Esoteric Encyclopedia: The Essenes
The Essenes were a reclusive and mysterious Jewish sect that believed in reincarnation, human ascension, and the immortality of the soul. Many Essenes engaged in communal ownership of property, participating in voluntary poverty and asceticism. Their monastic, money-less lifestyle was governed by customs upheld by the Essene priest class, who practiced strict celibacy and vegetarianism among other forms of spiritual discipline.
According to the historian Josephus, they were the smallest of three major Jewish sects, ranking after the Pharisees (those who resisted the Greco-Roman influence and believed in oral tradition) and the Sadducees (those who embraced the Greco-Roman and only recognized the authority of the written Bible).
Despite this, they still existed in large enough numbers to occupy many cities in ancient Palestine and Syria. Philo, a philosopher from Alexandria wrote that the Essenes resided “in many cities of Judaea and in many villages and grouped in great societies of many members”(11.1).
The Essene mystics true origins were lost to history, but they are generally believed to have existed in the era encompassing the birth and death of Jesus Christ. Many have claimed that the biblical Enoch was the founder of the Essene church, as the book of Enoch describes his celestial journey through the heavens, where he is purified and transformed into the archangel Metatron. The Essene’s believed that humans could be purified and transformed into angels, and this commonality leads many to believe that Enoch was the inspiration for the doctrine.
Among the Essenes, there was a group known as the Nazarenes, who are widely known as the kin of Mary, mother of Jesus Christ. The Essenes of Nazareth were the first Christians to ever exist. Hundreds of years prior to the birth of Jesus, the Essene head priest received a vision of an angel, who conveyed the arrival of a holy avatar into the lineage of the Essenes, a Messiah or savior.
The angel gave instructions to the priest on how to open a doorway for the Messiah to incarnate into their world. Opening this doorway required the whole community to maintain a constant routine of ritual purity in order to invite this heavenly savior into a pure human body. Thus it was common for Essene communities to abide by a righteous way of life, involving a pure vegetarian diet, ritual washing, and the early study of the Essene mysteries. It is also believed that Jesus studied the Essene teachings in his youth, which may have influenced him to become the prophet and messiah of peace that his kin had long waited for.
In 70 CE, 70 000 Roman soldiers marched into Jerusalem and destroyed the sacred city, killing all the Essenes they could find and demolishing the Second Temple that was once their monastic abode. The last remaining Essenes escaped to Qumran with their library of sacred scrolls, stealing away into seclusion where they secretly continued to carry out their traditions.
Bedouin shepherds and a team of Archaeologists first discovered these Essene texts between the year 1946 and 1956 while exploring caves on the shores of the Dead Sea near Qumran; they are now widely known as The Dead Sea Scrolls.
These ancient manuscripts recorded the long lost legacy of the Essene lineage, containing the canonical Hebrew Bible, many extra-biblical texts no longer included in the canon, and a collection of advanced occult scrolls that have largely been kept hidden from the public to this day.
Researchers have compiled a series of 981 manuscripts from the Qumran caves, many of which are incomplete or undecipherable. Less than a dozen of these manuscripts remain intact. The surviving Dead Sea scrolls remain our only clear window into the ancient world of the Essenes. As new revelations emerge, a greater understanding of this fascinating culture will unveil profound insights into the Essenes influence on occult history.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essenes
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/yonge/book37.html
http://www.essene.org/Ancient_Essenes.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_Scrolls
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadducees
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharisees
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qumran
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_(70_CE)
