra and Varuna, gods of the sky.
 With Christianity and Islam, conversion at sword-point added new
 refinements to conquest.
 The Sky-Father religions developed the separate Priesthood.
 We are in a new Aeon of Priesthood, a double Aeon of the Son and the
 Daughter. Today's Priesthood is a vocation to the work of unity. For
 some individuals, this vocation is evident from childhood as a growing
 natural Interest in matters of the spirit. For others, like Saul of
 Tarsus, the call comes in a blinding moment of revelation. Perhaps, for
 the larger number of the spiritually aware, the call to Priesthood
 manifests as a course of action arising from one's own developing
 wisdom gained from progress along the Initiatory path.
 No matter what method, the Priesthood arises, for its practitioners, as
 a choice beyond choices, a natural Inevitability that cannot be denied.
 To investigate the nature of this condition, it's necessary to trace
 its evolution within the Individual soul.
 Some western Mystery schools or Orders have grades or degrees of
 attainment that are ranked into a number of divisions. There appear to
 be three major stages of individual development: Initiate, Adept and
 Priest. These stages are cumulative rather than serial.
 Initiation means beginning. In the specialized sense that's intended
 here, the process of Initiation begins with a profound dissatisfaction
 with conventional wisdom and the exoteric doctrines of established
 religions. There are too many unanswered questions and inadequate
 answers in the major western reigions, philosophies and life-ways. The
 Initiate seeks knowledge, and through knowledge, understanding, wisdom,
 and transformation.
 Knowledge proceeds from the known to the unknown, so each of us begins
 with the basic facts of our own existence and experience. We know we
 were born into a line of ancestry that recedes into prehistory. We are
 also aware of society around us, large numbers of our own species, each
 of whom has a unique world-view and personality.
 We know that at some point in our life we will die, and what happens
 beyond death is a mystery. We know that we experience intangible events
 and facts. We can observe our own mentation and reactions; we accept
 the reality of such abstractions such as love, beauty, truth and
 spirit.
 Our sense of art declares that our abilities and achievements should
 not be linked with our physical bodies in such a way as to share its
 destruction at death. We live a spiritual as well as a physical life.
 It is impossible to conceive of one's own extinction, even though we
 remember nothing prior to our early childhood. We accept a time without
 our presence, before we were born--but once having come into being, how
 can we not-be?
 Our span of incarnation is finite, but our spirit is infinite. The
 sense of infinity creates the call to Initiation; answering that call
 is an act of joy.
 We feel a growing certainty that there's more to life thari meets the
 eye; more to living than we're taught in school, at home or in church.
 Determining to seek the Unknown is the first step of Initiation.
 Instinct leads us to books written by Initiates. We need to get a
 tangible entrance to our Path.
 Initiated writings vary in their content and style. Some are complex
 and obscure, others are simple and lucid. Some books are written for
 the neophyte, others are more advanced. One's intuition should be
 trusted in the selection of such reading material.
 The beginner on the Path usually is attracted to a particular school or
 method, which he/she pursues to the point of self-development where
 other methods are studied for comparison and contrast. Initiates often
 become eclectic in search of those universal truths which underlie all
 effective schools, approaches, and methods.
 The flow of the Magickal Current sometimes causes one to meet with
 living Initiates who are further along the path than one is. When one
 meets the correct Initiate, a learning situation occurs, with benefits
 in both directions. The elder Brother or Sister shares the fruits of
 experience, the younger shares a fresh point of view.
 If the Current brings solitude at the beginning, one develops into a
 voracious reader, tracking down leads and references to further
 information. One searches out and finds occult shops, bookstores and
 groups of Initiates in the local environment.
 It's not unusual for there to be peer-group blocs of Initiates in
 certain cities at certain times, who often find each other through
 occult shops. By peer-group bloc is meant a group of friends and
 acquaintances who share an interest in the occult sciences. These blocs
 often formalize their relationship or gestalt as a Coven, a Lodge, an
 Order, etc, for the purpose of sharing knowledge and performing group
 rituals.
