The Scholar soul
The Scholar is one of the seven soul archetypes or roles in essence.
Scholars have a natural affinity for information, logic, and learning.
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
The Scholar essence represents the most neutral aspect of being — assimilation. In other words, Scholars are designed to absorb and integrate information from the world around them. Their role in life is to develop and maintain our collective learning and understanding.
Scholars shine when they are able to gather information and assemble knowledge on whatever topic takes their interest. The source of information can be anything and everything: books, the Internet, travel, scientific research, introspection, or simply watching the world go by.
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.
— Marie Curie
STUDENTS OF LIFE
Scholar souls are born to study, think and learn, but not just in the academic sense — fundamentally they are students of life. Scholars are life’s observers, reporters, analysts, and archivists.
As such, Scholars tend to be thinkers rather than doers. They feel at home being surrounded by information. Their living spaces tend to be more like libraries, their drawers full of old note-books.
NEUTRALITY
As the only neutral role, Scholars are less driven to dive into life or to change the world. Instead, they tend to regard life as something to be studied — preferably at arm’s length.
That’s not to say that a Scholar will never be proactive or involved. Many Young Scholars have been successful in politics, for example. And any Scholar can adopt a more extravert personality style as and when it suits their purpose in life.
But on the whole, they are less dynamic than Kings and Warriors, less expressive than Artisans and Sages, less welcoming than Priests and Servers. In fact, Scholars can seem relatively dull or monotone compared to others.
The Scholar is an intermediate role, an observer rather than a participant. All of life is vicarious rather than experiential, regardless of the soul age.
— Original Michael group transcripts, 1973
INTROSPECTION
Being so focused on information and its logical implications means that Scholars are naturally introspective and contemplative. They like to have time alone to fully process their experiences and observations internally, before trying to articulate their thoughts. This is in stark contrast to Sages, for example, who prefer to express their every thought immediately.
Scholars sometimes have difficulty expressing themselves in an erudite fashion. The knowledge is there but there is a misconnection between cerebrum and vocal cords.
— Original Michael group transcripts, 1973
Scholars can also be quite pedantic when they do join the conversation — correcting others on their use of grammar, for example.
This basic difference in processing styles can lead to misunderstandings. The more extravert essence roles and personalities can view a Scholar’s introverted behaviour as arrogant or anti-social. But being introspective and subdued is not the same as aloofness, nor is it shyness. It’s just a Scholar’s nature.
(For an excellent article on the realities of being an introvert, see Revenge of the Introverts by psychologist Laurie Helgoe.)
Scholars who are born and raised in emotionally expressive cultures will develop a more expressive style, but they will still be distinctly less expressive than other roles in the same culture.
No Scholar will ever be gushy, no matter how young the soul. Enthusiasm can be genuine, but will be subdued. All reactions are low key: grief, joy, pain, pleasure.
— Original Michael group transcripts, 1973
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE POLES
[As a reminder, any manifestation of consciousness has both a positive pole and a negative pole. The positive pole is an expression of the true self or soul; the negative pole is an expression of the false self or ego.]
Acting in the positive pole, knowledge (or knowingness), the Scholar is able to develop clear, objective knowledge from valid information and meaningful experience, for the good of all. The Scholar can be a useful expert, an authority on a particular subject, a pundit, a maven.
In the negative pole, theory (or theorisation), the Scholar’s understanding is just that, theory. In other words, their “knowledge†is too dry, hypothetical, or abstract to be of any use. A Scholar in the negative pole can get lost in abstruse, meaningless, theoretical issues that are impractical and of interest to no-one but themselves, like the medieval scholars debating “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?†The term “ivory tower†reflects this kind of thinking.