Here’s more from Dorothy Maclean’s book, To Honor the Earth. It has so many readings that are basically the same as the Essene Gospels. Here is a communication she received from The Elements, page 28:

“You are children of the elements, composed of and part of the elements. …. but you are destroying yourselves because you think you are separate from the rest of life….  When the wind blows, it is part of you…  the water joins you all…..   Without the air you breathe, you could not live.

How can you not know that if one suffers, the whole consciousness of the Earth partakes of that? And when one rejoices the whole takes part.

…. All of life is part of you.”

The way I practice the Essene Gospels, this morning is for honoring the Angel of Life. And yes, I greeted one of my favorite trees today. It is a tree who had an extension from its main trunk completely fall off  in the wind storm we had in Nov., 2015. Today its branches show new growth that looks a foot long! I thanked it for sharing its message of strength and resilience with me; it’s humbling to witness such a valiant come-back from a serious trauma.

Wishing us a day in which we can make choices we feel good about, knowing that they benefit the All.

The evening of the Sabbath is set aside for communing with the Heavenly Father. Actually, in the Essene Gospels recounting of the Ten Commandments, the first time Moses went up to receive the covenant between God and God’s Children of Light, God told Moses that the Sabbath is “the day of the Light of the Law,” and that on this day men should “search the Light, the Kingdom of thy God…”

Here is some of the passage of honoring the Heavenly Father:

“The seventh Communion is with
The Heavenly Father,
Who is,
Who was, and
Who ever shall be.
O Great Creator!
Thou didst create the Heavenly Angels,
And thou didst reveal the
Heavenly Laws!...
…. [Thou, O Great Creator!]
Hast made the earth
By thy power,
Hath established the world
By thy wisdom,
And hath stretched out the heavens
By thy love.
Do thou reveal unto me,
O Heavenly Father,
Thy nature,
Which is the power of the
Angels of thy Holy Kingdom….”
 
I had a meditation last week in which I experienced an exhale of my breath spiraling outward into worlds upon worlds, and the briefest glimpse of all the life forms created by the energy of the Creator. A sense of love washed through me, and the thought that immediately came to mind was, “And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:31)

Despite all the craziness that goes on in our world, may we be assured of the overall goodness of Creation today.

In the Essene Gospel’s version of the Ten Commandments, the first time Moses goes up to speak with the Lord he is given a covenant from God for the Children of Light (mankind). It was different from the current Ten Commandments that have come down in our Judaic and Christian traditions – because God changed them after the people made the golden calf to worship in Moses’s absence. The fact that the people were unable to sustain the same level of spiritual consciousness when Moses was gone resulted in God and Moses deciding that the people were not ready for the Law as God had intended to share with them.

God tells Moses when he goes back up the mount for the second time, “Only the Children of Light can keep the Commandments of the Law. Hear me, for I say thus: that the tablets which thou (Moses) didst break, these shall nevermore be written in the words of men…. To thy people of little faith, who sinned against the Creator, even whilst thou stood on holy ground before thy God, I will give another Law. It shall be a stern law….. for they know not yet the Kingdom of Light.”

In the first covenant, God says, “Honor thy Earthly Mother, that thy 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.”

This was changed to the current commandment, “Honor thy father and thy mother.” Which we interpret to mean those-who-raised-us-in-our-childhood “mother and father.” We are challenged enough with that! How might it be different if we were raised to respect the Earth as our Mother, and the Infinite God as our Father?

In the first covenant, on the morning of the Sabbath the Children of Light are to greet the Earthly Mother. This is not one of her angels, but the Earth herself, who includes all the angels of the physical realm that have been greeted through the week leading up to the Sabbath.

Here is some from the passage of honoring the Earthly Mother:

“ …   We invoke the Earthly Mother!
The Holy Preserver!
The Maintainer!
It is She who will restore the world,
And they that dwell therein….
….. Bounteous, valiant,
And full of strength;
Welfare-bestowing, kind,
And health-giving….
….The Earthly Mother and I are One.
I have my roots in her,
And she takes her delight in me,
According to the Holy Law.”

I have not yet fathomed the mystery of exactly how the Earth and man are one. I leave you to contemplate it. Care to share any of the insights that come to you?
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We receive a hint of the evening’s energy in this sentence from the morning’s Angel of Joy:

“…For you shall go out with joy,
And be led forth with peace….”

It seems that Joy and Peace are connected in these scriptures. So in the evening of Day Six, we absorb the energies of Peace.

“…. I will invoke Peace,
Whose breath is friendly,
Whose hand smooths the troubled brow….
…. to him who hath not peace in his soul,
There is no place to build within
The Holy Temple;
For how can the carpenter build
In the midst of a whirlwind?
The seed of violence can reap
Only a harvest of desolation,
And from the parched clay
Can grow no living thing.
Seek ye then the Angel of Peace…
…Peace dwells in the heart of silence:
Be still, and know that I am God.”

Personally I love the line, “For how can the carpenter build in the midst of a whirlwind?” Getting a visual image helps concretize the concept in my mind.

And how often are we REALLY aware of, “The seed of violence can reap only a harvest of desolation?” War after war after war we see the ruins of the lands bombed and strafed with chemicals, or left full of mines. We see the empty eyes of orphaned and starving children. We see our veterans return home with emotional and physical wounds that affect not only them, but their families.

Yet we toss all that aside the next time our national pride gets hurt or some other country behaves in a way that is against our values. (Not to mention that often WE don’t even live up to those values!)

