According to Generally Accepted Authorities Such as Pliny, Josephus, Philo,
 and the Lately discovered Dead Sea and Other Scrolls

Pliny's statement concerning the Essenes is short and to the point. It is also made without reservations. "On the western shore of the Dead sea, the Essenes have withdrawn to a sufficient distance to avoid its noxious effects - a solitary people, and extraordinary beyond all others in the world.

"They live without women and have renounced all commerce with Venus, and also without money, having the palms for their own companions. They constantly renew themselves from the steady stream of refugees that resort to them in large numbers, men who, weary of life, have been driven by the vicissitudes of fortune to adopt their manner of living.

"Thus through thousands of centuries, incredible though it may seen, a people has perpetuated itself in which no one is ever born. Do useful for recruiting their number is the disgust of other men with life. Below them the town of Engadda (Engedi) once stood - with its palm groves and general fertility second only to Jerusalem, but now a heap of ashes. Beyond is Massada, a fortress on a rock and itself not far from the Dead Sea."

Josephus, in speaking of the Essenes in connection with marriage, says:

"They do not, indeed, on principle, condemn wedlock - the propagation thereby of the race, but they wish to protect themselves against women's wantonness." Pliny clarifies this statement and to a slight degree, takes "the sting" out of it.

"The Essenes repudiate marriage because they clearly discern it to be the sole or the principle danger to the maintenance of the communal life, as well as because they particularly practice continence. No Essene takes a wife, because a wife is a selfish creature (1), excessively jealous (2) and an adept at beguiling the morals and best intentions (3) of her husband and seducing him by her continued impostures (4).
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(1) Having "given" herself as wife, it is her nature to feel that her husband should have no interest except those which also concern her directly. To do otherwise, is to bring about inharmony which interferes with his greatest advancement.
(2) There is no denial that she is jealous of any interests he may have aside of her own. Even concerning religious affairs, his belief, and especially his practices if different from her own, there is constant contention, - this interfering with his personal liberty as an individual and his development along a Spiritual avenue, and few men, desiring peace, have the strength to consistently continue in their form of worship, if it should differ from that of their wives. Perhaps it was due to a recognition of this fact that all the earthly church fathers eschewed marriage.
(3) The charge that she morally beguiles him is too strong, but it is certain that if his interests are different from her own, or takes him into fields in which she cannot, or will not enter, she will do everything in her power to dissuade him and even mislead him. Those who have been engaged in the Great Work are all too familiar with this aspect. This is of paramount importance to Neophytes, who are also citizens of a country whose founding fathers did everything in their power to assure freedom from any and all interference in religious practices, but where, despite this guarantee there is constant interference and great inharmony, if an attempt is made to follow precept differing from those of one's mate.
(4) Who is not familiar with that most potent weapon women use of successfully: "If you love me you will not do ‘thus and so'," or "if you continue to do ‘thus and so' you will not receive my favors," relating to all things they dislike and/or do not approve.
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Pliny, having the Essenes still in mind and the wherefore of their habits and practices, continues:

"By the fawning talk which she practices and the other ways in which she plays her part like an actress on the stage, she first ensnares the sight and hearing, then, when her victims have, as it were, been duped, she cajoles the sovereign mind.

"And if children come, filled with the spirit of arrogance and bold speaking, she gives utterance with more audacious hardihood to things which before she hinted covertly and under disguise, and casting off all pretense she compels (for the sake of peace) her husband to commit actions which are hostile to the life of fellowship.

