Originally posted by P.J. Lazos on Green Life Blue Water.

Kentanji Brown Jackson’s nomination hearings are over, but much like the merchant priests of old, Ms. Jackson’s resonance remains.

If you follow my blog, you know that I’ve been working through the twelve qualities of the merchant priests, as discussed in the book, Sacred Commerce, for some years now. Sacred Commerce discusses the skill of the ancient priests who could lift the mood of an entire marketplace simply by elevating their own vibrations. The skill took years to perfect through meditation and conscious creation and was based upon three elements of the Soul: beauty, truth and goodness.

The merchant priests drew sustenance from these concepts, meditating on them and incorporating them into their activities of daily living.  By doing so, they were not only themselves elevated, but were able to elevate the entire place of business, expanding their own energy and sending that positivity out into the world much like a tuning fork resonates with another when struck.  In ancient times, life was base and chaotic, marked by fear and a whole range of lower emotions that lived side-by-side with people’s survival instincts — actually, kind of like today if the legislature is any indication. 

Imagine having someone who could elevate the thoughts of everyone around them simply by holding a higher vibration?  As the merchant priests focused upon the concept of beauty, perhaps sitting off to the side in an open air market, their entire aura shifted and they were able to spread a supercharged energy to everyone around them.  This in turn brought out the principles of democracy, emotional intelligence, fairness and conscious commercialism as a means not just to sell items, but to bring out the best qualities in everyone at market, making every transaction a brush with the Divine Feminine.

In thinking about humility, the final virtue after honor, loyalty, nobility, virtue, grace, trust, courage, courtesy, gallantry, authority, and service, and after listening to the base and baseless questioning of Ketanji Brown Jackson by certain Senators who are responsible for writing the laws of this country — something, apparently, they sometimes forget — I was struck by the analogy to ancient times and how KBJ is much like the merchant priests of the ancient marketplace.

This, then, is the final sacred quality of the merchant priests:

Humility

Humility sits with folded hands and steady eyes, a thoughtful half-smile on her lips. Her husband, daughters, and a lifetime of achievement sit behind, providing her a pillar of undeniable strength like the pillars of the Parthenon in Ancient Greece where democracy got its start, and the center section of the Supreme Court building where inscribed upon the architrave are the words “Equal Justice Under Law”. Humility knows all of those pillars are essential to her own structure, and that the sacrifices she’s made in simultaneously raising a family and pursuing her legal career required compromises that she’s still trying to square.

No one said life would be easy.

Humility is not loud and boisterous, but studious and thoughtful. Humility knows her own mind and keeps her own counsel. She knows when not to take the bait, yet doesn’t retreat from a challenge. Humility smiles a lot as if she knows something the rest of us do not. Humility knows the pride and joy she brings to Black women — to all women, actually — not just by being the first Black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court, but because of the tools within which she cloaks herself: intellect, diplomacy, mastery of the issues; thoughtfulness, compassion, and so much grace.

Humility wishes that some of the issues that tear men and women down — issues like voter suppression, the crushing reversal of women’s rights, and the existential threat of climate change — were in the rearview mirror, but 19th century values are alive and thriving in a flailing 21st century, overshadowed by patriarchy and greatly divided by ego, power and greed.

Humility has trod these streets before, but she doesn’t worry. She knows where she’s going and what to say to those who would reduce her to the color of her skin. Humility knows how to self-soothe even when the unjust criticisms fall like acid rain. She answers the same questions again and again, each time refusing to react negatively — even temper tantrums don’t rile her — because that would risk throwing it all away.

Humility’s super power is knowing that what she puts her attention on is what she will get more of so she puts her attention on the light and turns her back on the darkness that wants so desperately to swallow her whole. Even the darkness recognizes Humility’s brilliance.

Humility is a tremendous listener and a wonderful coalition builder; she knows listening will move us forward. Humility seeks peace. Humility knows how not to let the message get lost in the chaos. Her focus is surreal, her patience stunning. Humility may bend, but she will never break. Inside Humility’s heart of gold is a core of steel.

Humility — may she rise higher and higher in service to us all.