What’s been said about the Essenes...

The following information consists of excerpts of ancient Latin, Greek and Old Slavonic texts as well as Third Century Aramaic Manuscripts translated by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely.   For more information, please see the bibliography.

Who were the Essenes?

“The derivation of the name Essene:  Some believe it comes from Esnoch or Enoch, and claim him to be their founder, their Communions with the angelic world having first been given to him. Others consider the name comes from Esreal, the elects of the people to whom Moses brought forth the Communions at Mount Sinai where they were revealed to him by the angelic world.”[1]

“In Palestine and Syria they were called Essenes.  Their life and principles were followed by the Pythagoreans and Stoics.  He regards them as the oldest of the initiates, receiving the traditions of Central Asia through the Egyptians.  Their prophecies were always fulfilled.  Men of action who put into practice their religious, moral, social and scientific conceptions.” [2]

“Above and before all, they had their traditional secrets based on angelology, the fundamental science of al their teachings.”[3]

“The only religion that could satisfy them was one that rose above the ancient divisions and united people all over the world in one brotherhood.”[4]

“They considered that man has three roles:  one of individual evolution, second, a function in regard to the planet on which he lives, and third, a purpose as a unit of the cosmos.” [5] 

“The cosmic function of each individual’s thinking body is to create thoughts of such a superior quality that they can unite with this cosmic ocean of thought.”[6]

“If man thinks in harmony with the Law (cosmic laws) he can remedy whatever in-harmony he has created in the past; he can recreate his thinking body, feeling body and his acting body. He can heal all diseases in his physical body and create complete harmony in his environment and his world.”[7]

“The spiritual currents in the cosmic ocean of consciousness are higher currents which do not mingle with the terrestrial and planetary currents. Man by his own efforts, his own will, has to ascend to this cosmic ocean of universal life. Then and only then can he realize his oneness with the Law.”[8]

“They do not live in any particular town but in every town where the order has its respective house.  Everything is here at their disposal as if in their own house.  Here they are received as best friend and near relatives by persons they never met before.  Every member willingly gives his brother what he needs of his, and is again supplied by others with what is needed.  Even if he thinks he can never repay it, he may without bashfulness receive it, as this is the rule with them.” [9]

“...they talk by turns and in a low tone, which will appear strange to those not used to it.”[10]

“Feed the hungry, clothe the naked and shelter the homeless. To comfort the sick, visit, assist and comfort the prisoners. To comfort, aid and protect the widows and fatherless.”[11]

“Their “yea” and nay” were with them as binding as the most sacred oath.”[12] 

“They have profound knowledge of the art of healing, and study it arduously.They also know the use and worth of minerals as medicine, and do a great deal of good by applying these for healing the sick.”[13]

“Their courage and uncommon tranquility cannot be disturbed by the greatest calamities, adversities or troubles.”[14]

“Most of the other authors mention that the first century Essenes were very fond of music and were always happy.”[15]

“Generally they all lived to an extremely advanced age; it was very rare for them to die before their hundredth or hundredth and twentieth year and most of them lived still longer.”[16]

“They lived on terms of perfect equality between men and women, contrary to the customs and social structure of their period.” [17]

“In comparatively desert areas they produced a large variety of fruits and vegetables of the highest quality and in such abundance they periodically had a surplus to distribute to the needy. Their scientific knowledge was such that they could do all of this in a comparatively few hours each day, leaving ample time for their studies and spiritual practices.  Through their connection with the angels.”[18]

“Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History states, “A race by themselves, more remarkable than any other in this wide world.”[19]

 

The Essene Angelology

“The method of contacting these forces (and all the forces of life in the visible and invisible universes) was engraved on two stone tablets Moses brought down from Mount Sinai but destroyed when he found that the masses of his people were not ready for the teaching, even as the masses of mankind are not ready for it today and may not be for many generations to come.  But to the few who were ready he taught the method given on the tablets, the Communions with the angels, which has been preserved throughout the ages in the Essene Brotherhoods and can still be practiced by man today.”[20]

“To the earlier concept of the Tree the Essenes added what the ancient writers called Angelology.  The science of the angels was brought forth by the Essenes at their brotherhood in Palestine. It was known by many of the ancient peoples that these invisible forces were a source of energy and power, and that man’s life was sustained by contact with them. They knew that to the degree man was able to utilize these forces, he would move forward in his individual evolution in body and spirit, and as he put himself in harmony with them, his life would prosper. Certain of the people not only knew of those forces but had specific methods of contacting and utilizing them.”[21] 