"For he, who is neither fast bound in the love-lures of his wife, nor under duress of nature, makes his children his first care (5), ceases to be the same as others and unconsciously has become a different man and has, (by resigning his own supreme Will), passed from freedom into slavery." (6)
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(5) Up to a certain point to do this is a father's responsibility, but if he has the strength and the manhood, he is able to do this and be loyal to his heart's conviction.
(6) All to frequently, this is just what happens and a man is no longer himself, but a creature manipulated by those who profess to love him and act to his best interest, when in fact, it is destructive to all that is truly manly and therefore to his Spiritual-self-being. Perhaps the Essenes had learned this by experience and observation. The Great Master had it in mind when he commanded those seeking the highest attainment - their Spiritual Consciousness - "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me." That is, permit nothing, and no one, to interfere with thee, thy God and thy Spiritual self for, contrary to all opinion, to live within this Law will not work against the best interests of all one may love, but to their benefit. One writer instructed: "To thine own self by true, and it follows as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."
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Philo continues with his observation of these people who were so ready and willing to live according to their highest concepts of the Law:

"They are farmers, shepherds, cowherds, bee-keepers, artisans and craftsmen.

"They will not engage in the making of instruments of war (anything that may be used in the destruction of lives).

"They will not engage in commerce, and know nothing of negation.

"There are among them neither slaves nor masters.

"They maintain a fraternal equality, believing that human brotherhood is the natural relationship that should exist between men; this having been destroyed in society by the competition of the covetous.

"They give time to the study of the ancient writings, but give their attention only to the mortal (and Spiritual) precepts.

"They pay the most careful attention of cleanliness and are frequently washing themselves. (7)
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(7) Perhaps the one who voiced the precept "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" was familiar with this practice of the Essenes; no other people being as zealous for personal cleanliness as they. Moreover, in all of the practices taught by the Arcane, Esoteric Fraternities, cleanliness receives major attention.
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"Their entire day is subject to discipline imposed upon all alike.

"They are generally a silent people and do not converse before the rising of the sun; (8) they only recite traditional prayers, in which they entreat the sun to show itself.
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(8) the precepts: "In silence there is strength," "Silence is golden" (the most valuable thing of which men are conscious), and that of the Rosy Cross: "He who talks does not know; he who knows does not talk," may have had their beginning in this practice. Certain it is, that men, especially those on the Path, will do well to observe it.
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"Following the morning prayer they proceed to the work they are at the moment engaged in and continue until the fifth hour or eleven o'clock.

"The pay no attention to weather conditions and never use weather as an excuse for not working; they return from work rejoicing, looking upon it as athletic practice.

"Following their work they wash themselves with cold water, put on their linen raiment, and proceed to the refectory as one would to a shrine.

"Here they sit down in silence, and are served loaves and a plate of a single course.

"The presiding priest says grace and at the end of the meal another prayer is said, after which they lay aside their linens, treating them as holy vestments, and return to their work in the fields or ships, wherever their duty may be.

"At evening, they dine again with any guests who may be with them at the time.

"There is never any chatter or uproar; they speak in turn.

"Silence to the Essenes if very important. If ten are sitting together, one of them will refrain from speaking, if the other nine desire to be silent.

"They surpass both the Greeks and the barbarians in virtue, and have kept themselves to the highest level of discipline and virtue.

"At various times a great number or potentates of every variety of disposition and character have occupied their country. Some of them surpassed even ferocious wild beasts in cruelty, (9) leaving no sort if inhumanity unpracticed, and never ceased to murder their subjects in whole troops.

"They even tore them to pieces while living, like cooks cutting them limb from limb - till they themselves, being overtaken by the vengeance of Divine justice, at last experienced the same miseries in their turn. Others again, having converted their barbarous ineffable degree of savagery - betraying the ferocity of their real dispositions and fawning upon their victims like treacherous dogs - having left in their cities monuments of their impiety and the hatred of all mankind, in the never to be forgotten sufferings endured by those they oppressed (9); and yet, no one, not even of those immoderately cruel tyrants, nor the more treacherous and hypocritical oppressors, was ever able to bring any real accusation against the multitude of those called Essenes or Holy Ones. Everyone was subdued by the virtue of these men, looked up to them as free by nature, (10) and not subject to the frown of any human being, and have celebrated their manner of communal eating together, and their fellowship with one another - indeed their mutual good faith was beyond description - which constitutes sufficient proof of a perfect and supremely happy (peaceful) life."
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(9) "History repeats itself.' It is inconceivable, that two thousand years later despite man's general advancement and supposedly moral, Spiritual attainment, men should permit history to repeat itself by what happened in Russia less than fifty years ago and is continuing at this moment in many parts of the world; that the cruel creatures and their vicious successors in power should continue in their guilt and be received in fellowship by men in high positions and not so engaged; while men, such as the Essenes of that long ago, supposedly uncultured age would have nothing whatever to do with those who "endeavored to surpass even the ferocious wild beasts in cruelty." It is evident that the morality and Spirituality of those who have every advantage and have been placed in high position, have taken a far backward step; that this retarding of human progress must be retrieved, if the race is not to perish by its own inhumanity.
(10) Every (Spiritually) good man is a free man.
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Josephus speaks thus of the Essenes:

