"If no G-d, then probably best not to live. (1, theology)Oh! Got G-d? Will live long enough then to need food. (2, agriculture)Got G-d & Food? Wow! You're going to be around long enough to be miserable and sick and will need healing. (3, medicine)Ok! Got those? Those are G-d's gifts to us and now good luck to you doin' your thang on planet earth! Be slick! It's careful out there..."
I was trying to give the short version of the School of Life over the phone in a hurry and so I am putting more detail in here for the general enlightenment of the luminous ~
From the earliest times we have record or tale of, the three priestly schools have always been Theology (obviously), Agriculture and Medicine. (HaDaver, Adama and Rapha for Bible folk) These constituted what was called the "School of Life" from Sumer through Egypt and on. Understand that to ancient peoples, Astronomy was part of Theology and the two were not separate. Spritual or power (pow-wow) healing was a part of medicine just as much as medicines and treatments. Agriculture absolutely followed the signs in the heavens and the earth as much as manual pollination techniques. Everything was theocentric and had a metaphysical nature because life was spirit animated nature. Everything, alchemically speaking, was Water, except for inorganic material. So, when you think of the divine college you have to paint in the millenia by centuries and remember that the vitality and vital elements don't change and neither do the larger, physical, metaphysical and spiritual basis on a human foundation.
While there is nothing new under the sun and all models have been seen in some place, in some time in history, the three dominant manifestations were, (1)private admission priesthood and aristocracy, (2)common people seeking knowledgeable people and (3)people with a problem or condition seeking another who had experienced the same and overcame it. Usually, some degree of all three formats were present wherever any one of them was established. The Greek medical school had professors teaching regular students, plebes seeking assistance from them and those who had overcame one thing or another present counseling on that illness to those currently enduring it. With cultural and time differences, the temple at Jerusalem was similar. Even when you look, centuries and thousands of miles away at the Amazon shaman, he can talk to sky father and the gods, he can eat and he can heal = theology, agriculture, medicine and again centuries and miles away the Druids need no elaboration, everybody knows they did all three and most definitely had a metaphysical and spiritual basis as a continuum and not separate from the physical. One last example of the universality? The Shaolin monk of yesteryear - buddhism and chinese metaphysics, nature/gardens and healing with plants, treatments and a metphysical form of hypnotism.
A critical analysis of all the major priesthoods will yield similar results under the speculum of time and culture. Since most priesthoods have always staunchly refused to change tradition, existing priesthoods retain these things as a matter of prima volunta, "high priority", even when the memory of some of them has been lost to recent centuries and their value goes unknown. They remain repositories of long term and cumulative knowledge, the vast body of which lies dormant in today's world and some of it lost even to them.
It is cliche and lots of fun to strike at priesthood in general and priests understand the reasons. Do you understand them, would be the question that would seem more to matter. But the fun from it's various motives notwithstanding, priesthood remains one of the more powerful and enigmatic ways of life with just too many fascinations and benefits to be done with on the real or we would have already faded into time as we have watched so many civilizations and eras do. The knowledge and conversation of a good priest is second only to that of an angel and psychologically, the appeal of the priest to the people lies in their dedication to G-d, which is the entire focal point of their existence. People also feel that way see? All comes from G-d and passing through his sphere returns there, with a witness of it's passing. This seems mysterious, enigmatic and hints of knowledge and power from the first days to people, but the priest would simply say "it could be so easily the same for you and lo! It is!" because two millenia ago, a priest that none of us yet have conquered or superseded, declared that YOU are both priest and king before the Father. Before G-d. The truth is that before G-d most high, vast and absolute, you stand as priest (of the most high G-d) and King (of the Wild and Fertile land) and this is simply so because it is; We are to think that Jesus spoke these things to be and that is why they are, but Jesus would say, to those who were ready to hear, that he did not speak of himself or his will, but of the Father who sent him - the metaphysical assertations and "priest/king" things were said by him for the Father. For power. He was not that power any more than you are, but power made him testify of divine and human truth. Therefor, you are not priest and king because Jesus said so, but because it is the will of the Father which Jesus just pointed out like any of us would NOT - we would know of course because of G-d, but we would not have told unless G-d told us to and Jesus he specifically did.
But as we examine the truth of power let's stop first at the status itself. Priest - is this a groovy job or what? The price is non-stop for-ever growth in knowledge, wisdom, strength, joy, skill and grace - Hey, boo hoo! But bypassing the 8 billion ways you can do it, to the perks and powers: You have a direct line to G-d most high. You are NOT in the "Mighty Aphrodite" level or any other, your title is "Priest of the Most High G-d". That right there ought to be enough for you for the rest of your life - but the truth is that the well of G-d is so deep and vast that it will keep you busy for the rest of your life. Yes, you are on the A list, yours is the Goodie Room. By following the love of G-d and this priesthood you swim deeper and better in the well. You are free from the obligation to in any wise believe any of this, and are in fact most earnestly cautioned against it. "G-d is True" is the whole of you and you have to worry that you harm your own connection, sustenanace and source every time you make an intentional compromise for some reason. But indeed you are also most earnestly cautioned against believing the things and ways of man - it's not just the monkey bars your order runs freely on eternity just for joy and knowledge. That's perk two you ought to be giving thanks continuously for! Access to the Father's things. To the work of his hands and the breath of his will. If you find that the earth knows you, surely heaven, which is "higher" knows you too and we all know that power sings loud always in us and we end up doing so little about it. The most powerful and important thing we know of gets less of our love than a neglected pet.
