At the end of our Western Civilization-termed "12th Century A.D." Journeyman Paul committed a portion of his Spiritual Energy to the occupancy of a male body in southern France. At a very young age it was determined by external forces (though Paul had planned for this) that this boy would be lined up for a life in the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church. Paul's young priest got sucked into a movement while still in training that resulted in what we retrospectively call the "Children's Crusade." Not yet 18 years old, Paul was assigned to a job of helping to facilitate the care, transport and temporary quartering of groups of orphaned children and impoverished (homeless) adults who had been swept off of the streets of urban centers like Marseilles. These pauvres were held in holding compounds (old church structures and dilapidated Roman structures) until sea passage could be arranged for them to be sent to the Holy Land where they were to act on behalf of the Holy Roman See as emissaries or "soldiers" of peace.
Paul fulfilled his duties with patience, competence, and compassion. In fact, his performance of his assigned duties was so satisfactory that it led to his assignment as a chaperone and Church representative on one of the ships leaving Marseilles for the Holy Land. The ship ran afoul in a storm off of the island shores of Sardinia and sank, losing all life aboard, including that of Paul's young priest.
What became the most devastating effect of this lifetime for Journeyman Paul was the knowledge he became aware of upon his death that the motives of the Church powers who brokered this deal from the start were less than genuine. The said "Crusade" of "Soldiers of Peace" was actually created to serve the Church and its European community the dual function of cleaning up and ridding its urban centers of the unsightly "filth" of poverty while at the same time offering the tribute to the leaders of the Eastern Church a gift of human resources. Slaves. Paul never thought for a moment that the Church fathers' motives were anything but honorable and altruistic. To discover that his charges--those unfortunate and disenfranchised people that he had come to know and love intimately and individually--were considered nothing but a cargo, a commodity, for trade--that they were in fact all being sold into slavery--this was quite a blow to Paul's esteem--to his trust of the 'system' of planning and choosing one's human life. From this point on he avowed to himself to pay more attention to the whole web of potentialities, circumstances and consequences that each potential human life he considered was being exposed to. This also caused a seed of motivation to take root inside him: to try to exact some revenge or retribution upon the arrogant and corrupt Roman Catholic Church that had duped and used him so heinously.
Unfortunately, overlooked were several accomplishments that Paul achieved in this brief life that deserve recognition and praise. The fact that Paul had made himself trusting of and subservient to the will of others, to the rules of traditions and of others, to the mindless following of orders can be turned to look at from the perspective that he had actually performed in those capacities quite well, obediently and competently, if uncritically. Also, his patience, compassion and rather selfless, fearless treatment of the unfortunates placed in his care was quite laudable--despite (or, perhaps, due to) the fact that he was but seventeen years old.
Another interesting trend one can see from the succession of Journeyman Paul's human lifetimes is how little family of origin relationships matter to the lessons and progress Paul takes away from each lifetime. The family- and society-/culture-of origin contributes the conditions and pre-established patterns that shape and mold the individual's Ego constructs--which then becomes the Spirit/Soul Plan's goal to overcome. Paul has consistently seen his independent, post-family-of-origin years as the source for his growth and progress.
This affirms a feeling I've had for a long time. I have felt that family-of-origin relations and allegiances are often quite unnecessary and often forced. My own parents and brothers and other close relations provided reflective and conditioning materials for this Drew Fisher vehicle but they have proved less useful for the individual travels I've needed to make in order to achieve the goals that Paul and his council set forth for this and other lifetimes. This is but one of many, many examples of rules and aphorisms that were human created and serve some human system perpetuation (or distraction tactic) not true Spiritual focus and growth.
I feel quite a strong affinity to the attitude commonly practiced in India in which life is divided into three stages, each of which, in their healthiest states, is fully focused on the pursuits appropriate to the search for fulfillment, happiness, and spiritual liberation. The first stage of this 'system' is called Brahmacharya (which translates roughly as "bachelor") or the Youth/Education stage. It is the stage in which we are focused on forming our individual identity, discovering our individual talents and proclivities, as well as our weaknesses. The second stage is Grihastha (meaning "householder") or the Work and Family stage. This is the period in life in which we find satisfying work and satisfying companionship with which to raise our progeny. The final stage is that of retirement ("Vanaprastha") in which one's Spiritual Search takes priority. This is the stage of life in which our energies become focused on exploring and choosing our spiritual paths and which usually ends with renunciation ("Purusartha") of life's illusory material things. During this last phase it is very well accepted, even expected, that the post-child-rearing adult will leave and detach from previous associations and commitments in order to focus as much energy and attention to spiritual research and practice as possible. In this view it is accepted that each human being is on its own totally individualistic path. Thus family of origin and even family of choice (marriages with children) arrangements become temporary and disposable in accordance with the perceived paths the individual feels drawn to take.