"They make light of danger, and triumph over pain by their resolute Will; death, if it comes with honor, they consider better than worldly immortality. The war of the Romans tried their Souls through and through by ever variety of test.

"Racked and twisted, broken and burnt, and made to pass through every instrument of torture, to induce them to blaspheme their Lawgiver or to eat some forbidden thing, (11) they refused to yield to either demand. Not even once did they cringe to their persecutors or even deign to shed a tear. Smiling in their agonies and mildly deriding their tormentors, they cheerfully resigned their Souls, confident that they would receive them back again.
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(11) This was true of all who became Neophytes or members of any of the Secret Schools teaching the Greater Mysteries, despite the fact that their selection of food was most limited in every respect, and shames the modern Neophyte who, having the choice of selection from an innumerable variety of all manner of food, protests that he must have a certain kind or is unsatisfied. It is clear indication that moral stamina has not increased through the ages, but has taken a most decided downward trend. This affects both the intrinsic manhood and Spiritual possibilities of those of the present age.
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"Edmund Wilson, in his Treatise on the Scrolls from the Dead Sea, not having access to the secret teachings of the modern Great Work, half-heartedly admits that Christianity, in its primitive creed-free state, was the offspring of the Essenes via the Nazarene who, as indicated even by these Scrolls, studied with, and was one of the Essenes, and Philo agrees with this conclusion:

"One finds Philo, for example, saying that the Essenes did not store up treasures of ‘gold and silver,' nor ‘acquired vast section of the earth out of a desire for revenue,' and one remembers Matthew 6:19 ‘Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth....' Josephus reports that the Essenes held the body to be corruptible, but the Soul immortal and imperishable, as indicated in First Corinthians 15:33: "For this corruptible must put on (become) incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." (12)
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(12) It is undeniable that the Essenes were in existence and active long before the time of the Nazarene; that he stayed with them and could not possibly have remained unfamiliar with their teachings, these being an every day affair. Moreover, since he was with them, it is certain that their teachings were in Spirit harmonious with those he had received during his stay and training in Egypt, and were later made a part of his ministry. More important still, these two avenues of teaching, though separate, contained within themselves the reason for man's being on earth; what man must do if he is not to cease to exist, and what he will become, if he will obey. The accomplishment indicated has been the purpose of the Great Work throughout the ages and it is toward this that the effort of the August Fraternity has ever been active.
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"You have the fact, which both Philo and Josephus make clear, that the Essenes, though (mostly) of Jewish birth, did not come together on a basis of race, for one does not speak of race when it is a question of voluntary acts. The Essenes have been brought together by their ‘zeal for virtue and by the passion of their love for mankind.' It seems obvious that the monastic tradition of the Christians (concepts) must originally have derived from the Essenes, and there has always been a theory that Jesus was educated as an Essene. (13)
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(13) If, as the author grudgingly admits, the Nazarene was originally an Essene, then it is certain that he continued to remain such as so clearly indicated by all his teachings. This is proof that the Arcane Fraternities always possessed this knowledge as well a s the secret of Transmuting the corruptible into the incorruptible, The mortal (carnal man) into the Immortal or Soul conscious man; the Initiate.
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"It is learned from these documents (The Dead Sea Scrolls), for example, that the Essene principle of human brotherhood was combined with a stringent hierarchy. (14) The Candidate, Josephus reports, is not admitted the first year. He is given his white clothing, his loin cloth, and a small mattock for digging his own latrines. He is brought into closer touch with the rule and is allowed to share the purer kind of holy water, but is not yet received into the meetings of the community.
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(14) Throughout the ages, beginning with Egypt, the Initiatory Fraternities have been under the jurisdiction of an Hierarch, because only he held possession of the records, and only he knew the attainment of both Neophytes and Members. This procedure continues to the present day and must continue so long as these Fraternities exist and continue active.
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"He has then to be tested two more years, and, if he qualifies at the end of that period, he is allowed to share the common food, but must swear ‘terrible oaths'; first, that he will practice piety toward the Deity; that he will observe justice toward men; that he will wrong no one, whether of his own mind or under another's orders; that he will forever hate (15) the unjust and fight the battle of the just; (16) and that he will forever keep faith with all just men, especially the powers that be, since no ruler attains his office save by the Will of God; that should he himself attain rule, he will never abuse his authority; (17) nor by his dress (18) or by other external mark of superiority, will he allow himself to outshine his brethren.
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(15) The word "hate" is neither correct nor well-taken. The Neophyte from the very beginning of his Acolyteship is taught that he must eliminate all hate from his thoughts, mind, and Soul - that it creates a destructive poison. He may not hate even the most vicious of men, but may not have dealings with them of any nature, and must think of them as already self-destroyed.
(16) the Neophyte must "battle" for the just. That is, he must do all in his power, make every effort possible, to teach men the Law of justice and eliminate all that is unjust; not by sword, but by teaching the truth; he must impress all men that only as justice and peace reign can men become conscious of their Immortal Souls, whole continued injustice destroys the Soul.
(17) Only by the "Will of God," that is, by obedience to the Divine Law, can man become conscious of his Divinity. Until this soul Consciousness is attained, he is not an Initiate, and cannot succeed to Mastership and the office of Hierarch in the August fraternity. "He who governs him self is greater than he who taketh a city." It is only by self-mastery that man is fitted to govern others and is certain not to abuse his authority and powers.
(18) No member of the August Fraternity, or of the authentic Fraternities engaged in the Great Work, is ever permitted to wear any insignia that would single him out from other men. This is an ancient. "Land Mark" as religiously observed today as it was in ancient times.
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"He must keep his hands from stealing (taking that which he has not earned or which by some lawful means belongs to another).

"He must keep his soul pure from unholy gain of any kind.

"He may conceal nothing from the members, and report none of their secrets to others, even though tortured to death.(19) He further must swear to transmit their rules exactly as he himself received them, and to carefully arrange to preserve the books and instructions and make proper provision for their protection should he no longer, for any reason, be able to do so."(20)
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(20) Neophytes are not entrusted with such secret instructions as pass only between teacher and pupil or member and member, until there is assurance that such provisions have been met by him. The Neophyte who does not consider the instructions so sacred that he will make every effort to keep them from falling into profane hands, in not worthy of them; neither his teacher nor will his Soul reveal them to him. The Soul of the Neophyte who, making the most sacred vow to arrange for the protection of that entrusted to him in life and following death, and failing to do so, will never know a moment of peace or rest, wherever he may be, until his vow has been fulfilled.
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Though the author of the Dead Sea Scrolls does not appear to be wholly in sympathy with what the Scroll reveal, and certainly is not in possession of the secrets and mysteries revealed to the Initiate by Arcane and Esoteric training, he unconsciously reveals a secret hidden in the Law of Reaction that is eternally true and which will soon begin to be accepted in this part of the world, divinely promised to become the home of the New Order of the Ages and of the "elect" or "Select" who will harmonize themselves with it:

"The injunction to keep faith with the powers that be(21) may remind us of the (Nazarene's command) ‘Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.'_Matt.22:21. So inevitably does it seem to be true that definite political defeat, the disappointment of practical hopes, gives rise to an intensive development of the unworldly king of religion."(22)
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(21) The powers that be" has reference, perhaps unconsciously to the writer, but vital to the Neophyte, if not only to those governing the vast network of Arcane and Esoteric Fraternities, but also, and more pertinently to the Spiritual Hierarchies in power or control, to whom the human heart is as a plainly printed book.
(22) An obvious recent example is the promotion of mysticism in Russia after the failure of the Revolution of 1905, Humanity is today experiencing something similar, at a time when disillusionment with socialism has been driving the bewildered (impractical and selfish) idealists to look for comfort in various Churches. In the present age this finds expression through what is known as the Manistic or New Cycle interpretation of the Divine Laws which have been functioning since the beginning of the New Age in the latter part of the past century and are the governing, directive Laws accepted by every true Initiate.
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When, according to accepted authorities not in harmony with Secret or Arcane Fraternities, were the Essenes active? According to Pere de Vaux who accepts the teachings of the Scrolls as authentic, this period began more than a century before the birth of the Nazarene, and continued well into the first century.

The Secret records in the archives do not agree with this, but make clear that the Essenes were active as a group, if not as an Order, centuries before; after disbanding, they became known as the Gnostics. Certain it is that they were most active during the time of the Nazarene. In the Scrolls, as will be pointed out later, he whom the church later called Jesus the Christ, was not so known until after the church ignored the Esoteric and changed the word Christos, the Divine Principle in man, into the Christ."

Even Matthew of the Gospels was familiar with the Master-Teacher as the Nazarene, as is do clearly and uncontradictably indicated in the text:

"And he came and dwelt in the city of Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene."_Matt. 2:23.

Nowhere, and at no time, did any of the prophets call him the "Christ," but spoke of him as the Anointed," "The Redeemer," and by other terms. To the Essenes he was known as "he who has come to fulfil (teach and demonstrate) the Law," the Messenger."

The most correct designation, the one accepted by the Authentic Arcane and Esoteric Fraternities, beginning with the Greater Mystery school after the time of Egypt was, the Nazarene who brought the Christos hidden within himself into consciousness, and manifesting as the Christ. For this reason, and thinking of him as "he who came as the Anointed" to teach and manifest the Divine Law, as the Nazarene, he continues to be so known to all seeking to follow the Path, or to continue in the Path.

In the Scrolls, the Nazarene himself is not mentioned; instead there is much about the Teacher of Righteousness. The present proper term is: "The Master-Teacher of the Divine Law. " One is in fact neither more nor less than a synonym for the other. There is nothing new in this. In various organizations of today, the Leading Spirit, the governing genius, is known by various names - all of them having the same meaning.

In Arcane and Esoteric Fraternities, the coming Master-Teacher was called the "Messiah," the "Elect one," the "Anointed" one. This is continued by the writers of the Gospels, who also called him the Son of god, (having practically the same meaning, indicating as it does, one who has risen from the estate of the common man, the mortal, into that of a higher one, the Immortal, and as such was the Son of God) - the Messiah or Lawgiver, the "Elect" because he had made himself so by the fulfillment of the Divine Law he taught. Naturally, men like M. Dupont-Sommer, Edmund Wilson and others, deal with the Scrolls and their subject from the orthodox, and not the Revealed, the spiritual standpoint.

These Scrolls do not actually contradict a single concept taught by either the Essenes, the Nazarene or the Arcane and Esoteric Fraternities. The only difference is that the Scrolls are interpreted from the letter alone, that letter which the Nazarene said was dead without the Spirit, while the authentic Fraternities teach the letter as the Law and the Spirit which must become revealed by thinking, feeling and acting according to the word or letter; this is Revelation.

