Artisans Kings Priests Sages Scholars Servers Warriors
The priest role
Traits | Description | Purpose | Compatibility
+ Compassion
– Zeal 7% of the
population Inspiration
Cardinal
Positive Traits: Caring, Compassionate, Guiding, Enthusiastic, Healing, Humanitarian, Inspirational, Nurturing, On a Mission, Visionary, Spiritual
Negative Traits: Evangelical, Fanatical, Feverish, Impractical, Irrational, Proselytizing, Visionary Blindness, Vague, Unthinking, Zealous
The Priest role is also one of Inspiration, like the Server. But the kind of inspiration for which the Priest is a channel is to lift others up from their lowly condition, to inspire the people of the world to higher aspirations, to provoke people to noble virtues, and to raise the consciousness of mankind. In the Positive Pole of Compassion, the Priest feels sympathy for the psychological suffering in the souls of others, and seeks to alleviate it by encouraging them to find their way out of it. In the Negative Pole of Zeal, the Priest crusades to reform the wrongs of the world. He campaigns fervently to make life better for others. Metaphorically speaking, Priests are the heart of the body of mankind.
Many Priests literally fulfill the name of their Role type, of course. They pursue a career in the area of religion. It might be as a pastor of a flock, a rabbi in a synagogue, a priest in a church, or a minister of a congregation. In this occupation a Priest can most clearly fulfill his inherent urge to inspire others. A Priest feels impelled to exhort others to “lift of your eyes unto the heavens and behold the glory of God”. Priests are very big on spiritual health — “How is your relationship with God?”, “Do you know the Lord, brother?” The issues of cosmic significance and importance are what interests Priests. Whatever is holy and sacred is their domain.
Not Always Pious Or Religious
But priests are not always blatantly pious or religious by any means. If not in the actual ministry or priesthood, then another favorite life role that occupies many Priests is psychology, such as in counseling or psychiatry. Here they can apply their natural desire to heal to the task of healing the minds and spirits of their clients. Priests are very big on mental health — happiness, fulfillment, and positive attitude.
Many Priests also find their calling in the medical profession, healing bodies rather than minds, although this is more the province of Servers. However, a Priest will usually be more aware than the Server of the psychological components of healing. Normally the Priest/Server Complementary Pair make an all-around healing team, intent on improving the quality of life. The Priest wants to heal the spirit of his patients, and the Server wants to heal the body. Still, physical healing is very much a natural function of the Priest. One instance known to me personally is a Priest who was a Baptist minister, who also worked as an employment counselor on the side. In this capacity he was able to help the right person find the best job, and the right job find the best person. Priests often also choose careers as teachers. Here they can encourage young minds and hearts to grow, and inspire them to learn. In whatever occupation Priests find themselves, they will apply a measure of good psychology to it, because of their inherent sensitivity to spiritual issues.
Historically, Priests have served in the capacity of tribal shaman or holy man, temple priests or priestesses in various nations such as Egypt and Babylon, and as Monks in monasteries. Their role was to initiate people into the mysteries, to reveal higher truths, to lead in the worship of God or gods, and to speak for the deity. Wherever and whenever there has been pious activity, there has been a Priest.
Priests have high expectations of moral conduct for themselves and for others. Consequently, one trait that often besets Priests is that they have an inherent sense that they are enlightened, whether or not they actually are. This often translates into a feeling of superiority. It is in fact this very feeling which causes them to presume that they know what to do to help other people out of their problems. Thus they are often guilty of offering unsolicited advice at every opportunity. They may see themselves as the local Johnny-on-the-spot Ann Landers.
