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The
Priest and the Mystic
Vastly
different roles and approaches but
both have their valid niche in the
spiritual development of humanity
Posted
In “Mysticism”,
Annie Besant defines the difference between the spiritual approaches and the
roles of the Priest and the Mystic. Both have their valid niche in the spiritual
development of humanity.
The Priest
“The
Priest is ever the guardian of the exoteric, the recipient of the faith once delivered
to the saints, the officiant of the sacraments, the
custodian of the
outer order,the
transmitter of the traditions, becoming more authoritative from age to age. His
to repeat accurately the sacred formulæ ; his to watch over a changeless orthodoxy; his to be the articulate
voice of the Church; his to hand
on the unaltered record. Great and noble is his
task, and invaluable his services to the evolving masses of the populace.”
The Mystic
“Far other
is the Mystic, the lonely dweller on the mountain-side, climbing in advance of
his race, without help from the outer world, listening ever for the faint
whisper of the God within. Humblest of men as he faces the depths of Divinity
around him and the unsounded abysses of the Divinity within, he seems arrogant
as he withstands the edits of external authority, and rebel as he bows
not his neck to the yoke of ecclesiastical order.
With his visions and his dreams and his ecstasies,with his gropings in the
dark and his flashes from a light supernal that dazzles more than it
illuminates, with his sudden irrational
exaltations and his equally sudden and unreasoning
depressions, what has he to oppose to the clear-cut doctrines and the imperial
authority of the exoteric creed? Only an unalterable conviction which he can
neither justify nor explain;
a certainty which leaves him stuttering when he
seeks to expound it, but remains unfaltering in face of all rebuke and al
reprobation.”
They both
have their place
“the Priest conquers in the world material, and is
defeated
in the world spiritual; and the Mystic, rebuked, persecuted, crushed, while
dwelling in the body;, becomes the Saint after the body has dropped from him,
and becomes a voice of the Church that silenced him, a stone in the walls
that imprisoned.”
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