An example quoted from the Scroll, or as it is generally known: the Manual of Discipline affords an illustration.:

"And then God will purge by His truth all the deeds of man, refining for himself some of mankind in order to abolish every evil spirit from the midst of his flesh, and to cleanse him through a Holy Spirit from all wicked practices, sprinkling upon him a Spirit of truth as purifying water to cleans him from all untrue abominations and from wallowing in the spirit of impurity - so as to give the upright insight into the knowledge of the Most High and into the wisdom of the sons of men, to give the perfect way of understanding."

That is the letter. The Arcane of this is that not God will do these things for man, but that man must do them himself, for himself. The letter itself is dead. It is dead until man accepts it, and begins to think, desire, feel and act in harmony with the letter. Not God, but man accepting God's Law, (or his Truth, as you will), and changing his thought, especially his feelings and eliminating the unclean, the carnal, will purge, or free him of these evils native to him.

This acceptance of Truth or the activating Law, is actually the means of Occult or Arcane transmutation. Transmutation is wholly a refining Process, free the pure and holy from the impure. The evil spirit, of whatever nature, is of the flesh. It is the carnal in man; it is that which degrades and debases; all this is gradually eliminated by the Spirit of the word - i.e., the Action of the Law as a result of pure desire and constant effort.

As all things in Nature, the pure is refined from the impure by Fire. The Holy Spirit is Arcanely the Light or Fire though which God always appeared to Man. This Spirit or fire comes upon man and envelops him to the degree that his thought, desires and feelings become purified, not by faith alone which is only word, but by effort which is creative of the Fire.

It is not the Holy Spirit that cleanses man from wicked practices, but the discontinuation of the practices and their replacement by holy desires and sincere efforts, that bring upon him the Holy Spirit or God's Holy Light.

Water has, since the beginning of time, and especially since the time of the preachings of John, symbolized mind, its thought, and desire. The purifying water therefore is the purification of the mind, i.e., freeing the mind from thought and desires that are debasing and degrading. It is a cleansing process which man, possessing free Will, must do for himself - neither man nor God can of it for him. All the abominations or wallowing in impurities begin in the thought, the world of desire, and are followed by acts. "Washing" the mind, that is, freeing it of these evil thoughts, will free man from the acts, and he will no longer "wallow in these evils."

In obedience to the Divine Law, which is the Word of God, man gradually, by his self-purification of mind and body and in addition, by his making every effort to come into the Spirit or Feeling of the Divine Will, after having known evil, comes into the knowledge or Wisdom that is "good" or from God. He will have gained wisdom through the experience of evil, and the son of man will have become the "Son of God," knowing good and evil. This is the interpretation of the letter into the Spirit of it, and no man can become an "elect" or "preferred" who will not live in the Spirit.

The term Christos could not help but be associated with the Nazarene after his association with the Essenes. The term was known to the prehistoric Aryans and Greeks before his time. It was a synonym for "Messiah;" Messiah in the Arcane or Esoteric meaning, "one who came as a Messenger from God," an Ambassador representing God, or at least, His Law.

The Messenger was both a teacher and a "doer." To be a teacher he naturally had to be a "Knower," the Gnostic term for one who, by means of obedience to the Letter and Spirit of the Law had become enlightened, or had come into the Light; this Light being no less that the Illumination, or the Soul come into consciousness, i.e., Christic.

The word Christos, representing the Divine principle in man, from God, the Soul in man, was also a term for the ‘Anointed One." No one can become "Anointed" until he has been purged, freed from evils. The "Anointing" is the coming into the Light or Holy Spirit - the Spirit being Light - again signifying the knower from within, or Christic. The Teacher of Righteousness was the, or a "Messiah" who, having lived the life and become, was a "messenger," an "Anointed," a "Select," a "Knower," a "Christ," a mortal who had attained to Immortality - not by the letter or Faith, but by believing, accepting the Word or Letter and then living it until he came into the Light, was enveloped by the Light, the Holy Spirit (Ghost), becoming the Son of God.