I have noticed within the past-life information I have been given access to that very little family of origin information seems pertinent or to be of value to Paul's growth and progress. At least that is what the information sent my way seems to indicate. Parents, siblings and even children (the few times I know I had them) seem to have little or no bearing on the learning events that affected Paul's experiences and growth.
The next lifetime of Journeyman Paul's to which I have been given access is that of a parish priest in medieval France--a man who actively and willingly--even purposefully--participated in what historians call the Cathar heresies. Paul chose a bodymind of a boy born into a family in the River Tarn area of rural 13th Century France, not far from the town of Albi. This choice was rather purposeful as he came into this incarnation with a bit of an attitude. This was, of course, directly related to his finding out that his heinous role in the Children's Crusade, as passive as it was, was manipulated by deviant and criminal minds within the Roman Catholic Church. Like other incensed Monads who had been corrupted by the injustices of the self-serving elements of the Roman Catholic Church (or of other organized religious bodies), he decided to chose a lifetime in which he might have the chance to exact a little retribution upon the Church for its actions and motives. So Paul chose a life path in which he could take a more active authoritarian role as a village priest.
As a child, Paul chose a family in which he would be subjected to cruelties that he would be able to recognize for their origins in the religious conditions coming from the Church. This would in turn help 'remind' him of his 'plot' against the Church. Thus, the seeds of revenge were sown from a very young age. Steeled with a will bent on defiance as an adult, "Père Étienne" found himself attracted to many of the "new" beliefs and interpretations of the Bible that the Church had deemed "heretical." Many of them actually made much more sense to him at a very deep, core level than the mysterious and seemingly arbitrary rules and regulations imposed by Church dogma. These he adopted for himself and disseminated whole-heartedly to and among his village "flock."
Rumors spread (at that time Church spies were hired to travel the Empire with the mission of finding and reporting such indiscretions and heresies). At first he received letters and then visits from Church emissaries. They came to observe, assess, admonish and, eventually, threaten him and his congregation with the various "weapons" that the Church could deploy: formal investigation, trial, torture, excommunication, and death. Étienne's downfall and dénouement came when, despite repeated warnings and penalties, he continued teaching and leading his congregation down the path of "les bons hommes," which led The Vatican to commission a Grand Inquistion to his village. This, in turn, led to excommunication and death sentences for all of his villagers--even the children. Defiant in their 'heretical' ways to the end (and unwavering in their support of their beloved priest), Étienne was forced to watch as his entire village was brutally collected, bound and burned alive "at the stake"--the entire village, all at once, in one big screaming pyre. Excommunicated and exiled, Étienne was so horror-struck by the obscene cruelty of the Church leaders, so haunted by the memory and smell of his congregation burning and screaming in front of him, and so despondent, defeated and guilt-ridden by this unexpected outcome of his leadership, that he expended very little energy in trying to live. In fact, for days he wandered aimlessly in the canyon-like Tarn River valley, ambling about among the less-than-hospitable footpaths in a state of total shock, until he finally collapsed and died, freezing to death on the rural mountain paths of the Midi-Pyrenées.
In this lifetime as Father Steven, the village priest, Paul experienced the dark sides of arrogance and power that, he found, was inherent in the undeserved authority given (and taken) by the clergy. He was once again reminded of the troubles that arise when one gives one's power away to 'others' outside of oneself. Another reminder of the power of the Illusions--especially the Illusion of Separation.
This lifetime and its end events sent Paul reeling, once again, into choosing lives meant to punish himself--filled with self-abdicating and self-destructive behaviors. Poor Paul could not grasp the fact that his choices and their consequences were all natural to any participation in The Great Game of Creation--that duality always presents ripples of "bad" for every "good" action or intention--and there is, in fact, no such thing as good or bad, right or wrong, better or worse--that all of these definitions are based on perspectives that are steeped in the belief that you are outside the realm of Divine Godness, on the forgetting of the fact that God is the constant source and imbuing spirit of all life, including your own.
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