The evening angel that corresponds to the Angel of Water is the Angel of Love. The connection is apparent in the verses (abbreviated):

“…The Angel of Love,
Whose healing waters flow
In a never-ending stream
From the Sea of Eternity.
Beloved, let us love one another
For love is of the Heavenly Father.
… Loving words are as a honeycomb
Sweet to the soul…
Yea, it was said in the ancient of days,
Thou shalt love thy Heavenly Father
With all thy heart,
And with all thy mind,
And with all thy deeds,
And thou shalt love thy brothers
As thyself….
….. By this we know the Children of Light:
Those who walk with the Angel of Love,
For they love the Heavenly Father,
And they love their brethren,
And they keep the Holy Law.
Love is stronger
Than the currents of deep waters;
Love is stronger than death.”

“Love thy Heavenly Father with all thy heart, thy mind and thy deeds, and love thy brothers as thyself.” Sound familiar? That is the same as from the Christian Gospels – specifically, Mark 12:30-31 and Luke 10:27. How often I come up short on that one!

Yet the line that grabs me is the last one: “Love is stronger than death.” Do we ever really consider the power of love? We know how much we continue to love someone even after they have left their physical bodies. I personally have experienced deep love in the dream state – for both people and pets. Meditators or those who journey in expanded realms of consciousness can find themselves in places where Love surrounds them.

If, through our awareness of the pervasiveness of Love, we do our best to be more mindful of it and to extend it to all the world (earth, water, plants, animals, air, humans, angels and all things we can think of) I have a feeling it would be more of a force than we even have an inkling of.  Let’s try it!

As we move on in working with the energies of the physical realm and the spiritual realm via the concept of the "angels," you'll notice that he angels of the evening are often the higher vibration of the angels of the mornings.

We did the Angels of the First Day: Sun in the morning and Power in the evening.

The Angels of the Second Day are Water in the morning and Love in the evening. Sorta makes sense, no? Water is the element of the emotions; it is the physical manifestation of the energy of fluidity, and the emotions are a higher level of fluidity.

From the Essene Gospels text on the Angel of Water:

".... From the heavenly sea
The waters run and flow forward
From the never-failing springs.
In my blood flow
A thousand pure springs,
And vapors, and clouds,
And all the waters
That spread over all the seven Kingdoms.
All the waters
The Creator hath made
Are holy.
The voice of the Lord
Is upon the waters....
.... Angel of Water,
Holy messenger of the Earthly Mother
Enter the blood that flows through me,
Wash my body in the rain
That falls from heaven,
And give me the water of Life."

As I contemplate Water, I try to be mindful of the power of water over time -- the way in which water can smoothe rough stones and bore through layers of earth. While not as "strong" as solids, this element is still able to shape the solids if given enough time.

There is the cleansing property of water ("Wash my body in the rain..."). As I walk in light rainfall, I think of how Nature may be cleansing the thought patterns of the community over which it is falling.
It cleanses, and Air helps move it out. (Ever notice how wind and rain often occur together?) 
The Angel of Air is the elemental energy (or the Angel of the Morning) of the third day. No coincidence, I'm sure, that one follows the other.

Water also is a gift of life. We need it to continue our existence in these physical vehicles we occupy in our Earth-walk. As do the plants and animals -- and the animals who call water "home." None of us are capable of living for very long without it.

May we cherish that gift today -- in all its qualities

How often do we consider that there could be “a path for each of us and all?” Other than the ministry and perhaps the arts, when do we hear people talk about being called to do what they are doing?

I experienced a weekend retreat in Feb., 2018 in which I felt a call to write about these Gospels. Literally: “There needs to be a voice in the wilderness.” A voice in these times of plundering so much land (and ocean!) in and around the United States to support the fossil fuel industries – despite the perils involved. I do not have a following (yet, perhaps?), so mine truly is “a voice in the wilderness.”

I feel the Earth needs such voices to not only call attention to her plight, but to draw awareness to the fact that oneness with our planet and all sentient life on it is an ancient knowing. One that we have forgotten. One that these Gospels address. It is my fervent hope that those who find this blog may open to its message and all places where it can be found, for the Essene Gospels is not the only one.