One of the most important statements made in dealing with the lately found Scrolls, even though these are interpreted according to the letter and not with the Spirit, and of particular and paramount importance to every Neophyte, follows:

"Some scholars believe, in the light of the scrolls, that the Gospel of John, which hitherto was thought to have been written late and under the influence of the movement - part Persian, part Platonic - but named Gnosticism, must actually have come out of the sect....You have, at the very beginning of John, the conflict between Light and Darkness, and thereafter many such phrases as the "spirit of truth," "the light of life," "walking in the darkness," "children of Light," and "eternal life," which (also) occur in the "Manual of Discipline."

If these scholars, and we say this without derision or any sense of accusation, had given only a passing study to the Arcane literature dealing with the subject and process of what is known in the Great Work as Initiation, this would not have been a mystery to them.

They would have become conversant with the fact that, beginning with Egypt and down through the ages from the first day the Neophyte entered the Mystery Schools his conflict began, not in belief and faith alone, but actually between the two forces constantly active in his mind, his heart and his emotions, Light and darkness, (more objectively, good and evil), and that this conflict continued until evil was overcome by its elimination and replaced with good, by the awakening of the Light within him, the Divine spark, and by its being brought into Consciousness, the Baptism by the Light which is from God.

The proper interpretation would have informed these scholars that it is not alone necessary to know the truth, but that one must come into the Spirit of truth, and manifest the truth in living. This is possible only by living according to the behests of truth. They would have learned that, while the son is the light of the world by which mortal men walk the earth, there is another Light, the Light that is the awakened, Conscious Soul, and that in this Light man walks with God.

Furthermore, these scholars would have realized that the phrase "children of Light" is not a phrase only, but identifies those who, by obedience and effort have awakened the Christos, the eternal Light from God hidden within all normal men, and who have brought it into consciousness, have been enveloped by it, Illuminated, hence baptized by the Light; therefore they have become "the children of the Light," and as a result of this Illumination or baptism, this rebirth of the Spirit, they have also become Sons of God, therefore possessed of "eternal life," through Immortalization. John was preeminently the Apostle, the Messiah of Light, and all of his teachings have this ultimate baptism in mind - a Baptism, let it be noted, which only "H who followed him," the Christos made Conscious, can bring about.

Another important passage quoted is:

"And by his knowledge everything has been brought into being. And everything this is, he established by his purpose; and apart from him, nothing is done."

To know is to have become. The Gnostic Father as a result of obedience and effort, attained to Soul, God, or Cosmic Consciousness, hence was known as a "Knower." He who knows has the power to do. The Creator, by his knowledge, i.e., Power, established, that is, created everything, and in doing so had a purpose in mind. Nothing exists but that which was created by him. This being true, everything was good and to His intent; but man, being given Free will, made a shambles of everything that is good.

This was foreseen, for it is written: "evil must come into the world, but woe unto him through who it cometh." Evil is essential not only to try man's Soul, but also to bring him experience, that he may distinguish between good and evil and finally, as a result of sorrow and suffering, accept the good, while ignoring the evil. All that exist is good, and remains good, but its misuse, misapplication and misdirection makes it evil He that doeth evil, if he accepts the word or letter and changes his course, will come to know reality; will find the Light and become a Knower; awaken the Christos; be of the "select" and a citizen of the New Order of the Ages toward which all forces tend by the gradual elimination of those who misapply the gifts - the Biblical "Talents" God made a part of man.

Those who have studied the Gospels as well as the "Scrolls" find fault with the contradictions they feel to exist in the Gospels. An instance is that of:

"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I come not to send peace, but a sword."_Matt. 10:34.

If the word "sword" were read a "conflict" there would be less difficulty in understanding this statement. The moment a man becomes conscious - conscious-stricken - because of his evil deeds, whether this be as the result of coming into the knowledge of good and evil, or of study, expounding of the Law by another, or his own bitter experience, makes an effort to change his life, there is conflict.

There is a battle between right and wrong, good and evil. Battle is always symbolized by the sword. In man's life, as a result of his awakening to the existence of evil and the necessity of a change, or the elimination of it, there will be no peace. It will be a continuous battle until he either wins, or permits himself to fall into the conscience-destroying evils.