 Individuality Is in no way compromised in the bloc; indeed, Initiates
 are usually rugged individualists in the extreme, and the unity of the
 Great Work doesn't preclude lively debate.
 It's recommended that Initiates who work solitary balance solitude with
 personal participation in the Brotherhood of Initiates. It's always a
 good idea to check one's Work with one's peers; at any level of
 Initiation one can become unbalanced in one's development. The love of
 the Brotherhood demands truth in all dealings. An opinion honestly
 asked is honestly given, courageously listened to, impartially judged,
 and if correct, applied.
 Conversely, Initiates whose Work is mainly with a group should balance
 this activity with solitude in Temple, or better still, in the woods,
 fields, rivers, and mountains.
 In Working with a group, we often operate in the state of no-mind, but
 more often in samadhi, a state of blissful non-personhood. We become
 involved in the situations and problems of our Sisters and Brothers,
 inasmuch as we're asked for, and give, advice. Sometimes this
 involvement can occupy all of our attention, and we lose sight of
 ourselves.
 This is not a desirable loss, since our aim is to use everything we
 have and are in the Great Work. Self-awareness is necessary for the
 Will to control the self, to make sure all faculties, abilities, and
 strengths are at optimum operating levels. Time spent in solitary
 meditation and contemplation aids self-awareness.
 The Initiates search for truth usually leads through a series of
 Ordeals, or learning experiences. An Ordeal is an event or condition
 that often involves pain, distress or tedium. The intensity of these
 factors depends on how strongly our behavior is contradicting our Will,
 on the time it takes for us to notice the contradiction and on the
 accuracy of our corrective action. A wise Initiate learns to anticipate
 Ordeals and make the needed self-corrections before the learning
 experience occurs. There is no virtue in pain.
 One method of speeding the Initiation process is through practice of
 various disciplines and rituals, celebrating the Wheel of the Year and
 achieving an understanding of the principles underlying the practices.
 When an Initiate achieves sufficient understanding through study and
 practice for generating his or her own rites, the level of Adept has
 been attained.
 The performance of classical or traditional rituals Is vital to the
 attainment of Adeptship. just as painting students copy the works of
 the masters in order to place themselves in a creative condition
 similar to that of the masters, and to learn the secrets of the
 masters' techniques, so also does the Initiate re-create traditional
 rituals in order to place him/herself in a creative condition similar
 to that of the Adepts who generated and perfected the rituals, and to
 learn the secrets of those Adepts' techniques. Upon grasping the
 underlying principles of Magickal ritual, the Adept is enabled to
 create new and timely rites which are effective and efficient.
 In a broad sense, Initiation deals with theory and knowledge, and
 Adeptship deals with practice. Of course, theory and practice are
 mutually assisting. An Initiate practices and an Adept theorizes; the
 distinction is one of emphasis.
 Aleister Crowley states that Magick unearthed is not Magick at all.
 When one realizes the true nature of the universe, the Self, and
 change, it is a natural progression to put this realization to use in
 "causing change to occur in conformity with Will."
 The Initiate's Will is to learn; the Adept's Will is to do. One can
 only cease learning by adopting a blindness to ev ents and their
 meaning. One can only cease doing by rendering one's actions chaotic
 and scattered
 There are dangers in Initiation and Adeptship.
 A misplaced ego or domineering intellect can convince the Initiate that
 helshe has attained to the perfection of Art and need strive for
 excellence no longer. The uncontrolled force of emotion can cause
 either Initiate or Adept to act in ways contrary to his/her ethical
 realizations.
 For the new Initiate-Adept, there is the danger of relying too heavily
 on the information or advice of the Elder Brother or Sister. At times
 it is possible for one to begin following a person rather than the
 Path, and fall into the trap of a "cult of personality." We see this
 often in the disciples of famous gurus. The disciples become a means of
 support, both financial and emotional, for the guru, and the guru
 becomes a substitute for self-responsibility. There is little
 difference between a follower of a living guru and a devotee of
 established religions with established priesthoods.
