Original post from May 22, 2021
Among the ideas I‘d considered writing about last week was how, as a young child, I was fascinated by the stories of the prophets I was told. I also wanted to be able to talk directly with God and hear his answers when I grew up. Since there had been at least one female prophetess, I thought it might be a possibility. At some point, I think I was about six, I mustered up the courage to ask my grandmother if prophets were still a thing. She cooled my secret ambitions, saying there are no more prophets and God no longer speaks to mortals, that sort of thing ended a long, long time ago, in the days of the Bible.
I still felt that I did hear something from time to time, though the experience was precious, elusive, and rare. Eventually, as a young adult, I stopped wanting to talk to that Jewish god, and slowly learned to talk to the goddess, to other deities, and to some other presences. I discovered that I am far from alone – many other people hear and speak of this kind of connection, communication, or channeling, and when someone brings an authentic message you can feel it. I also discovered the difficulty experienced by the prophets from the Bible – who even wants to hear the message, especially since people don’t believe, and it’s often not pleasant?
Everything up to here I had thought about writing last week, and then I was suddenly invited to the Amirim as “a prophet from another city”. Not that they have any shortage of their own local prophets. Mostly what I did was to send everyone who came to the circles I led to go listen to the trees themselves – ancient and intelligent beings with deep and compassionate wisdom, far beyond what we can imagine – and then bring what they heard back to the circle. A little preliminary teaching, guided meditation, and direction, and everyone is off to be prophets themselves.
The place and the trees had their own power, and the people who came were certainly special, but I was surprised how well it went, how many people received messages that were different from what they expected to hear. I am reminded of Thich Nhat Han’s saying (or prophecy), that the next Buddha will be a sangha, a community that walks a spiritual path together.
This is fitting in a culture that has swung way too far toward individualism and forgotten that we are all together, that we don’t have to make the journey alone, that we have help from the spirit worlds and support and immense wisdom in the natural world. If there is a role today for a prophet or prophetess, it is to teach everyone how and to whom to listen, and to send everyone to become prophets themselves. Because we need all of our help.