So what’s the connection between communing with the Angels and a Calling? The morning angel of the first day is the Angel of Sun. Its corresponding evening angel is that of Power. Here is text from it:

“…The first [evening] Communion is with
The Angel of Power,
Who fills the sun with heat,
And guides the hands of man
In all his works.
Thine, O Heavenly Father!
Was the Power,
When thou didst order a path
For each of us and all.
Through thy power
Will my feet tread the
Path of the Law;
Through thy power
Will my hands perform thy works,
May the golden river of power
Always flow from thee to me,
And may my body always turn unto thee
As the flower turns unto the sun.
For there is no power save that
From the Heavenly Father….
There is no man that hath power
Over the spirit…
Guide our works and our deeds,
O Angel of Power,
Holy messenger of the Heavenly Father!”

Find your calling. Be true to what it is that you know, deep inside, you love to do. Taking that action will endow you with a power you may not have realized existed before.

As we’re outside on a sunny day, we can consider the variety of blessings the sun bestows on us and all life. It brings life back to the plant kingdom in the Spring; it warms us in times of cold. The bright yellow of the sun’s rays can brighten our mood.

I have heard that the element of Spirit is fire. So while we are surrounded by sunlight, let’s become aware that Spirit is in the sun's light all around us. Its gifts can be energy, life force, expansiveness and power. Breathe it in and feel it move through our being. 

Experience appreciation for the Sun.  And have a bright day.

My last post addressed the Commandments God gave Moses, per the Essene scriptures. In the original set of Commandments, God tells Moses (to tell the people) that they are to honor the Angels of the Earthly Mother in the mornings and the Angels of the Heavenly Father in the evenings.

The text gives Jesus’s explanation to the people about the communions (pages 30 - 31 in The Gospel of the Essenes, which cover I will copy here so you know which book I am referring to.   At the present time (March, 2018), I see Amazon has many used copies available for purchase. This is not always the case!)




"And all the men gathered around Jesus, and their faces shone with desire to hear the words which would come from his lips. And he lifted his face to the rising sun, and the radiance of its rays filled his eyes as he spoke…”

“…. And the Communions are fourteen in number,
As the angels of the Heavenly Father
Number seven,
And the Angels of the Earthly Mother
Number seven.
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 heaven,
So is man like the trunk of the tree,
With his roots deep
In the breast of his Earthly Mother,
And his soul ascending
To the bright stars of his Heavenly Father.
And the roots of the tree
Are the Angels of the Earthly Mother,
And the branches of the tree
Are the angels of the Heavenly Father,
And this is the sacred Tree of Life
Which stands in the Sea of Eternity.”

You may wonder what this means. To me, it simply means that man is both a physical being, with a solid body similar to the solidity of the earth. As the earth nourishes a tree, the energies that the seven Angels of the Earthly Mother hold help to sustain man. These are the Angels of Sun, Water, Air, Earth, Life and Joy.

Yet man is a creature who is also capable of establishing a connection with the Spiritual realm. To assist him (yes, and her – women need not be exempt from this) with this process are the Angels of the Heavenly Father: Power, Love, Wisdom, Eternal Life, Work and Peace.

In my post titled “Desecration of the Earth,” I quoted from the Essene Gospels about a time that comes when Man forgets to honor the Earth. He ravages and pollutes the lands, earth and waters and succumbs to greed by taking whatever he wants -- leaving only a desert in place of a living planet.

Then it says, “All these things will [Man] do out of ignorance of the Law.” (Yes, the capital “L” is in the text and not my substitution).  So you may wonder, “What is that Law?”

From The Gospel of the Essenes by Edmond Szekely’s (the version that includes books 2 and 3), on pages 25-28 is this account of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments from God. Moses goes up to the top of Mt. Sinai, after hearing God’s order: “Come unto me, for I would give thee the Law for thy people, which shall be a covenant for the Children of Light.”

