WHAT'S YOUR ROLE? -- An Introduction to the Michael Teachings
by SHEPHERD HOODWIN

The clichè icebreaker used to be, "What's your sign?" In the near future, someone attractive might glide up to you and say something like, "Hi! I'm a young warrior in passion mode. What's your role?"

Role, mode, and soul age are part of the Michael teachings, a fascinating channeled body of information. According to Michael, each of us is an eternal being or spark journeying from the Tao and back again in an adventure of exploration and creativity. At each step along the way, we make choices that shape our experience. After committing to a series of lifetimes on a planet, we choose a role, which is our primary style, or way of being. There are seven roles:

Warriors are persuasive, single-minded doers, often with a hearty sense of humor, and sometimes, the subtlety (and strength) of a Mack truck. They seek challenge.

Kings are warriors' large-picture counterparts. They are charismatic leaders, organizing others to action, sometimes in a tyrannical manner. They seek mastery.

Scholars, rather than being oriented toward doing, are a resource for others. They study and assimilate, intellectually or otherwise. Sometimes, they are overly theoretical and distanced from life. They seek knowledge.

Artisans create what is new, whether in art, hairstyles, or carburetors. They are often warm and playful, sometimes self-deceptive and artificial. They seek originality.

Sages express and communicate. They are witty, friendly, entertaining, and sometimes loud and verbose. They seek insight.

Priests inspire others through their compassion and vision. They sometimes get carried away and take too much on faith or try to force their beliefs on others. They seek what is highest.

And servers support and nurture others, sometimes in a self-denying and victimized way. They seek the well-being of all.

Our role is an attribute of our essence, or soul, and therefore characterizes us in every lifetime we have on earth. Our essence has several other attributes, such as frequency (speed of vibration) and male/female energy ratio. (All the terms mentioned in this introduction can be explored in the basic Michael books found at www.summerjoy.com.) We also form permanent relationships such as that of essence twin (twin soul) and task companion, and join into larger groupings such as entities and cadres.

When planning an individual lifetime, we also choose several personality attributes, called overleaves, which overlay our essence. They include our goal (primary motivator), mode (dominant way of operating), attitude (way we tend to view life), and center (part of self from which we generally react). We change our set of overleaves from lifetime to lifetime in order to give us a variety of experiences. Just as there are seven roles, there are seven of each of the overleaves.

The young warrior mentioned at the beginning was in passion mode. Therefore, his modus operandi was to act passionately, since passion mode pours itself out. On the other hand, reserve mode, its opposite, pulls itself in. Power mode exudes authority, while caution mode moves with deliberation. Aggression mode is dynamic, while perseverance mode is persistent. Observation mode is neutral.

Our overleaves are part of a comprehensive life plan we create for each lifetime. Our life plan also includes agreements with other souls to help us carry out that plan, and a life task, which is our plan's centerpiece, the most important thing we want to accomplish.

As we progress from lifetime to lifetime, we experience a developmental process that takes us through five soul ages, each of which has seven levels. Infant souls focus on survival. Baby souls are learning about structure, discipline, and rules. Young souls are interested in having maximum impact on the outer world. Mature souls are working on relationships and emotions. Old souls look at things in terms of their larger context. Mature and old souls are those most likely to be drawn to the spiritual path.

No soul age is "better" than any other, just as a forty-year-old isn't better than a twenty-five-year-old; a forty-year-old simply has different needs and perspectives than a twenty-five-year-old. To develop, we need all the steps.

In fact, nothing in the Michael teachings is, of itself, good or bad. Everything can be used either positively or negatively, and Michael defines positive and negative poles for each role and overleaf. Having names for them can help us stay in the positive poles. Furthermore, understanding soul ages and the rest of the Michael teachings can help us understand where people are "coming from" and foster greater acceptance. This is an important step toward having unconditional love for ourselves and others, which is the highest goal of life, according to Michael.

Let's look at the young warrior in passion mode. Being a young soul, this person is oriented toward worldly achievement and doesn't tend to be introspective. Being a warrior, he (or she) is a fighter, blunt, protective, and productive. Passion mode tells us that he pulls out all the stops and goes to the nth degree. In short, he is a powerhouse and is probably both a successful achiever and quite sexual.

Suppose you're a mature scholar in reserve mode. In some ways, the person just described is your opposite, and opposites usually attract, or at least carry a certain fascination. However, being a mature soul, your emphasis is relationships rather than worldly achievement. You wonder how much you would be able to share with this young warrior. You take your time studying the situation, like any good scholar, as you fend off his advances. (You explain that since you are in reserve mode, you appreciate self-control, and your new friend is impressed by your class.) However, he looks like too much fun to pass up, and you decide to investigate him further--that is, until a good-looking old sage in observation mode ambles by.

Obviously, this is a light way of looking at the Michael teachings, but this material can bring profound insights and be highly useful.

The most definitive way to find out your role and other Michael information is to have your Michael chart channeled by a Michael channel, but you can also study the teachings through this and several other books, and try to discern your Michael traits yourself.

As we move into unprecedented changes in our world, new and better tools for dealing with it are needed. The Michael teachings are one such tool.

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