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Thank you, there is gems in this topic. I translated it and sent it to my friend, who works as a volunteer at the Day Care Center for Mental Health Patients. Very good insights to depression and anxiety.    This one hits me! And my daughter will not like this, she has sooo much boredom in every day 😂

@Ingun, thank you. My ex told me just yesterday that he is so depressed he is constantly thinking of suicide. I don't know how i can help him, our relationship is a little raw and he has rejected hearing about Michael for the past 15 years. I'm trying to think of a way i can be useful, but not let it consume me because i can't do that...  

Priests as Infant Souls   Infant priests are the quintessential medicine men and women, shaman, witch doctor and healer of our tribal pasts. Back then, it was not unusual to have "priestesses," as much as there were priests, but women who have such a high ranking position in religious orders are difficult to find nowadays, unless perhaps you're a modern Pagan, as the neo-pagan movement is working through today with all the talk of "goddess energy," and "the divine feminine," but I digress. Infant priests see nature as alive, more fully alive, perhaps than many today, where plants are not semi-inanimate objects and animals are not simply pets who act as servants for our hearts, minds and bodies. Though ancient paganism, unlike neo-paganism as the modern equivalent, had far more fear attached to their beliefs than how it has been modified today. Nature was not seen as entirely benevolent, but like human beings, struck with sudden changes of moods and the need to have their egos pleased. If a volcano erupted, the volcano was deeply angry at you, and wanted to end your life. If an earthquake struck the land or famine left the land causing intense hunger, it was you who were at fault. As detached we are to understanding to how this feels compared to modern times even for neo-pagans, try to understand and reflect more deeply the terror of trying to please the gods. Then perhaps you can understand what this constituted of in their daily lives. I mean it. Really pause, and understand how that would feel back then.   Priests as Baby Souls   Baby priests, more than any other role in the soul age equivalent, are the most likely to take advantage of the former stage of infant souls. You can see this in the Spanish inquisition, as the Spanish invaded my country the Philippines to spread Catholic teachings, and also much of South America. Taking advantage of the naivety of infant souls, many of these people happily plundered and killed to spread their way of life, though to be fair, there are many cases of people who did not have to be forced into believing with violence but openly accepted this due to the extra rewards baby priests offered. There was often much conflict in these tribes, who often had people divided by those who wanted to adapt to these foreigners, and others who saw them as potentially dangerous, which to be honest, they had a point. The European conquests also spread to much of Africa today, and perhaps unlike the misconception that most Africans believe in some kind of ancient tribal belief, many are now very much Christian. Baby priests today, to be fair, are much more moral about spreading teachings to third world countries as missionaries, as they are far more less likely to enact some type of violence, because this is now the set of "rules" that are given from young soul countries greater in power today. Not that they are not influenced by greed, but it is more of emotional manipulation than physical violence, as the preferred tools of young souls.    Priests as Young Souls   Young priests begun appearing in the practices of psychiatry and psychology as time moved forward, rather than only in the fields of religion and spirituality. This is most obvious in the subfield of psychology rooted in treating mental health, which is called psychiatry, but there are many other types of psychology as well. There is of course, economic psychology, which is used to analyze what will attract most people to sales. Back then, advertisements were straightforward about offering the mere pros and cons of a product in a matter of fact way. Now young priests have made it so that information on the product is not necessarily stated, but wrapped in stories of how something can make you look more beautiful, more handsome, more successful, more this and that. Priests are not always well associated with business, but if religion is not their field of choice, they can be very well interested in creating a product or service that will help spread a certain ideal of how the world should be, especially in the young soul stage. There are actually many helpful advances in serving people through creating external products or services, but many are simply manipulations of taking advantage of people's insecurities, creating a problem that is not actually there, so they can rush in and save them. In modern times, religious young priests often come in the form of televangelists, who often want to sell you something to create a deeper sense of spirituality to you, or in the younger generation, it can be something akin to yoga women on social media who like to post how glamorous their spiritual lives is to teach for a "higher consciousness." To be fair, they do help some people, but perhaps it's also fair to say that it can be a tad bit overpriced. Young priests, of course, are consumers of these types of spiritual products as much as they are sellers of it, and not to say that these are wrong, but it is helpful to not take it to the extremes to believe that buying small religious trinkets can replace real spiritual work.   