World Priest

Are You a Priest? At some point in everyone’s spiritual evolution, they will feel a shift. Perhaps you have felt it already. It feels like moving from one room to another or from one house to another. The world looks different, and you are no longer the person you once were. We go through many such transitions throughout the course of our lives, but this is different. It’s not simply a rite of passage in the process of growing up, nor is it a change in the way we relate to society. This is a rite of passage of the soul. And once it happens, it cannot be undone. Do you feel estranged from religion? Do you find it increasingly difficult to see other human beings as spiritually superior (or inferior)? Are the Scriptures—any of them—starting to feel less relevant in your life? These are signs that your relationship with God is changing, that it’s becoming more direct and less dependent upon a go-between. Why else would more and more people describe themselves as spiritual but not religious? In this book, we will explore this primary relationship, our inner Priesthood, and we will look at ways to maximize our effectiveness in the world. We have to recognize that Earth’s problems are mental. They will not go away until the destructive mindsets that got us into this mess are corrected. And while it’s true that we must be actively transforming our minds before we can transform the minds of others, it is not true that the world changes only one person at a time. There are many ways to leverage our ability to change the One Mind, raising our powers of influence to exponential levels. Collectively, these methods are known as “priestcraft,” and they are the main topic of this book. Everyone is a broadcasting station. We continually send forth our thoughts, charged with our feelings, into the collective mind of the world in which we live. The depth of our connection with each other is profound, each of us affecting the other with the quality of our spiritual presence. But if the broadcast we send forth is merely the sum of our human experiences, we only reinforce what is already there. The Priesthood is about adding something new to the mix, thoughts and energies of a higher origin, energies that by their very presence will transform the world. Priests, real priests (which anyone can be regardless of their religion, education, or station in life) have the power to think new thoughts energized by the Spirit of God. Having raised their consciousness above the noise of the One Mind and having broken free of the automatism of instinctual thinking, they are capable of introducing new ideas and new spiritual energies into the collective consciousness of the world. Lineage: Where do priests come from? While the laying on of hands and the oral transmission of sacred teachings is a necessary part of a spiritual heritage, realistically it is not the only way the priesthood is handed down. Sometimes, as in the case of Saint Paul on the road to Damascus, people are ordained directly by the heavenly Host, without the mediation of a physical teacher or recognized lineage. The trouble with the word "lineage" is that it is so linear, time-wise—who gave what to whom and when they gave it. We have to look at the concept of “lineage” from a different perspective, because we cannot understand spiritual things with a mundane mind. Spiritual unity is not necessarily intellectual unity. We can have widely divergent opinions about religion, morals, ethics, and politics, and we can still be aligned in our will, our consciousness, and our energy. This is the “rock” upon which we build our church. The energy of ritual: When we meditate, we "go within." We withdraw our attention from the world and pull it back into ourselves—we turn away from the world out there. It is something that martial artists, dancers, and athletes of all kinds experience regularly. It is what we are doing energetically when we fold our hands in front of us in prayer. We take the energy that is normally squandered on outer distractions and focus it inwardly, drawing it back into ourselves, forming a tight cocoon of light and power. Inner Guidance: It comes in many forms. Some people hear a distinct message, some have visions, some find themselves caught up in the spirit of the moment, and the right thing to do spreads out before them like a roadmap. We are each born with certain spiritual gifts—some with more, some with less, some unique and specific, some general and broad. Some have the ability to heal, others the ability to teach, and some have the ability to be a friend to all of humanity. Have you ever considered that your spiritual gift is your guidance? In the parable of the Ten Talents, a man getting ready to go on a trip gives each of his employees a different amount of money and tells them to go out and put it to work. He doesn't take them by the hand and tell them what to do at every turn. He just says to go out and make it grow. The point of the story is clear: use what you’ve been given. Make the most of what you’re good at.