They believe it is their sanctified job to be a blessing to others. The action here is to metaphorically reach down from their exalted plane above, and take hold of the lowly wretched ones, and lift them up and out of their misery. In their less-polished expressions, Priests can be very moralistic and self-righteous in their attempts to show people a better way of life. An arrogant Priest might be guilty of “helping” people who didn’t ask and don’t want that help. He might say within himself, “They don’t know any better, but I know what’s good for them.” They can be preachy, evangelistic, and fanatical about their righteous cause in the name of God. They can crusade zealously for reforms. They can be so overly optimistic about their own ability to transcend limitations, and so hopeful for others, that they tend to overestimate the amount of progress they can effect. They have a difficult time with the concept of leaving well enough alone, since they are always trying to improve and optimize things. In their highest expression, Priests do give advice tactfully, and only at the request of those needing assistance or advice. Matured Priests have learned that they do have limitations, and that other people do also. They learn that it is best not to try for too much too quickly. The path to God is taken one small step at a time.
One of the good things about Priests, even though they may tend to be moralistic and self-righteous, is that they also tend to forgive easily. What they really want is for others to see the error of their ways, to “repent of their sins” — and when they do, a Priest quickly extends his absolution and remission. One of the functions of a Priest is to relieve guilt wherever he finds it. Guilt is that feeling that one has done wrong, and is in debt to God for not living up to His exalted standards of goodness. But God (and his representative on earth, the Priest) is also merciful and compassionate. He understands our human limitations, and offers us grace, the forgiveness of sins. This grace is given freely, unearned, and with no strings attached. Priests believe in the ultimate goodness of people, even though this be hidden for a time. The Priest seeks to reveal these transcendent qualities and unfold these noble virtues.
On a Mission
All Priests have a feeling that they have a Mission in life — a cosmic or divine Destiny. They sense that they are guided by the hand of God (whether they call It this or not) to show others the way to Truth. (I capitalize these words because this is the way a Priest thinks.) The more downtrodden, messed up, and wretched the person is, or the more destitute of hope the situation is, the more fulfillment the Priest feels in tackling the problem. Often times Priests, especially in the Negative Pole of Zeal, will take upon themselves impossible tasks. They might become missionaries and go to the tribes in the dense jungles or deep rain forests, with the intention of converting everyone to God, Christ, Buddha, or Whatever. It is not uncommon to see a Priest, especially a female Priest, marry some down-and-out ne’er-do-well with the hope of changing him. It might be an alcoholic or a drug-addict, for instance, that she intends to save. It fulfills her Priest nature to try to rescue him from himself with her encouragement and inspiration. “What does she see in him?!?” people might ask.
She sees an opportunity to exercise her Priest essence and to save a soul. Whenever I see such an unequal relationship existing between two people, where one is obviously far below the other in status, I suspect a Priest attempting to salvage a sinner. But no matter what kind of relationship a Priest is in, he will always desire to heal the mind and spirit of his partner. In this connection, like Servers, Priests often give sex as a healing service.
We all probably at one time or another act as a priest when we feel high or good, or need a priest when we feel low or bad. We reach down and take the hand of those who are a step or so behind us in order to pull them up with us as we seek to transcend our human limitations. We also reach up to those who are a little beyond us, to be pulled up with them as they strive to excel. True Priests do this all the time. They view the whole world as their congregation. They reach down toward others and offer them illumination. They look up to God for their illumination. Priests are the shepherds of mankind, caring for their flocks, watching over them, helping them to grow to maturity. Their purpose in life is to break bonds and restraints which hold people back from fulfilling their potential. One of their favorite sayings might be, “You can do better than that.” Priests point out the path to righteousness, and illumine it with supreme truth. If he is not behind the pulpit, then he is up on his soap box — preaching, exhorting, campaigning, crusading, proselytizing, provoking, and evangelizing.
Another significant factor in the consciousness of Priests is their emphasis on prosperity consciousness. They regard the universe as full to overflowing with the abundance of God. They proclaim that this richness is our natural inheritance — we should claim this plentifulness as our own. There is ample for all, and more, they say.
The Priest’s Natural Overleaves
Like a person with the Goal of Growth, a Priest takes advantage of opportunities for greater experience. He promotes his development, or that of others beyond their natural limits. He aspires to higher potentials and ever-increasing progress. Almost as if he was in the Passion Mode, a Priest behaves with freedom of expression and intensity of experience. His life is an open book, and he has a buoyant enthusiasm for life. Not unlike a person with the Feature of Arrogance, the Priest sees himself as a good person, a representative of the Most High, a cut above the rest of humanity, sent to show them the way to better themselves.