Priests as Mature Souls   Mature priests often begin to explore many spiritual or secular psychological self help outside the background they have grown up with. If they are a Westerner who grew up Christian, for example, they will begin to explore Hinduism or Buddhism, as is the trend for many today. At the same time, those in more Eastern cultures might explore many translated works of Western self help books for success, and will devour them with glee. In Europe, there is also the recent trend of people converting to Islam, especially for black people who are more likely to be welcomed into mosques full of practitioners with dark skin instead of the often very white Christian churches. Even without changing religion, nonetheless, they will still be more likely to seek out differences in understanding, and will be able to have friendly open minded conversations with those of a different religion. This is also where much of the "spiritual without being religious," pattern often shows up for the first time. Not that mature priests are the only ones to do so, but they are the most likely to pioneer this type of exploration and to be the ones who make the most effort to spread the message. They begin the modern pattern of making the effort to understand very diverse spiritual and philosophical beliefs, no matter how different a person is. In other words, mature priests are the most likely to be the first ones to begin saying something different about what they believe is moral, right and correct, even in environments where everyone is against listening to those who are different. You can often see mature priests avidly reading many books, perhaps only second to scholars, and depending on their overleaves, willing to travel the world to many spiritual retreats to explore this. Though they are prone to romanticizing a new line of thought, and will see these as perfect compared to the beliefs they have grown up with, which might have partially true insights they are missing. It is important to remember that the beliefs often passed to other countries are often more progressive, less restricting versions of the original line of thought, which you will likely encounter sooner or later as you go deeper in exploring new ideas, that might be potentially dangerous. Like in romance, do not trust love at first sight.   Priests as Old Souls   Somehow it is more difficult to see the distinction compared to other roles, but old priests differ from mature priests in that there is less of a dependence on what other people say for them to develop or grow spiritually. You do not have to travel the world to spiritual areas, find the most charismatic gurus to train under in person, fast for many days, and meditate for many hours a day without any distractions, to become "enlightened," as priests would call it. You do not have to go through long complex trials to prove your worth, and you do not have to pray in specific ritualized ways to discipline you, though many people would need that if they have a hard time controlling themselves. In a sense, old priests can survive and thrive spiritually, as much as the other old roles but mostly the old priests, without as much external structure and routines as earlier soul ages do. Spirituality is less found through specific rules and steps, but purely from trusting your own intuition, heart and wisdom. In this stage, they learn to look to their own inner worlds for guidance, and there is a greater schedule of ways to live your life from the Source as well as your essence, beyond what is logically planned and scheduled in your life. Old priests learn to relax their restrictions on themselves, as well as their restrictions on others, and learn how to allow for the coexistence of spirituality and freedom. The puzzle for them to ponder at this stage, is to know that true spirituality is found in true freedom, freedom from both need for external structure to outwardly discipline you and material needs. It is also a truth to ponder that true freedom is found in true spirituality, that is, in figuring what works out for you, and being able to guide people to what works for them. Old priests begin to understand more deeply, how individuals can explore spirituality, and in the end, they realize that perhaps spirituality and freedom are simply just two ways to say the same thing.      

Sages as infant Souls   Ever told a store around a campfire? Well, that tradition was begun by sages long past. In ancient tribes, sages told stories behind the shadows of the flame at night, telling stories from their real lives, and then stories from their intuition and imagination, creating what are called the folk tales and fairy tales spread around the world today. Whether it was the story of Aladdin and the genie from the Middle East and the story of Cinderella from French origin, infant sages weaved their tales. Their tales are still with us today, not just in folk tales, but the stories woven from the cave paintings, which are concrete remnants to the ancestors of humanity today. They are echoes and ghosts of the pasts, still leaving their mark thousands and thousands of years later. No matter how one may agree or disagree with their ideas, they reflected a sense of curiosity to understand the world around them. Of asking questions such as who they are, what they are, where they came from, why they're here, and as much as modern times have us disagreeing with them, the technological and cultural empires of today would not have begun without the humble beginnings of ancient sages' questions. In a sense, a storyteller is trying to ask a question, and perhaps even without the answers yet, no answers could ever be found without the questions first. How many times were we afraid to ask something, because it would make us look foolish? That, or because it would sully our pride by making us appear ignorant by admitting that there are things we do not know. Here the infant sage only has the ability to ask and wonder, simply because they understand that there is so much they do not know yet.   Sages as Baby Souls   Before films and movies, we had the theater. As sages got into organized groups of rules, as seen in the times of baby souls, they begun to organize themselves in the first dramas of history. They began with polar opposite genres -- the invention of comedy and tragedy. In both comedy and tragedy, we began to learn about the follies of man. In comedy, we learned it through laughter the foolishness and flaws of people, and in tragedy, we saw how the hero can fail his own story, warning others of the consequences of a loss of virtue. Baby souls are associated with a kind of stern seriousness and reserved manner when it comes to teaching strict rules of virtue, but baby souls can truly explore the extremes of drama, while still allowing for the teaching of rules and lessons in these types of stories. As easy it is to dismiss these plays as simple entertainment, back then, it was truly taken as a serious study of how disobedience to the virtues sought out by humanity could destroy or harm a person's life, which is part of the structure of our stories today. Ancient plays often included the one weakness of a character - "the Achilles heel" -- that eventually wrecks apart the hero, no matter how many strengths he has in others. Though baby sages' stories are not usually well represented of different groups of people. For example, back then, only men could join plays, and men had to play the women's parts! And no one would find that strange then. In more recent times, the dark side of the baby sage may be shown in propaganda, whether in classic war propaganda or more subtle uses in advertisements, where certain people who are different -- whether by race, sexuality, gender identity, religion or more, are often playing the villain roles, and those who are the same as "us" are the heroes over "them".   