 For those who are in the position of imparting information, there is
 the danger of becoming attached to the devotion of one's listeners.
 Respect and admiration from others is a slow poison, dangerous in the
 extreme.
 It would seem obvious that those in a teaching position should be free
 of all attachments. One's responsibility toward one's listeners and to
 Truth is too great to give any place for the ego's wrongful
 manifestation.
 It matters not about the status of teacher or listener; In Initiated
 communication, the only two factors that count are the truth of the
 matter being communicated, and the fact of communication itself. The
 latter is one major means of Intelligence's interlinking with Itself.
 Communicating, therefore, is a holy act, never to be profaned.
 The Initiate, should he/she persevere in Initiation, eventually comes
 to live in a state of awe and reverence for the essential holiness of
 the universe. This holiness includes the Initiate; one's ethics derive
 from the truth of one's perceptions. One never blasphemes or degrades
 what one sees to be sacred.
 The Adept operates from this awe as a wise Taoist. Increasingly, the
 Adept perceives his/her Will and Work as aligning with, and therefore
 becoming, the flow of things, the Magickal Current, the Tao. Action
 becomes easier as one approximates the natural course of events. One
 begins to perceive the natural course of events being diverted or
 delayed by those whose blindness to larger patterns causes them to act
 for short-term goals and local benefits.
 Increasingly, the Adept's main function becomes that of removing
 obstacles to the manifestation of Tao-Teh. It seems to be that the only
 species capable of acting contrary to the flow of things is
 humanity--at least on this planet. Even demons follow natural law.
 When the Initiate-Adept realizes that one's function consists of
 removing obstacles to Intelligence's reunion with Itself, when one
 perceives that opening the ways to Tao is necessary, sufficient and
 inevitable, then the Initiate-Adept arrives at the point of Priesthood.
 A Priest is one who undertakes the responsibility of working in all
 possible ways for universal awakening, not ceasing until the reunion of
 Intelligence be completed. This same concept is phrased in the
 Boddhisattvic Vow: "I shall not cease from existence until every
 sentient being in the Universe is enlightened."
 One presumes that anyone taking this Vow has attained to a certain
 level of enlightenment. Before a task can be undertaken, the need for
 that task must be perceived. Until we directly experience the unity of
 Intelligence, we are acting on faith and hope.
 Virtues such as faith and hope are helpful to the Initiate in the
 beginning stages-for then we see through a glass, darkly; upon
 perceiving the necessity of the Vow, the Priest sees face to face.
 'Heaven' does not have to wait for death,, but can be experienced in
 the flesh.
 When one experiences the unity of Intelligence, one sees that the
 fragments of Intelligence, which manifest as individual beings of all
 kinds are already/still united with the universal Intelligence and
 thereby with each other. Intelligence is integral. Even though most
 individuals are not consciously aware of this unity, it nevertheless
 provides the ground of being for all, and all things participate in it*
 It might be questioned concerning the need or desirability of universal
 enlightenment: if all things already do participate in the unity, why
 bother with the conscious awareness of unity?
 The conscious awareness is part of the makeup of a sentient being. If
 that being does not hold the knowledge and experience of unity in its
 consciousness. that being is Incomplete, imbalanced. Where the
 consciousness is ignorant of unity, difficulties and internal strife
 arise; action does not meet ethics,, self-destructive behavior occurs,
 entire nations can be slaughtered, and general evil abounds.
 It is impossible to cause enlightenment for another shard of universal
 Intelligence. The individual must reach the experience of unity on
 his/her own although it is possible to offer hints and clues, to point
 to the direction in which this experience lies. The Priest assists
 others In preparing for this experience, but in no way can the Priest
 give the experience to another. Each individual is his/her own Messiah;
 "salvation" can be earned, but not granted.
