The Roman Catholic Church is fortunate to have a religious leader of the caliber of Pope John Paul II. His star configurations indicate a natural born leader with high moral and ethical standards, tremendous reserves of energy to carry out his responsibilities and a love of higher knowledge. He is not only respected in religious circles, but secular ones as well. When he appears in public, the masses respond to him in the most heartfelt ways and he never fails to inspire them to strengthen their religious resolve. John Paul has also been active in encouraging governments to act more responsibly towards their citizens and neighboring countries and his words generally have a substantial impact in the world community. This is the positive side of his ledger.
On the negative side, we see a religious leader who is more comfortable dealing with the exoteric rather than the esoteric side of religion. Whether this preference is based on a practical assessment of what Catholics are ready and able to hear, or whether it is based on his inability to access the more subtle realms of Spirit, is difficult to decide. However, one thing is clear: the further development of world consciousness requires a spiritual leader who is capable of bringing out the more esoteric aspects of Christ's teaching. For example, it is no longer appropriate to associate Heaven with some far off place where people live together happily ever-after. Heaven is a state of consciousness which one is meant to experience while living on the earth in a human embodiment. This is why Christ emphasized that the "kingdom of Heaven resides within." Heaven can also refer to the after-life between embodiments, but this is only a temporary heaven and not to be compared to the Heaven which potentially resides within a human who has found Nirvana, the Atman, or Christ Consciousness.
It is imperative that, in order to meet the
spiritual challenges of our time, religious leaders must become
the standard bearers for an esoteric Christianity which emphasizes
the inner development of consciousness and not continued dependence
on external religious authority.