Blessed Night, Loves 😊

I Pray All Is Well With Everyone… And Your Hearts And Minds Are Full Of Love, Joy, And Compassion… For All God’s Children… And All God’s Creation. Tis’ Indeed The Season… To Be Jolly… Joyful… Grateful For The Life Of The Spirit Of The Living God That Dwells Within Us; For It Is The Same Spirit… That Was The Life Stream… Of Christ Jesus. So, Regardless Of Negative Outer World Appearances During These Times… Let Us Represent The Reason For The Season… And Activate The Power… Of Our Loving Energy; Remembering The Importance Of One-On-One Quality Time… With Our Very Own… “Mighty I AM Presence”… And Acting On It! Amen…  

Give Thanks And Praises For Love And Life…   

And Y’all Be Love…  

“The Order of the Essenes constituted in the time of Jesus the final remnant of those brotherhoods of prophets organized by Samuel. The despotism of the rulers of Palestine, the jealousy of an ambitious and servile priesthood, had forced them to take refuge in silence and solitude. They no longer struggled as did their predecessors but contented themselves with preserving their traditions. They had two principal centers, one in Egypt, on the banks of Lake Maoris, the other in Palestine, at Engaddi, near the Dead Sea. The name of Essenes they had adopted came from the Syrian word “Asaya”, physician – in Greek, therapeutes; for their only acknowledged ministry with regard to the public was that of healing disease, both physical and moral. “They studied with great diligence”, says Josephus, “certain medical writings dealing with the occult virtues of plants and minerals.

Some of them possessed the gift of prophecy, as, e. g., Menahim, who had prophesied to Herod that he should reign. “They serve God”, said Philo, “with great piety, not by offering victims but by sanctifying the spirit; avoiding towns, they devote themselves to the arts of peace; not a single slave is to be found among them; they are all free and work for one another.” The rules of the Order were strict; in order to enter, a year’s novitiate was necessary. If one had given sufficient proofs of temperance, he was admitted to the ablutions, though without entering into relations with the masters of the Order. Tests, extending over another two years, were necessary before being received into the brotherhood. They swore “by terrible oaths” to observe the rules of the Order and to betray none of its secrets. Then only did they participate in the common repasts, which were celebrated with great solemnity and constituted the inner worship of the Essenes.

The garment they had worn during these repasts they looked upon as sacred and to be removed before resuming work. These fraternal love feasts, primitive form of the Supper instituted by Jesus, began and ended by prayer. The first interpretation of the sacred books of Moses and the prophets was here given. But the explanation of the texts allowed of three significations, just as there were three degrees of initiation. Very few attained to the highest degree. All this wonderfully resembles the organization of the Pythagoreans, but certainly it was almost the same among the ancient prophets, for it is to be found wherever initiation has existed.

It must be added that the Essenes professed the essential dogma of the Orphic and Pythagorean doctrine; that of the pre-existence of the soul, the consequence and reason of its immortality. “The soul”, they said, “descending from the most subtle ether, and attracted into the body by a certain natural charm (close to nature), remains there as in a prison; freed from the bonds of the body, as from a long servitude, it joyfully takes its flight”, (Josephus).

Among the Essenes, the brothers, properly so called, lived under a community of property, and in a condition of celibacy, cultivating the ground, and, at times, educating the children of strangers: The married Essenes formed a class affiliated and under subjection to the other. Silent, gentle, and grave, they were to be met with, here and there, cultivating the arts of peace. Carpenters, weavers, vine-planters, or gardeners, never gunsmiths or merchants. Scattered in small groups about the whole of Palestine, and in Egypt, even as far as Mount Horeb, they offered one another the most complete hospitality.

Thus, we see Jesus and his disciples journeying from town to town, and from province to province, and always certain of finding shelter and lodging. “The Essenes”, said Josephus, “were of an exemplary morality, they forced themselves to suppress passion and anger; always benevolent, peaceable, and trustworthy. Their word was more powerful than an oath, which, in ordinary life, they looked upon as superfluous, and almost as perjury. They endured the most cruel of tortures, with admirable steadfastness of soul and smiling countenance, rather than violate the slightest religious precept.” Indifferent to the outward pomp of worship at Jerusalem, repelled by the harshness of the Sadducees, and the prayers of the Pharisees, as well as by the pedantry of the synagogue, Jesus was attracted towards the Essenes by natural affinity.

The premature death of Joseph set entirely free Mary’s son, now grown into a man. His brothers could continue the father’s trade and supply all family needs, so Mary gave him permission to leave secretly for Engaddi. Welcomed as a brother and one of the elect, he rapidly acquired over his very masters an invincible ascendancy, by reason of his superior faculties, his ardent love, and an indescribable divine element manifested throughout his entire being. From the Essenes he received what they alone could give him: the esoteric tradition of the prophets, and by its means, his own historical and religious tendency or trend.

He came to understand how wide a gulf separated the official Jewish doctrine from the ancient wisdom of the initiates, the veritable mother of religions, though ever persecuted by Satan, i. e., by the spirit of evil, of egoism, hatred, and denial, allied with absolute political power, and priestly imposture. He learned that Genesis, under the seal of its symbolism, concealed a theogony and cosmogony as far removed from their literal signification as is the profoundest truth of science from a child’s fable.

He contemplated the days of Elohim, or the eternal creation by emanation of the elements and the formation of the worlds, the origin of the floating souls, and their return to God by progressive existences or generations of Adam. He was struck with the grandeur of the thought of Moses, whose intention had been to prepare the religious unity of the nations, by establishing the worship of the one God and incarnating this idea into a people.

Afterwards he was instructed in the doctrine of the Divine Word, already taught by Krishna in India, by the priests of Osiris, by Orpheus and Pythagoras in Greece, and known to the prophets under the name of the Mysteries of the Son of Man and of the Son of God. According to this doctrine, the highest manifestation of God is man, who, in constitution, form, organs, and intelligence, is the image of the Universal Being, whose faculties he possesses. In the earthly evolution of humanity, however, God is scattered, split up, and mutilated, so to speak, in the multiplicity of men and of human imperfections.

In it he suffers, struggles, and tries to find himself, he is the Son of Man, the perfect Man, the Man-Type, the profoundest thought of God, remaining hidden in the infinite abyss of his desire and power. And yet at certain epochs, when humanity is to be saved from some terrible gulf, and set on a higher stand, a chosen one identifies himself with divinity, attracts it to himself by strength, wisdom, and love, and manifests it anew to men. Then, divinity, by virtue and breath of the Spirit, is completely present in him: the Son of Man becomes the Son of God, and his living word.

In other ages and among other nations, there had already appeared sons of God, but since Moses, none had arisen in Israel. All the prophets were expecting this Messiah. The Seers even said that this time he would call himself the Son of Woman, of the Heavenly Isis, of the Divine Light, which is the Bride of God, for the Light of Love would shine in him, above every other light, with a dazzling splendor hitherto unknown on earth.

Jesus, the Last Great Initiate, by Edouard Schuré, 1908