 The Truth of existence is ever-present; our perception and awareness of
 Truth grows with the passage of time. It is possible to see Truth
 whenever one has the capacity to do so: that capacity of sight is
 achieved by the removal of the veils of illusion. One simple exercise
 in the removal of veils is this: try to locate yourself. Are you your
 name, or your position in the community? Are you your ancestry, your
 material possessions, your talents, skills, faults, defects or deeds?
 Are you your physical body, your mind, your emotions, your intuition,
 your creativity? (The onion layers we wear are being peeled away
 rapidly.) Are you your thoughts, your responses, your inspirations? Are
 you awareness, a point-of-view, a non-dimensional point? Can the eye
 see itself?
 At the core of our individuality is the Nothing from which we came. In
 the words of the East, Atman. the core of the self, is Brahman, about
 which nothing true can be said and from which all things came. We are
 Intelligence.
 Consider this proposal: all that is lives; all that lives is
 Intelligent. We recognize exoterically several levels of life: animal,
 vegetable, protozoan, bacterial, viral. Would it not be possible for
 there to be mineral Intelligence, thinking extremely slowly via crystal
 pressure-charges? Would it not be possible for there to be solar life,
 thinking by means of the plasma's convection currents? Would it not be
 possible for there to be subatomic life, thinking by means of the
 spins, charges, quantum-band shifts and traversing the matter-energy
 distinction?
 Although Terran Priesthood is concerned with the evolution of Homo
 sapiens to Homo veritas, it aids the Work to become aware of the
 life/Intelligence of the universe and our place in it as individual and
 species. We have many new friends to learn from and to teach, once we
 have achieved the condition of Homo veritas, unified Man, the Racial
 Unconscious expanded into Race Consciousness. Priestly responsibility
 is a joyful task as we live and work in total dedication to this
 transformation of humanity.
 Intellectual agreement with the concept of the Priest's responsibility
 for universal enlightenment is not sufficient to sustain a lifetime of
 work and dedication. The vision of the unity of Intelligence must be
 experienced first-hand. This experience is attained by means of hard
 work and perserverence In the task of removing obstacles to the vision.
 Mysticism and Magick are not contradictory; rather, they are two
 aspects of a single process. These aspects intertwine and reinforce
 each other, with no detailed pattern of order on an individual basis.
 The various schools of hidden teachings outline a common broad order of
 progress or evolution, but in practice, the steps and stages vary
 widely.
 In brief review: the individual begins by experiencing a yearning for
 God, a desire for a more comprehensive understanding of the self, the
 universe, the way things work. The exoteric philosophies of tradition
 and established religions prove incapable of satisfying this yearning.
 The individual seeks out sources of information, libraries, bookstores,
 accessible groups whose names imply knowledge of the hidden teachings.
 Af ter a certain period of information intake, one begins to put the
 information into practice through various disciplines and rituals. The
 practices yield results--"coincidences" manifest in the individual's
 life, results desired and unsuspected follow rituals, new and
 appropriate pieces of information become available; proof of the
 reality of Magick presents itself in unmistakable ways. In addition to
 interesting phenomena, rituals and disciplines open up new levels of
 perception through which further Initiations can occur.
 As the individual progresses as an Initiate, he/she comes to recognize
 the universal laws governing effective Magickal practice, and
 eventually becomes able to design and perform new rites that work
 efficiently for him/herself and obliging colleagues. Sometimes the
 Ideas for new rites and practices arrive in the mind as channelings, as
 though a higher intelligence is giving the ideas to the Adept. The
 identity of the source of ideas is Irrelevant; the point Is: do the
 Ideas work when put into practice or not?
 The subject matter of ritual practice evolves with the practitioner. In
 the beginning, much of one's practical Temple-work involves boons and
 blessings upon individuals or the world community at large. One does
 rituals for healing and health, for employment and financial
 well-being, for harmonious personal relationships, for peace, justice,
 famine relief, etc. Eventually one adds invocation and evocation,
 astral travel and rising on the planes.
