HIGH PRIESTS

Oh high priests of yore
Men of power that set law
Councilors to Pharaohs and Kings
Providing sacrifices, offerings
Determining a vast set of rules
For your respective societies.

From Aaron, first high priest,
brother of Moses, whose sons
and descendants upon his death
were anointed to continue as such,
to Nebwenenef, high priest of Amun
serving Ramses II fostering the
rapid evolution of high priestly entities,
so powerful that they frequently
would challenge their ruling dynasties.

Other worlds with other priests
from Druids, ancient order of
learned Celtic high priests, to the
erudite high priests of the Maya,
advisors of rulers and nobility;
across the ocean where, on celebrated
Mount Minobu, the high priest of
Buddhism, Nichiren Daishonin,
taught and ordained his disciples;
to the lamaism of Tibetan Buddhism
led by the Dalai and Panchen Lamas
to Hinduism and the founding of Islam.

Though there are many others,
High Priests flourish and are everywhere.
Proliferation, an alteration of the term
has been bestowed upon commonality.
From Timothy Leary, high priest of the
sixties psychedelic counterculture, to
Kenn Jenkins, high priest of visionary videos,
to Shirley Roy high priest of rock and pop to
the High priests of Electronic Dub.

Today's high priests must seem as mysterious,
powerful, innovative with greater cultural influence
than even those of yore, for they are our technical
information revolutionaries, the drivers changing
our entire societies, our way of everyday life.
They are the Java high priest, the Networking's
high priests, the platform and chip high priests
who have amassed greater wealth and power than
any other hereto historic high priests.
Yet in strange but repetitive ways some of these,
like those of yore, still fight with their government.

High Priests of yesteryear,
High Priests of today,
High Priests of tomorrow,
Will you show us the way.

Herbert Holzbauer
© July 2000

Midi Title: Now and Forever