The revealer of a sacred text typically feels himself to be the medium rather than the author of it. Likewise an artist may feel that her best work has been done through rather than by her own efforts.
Of his ballet The Rite of Spring (a musical revelation), Stravinsky wrote, ‘I am the vessel through which Le Sacre passed.’ This quality of creative experience is closely allied to the disappearance (‘extinction’, ‘annihilation’, ….. ) of self in mystical experience.
However, when the sacred text also takes on a more-than-human authority in the external guidance system – an authority beyond that of its human author – it takes on a role in the social hierarchy that removes its meaning from the sphere of human experience. This blocks the way of inquiry into its meaning, its truth and its guidance. What could have been a medium of dialogue becomes an instrument of domination when a priestly class take upon themselves the superhuman authority now hidden (they claim) behind the text – hidden to all but themselves, that is. This robs the rest of us of opportunities for self-control, as we are reduced to obedience instead: the Eternal Author becomes ‘a tyrant crowned,’ as Blake observed. This is the genesis of the ‘mystery religions’ against which Blake waged a lifelong struggle. It is also the cause of conflict between the Prophet and the Priest: the Prophet speaks from the human experience of Eternity, while the Priest speaks for a remote and inhuman God, ‘old Nobodaddy’ as Blake called him. Blake’s inscription to Milton is appropriate here: ‘Would to God that all the Lords people were Prophets’ (Numbers 11:29).