 Invocation is the calling upon of a godform to indwell In the caller,
 an effort to experience the nature of a particular god and to acquire
 from this a divine perspective as well as the particular powers of that
 god. Evocation is the calling upon of a lower spirit--be it demon,
 elemental, or denizen of darkness--in order to understand its nature
 and to put the lower entity under the scrutiny and control of the mind
 and will.
 Astral travel is a journey through Inner Space to realms inaccessible
 to the conscious mind and physical body, for the purpose of gaining
 information and control of events occurring at a distance or of events
 still in potentiality. One can encounter various types of astral
 entities during such travels; any Information gained from them should
 be thoroughly tested before being accepted as true.
 Rising on the planes Is the practice of putting onets point-of-view in
 states of increasing lucidity and comprehension. One can rise on-the
 planes rapidly or slowly, depending on one's own capacities and
 development. A good tool for this process is the Qabbalistic Tree of
 Life, a pattern of the microcosm and the macrocosm consisting of.
 various Spheres and the Paths connecting them. With an Intellectual
 grasp of the Tree, it's possible to create a spiritual environment
 conducive to the experience of a particular Sphere or Path.
 All of these practices contribute to the growth of the individual's
 development, leading to the realization of Priesthood.
 The Priest functions in a number of ways. Perhaps the most important
 function is that of the Priest as living talisman of the entire human
 race. The vow of responsibility forges a Magickal Link between the
 Priest and the rest of the species. This link, based on profound love,
 enhances the influence of the Priest upon other people. As he/she lives
 and grows, so grows the spirituality of others. In a sense, the Priest
 is a pioneer, an explorer, a trailblazer. By accomplishing change
 within him/herself, the Priest opens the way for others to duplicate
 his/her accomplishments. Essentially, the opening of the way is
 achieved through direct talismanic action: i.e., doing something once,
 for the first time, makes it easier for it to be done again. Repeated
 accomplishment, especially if duplicated by other Priests brings about
 the "hundredth monkey effect" in the race at large.
 At the present writing, the human race does participate in the
 universal Intelligence through the "Racial Unconscious" as postulated
 by Jung. The talismanic link of the Priesthood operates through this
 Racial Unconscious, as well as through the higher realms of pure
 spirit. Because of the deeper vision and greater power of the Priest,
 he/she has the ability to influence large numbers of his/her fellows;
 the influential flow from @the mass of humanity to the Priest is of a
 lesser order, but is also real. There is a danger of falling back into
 a narrower and more primitive condition of reality should the Priest
 neglect his or her responsibilities of constant awareness and
 unflagging work.
 The talismanic function obliges the Priest to strive for personal
 perfection at all times: the fate of the species depends on it. This
 does not mean, though, that the Priest should ever regard him/herself
 as a kind of Messiah or Savior, for such self-regard would reverse the
 effect of the Priestly work.
 Many if not all writings on the hidden teachings emphasize the dangers
 of Ego, and speak of the need of undergoing "Ego-death" as a
 requirement for higher realms of consciousness. This death is not a
 destruction of the Ego as the sense of self, but a transformation and
 reordering of the Ego as part of the whole self. The virtue of humility
 is not a blind abasement of the self before a superior or supreme
 being; rather, humility is the vision of one's proper function in the
 universe, a correct judgment of one's successes and failures in
 fulfilling that function.
 The Priest is not a Messiah or Savior; his or her function is not one
 of redemption or salvation, but of realization and evolution. A priest
 is a human among humans, motivated by enlightened self-interest. The
 sooner universal enlightenment is complete, the sooner the Priest will
 be free of the obligation of individual continuity and can resolve into
 pure undifferentiated Intelligence.
 A second function of Priesthood is that of information-sharing. As
 mentioned earlier, the elder Brothers and Sisters share wisdom with the
 younger, the younger Brothers and Sisters share new points-of-view.