And these are the Commandments God gives Moses:

“I am the Law, thy God, which hath brought thee out from the depths of bondage of darkness.
Thou shalt have no other Laws before me.
Though shalt not make unto thee any image of the Law in heaven above or in the earth beneath. I am the invisible Law, without beginning and without end.
Thou shalt not make unto thee false laws, for I am the Law, and the whole Law of all laws. If thou forsake me, thou shalt be visited by disasters for generation upon generation.
If thou keepest my commandments, thou shalt enter the Infinite Garden where stands the Tree of Life in the midst of the Eternal Sea.
…..(Here I’m leaving out a couple sentences that could be seen as redundant)
Honor thy Earthly Mother, that they days may be long upon the land, and honor thy Heavenly Father, that eternal life be thine in the heavens, for the earth and the heavens are given unto thee by the Law, which is thy God.
      Thou shalt greet thy Earthly Mother on the morning of the Sabbath…. (and then goes on to                enumerate which of the Earthly Mother’s angels are to be honored on each of the following                  mornings of the week…)
     Thou shalt worship the Heavenly Father on the evening of the Sabbath… (and then lists the Heavenly  Father’s angels to commune with on each evening of the week)
The seventh day is the Sabbath: thou shalt remember to keep it holy. The Sabbath is the day of the Light of the Law, thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work, but search the Light, the Kingdom of thy God, and all things shall be given unto thee.
…… (Another redundant sentence...)
Thou shalt not take the life from any living thing. Life comes only from God, who giveth it and taketh it away.
Thou shalt not debase Love. It is the sacred gift of thy Heavenly Father.
Thou shalt not trade thy Soul, the priceless gift of the loving God, for the riches of the world, which are as seeds sown on stony ground, having no root in themselves, and so enduring but for a little while.
Thou shalt not be a false witness of the Law, to use it against thy brother: only God knoweth the beginning and the ending of all things…
Thou shalt not covet they neighbor’s possessions. The Law giveth unto thee much greater gifts, even the earth and the heavens, if thou keep the Commandments of the Lord thy God.”

These were what God told Moses to take to the people. And we know what happened when Moses went down from the Mount and found his people indulging their various fears and appetites while he was away communing with God.

When Moses sees them, this rendition says,
“…. and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.  
And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, ‘Ye have sinned a great sin, ye have denied thy Creator. I will go up unto the Lord and plead atonement for thy sin.’ ”

Which Moses does, telling God, “Lord, thou hast seen the desecration of thy Holy Law. For thy children lost faith, and worshipped in the darkness, and made for themselves a golden calf. Lord, forgive them, for they are blind to the light.”

Leaving out an interesting paragraph for the sake of some brevity, I’ll pick up the text with this:

“And the Lord spoke, saying, “Only the Children of Light can keep the Commandments of the Law. Hear me, for I say thus: the tablets which thou didst break, these shall nevermore be written in the words of men. As thou didst return them to the earth and fire, so shall they live, invisible, in the hearts of those who are able to follow their Law. To thy people of little faith, who did sin against the Creator, even whilst thou stood on holy ground before thy God, I will give another Law. It shall be a stern law, yea, it shall bind them, for they know not yet the Kingdom of Light.”

And Moses returns to the people with the new laws God had given him – the ten commandments as we know them today.

The account of the receiving of the Commandments in the Essene Gospels ends with,
“And there was a day of mourning and atonement for the great sin against the Creator, which did not end. And the broken tablets of the invisible Law lived hidden in the breast of Moses, until it came to pass that the Children of Light appeared in the desert, and the angels walked the earth.”

The original Commandments here are what I believe the Essene text means when it says man ruins the Earth out of ignorance of the Law. In destroying the land and all life that comes from it, he is “taking the life from living things” and he is definitely not honoring the Earthly Mother. He is more interested in “the riches of the world…. which endure but for a little while…”

I am very intrigued with the statements in the Essene Gospels (in more than one place) that mankind is one with the Earth. If you don’t happen to agree with it, that is totally your prerogative – and I expect the most pervasive belief.

However, consider this: Could it be that the more things we find from a variety of sources (yes, including native peoples’ beliefs) lend credence to that statement? When that happens in my spiritual readings (or, as you’ll see below, even reading that I don’t think is “spiritual”), I get excited. If I find a saying from the Old Testament that matches a passage from Hinduism that says much the same thing as the Essene Gospels and also happens to be found in Jesus’s or Confucius’s teachings, I tend to think there’s something to it.