The Builders take a boy into a room and show him the robes of a priest and the robes of a king and ask him to choose. If he chooses priest, he is mentored in the sciences and if king, politics. But I offer that only as an example of how the princes of earth use the way after a different fashion than the compania and it will be helpful to understand this better too. Critically anylize your own skills, works and ways and it will be helpful as well. Priests have beginning points among which are the primary exercises of "examination and discipline" which consist of introspection and analysis coupled with intentional action. Examination and discipline are regular activities of daily life. It simply means thinking about things and exerting the willpower to do something about it.
Another primary, if not "the" primary of "sacerdosis" (ahahaha! now, I am proud of that one!), sacred life, is "Divinization" which is considered a natural part of life and growth and which has complimentary exercises and practices associated with it that various orders have practiced over time. Spiritual, mental and physical, these include prayer, meditation, fasting, physical exercises, purifications, consecrations, digested oracles and studying sacred, philosophical and scientific texts as well as personal researches. Orders throughout history have had varying lengths of "Formation" or the path from a probationary member to full membership and vesture. The Roman Catholic Jesuits have a ten year formation before formally recieveing the letters "SJ", which are more highly regarded than the letters "MD" in many countries. In contrast from the same Church, the Franciscan tertiaries require a two year formation and the first order three to four. United States recognition is based on these which is why the "full fledged" monk is considered the equivalent of the bachelor's degree and while separate, the government recognizes after ten years the doctor of divinity (DD) famous at online church credential mills. It is a legitamate degree, how legitimate the degree holders are based on their own merits is what is variable. These two degree levels are recognized within the Church by one or more boards based on resident and non-resident studies and achievements. Monasteries and monastic orders often provide colleges and professional training environments which students (vocations) pursue in preparation for promotion or areas of service. Traditionally, Vocations entering formation as order members are granted "holy leisure and holy liberty" to begin their studies, works and making the transition from secular to sacred life. While the day might be structured, the mind and spirit are "let loose" in the immersion to be free from mundane distraction. All forms of mundane distraction are accounted for and managed in the monastic model. Coenobites (see-no-bites) live at the monastery, Eremites (hermits) live in isolation or in "lauras" of 2 to 8 in some proximity of each other. Itenerants have no regular parish or monastery and typically travel between. Typically, second and third orders exist in some traditions for monks not living at the monastery but outside of it and those who have secular lives, marriages and families. Monasteries also serve as stopping places on ministry or service travel routes for clergy of all levels. Many monasteries are effectively "manufacturer/producer" sources of foods, clothing, flowers, candles, incenses, medicines, furnishings and countless other items for the Church and it's membership. They are the original factories of the kingdom of G-d.
The Temple and Congregation (Ecclesia/Church) are the oldest and most natural estates of the human species. During evolutionary periods when one form of secular government or other is collapsing, people revert naturally to more simplistic and theocentric societies until an emerging power is again ready to coerce or compel them back into a secular orientation. This is most prominent in the legend of the Snake Handler and the 13,000 year cycles. Every ("circa") 13,000 years it is retained, the earth passes through the 13th zodiacal sign of the serpent handler. The world is cast into darkness and essentially "re-booted" and when the sun rises again it rises on a world where if there are wars, they are fought with sticks and rocks. This period is referred to as the "time of the G-ds" when pure divine law is at the peak of it's influence and humans use the metaphysical the most as a natural and integral thing necessary to survival and progress. Theocracy and Tribalism rise first followed by Monarchy and these three forms continue for considerable time, being once again almost wholly obliterated and forgotten by the next 13,000 year cycle. Basically, G-d runs things for 10,000 years and then man runs them for about 2,000 years and goes boom. Many people will believe that they have strong positions about faith, religion and the Church. These same people will be believers and when the secular loses the faith of the people, these same believers will pursue the law that "is written upon their hearts and upon their inward parts" which is the dawning once again of the "truly human" and divine era. In this generation, priests will at that time seek to preserve the worship of G-d in the spirit and resist the rise of idolatry and sacrifices which man seems to have a real affinity for when the lights go out. The primary directive will be to promote humans to maintain their divine contact within and not to abandon it to be replaced by "show" religions of pageantry and sacrifice which do not promote the initial power and intelligence that recovering human numbers require in very adverse conditions. The fall into such practices is at high risk of occuring after the return of towns where the divine has been more desensitized and secular/societal forces begin to replace religion of the spirit and the divine with various group religious practices aimed primarily at societal cohesion. Monastic spiritual environments (mono=one, alone with G-d) have historically been repositories because of their consistency and isolation. The Temple is much more subject to invasion, theft and destruction which has caused most Temples in history to maintain important documents and other items of value in non-public, out of the way places.
(to be continued)