“Contact with the angelic forces represented by the tree of life was the very essence of the daily life of the Essenes.  They had the deep wisdom to understand that these forces were sources of energy, knowledge and harmony by which man can transform his organism into a more and more sensitive instrument to receive and consciously utilize the forces.  Furthermore, they considered that to put himself into harmony with the forces of the Heavenly Father and the Earthly Mother was man’s most important activity in life.”[22]

“Man, in the center of the tree, was seen to be surrounded as in a magnetic field, by all the forces, or angels, of heaven and earth.  The gastric and generative tracts in the lower half of the body, being instruments of self-preservation and self-perpetuation, belong to the earthly forces.  Whereas the lungs and brain, in the upper half of the body, are the instruments of breathing and thinking and thus connect man with the finer forces of the universe.”[23]

“The seven evening communions (the angels of Heavenly Father) are dedicated to the spiritual powers, which govern man’s higher evolution.  Their cumulative effect is the revitalization of the mind and all the superior forces within the individual, enabling him to receive and become attuned with al the higher oceans of love, life and thought, thus gradually developing all the superior potentialities of his being.” [24]

“The communions with the angels have three immediate objectives:  The first is to make man conscious of the activities of the different forces and forms of energy, which surround him and perpetually flow toward him from nature and the cosmos.  The second is to make him aware of the  organs and centers in his being which can receive these currents of energy.  The third is to establish a connection between the organs and centers and their corresponding forces so as to absorb, control and utilize each current.”[25]

 

Jesus and the Essene Angelology

“Master, we are in sore need of your wisdom. For we know that which is good, and yet we follow evil.  We know that to enter the kingdom of heaven we must walk with the angels of the day and of the night, yet our feet walk in the ways of the wicked. The light of day shines only in our pursuit of pleasure, and the night falls on our headless stupor.  Tell us, Master, how may we walk with the angels, and stay within their holy circle, that the Law may burn in our hearts with a constant flame? And Jesus spoke to them: To lift your eyes to heaven. When all men’s eyes are on the ground, is not easy.  To worship at the feet of angels, when all men worship only fame and riches, is not easy.  But the most difficult of all is to think the thoughts of angels, to speak the words of angels, and to do as angels do.”[26]

“And one man spoke. “But Master, we are but men, we are not angels.  How then can we hope to walk in their ways? Tell us what we must do. And Jesus spoke: “As the son inherits the land of his father, so have we inherited a Holy Land from our Fathers.  This land is not a field to be ploughed, but a place within us where we may build our Holy Temple; that which we have inherited from our Fathers, and their Fathers, Fathers.”[27]

“The Holy Temple can be built only with the ancient Communions, those, which are spoken, those which are thought and those which are lived. The Communions are a bridge between man and the Angels, and like a bridge, can be built only with patience, yet, even as the bridge over the river is fashioned stone by stone, as they are found by the water’s edge.  And just as the roots of the tree sink into the earth and are nourished, and the branches of the tree raise their arms to the heaven, so is man like the trunk of the tree, with his roots deep in the breasts of his Earthly Mother and his soul ascending to the bright stars of his Heavenly Father, and this is the sacred Tree of Life which stands in the Sea of Eternity.”[28]

“And the morning sun encircled his head with glory as Jesus looked upon them and spoke:

My children know you not that the Earth and all that dwells therein is but a reflection of the Kingdom of the Heavenly Father? And as you are suckled and comforted by your mother when a child, but go to your father in the fields when you grow up, so do the Angels of the Earthly Mother guide your steps toward him who is your Father, and his holy Angels that you may know your true home and become true Sons of God.  While we are children, we will see the rays of the sun, but not the power which created it; while we are children, we will hear the sounds of the flowing brook, but not the Love which created it;[29] While we are children, we will see the stars, but not the hand which scatters them through the sky, as the farmer scatters his seed.  Only through the Communions with the Angels of the Heavenly Father, will we learn to see the unseen, to hear that which cannot be heard, and to speak the unspoken word.”[30]

“The purpose of the morning and evening communions is to establish contact with the natural and spiritual forces – which the Essenes termed, “angels” so that they may serve as  sources of energy, harmony and knowledge.”[31]

“Jesus: I have still many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them yet.  For your eyes are used to the darkness and the full light of the Heavenly Father would make you blind.  And when the angels of the Earthly Mother have cleansed and renewed your bodies and strengthened your eyes, you will be able to bear the light of the Heavenly Father.  The light of the Heavenly Father is a thousand times brighter than the brightness of a thousand suns.  Believe me, the sun is as the flame of a candle besides the sun of truth of the Heavenly Father.”[32]