Sages as Young Souls   Young sages are reflected by the role of jesters in medieval society. Silly on the outside, but far more powerful than anyone else under the king himself. In medieval times, often only the jester could question the king. It was through making a king laugh through their teasing insults rather than angry exchanges could eventually the first shifts of change from the baby soul's strict hierarchy could happen. In this, you can see how the charisma of a sage in a "humble position," could have far more power and influence over the powerful than someone who may be more direct about their ideals. Young sages are deeply fascinated with how the power of charisma can be used, whether through deep handsomeness or beauty, as some female royalty could well use to encourage their husbands to do something they want, and through, of course, the talents of music, performance, comedy, wit and speech. Sages in those times might as well have found themselves in the court of law or educating their high class students with their grand intelligent speeches. In modern times, young sages are well present in the famous celebrity figures of today, and that has further increased due to the democratic nature of the internet, where anyone can become famous, and you no longer have to be "rich" enough to get into show business. It is often through the internet, and social media influence, that modern young souls can spread their messages across the world without any of the strict hierarchies in traditional mediums -- such as TV, radio or newspapers, which they are exploring nowadays. I'm sure I don't have to explain the specifics of the flaws that could make today, I gather.   Sages as Mature Souls   In the history of film, it used to be that certain restrictions were on place that would sound absurd today as seen in the early twentieth century. For example, this includes the Hays Code in American film history. What is the Hays Code, you ask? The Hays Code included a ban on any show that portrayed crime and immorality in a positive light, which means there are no (realistic) depictions of bad guys getting away without punishment to inform the public. Another rule included that no images of poverty should be seen, as it is not up to their "standards of the times." Nudity and overt sexual behavior, even through consenting adults, were not allowed. Christian faith and Christian clergy can never be mocked in a negative light. Drug use is not shown, unless it is meant as a cautionary tale. "Perverse," topics were not allowed, such as homosexuality and even interracial romance. It seems, before the debates of gay marriage today, there were debates about the sanctity of marriage between a white person with other races. No profanity was allowed and no one can use the name of God in various types of exclamations. The United States flag was meant to be respected, but there are no rules for other types of flags. Many mature sages, of course, formed a movement against resisting the full expression of the times here. Beyond obvious discrimination as the issue here, what is the point of not showing darker films with much darker topics? Without any portrayal of those in much darker situations, people lost the ability to express their own deeper sufferings in life, whether in the past or the present. It also encouraged judgment over forgiveness, or at least an increased tolerant, as seeing films in the point of view of "villains" often allowed us to sympathize with them. Mature sages did not necessarily release them from all the consequences, but with the easing of restrictions, we began to hear stories from the perspectives of those we usually would not hear from, and perhaps then, we can begin to understand them.    Sages as Old Souls   Old sages may seem like an oxymoron to many, with the humorous dramatic flair not being associated with the wisdom of the old soul, but it is far from a paradox. Old souls are wise because they can truly laugh at themselves, and not simply laugh for the purpose of a certain agenda. They do not need to laugh to ask a question as infant souls do, they do not have to laugh to teach a lesson, to influence others as the young soul does, or to even teach a higher message of tolerance and acceptance as mature souls do. Old sages, except when they suppress their true selves from society, can learn to be happy and to have fun, without the use of certain addictions found in society. Addictions, whether to drugs, money, power, fame, authority, and dysfunctional romance, is not caused by fun, but because a person cannot find pleasure and enjoyment in more simple ways of play, whether that is through singing out loud on a karaoke night, or playing board games with your family each weekend. Even compared to the mature sage, an old sage ironically is better suited to influencing people because they are not bent on forcing people to be who they want to be, which only seems to invite further resistance. They skip the constant nagging, and rather than rushing to the discussion of how to change them, they take their time. They're patient. They have fun, make small talk, get to know each other, and eventually then, they will open up to the old sage for advice. The old sage does not feel the need for someone to immediately trust them, like them and agree with them, or at least, they learn how to in this stage, and through this patience, they are able to find many who are willing to listen. As a lasting message, the old sage is able to truly create change because they understand how to listen, and people only are willing to listen to you back if you are willing to listen to them.    

This is so good! I have been thinking about the same for quite some time and wanted to ask Michael for a possibly update on the Roles, just as I asked them about their name here;   Ingun: I like to know which name are you known by in the future and in for instance another current parallel(s)?   MEntity: We are known mostly as Michel, eventually, as this captures our balance of Creative and Focused Energy and does not assign a gendered name to us.