Like a Spiritualist, the Priest sees the whole universe as a manifestation of the glory of God, working out a Divine plan, ever evolving to a finer and higher state. He always looks on the bright side, and sees the world as miraculous. He regards every event as a propitious sign from Providence, Which is ever looking down on him. With sensitivity and reverence the Priest is heartened and cheered up by events in the world. He is fascinated and awestruck at the wonders he beholds. Everything is an uplifting experience. A number of famous individuals have been or are Priests, and obviously so.
Among them are: John Calvin (Protestant Reformation), Saint Dominic (founder of Dominican monks), St. Francis of Assisi (Catholic theologian), Joan of Arc, Jesse Jackson (Reverend), Carl Jung (psychologist and mystic), Abraham Maslow (psychologist), Oral Roberts (evangelist), Carl Rogers (psychologist), Martin Luther King.
— Phillip Wittmeyer
Compatibility With Other Soul Roles
PRIEST-SERVER: Servers and priests are a very good combination, because servers, like scholars, can absorb some of priests’ higher intensity. They also share a quality of thriving on inspiration, so they can keep each other inspired, something that priests and scholars cannot—priests can inspire scholars, but scholars usually do not inspire priests very much, except perhaps if some symbolic information is given that reminds priests of a higher principle. Servers can inspire priests by their positive pole selflessness, goodness, and open heart. Romantically, this combination works especially well if priests are male and servers are female.
If servers are male and they adhere to cultural sex “sexual stereotypes” -role imprinting, they may feel threatened by powerful female priests. Priests and servers think along similar lines, but sometimes priests, being so preoccupied with higher concerns, are negligent of the mundane in ways that kings, for example, rarely would be. (Kings notice if the mundane is not done, although they may not do it themselves.) So in those pairings the servers, usually comfortably, handle the mundane, often to the relief of the priests.
PRIEST-ARTISAN: This is a pretty good combination, as long as the artisans are not cynics or skeptics and do not repel the inspiration of the priests, and as long as priests are not in zeal (negative pole of priest), their negative pole, trying to shove something down the artisans’ throats. Like scholars, artisans are pretty malleable. However, artisans are more changeable, chameleon-like, than scholars. Under duress, artisans may appear to go along with the priests’ zeal, and then it may be proven out later that the artisans did not really go along. That can enrage priests; it may seem like a lack of being faithful to the cause, as with fundamentalist Christians with the role of priest, for example. Initially, artisans may cave in under duress, and then snap back to their more natural point of view.
They may have been pretending to adopt the priests’ views, or they may have actually swallowed them for the time being, but in either case, the priests would see the artisans’ reversion as falsity. Artisans can provide inspiration for priests, just as the opposite is true, because artisans can make much beauty for priests, who can be a little battered by being out there on the spiritual battlefronts, trying to help people in need. Priests can come home to an inspiring, comforting atmosphere of beauty provided by artisans, male or female.
PRIEST-WARRIOR: Priests tend to be attracted to warriors, because warriors are, in some ways, opposite from them. Unbalanced priests can be cut off from the full and free ability to enjoy their body and the physical life itself, whereas warriors excel in enjoying the body and the physical life. Warriors are generally less attracted to priests than priests are to warriors because warriors may not be all that interested in being inspired, particularly in the younger soul cycles—they may not want to look up to the heavens if they are having a perfectly good time on the earth. They may also suspect that priests have the ulterior motive of trying to convert them. They may see priests as being rather like spies from the enemy camp. If warriors are converted—say, to a religion—then they may align with priests in converting others.