 At our present stage of evolution, the Priest shares Information in
 ways suitable to his partners In dialogue.
 Through his/her own experiments and experiences in self-knowledge, the
 Priest becomes ever more accurate at assessing the spiritual level of
 development of another person. From this assessment the Priest fashions
 and uses the most appropriate persona or Mask, through which he/she
 communicates with the other person. The Priest seems familiar,
 compatible, comfortable; the other person relaxes and opens in
 receptivity.
 When dealing with colleagues, there is no need of a Mask other than
 one's usual, everyday persona. At certain stages, Initiates may require
 one to use a Mask of extreme subtlety and power. ("Ye must teach, but
 ye may make severe the ordeals.") Sometimes Masks are used for play
 among Adepts and Priests; the only caveat for this is the power of the
 Mask to convince the wearer of the Mask's reality. The more skillfully
 crafted the Mask, the greater its power of conviction. especially if
 its reality is being reinforced through its relationships with other
 Masks in this play of Adepts.
 It's a different matter when dancing the Mask with an uninitiate. Here
 one is employing a professional tool in a serious task: waking up a
 sleeper from his nightmares of fragmentation, dispersion and
 self-destruction. The concentration of the Priest's Will upon the task
 at hand keeps the Mask under control. A Mask is an artificial Ego
 created for the purpose of facilitating communication. In a sense it
 does have a life of its own because it is created and sustained from
 the Priest's own substance. At the core of each Mask is a point of
 Identity, identical with the Priest's own point. The Priest is
 responsible for everything he/she creates or destroys.
 Information-sharing can also occur through the practice of Art. One
 virtue of Art as a tool in the Great Work is its ability to move and
 change the audience through bypassing the verbal censors of the
 unbalanced Ego. Art evokes response from the beholder. A good artist
 knows precisely which responses he/she wants to evoke, in what order
 and/or combination; he/she also has the skill to present the proper
 stimuli to accomplish it. Each medium of Art has its particular
 strengths and weaknesses.
 Music can evoke emotional and spiritual responses. It communicates
 directly with our chakras; the precision and power of music's Influence
 depends directly on the composer's and performer's genius. In the most
 sublime music, such as that of Bach and Beethoven, the evocation is of
 Intelligence itself and the ecstacy of the rapt listener.
 Dance and mime evoke sympathy and relational openness from the
 audience. It also evokes admiration and awe of the human form in
 motion. As a species, we take pleasure in beauty, skill, grace, power
 and heart, all essential ingredients for the action-arts.
 Graphic art, architecture and sculpture can evoke the entire spectrum
 of human response. The same holds true for still photography and motion
 pictures.
 No matter what the medium, a talented Priest can communicate the great
 fact of our unity without preaching or didacticism. Art shows rather
 than tells. All great artists function as Priests, whether they think
 of themselves as Priests or not.
 In addition to the talismanic and information-sharing functions, the
 Priest performs Temple-work as a ritualist in order to augment
 sensitivity to the flow of the Magickal Current, to formally
 align,his/her being with the Current, to add all the power. and energy
 he/she is capable of channelling to the Current.
 The Priest and the rest of the race participate in the actual
 generation of the Magickal Current. The collective electromagnetic
 energy of the human nervous system imparts a particular
 signature-signal on the carrier wave of the flow of time and universal
 energy. The force of our human signal returns amplified by its circuit
 of intergalactic space. Upon returning to Earth, the signal is received
 by all those with any degree of psychic sensitivity. The evolved signal
 is very attractive to those with clear vision. The sensitives begin to
 put the signal into practice, and the next pulse of the human signal Is
 much stronger going in. Our physical/technological history grows
 exponentially, and so does the force of the evolved signal.
 The ritualistic function of the Priesthood is as important as the other
 functions. A Priest's ritual technique differs from that of the Adept
 in that it is minimalist and often done in motionless silence.
