The Essenes
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
The Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1946 made the word “Essene” known to the world at large. Two thousand years ago, a brotherhood of holy men and women was formed. They lived in a community together and nurtured the seeds of Christianity and Western Civilization. The Beginning of the Essene Nazarean Path is Love and Goodness. The Essenes were persecuted, but brought people forward who would change the world and turn the course of history. The Essenes founded Christianity, essentially. Its founders were St. Ann, Joseph and Mary, John the Baptist, Jesus, John the Evangelist, and many unknown others.
Essene Prayer
Said by the Virgin Mary
Within the Most High, my soul blossoms,
Leaps for joy at the sight of the ascendant path.
What is on high came to meet what is below,
And the Most High has impregnated my soul through his radiant look.
Out of all the generations, mine is blissful,
For the Almighty did great things for me;
He impregnated my soul.
Holy is his name, through the centuries runs his blessing
For those who, because of love, remain faithful to Him.
The
Essenes were a Jewish sect, thought by some scholars to have collected
the Dead Sea Scrolls. At Ein Gedi, an oasis in southern Israel, 28
dwellings were discovered, possibly the home of the ancient Essenes. On
the site was found a mikveh, or Jewish ritual bath. They survived by
working the fields of the oasis. The Essenes flourished between the
second century B.C. to the time when the temple in Jerusalem was
destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. They were a tightly knit group of
men and women who practiced communal ownership of property. This site
was found to have one person dwellings that measured six by nine feet.
Communal living was the likely reason for three stoves discovered in
the kitchen. When the site was excavated, a complete lack of animal
bones was noted. The Essenes were vegetarians, observed the Sabbath,
did not swear and abstained from intoxicants and meat. Their diet
consisted of raw fruits, grains and vegetables along with cooked bread.
The similarities between Essenism and Christianity are numerous. “Seek
first the kingdom of God” was the aim of the Essenes (Matthew 6:33,
Luke, 12:31). Sell possessions and give to the poor (Matthew, 6:33).
They turned away from riches (Matthew, 6:19-21). As John would write
about Christianity, “We know that we have passed from death to life
because we love the brethren.” (I John 3:14). Essenes and Christians
lived in Jerusalem in communities where each person had a common
interest in the community’s possessions. Some biblical scholars believe
that the Essenes and the early Christians were one and the same people.
They lived in the villages surrounded by a low wall. They cultivated
gardens and nature. Essenes were organized in a hierarchy. They lived
pious lives in tune with the rhythms of the seasons, recognizing days
of celebration, and dining with visitors. Other lived in the city, and
their homes were used as inn and hospital. Healing the sick,
hospitality for travelers needing a room, this was the Essene way.
Being very well organized, the Essenes traveled the roads and spread
the news throughout the lands, countryside and other countries. In
their extensive travels, the Essenes could easily have come into
contact with and be influenced by religions from the East, like Jainism
or Buddhism.
Other Essenes lived in monastery-schools situated precisely at
particular sites. They believed that these particular places were in
resonance with the knowledge of the land of light and with the doors
that exist between it and the earth. The Essenes who lived in these
monastery schools were usually unmarried. Single women were in the
Essene Community as well.
Jesus taught that when a group of people gather together freely around
a divine idea and begin to work on themselves in the direction of this
idea, then, if there are enough of them, they carry within themselves
all of humanity and they can bring into the world the divine idea and
allow it to evolve. From the Essenes’ work emanated a communal,
spiritual strength, like a sun in the soul of humanity and the earth.
This sun, in turn, works throughout time to attract the divine idea and
to bring it to life within the reality of the earth. And God said,
“Behold,
I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all
the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding
seed; to you it shall be for food. And to every beast of the earth, and
to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the
earth, wherein there is a living soul, I have given every green herb
for food: and it was so.”
Genesis 1:29-30
The Essenes took gardening seriously!