More commonly, warriors would rather be free of what they would consider to be the limitations that priests seem to want to impose—especially if they are sexual. Warrior women may go along with their priest husbands’ sexual limitations—against extramarital affairs, for example—as long as there is a good sex life in the marriage. Warriors have respect for boundaries, as long as those boundaries are not suffocating to their essence, and, more than the other roles, they need some kind of sexual outlet. Warriors can be attracted to priests for priests’ healing ability. Warriors can get pretty beat up in life, and when they are finally ready to receive help, no role is better than priests for ministering to them, both physically and spiritually. But if warriors are perfectly happy in their physical involvements, priests may not be all that attractive, except perhaps as an object of lust, as the “mysterious opposite.”
PRIEST-SCHOLAR: Scholars and priests work quite well together, because priests carry a great deal of concentrated higher energies, and scholars, being one of the three solid roles, and being neutral, are able to absorb a lot of that higher energy. So scholars feel grounding and also somewhat malleable to priests. Priests have the need to feel that others are receiving their inspiration, that they are acting on it. Sages have no such need; they just need to be heard, so they don’t have to see the results, but priests do. Also, scholars, perhaps more than the other roles, enjoy priests’ inspiration and do not put up a lot of resistance to it, unless it has gotten them into deep trouble on a number of occasions. It would take quite a lot of negative experience with priests to make scholars wary. Warriors are much more prone to be wary of priests and resistant to them than scholars are. Priests also appreciate knowledge, although when scholars and priests are together, the type of knowledge they share is usually higher knowledge, which to scholars is just one more category of interesting topics. Scholars, being neutral, are just as happy to discuss that as to discuss anything else, so it is not a problem.
Priests would not be that interested in discussing a number of things of interest to scholars, but scholars can be perfectly happy with all areas of interest to priests. Also, scholars can suffer from a dryness, a lack of emotion, and priests, being generally the deepest feeling of roles, can provide an antidote to this. So it can be quite warming for scholars to be around priests, unless scholars are, for example, trapped in the intellectual part of the intellectual center and do not want to be emotional or inspired, in which case they might have a wall to priests.
PRIEST-SAGE: This combination can be problematic, or it can be quite good. The problem would be competition, trying to get the attention of the same congregation/audience. Since both are exalted (cardinal), and both often like to talk a great deal, it can be difficult for either role to feel that they are fully being received. And, in some ways, they tend to not understand each other very well. On the other hand, they can get along quite well for a similar reason to the reason two scholars may get along—they may feel like colleagues; they may complement each other. Sages are an expression role, but may feel a secondary impulse to inspire as well. So, for example, sage actors might want their performance not only to be technically good and to communicate what the author intended, but also to be inspiring, uplifting, and enlightening.
Sages may see that as leaving the audience with more insight or understanding. Priests may see inspiration as more purely an emotional feeling of upliftment and dedication. However, these two approaches are not at cross purposes, and sages and priests can work together as a team. So if they are mature enough to give each other an opportunity to be fully received, the relationship can work quite well, but this combination can take more work than many of the others.
PRIEST-PRIEST: In general, members of the same role get along, but there can be some particular problems when two priests come together, depending on the soul age. Two young priests can be competitive. Two mature priests can overload one another, since there is so much of a particular kind of power here. However, a young and mature priest may do very well together, and old priests tend to get along fine with each other. Marriages between two priests are rare, because both would tend to look for those who need their inspiration. Unless one of the priests is having a hard enough time that he needs to forgo seeking a “congregation” and is willing to sit still long enough to receive inspiration from the other priest, the two would not find enough of a place in each other to put their intense energies.
PRIEST-KING: Surprisingly, priests and kings do not compete in the same way that priests and sages tend to. These two roles add up to thirteen, yet they are not competing for the same audience, because for kings, everything is in their domain, including priests, and kings see priests as fulfilling a valuable function in the whole. However, the partnership of priests and kings is very concentrated. A priest with a king essence twin, or vice versa, has that partnership internally, and it is an intrinsically high-stress situation—such a soul feels a constant stretch, the sense that something exalted is required at all times. Priests and kings are “on duty” at virtually all times, making themselves available to their congregation and kingdom, respectively, and they can work well together. Priests, like servers, are also happy to minister to kings—not in particularly mundane ways, necessarily—it can be that, but someone else may be around to handle the mundane, since kings can have many people around them to help.
