After my last post, you may wonder, “Really? No Lord? Well, what is this Law then?”

In all honesty, I’m not sure I know. But I’m pondering it!

I shared the Essene Gospel quote ("Without beginning, the Law creates thought and life") with a friend last week, who honestly shared with me that she doesn’t particularly like that word, the Law. I think it’s because, as Szekely openly discusses, that word has a pretty specific meaning in our day and age. Our minds go to “rules” and things that must be abided by – or… (or what? Arrest? Jail? Disownment? Divorce? And any other unwanted things you can come up with). Szekely also says we may think of scientific laws, and notes that even these change as the progress of humanity advances.

He says that the “Law,” as referred to by the Essenes, is what is everywhere and the very nature of all we are aware of in our existence. There is the law of gravity, which dictates how an object will behave if it falls. There is also a law that has set the orbits of the sun, the moon and the planets. There is a law of karma – we often notice that we receive in kind to what we give. In this sense, the Law is also omniscient. And, if it is everywhere and contained in all, it is also omnipresent.

These are qualities that are usually ascribed to “God.” And in relation to God, Szekely makes a point that really caught my attention. He says, “The first chapter of Genesis tells us that God created man in his own image, but history throughout the ages reveals the opposite process, whereby man is continually creating gods.” (The Essene Book of Creation, page 9.)  Whether our concept of God is an older gentleman with a long white beard sitting on a throne, a jolly fat man holding his belly, an ibis or other animal per some ancient Egyptian renditions, or more immaterial things such as love, wisdom or reason, Szekely contends that those concepts are limited. He states that the Essenes did not limit their interpretation of this Power, either materially or immaterially.

What concept of God do you hold? What are its limits? Can we even wrap our minds around a REALLY limitless, omnipresent and omniscient Essence/Being/Energy…. ? What might be different if we were able to?

There are many writings of the Essene Gospels. The communions with the angels that I have written about in past blogs comes from Books 2 and 3. Book 1 focuses on Jesus’s teachings about health – including fasting, eating living things, and daily practices of immersions in water, sunlight and air. Book 4 is titled “Teachings of the Elect,” and includes some more communions (Angel of Sound being one) and an illustration, through the story of “The Humble Grass,” of how all aspects of nature are inter-connected.

Within books 2 and 3 is also the Essene recounting of Moses’s receiving the Ten Commandments (yes, different from the Bible in use today) and a comprehensible rendition of Revelations.

What’s on my mind today comes from “The Essene Book of Creation,” also by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely. This is not written in poetic form, as much of the communions with the angels in books 2 and 3 are. It is more a commentary, including quotes from what Szekely says is the text of Essene Book of Creation, written before the creation story in the Bible.

Right from the beginning, Szekely captures my attention. He reminds us of the beginning of our Bible’s version: “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth….”  He goes on to say that the Essene version is quite different. Per Szekely, the Essene version states, “Without beginning, the Law creates thought and life.”

I find this fascinating! The message is notably different. For me it carries much more of an ongoing process in creation (which can be found in other Essene writings, for that matter). And the creation isn’t “heaven and earth,” but “thought and life.” It isn’t “God” who creates, but “the Law.”

In his discussion of the differences, Szekely notes that the concept of “without beginning” is challenging for the everyday person to understand. With our typical finite way of life, where events and our life spans (as well as that of trees, animals, even our planet) have a beginning and an end, we are comfortable with the thought of the space in which we live (meaning our solar system and the universe as a whole) having a beginning and, conceivably, a termination point.

Yet Szekely points to the fact that science has not been able to identify any limits to the universe! So trying to assign it a beginning may well go against its very essence. In which case “without beginning” could well be the actual truth, even if we do find it hard to wrap our minds around.

As for the rest? I think I’ll leave that for another post.

I don’t draw divinatory cards often, but now and then I get curious about what might arise. Often I have seen them be spot-on; other times I am completely confused by the message I’m meant to receive.

The other day I was in my practice space. The deck of cards I’ve been using more recently (trying to get used to them – a newer set of lovely-imaged Tarot called Nature Spirit Tarot, http://naturespirittarot.com) was not there. But my trusty Medicine Cards deck winked at me, and I decided to see what they had to say.

Let me preface this by saying that at the time I was feeling completely drained. I decided to pull a card to see what animal might have any “words of wisdom” for me while I felt so depleted (while almost chuckling to myself as to why I needed a messenger to tell me what I needed – it was most certainly a nap!).

It had also been three months (thanks to summertime) since my last prayer day – a retreat day I spend in a small room in a wooded setting north of Spokane for prayer, reflection and meditation. Since I started doing those over a year ago, I experience them as vital to my spiritual health – and it gives me time to do some focused prayer for people who have recently asked me to keep them, or their loved ones, in my prayers.

As I energetically scanned the cards, I felt drawn to putting my finger down at a certain point (while I don’t always do this with eyes closed, this time I had). It landed on a spot that bridged two cards.

And the second card? I turned to it, wondering what further explanation of Great Spirit wanted expression. Could it have been any more apropos? Prairie Dog greeted me – the animal of Retreat.

Yes, I thought, I still have five days to get through – and then I get to go on spiritual retreat. There could have been no better validation of the prayer day being what I needed than pulling those cards.

Thank you, Animal Kingdom, for emphasizing the importance of taking some time alone to re-establish a foundation that sustains me.