The Essenes And The Christ Child

The Essenes And The Christ Child

by Rev. Robert S. Slater, Unitarian Minister

Nearly 2,000 years ago Plutarch said that history repeats itself. 

Events of the present day indicate that Plutarch spoke more truly than he may have known. 

Shortly before Plutarch’s birth, Jesus the Christ came to the earth. 

A hundred years or more before Plutarch’s birth, preparations were going on so that the Christ might come.

The Edgar Cayce readings tell us that we of today are in a test period. Preparations must be carried out today, as they were 2,000 years ago, if we like those people of old are to usher in the coming of the Christ - this time the second coming.

Who was preparing 2,000 years ago? What groups were preparing for the coming of the Christ, and how were they preparing?

The most prominent of these groups was the one known as the Essenes. We discover that those days were much like today, when we ask, “Why was it necessary that such groups arise, when the orthodox Jewish groups, the Pharisees and the Sadduces, were already in existence?” Reading No. 1472-1, tells us, “Because of the divisions into

. . . sects, as the Pharisees, Sadduces and their divisions. Also there had arisen the Essenes who cherished not only . . . what had come as word of mouth [tradition], but also had kept records of the periods when individuals had been visited with supernatural . . . experiences; whether in dreams or visions or voices or what not, which had been felt by these students of the customs of the law. . .”

When we learn from the readings that these Essenes had “set themselves as a channel through which, in that particular period, there was expected a fulfillment of the promises from the first promise to Eve unto the last one recorded by Malachi,” (No. 993- 5); it seems we have an answer for the existence of the Essenes.

Then, as today, it often seems that the orthodox groups which preach the ancient miracles believe that they are over and done with - cannot happen in the present age - and that God has ceased speaking and acting in the world.

These Essenes, however, could accept such things as dreams, visions and voices. 

They went one step further, in acting upon what they believed: 

Since there was to be A Fulfillment of the ancient promise from God, then there had to be a group which set itself apart as a channel, and really believed that God could communicate and act through men.

What were these promises which the Essenes expected to have fulfilled through them? The readings tell us that they are found in Isaiah, Malachi, Joel and others. (No. 5749). 

The Essenes looked for the advent of the promised Messiah into The Earth, and they had banded together to study the material, both written and traditional, which had been handed down. (No. 3175-2.) 

And the readings tell us, furthermore, that in certain families for generations the men had been set aside for a definite service in the activities of the peoples of the day.

“Not merely the peoples termed in the present as the peoples of Israel, but rather . . . the greater meaning of the world Israel . . . those called of God in service for their fellow man.” (No. 585-2). 

In other words, there were certain groups who believed so strongly in the ancient prophecies that the men of the families were set aside for special Service to Man.

We know now from recent discoveries as well as from the readings that the area of Mt. Carmel near the Mediterranean Sea was the center of activities for this group of the Essenes, and there they drew upon many sources to learn more exactly the time and circumstances of the coming of the promised Messiah. Reading No. 5749 tells us, “. . . more and more of the leaders of the people were in Carmel - the original place where the school of prophets was established during Elijah’s time . . . these were then called Essenes. This school taught “the mysteries of man and his relationship to those forces which might manifest from within and without.” (No. 993-L-5).

In many ways, the Essenes and similar groups attempted to discover more about the Messiah’s coming. 

They “sought . . . through the mysteries of the ages . . . to interpret time and place, according to the stars, and the numerological effects upon the period.” (No. 2408-1). 

As a result of their studies they proclaimed that a certain period constituted a cycle, and they saw the beginning of a new cycle imminent - the beginning of the Piscean Age, indicated by the position of the Polar Star or North Star in relationship to the southern constellations. 

These astronomical relationships they had studied in connection with times when individuals had been visited by the supernatural or out-of- the-ordinary experiences. 

Their conclusion was that the promised Messiah would soon come to The Earth.

The Piscean Age

One of the leaders in gathering this information shortly before the birth of Jesus was Judy. Even before her birth, Judy was dedicated by her parents to the service of God, and apparently because of dreams and visions, great this were expected of her. 

But the parents expected a boy child. 

The birth of a girl rather than a male, brought considerable disturbance and confusion; yet the parents dedicated Judy to the study of “those things handed down as a part of the experiences of those who had received visitations from the unseen, the unknown . . . or that which is worshipped as the Divine Spirit moving into the activities of man.” (No. 1472-L-1)

Thus - to paraphrase the readings: Judy was brought up almost in ritual fashion which was considered necessary to experience those forces from the unseen; and she was not trained in the disputations and argumentations which were the methods of training in some Jewish groups. 

Judy was taught The Holy Word of her Forefathers not as a dead, but A Living, Thing. 

She came to be one of the leaders of the Essenes, and headed a specific group at Mt. Carmel. She was a prophetess, a healer and a writer and recorder for such groups.

From the work of Judy and others, we see that the knowledge concerning the coming of a Messiah was much broader than the religious culture of the Jews. Judy studied the various kinds of records and traditions of Egypt, India, and many of the Persian lands and lands bordering these. 

A reading given for one Shalmar (No. 2520-1), who was an Essene or one of a similar group, stated that the entity was “acquainted with the teachings of those groups in Persia, India, Egypt, and even of the activities in Olympus and the isles of the sea.” 

Thus we see that there were many people “active . . . in aiding to gather the data from various teachers of the varied lands, for interpretation of . . . the particular group” of Essenes. (No. 1283-1). 

Judy apparently was one of those who led in assembling and interpreting all these facts.