In these Gospels, it is said Jesus always greeted those he was teaching or meeting with using the phrase, “Peace be with you.” A calming and compassionate start to whatever message was to be delivered that day. Let go of thoughts and cares of the outer world; come to a place where your mind is free from worry and open to My message.
 
But what I like even more is one you may recognize from the Bible (John 14:27): “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.”  Let go of the ways of the world for a while. Cultivate peace within. 

Thank you for doing your part. May peace be with you.

We greet the day on the sixth day of the week with the Angel of Joy!

If you’re anyone like me, I read this and wondered, “Joy? Seriously?”  That’s because what I would say has been my biggest challenge in this life has been depression. From about age 7 or 8 on, I felt lonely and alone. I didn’t think others understood me. I was shy. My step-mother (God bless her – which I say seriously after realizing in my early 30s the blessing of her behavior) took it upon herself to let me know what a “bad” child I was, so I went into my teen years with a boat load of shame and low self-esteem.   

While self-growth in a variety of ways led to later development of a sense of worthiness and purpose, there continue to be times where the joy of life escapes me. Reading this passage of the Angel of Joy led me to think about the role of joy in life. Since these Essene Gospels were opening me to nature, I considered what happens in the “non-human” world. I realized that I couldn’t imagine a bird waking up one morning and thinking, “You know, I don’t feel much like singing today. I’m just going to hang out in the nest and call it good for the day.”  Or a squirrel opening an eye and deciding, “Lord, am I tired of gathering nuts and seeds! All I feel like doing is sleeping. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll feel more up to it.”

In fact, everywhere I looked in nature all I saw was the pride – and, I believe, joy – it has in being its very best. Flowers bloom fully, and I realized I felt a sense of joy as I bent over to enjoy their color and aroma. Could they possibly start poking up in Spring and decide, “No, not this year. I just don’t want to bloom!”

 Jacquelyn Small, LCSW, who taught and mentored me in the years I participated in Eupsychia retreats and trainings, always encouraged us to, “Do your being. Can you imagine a cat not being a cat? It’s totally alive in its cat-ness!”  Likewise all of nature delights in its being just what it was meant to be, and in the fullest of its expression.

Somehow we humans have the option to not be content in our being-ness – but if we look around, we don’t see that moroseness reflected anywhere around us (as long as all is in balance).

If you’re struggling with your sense of happiness today, I hope you will take heart from opening to the Angel of Joy.

“… The Angel of Joy,
She who descends upon earth
To give beauty to all men.
For the Lord is not worshipped with sadness,
Nor with cries of despair.
Leave off your moans and lamentations,
And sing unto the Lord a new song:
Sing unto the Lord, all the earth.
Let the heavens rejoice
And let the earth be glad…
…..  I will sing unto the Lord
As long as I live:
I will sing praise to my God
While I have my being.”

Yesterday in my post about the Angel of Work I mentioned a Sanskrit Proverb that refers to "the day well-lived."

For those who may be interested in it, I'll post it here in its entirety. It's a lovely way to be more mindful of your day -- and short enough for memorization.

"Look to this day
For it is Life,
The very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all
The realities and verities of existence,
The bliss of growth,
The splendor of action,
The glory of power --

For yesterday is but a dream,
And tomorrow is only a vision.
But today, well lived,
Makes every yesterday a dream of happiness,
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore, to this day." 

For those of you who have not been following this blog, I have been posting about the Essene Gospels. The books are currently out of print, so I have been taking the liberty of posting quotes from them.

A practice of the Essenes was to each day honor an "Angel" (you could use the word "messenger" or "essence" if you don't do well with Angels) in the morning and the evening. 

Past posts have gone from Day One up to the Angel of the Morning for Day Five. I am resuming with the Angel of the Evening for that day. You may do a double-take on this one -- it is the Angel of Work!  But hold on! This provides a great opportunity for us to reconsider our personal perspective as well as the predominant belief of U.S. culture (where I live).

It is rare that we hear of people who really love their jobs. When that happens, they may not even particularly care how much money they make because the gratifying factor is either the pleasure of what they're doing or the service they provide others, or their happiness at being able to do something that they truly enjoy doing. The difference, to me, is that between, "I'm so fortunate to be able to do my being" versus "I gotta put in another day at my job so we can pay the bills." 

The Essene Gospel doesn't consider the second possibility noted above. It does consider "idleness," and addresses that with,

"He who eats the bread of idleness
Must die of hunger,
For a field of stones
Can yield only stones.
For him is the day without meaning..." 

Yet consider the promise of a "day well-lived," (as stated in a Sanskrit proverb whose saying is much in line with the philosophy of these Gospels): 

"For the honest work of humble hands
Is a daily prayer of thanksgiving,
And the music of the plough
Is a joyful song unto the Lord....
.... The man of God who has found his task
Shall not ask any other blessing."   

Isn't that last line inspiring? If we do the work we love; if we feel we have found what we are meant to do and engage in it with the fullest expression of our being that we can, it is a blessing! A blessing for us, and a blessing to others who benefit from beholding that which we create.  

If you don't already do something that really excites you, could you possibly consider a change? The world is waiting for the blessing inside you to come forth and grace us all. 

I missed posting yesterday, which was Angel of Air day for me.

So, do we ever consider the implications of the changes we create in our environment? Dorothy MacLean was a co-founder of the conscious community in Findhorn, Scotland. She intuitively communicated with all kinds of nature spirits. From her book, To Honor the Earth, put together in 1991, see what she has to say, even from 27 years ago!