I'm impressed by the Michael teachings. They did a very accurate personality profile of me and my wife, with no way of knowing us. How? Well, they say they communicate with spirits. Maybe they use their intuition while looking at our photos, but that can't explain it all because the photos just can't reveal all that much. Maybe they do exactly what they say they do. I don't know, but they did a good job.

That doesn't mean I believe every word that any one of their authors writes. I don't. One of the things I don't believe is their explanation of why we're here. Another thing I don't believe is their interpretation of the "priest" role, which is one of the 7 personality types in the world, according to them.

Here is their tale of why we're here, their version of Genesis. It begins with God. But you can also call God "Tao" and you can also call God "All That Is". They are most definitely not referring to Yahweh, the God of the Bible. They are referring to something nebulous. They avoid the word God for the most part because of all its Biblical connotations, and they prefer The Tao.

One day, the Tao got bored and decided to play a game with itself. It decided to split itself into millions of separate pieces, and send some of those pieces on a journey of discovery, through different planes of existence, and finally to return back home to the Tao. It is a game of hide and seek. The separate pieces must forget the Tao, and must look for it and eventually find it.

I get the concept of God splitting off pieces of itself to become unique individuals and that they are to separate and have experiences. I have no problem with that, though I can't say I understand it in any depth. Who is this God? Ya got me.

What I don't accept is the motive. Why we're here. To relieve God's boredom? Nope, I can't accept that. To play a game of hide and seek? Nope. Sorry. You don't win the cigar. You don't get the prize. You have answered incorrectly.

I didn't go through four kidney stones because some fuckin brat got bored. I am not some fuckin pawn to be tortured in order to relieve some fuckin brat's boredom.

We are not yet ready to psychoanalyze God. We don't know enough about it. We don't know enough to say God got bored. We don't know that.

I think that life actually has meaning and isn't just a game of hide and seek. I think it is an important thing. I don't think it should be trivialized as an alternative to pinochle.

I can see it more as a cleansing and sorting. Accepting the premise that we are all part of God, split off into pieces, I can see it more as that God cleanses itself, organizes itself, must know its separate parts, maybe exercises them. I think that hits closer to the mark about Why we're here.

As for the role of Priest, one of the Seven, the Michael authors have accepted that Priests stand for compassion, in their positive pole, and zeal in their negative pole. I disagree. I find that to be way too nicey nice and politically correct, and also a bunch of bull.

First of all, compassion is sweet, isn't it? Nice and gentle and mushy. Ohh you poor thing you. I feel such compassion for you. My heart bleeds for you. I believe that compassion is a part of all of us, not specifically Priests, and that compassion has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH PRIESTS. It's just something we all have.

So they are saying that the mushy and sickly sweet compassion is the highest good of a priest and that the tough intensity of zeal is the lowest evil. Eat me. It's not that at all.

Folk singer Ani DiFranco said "If you're not angry you're just stupid." Jesus took out a whip and started using it on the moneylenders, the bankers or whatever they were. Now we're getting to the core of what a priest is in the Michael system. Priests get pissed off. That's what they are supposed to do. Get fuckin pissed off.

What are they supposed to get pissed off about? Cruelty. Selfishness. They know what to get pissed off about. That's their function.

The seven roles are server, artisan, warrior, scholar, sage, priest, and king. Servers are there to nurture and love and help. Artisans are there to create. Warriors are there to get things done. Scholars are there to take it all in, analyze it, keep note of it. Sages are there to spread the truth. Priests are there to get pissed off at injustice. Kings are there to direct the show.