 A Priest gives advice when sincerely asked to do so, and has the right
 to intervene and comment whenever he/she sees fit. A Priest doesn't
 debate, argue, convince, or prove. A Priest speaks Truth in the most
 appropriate way possible, but doesn't try to sell his/her statements to
 anyone. Accepting or rejecting Truth when it's presented is the
 responsibility of the listener.
 The Priest functions as spiritual counselor, healer of souls, speaker
 of truth. He/she is an explorer who returns to tell of high adventure
 and wondrous visions, then works to help all interested listeners to
 befit themselves for the journey. The Priest has experienced humanity's
 next step In evolution and from this experience works wholeheartedly
 for the rest of the race to take the step also.
 The Priest functions as a warrior who battles restrictive dogmas in all
 their many guises. When appropriate, the Priest participates In and
 encourages the Outer political processes, doing whatever is possible to
 restructure the forms of society to, better reflect the unity of
 Intelligence in the legislative process.
 When our transformation is complete as a species. there will be no need
 for legislation,, the state, national boundaries or artificial control
 of the flow of goods and services. There will be no need for armies,
 police, or prisons. The concept of wealth will be redefined; churches.
 corporations, charities and clubs based on exclusivity will be greatly
 changed or will disappear entirely.
 In the meantime, the Priest exercises wisdom and creativity in using
 existing channels to assist the great leap humanity is facing.
 Paramaters of Priesthood vary with the situation and the individuals
 involved in it. To better enable oneself to work efficiently at all
 times the Priest practices and continues to grow in knowledge,
 understanding, wisdom and silence. Any situation is best handled from
 the plane(s) above the plane in which it is occurring. This provides an
 overview from which to see the situation in context, thus permitting
 the optimum resolution to be perceived.
 By operating from the vantage of the Supernals (the Spheres of
 understanding, wisdom and silence), the Priest perceives and acts from
 the highest possible overview. Through habitual exercise, the Supernal
 view is maintained at all times--as an ideal situation. In practice,
 prevailing social attitudes insinuate themselves into any Individual's
 thought processes, almost by osmosis, due to the sheer numbers of
 uninitiates in the world and the strength of their combined psychic
 fields. In order to combat the situation, it'shelpful ' to design one's
 personal environment to remind one of the Supernal view, to engage in
 daily practice that reinforces the view, to carry on one's person an
 amulet or talisman to remind one of the Priestly office.
 There is no such thing as resting on one's laurels or retirement in the
 Priesthood. It's truly a life's work, and more. Death itself is merely
 a short vacation or sabbatical that permits one to obtain a fresh and
 energetic vehicle through which to operate. An individual who has
 developed enough to see and embrace the Priesthood has also developed
 the strength of personal integration sufficient to survive intact
 through any number of deaths and births. To those who see personal
 survival as the antithesis of our course of returning to the
 Nothingness from whence we came, It might be said that personal
 dissolution cannot be complete until all are able to release their hold
 on illusion. The unity of Intelligence prevents selective dissolution.
 The Priesthood's task is to make the unity of Intelligence obvious to
 the whole of the human racer, so that this unity can also prevent the
 nightmare of nuclear annihilation. We live In a crucial time; each
 Individual Is responsible for our continuity and development. The
 Priesthood is the cadre of those who have fully accepted this
 responsibility.
 Every facet of life participates In the work of the Priest. No ordinary
 motivation could Inspire total dedication to such an enormous task.
 Only the experience of the unity of Intelligence, the experience of
 participating in the universal pattern of Consciousness can enable one
 to actually love one's neighbor as oneself. Our neighbor is ourself in
 the unity of Intelligence, and much of ourself is in pain through
 Ignorance of this fact. There Is nothing that is not of us. All that is
 we embrace in joyful recognition of our essential unity and Identity.
 The Priesthood is a condition of a soul on fire with love.
 "For I am divided for loves sake, for the chance of union."

                         6/16/85, Cincinnati, OH
                                  Nema