So here are a couple other things I found that also hold that humans are “one with the Earth”:

Surprisingly, from the novel Snow Flower and the Secret Fan  by Lisa See – an often gut-wrenching tale of friendship between two women in China in the 1800s (how many of us have any idea of what life was like for people, and women especially, in that culture and time? Wow!): “We spoke delicately about the essential elements that must be in place for a baby to take hold and whether or not our husbands obeyed these rituals. Everyone knows that the human body is a miniature version of the universe – the eyes and ears are the sun and moon, breath is air, blood is rain. Conversely, those elements play important roles in the development of a baby….”  (page 141).

And there is this from Chief Seattle of the Dwamish tribe:
“This we know, all things are connected,
Like the blood which unites one family.
All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of the earth.
Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”

As I close this posting, I encourage us all to be more mindful of the Earth. She cannot nourish us if she is clogged, polluted or neglected. We depend on good soil (and clean water) to grow the plants both we and the animals need to eat. And we eat the animals who ingest the plants (or whatever other things man gives them to eat.)

Consider picking up that piece of litter or tossed-away soda or beer can when you’re outside. Pull the weeds in your garden (and yes, I usually apologize to them as I do this) that may be impeding the nutrition your trees or flowers need. Send a blessing to the land as you walk by and affirm that it/she be healthy and nutritious for all that grows in it/her. That way we also bless life for ourselves.

Recently I got my hands on a copy of the hard-to-find Essene Gospel of Peace Book Four: The Teachings of the Elect.  OK, yes, now and then there are copies available on Amazon, but spending upwards of $40 for a 35-page books is difficult for me to swallow. I pounced on it when I saw it on a sale-by-donation table of a local metaphysical organization. My deepest thanks to the person who donated it!

Being a lover of our Earth and the beauty and wonder of nature, this passage on page 29 grabbed me:

“I tell you truly, you are one with the Earthly Mother; she is in you, and you in her. Of her were you born, in her do you live, and to her shall you return again. It is the blood of our Earthly Mother which falls from the clouds and flows in the rivers; it is the breath of our Earthly Mother which whispers in the leaves of the forest and blows with a mighty wind from the mountains; sweet and firm is the flesh of our Earthly Mother in the fruits of the trees; strong and unflinching are the bones of our Earthly Mother in the giant rocks and stones which stand as sentinels of the lost times: truly, we are one with our Earthly Mother, and he who clings to the laws of his Mother, to him shall his Mother cling, also.

But there will come a day when the Son of Man will turn his face from his Earthly Mother, and betray her, even denying his Mother and his birthright. Then shall he sell her into slavery, and her flesh shall be ravaged, her blood polluted, and her breath smothered; he will bring the fire of death into all the parts of her kingdom, and his hunger will devour all her gifts and leave in their place only a desert.

All these things will he do out of ignorance of the Law, and as a man dying slowly cannot smell his own stench, so will the Son of Man be blind to the truth: that as he plunders and ravages and destroys his Earthly Mother, so does he plunder and ravage and destroy himself. For he was born of his Earthly Mother, and he is one with her, and all that he does to his Mother, even so does he do to himself.”

What amazes me is that this was written around 2,000 years ago! It seems especially pertinent currently --  in the time of an administration of leadership of the U.S. that is determined to repeal any measures established in the past that help clean our water, land and air and keep designated federal and public lands free from development.

“As he does to his Mother, even so does he do to himself.”

Below is one of my favorite readings from the Essene Gospels, from the section titled The Sevenfold Peace. In the book I have, this is on pages 61-63:

This passage would seem very appropriate for today’s times. What would happen if we released our greed and fear of scarcity to live in peace with one another? And when will we recognize that we are very diverse, yet all people are equal in the heart of God? This reading says that those who have found peace with the brotherhood of man make themselves co-workers with God.