“And in the moments before you sleep, then shall you think of the bright and glorious stars, the white, shining, far seen and far piercing stars.  For your thoughts before sleep are as the bow of a skilfull archer that sends the arrow where he wills.  Let your thoughts before sleep be with the stars; for the stars are light, and the Heavenly Father is light.  Unfold your wings of light, and in the eye of your thought soar with the stars into the farthest reaches of the heaven, where untold suns blaze with light.”[33] 

 

Excerpts from the Essene Book of Creation

“The first chapter of Genesis opens with the words: in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  The Essene Book of Creation on the other hand, says something very different: without beginning, the law creates thought and life.” [34]

“The Law takes an interest in our lives and activities, for it rewards us whenever and wherever we act and live in accordance with it. When we deviate from the Law we are punished, as if by a father, but in truth the punishment comes not from the Law, but from ourselves.”[35] 

“According to the esoteric text, the Law, the Creator did not rest on the seventh day, but from the seventh day onwards.  Since the Seventh day, man has been entrusted with the work of creation on this planet.  All was created for man as the Creator’s representative on earth.”[36]

 “Thou shall have no other gods,” means that man is not to create artificial laws, since there is no Law but the one primordial Law, from which are derived all other laws of nature and of man’s consciousness.”[37]

“The Law is everywhere present in the universe, for it is the cohesive force, which binds the universe together in all its parts. Man’s illusion of separation is caused by his deviations from the law, which impose self-created limitation in his life.”[38]

 

The Essene "Our Mother"

Our Mother which art upon Earth, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, and thy will be done is us, as it is in thee.

As thou sendest everyday thy angels, send them to us also.

Forgive us our sins, as we atone all our sins against thee.

And lead us not into sickness, but deliver us from all evil,

for thine is the earth, the body and the health. Amen.[39]

(Translated by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely from Ancient Aramaic)

 

Excerpts from the Dead Sea Scrolls, originally found at Qumran in 1947

“I thank thee Heavenly Father, because Thou has put me at a source of running streams, at a living spring in a land of drought, watering an eternal garden of wonders, the Tree of Life, mystery of mysteries, growing, everlasting branches for eternal planting to sink their roots into the stream of life from an eternal source.  And Thou, Heavenly Father, protect their fruits with the angels of the day and of the night and with flames of eternal Light burning every way.”[40] (Thanksgiving psalms of the Dead Sea Scrolls VII (viii. 4-12) 

“I am grateful, Heavenly Father, For Thou hast raised me to an eternal height and I walk in the wonders of the plain.  Thou gavest me guidance to reach Thine eternal company from the depth of the earth.  Thou hast purified my body to join the army of the angels of the earth and my spirit to reach the congregation of the heavenly angels.  Thou gavest man eternity to praise at dawn and dusk thy works and thy wonders in joyful song.”[41] (Thanksgiving Psalms VI (iii. 19-36) 

“With the coming of day I embrace my Mother, With the coming of night I join my Father, and with the outgoing of evening and morning I will breathe their law. And I will not interrupt these communions until the end of time.”[42]  (Manual of Discipline – Dead Sea Scrolls)

“And his peace descended upon them; and in their heart the angel of love, and in their head the wisdom of the law, and in their hands the power of rebirth, and they went forth among the sons of men to bring the light of peace to those that warred in darkness.”[43] (The Essene Gospel of Peace)

 

 

Bibliography

The Teaching of the Essenes from Enoch to the Dead sae Scrolls,

Translated by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely from ancient Latin and Greek

International Biogenic Society: 1977, United States

The Essenes by Josephus and his Contemporaries,

Translated by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely from ancient Latin and Greek

International Biogenic Society: 1981, United States

The Essene Gospel of Peace – Book One,

Translated by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely from Third Century Aramaic Manuscript and Old Slavonic Texts, International Biogenic Society: 1981, United States

The Essene Gospel of Peace – Book Two,

Translated by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely from original Hebrew and Aramaic texts. International Biogenic Society: 1981, United States

The Essene Book of Creation, Translated by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely from Third Century Aramaic Manuscript and Old Slavonic Texts, International Biogenic Society: 1989, United States

Essene Communions with the Infinite, Translated by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely from Third Century Aramaic Manuscript and Old Slavonic Texts, International Biogenic Society: 1979, United States

 

 

Footnotes

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