May peace be with you this day.
                                                                                                       
          “Blessed is the Child of Light
           Who doth build on earth
           The kingdom of heaven,
           For he shall dwell in both worlds.
           Thou shalt follow the Law of the Brotherhood,
           Which saith that none shall have wealth,
           And none shall be poor,
           And all shall work together
           In the garden of the Brotherhood.
           Yet each shall follow his own path,
           And each shall commune with his own heart.
           For in the Infinite Garden
           There are many and diverse flowers:
           Who shall say that one is best
           Because its color is purple,
           Or that one is favored
           Because its stalk is long and slender?
           Though the brothers
           Be of different complexion,
           Yet do they all toil
           In the vineyard of the Earthly Mother,
           And they all do lift their voices together
           In praise of the Heavenly Father.
           And together they break the holy bread,
           And in silence share the holy meal
           Of thanksgiving.
           There shall be no peace among peoples
           Till there be one garden of the brotherhood
           Over the earth.
          For how can there be peace
          When each man pursueth his own gain
          And doth sell his soul into slavery?
          Thou, Child of Light,
          Do ye gather with thy brothers
          And then go ye forth
          To teach the ways of the Law
          To those who would hear.
          He who hath found peace
          With the brotherhood of man
          Hath made himself
          The co-worker of God
          Know this peace with thy mind,
          Desire this peace with thy heart,
          Fulfill this peace with thy body.”
 

As perhaps you noticed in my earlier posts (pre-2016 U.S. presidential election), I wrote a few entries with excerpts from the Essene Gospels. This is something to which I want to return.

I am drawn to these writings. From the very little I have seen already blogged about them online, a major focus has been the biogenic diet aspect of these Gospels – espousing the use of vegan raw foods. Understandably, this draws quite the interchange between those who have found that following such a diet has benefited them tremendously. And of course, the opposite side of “humans were made to be carnivorous and how could anyone expect such a diet to be appropriate for our physiology?”

I will admit upfront that I have not followed this dietary plan – never have, and don’t suspect I ever will. I did try to be vegetarian a couple times over my life and wasn’t able to do it. I suppose there are those who would say I wasn’t persistent enough and that the cravings for meats would discontinue if given enough time. For me, even cheese and my all-time favorite, peanut butter, did not satiate those cravings. I choose not to eat red meats and try to minimize my use of fowl. However, I do eat fish once or twice a week. And a lot of dark chocolate. So much for my diet.

There are those who debate the authenticity of these manuscripts. This is another area I have no desire to get into. The fact that ancient documents were found in huge urns by the Dead Sea should not be in contention. As to whether Edmond Szekely did or did not obtain access to these Essene Gospels to translate them and publish them is another aside I do not want to focus on.

Some maintain that these gospels are fiction. To respond to that I will say that in the edition I have of the combination of Books Two and Three, there is a section showing segments of these Essene Gospels that are (OK, supposedly) exactly the same as parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Not only that, but I have found word-for-word sentences in these Gospels that match those in the Bible (specifically, from Genesis, Isaiah and John). If this were a work of fiction, for me it is brilliant fiction. I find it incredulous that someone would choose those particular segments to tie into the rest of what he/she was writing!

Sentences or paragraphs from these Essene Gospels matching ones in the Old Testament or other Dead Sea Scrolls makes sense to me – as all these texts would have been written in the same cultural context over the time period of a few hundred years around the time (before and after) of Jesus’s life. For me, that tends to validate the Essene Gospels books as the real deal. Of course, just my humble opinion.  :-)

These “disclaimers” now stated, why am I interested in the Essene Gospels if not for the diet and not to debate their authenticity?

You may have noticed my couple of posts about Lazaris’s definitions of the Bridges of Faith and Belief. I read Lazaris: The Sacred Journey - You and Your Higher Self in the late 1980s. As a spiritual seeker at the time, the reference to "God/Goddess/All That Is" impacted me. I liked the idea of not limiting “God” to either a masculine or feminine entity or presence – and the inclusion of the “All That Is.”

I find this concept in the Essene Gospels. Not the “All That Is” so much – but the honoring of the importance of “the Earthly Mother” as well as “the Heavenly Father.”  Reading the mindfulness texts for the Earthly Mother in the mornings has made me more appreciative of the sacredness of nature and its representation on the physical level of the corresponding attribute of the Heavenly Father for meditation at nighttime. Together they provide for me not only a balance of nature and Spirit, but as I read them over and over, a deeper respect and awareness of the interconnection between the physical and spiritual realms as well as more understanding of the power we humans have to influence them.

So…. Will you join me in exploring potential meanings of the writings of the Essene Gospels? Or to just enjoy the inspiration of a refreshing take on spirituality?  I can’t wait to get started!