There is also the seeming contradiction in the Gospel inculcations concerning the "poor in spirit," the "kingdom of heaven," and that the "meek shall inherit the earth."

There should not be. There would not be, if one were to bear in mind the command and promise: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you."_Matt. 6:33.

In this there is a command to action; a need for meekness in that one must of necessity eliminate arrogance, pride of self, conceit, self-righteousness, and many other human frailties. This indeed requires meekness. In addition to this, there is the command "to seek the kingdom." This requires effort, (seeking being a synonym for effort), by means of eliminating the undesirable and replacing these with good. This is not only possible in thought, but also in act. This will open the way to the attainment of "heaven," and with it will come the fulfillment of the Law of action. By fulfilling the Law, the reaction of the Law will bring that which man, by the meekness of acceptance, and the determination of his will, has actually earned.

ADDENDUM

In a Monograph entitled: The Dead Sea Scrolls, published by Arthur Whitman, the author concludes: "Had the jars that Mohammed discovered in fact contained gold and jewels, no one would have failed to realize their value; but because they contained only great religious documents that have influenced the beliefs of some scholars about the bond between the Hebrew and Christian religions, which may in the course of time have calculated benefits for all mankind, a few people were at first interested."

This might become true if an almost unsurmountable obstacle could be removed. To show how this might come about it is required that we delve back far into time, time before history was written, and, at the same time put aside prejudices and self opinions.

In the beginning, what is now India, was inhabited by a white race known as the Aryans, i.e., the Noble. The religion of these people was a primitive Christianity. The fundamental or principle upon which this religion was based was the Christos, or Divine principle, from God. This Christos was not then thought of a a person, but as a Spiritual embryonic god from God, inherent in each individual and which it was necessary for each man to awaken and bring into manifestation in his own person. In accomplishing this, those who succeeded became the children of Light, or Sons of God.

This primitive Christianity, as a religion, continued in its purity until, in the course of time, numerous individuals among these Aryans deviated from the purity of their lives and religious concepts as a result of intermarriage with other less enlightened races, principally of the colored races who were giving to a religion of idolatry.

As already mentioned, Aryan meant "the Noble." After this mongrelization began, there began a cleavage between those who preserved their race purity and continued true to their religious concepts, and those who deviated in both respects. Those who remained true to the race and its religion retained their supremacy and became known as the "Nobility" or "Caste," while the mixed idolatrous people became known as the"untouchables." As time passed the religion of all the people changed and the "Christos" in man concept became externalized into what is now the modern Hindu religious teaching.

From Ancient India, by devious ways, the Christos or "Light" concept was transferred to Greece. In Greece these people became the enlightened, the Knowers, who, by following the life and practices one taught in India, realized that this Christos was the Divine principle, received from God for the express purpose of awakening and bringing it into manifestation in each individual's life and he thereby becoming the Church or Temple wherein God dwelled. This concept was recognized by the Nazarene in his: "Ye are the temples of the Living God."

In Egypt, this Christos was somewhat changed and symbolized as the golden disc, or Disc of Light, the Aten. To many it was Osiris. This Light symbolized by the disc was known to the Temple Priests and Initiates as the Ineffable (or Greatest) Light become manifest in man, brought from the inner tomb within himself in which it had been buried awaiting its awakening. This was the supreme work to be accomplished by man. These teachings and their exemplification in life was known as the Greater Mysteries.

The Nazarene became fully instructed in this Mystery of the Christos during his stay in Egypt and later with the Essenes. The Essenes of the first class were all Initiates of the Mysteries and it was there that the Christos of the Nazarene became fully manifest as the Christ.

"St. John" was foremost of all the disciples in his knowledge of this Mystery and began his epistles with the command to know the Light; for man to come into the Light, this Light being the revealed Christos.

The Gnostics, with the exception of the Egyptian Priests and Essenes, wee the most learned in the Mystery of the Christos and the Light and taught that when the Light in man has become awakened and manifest then man has become Christic - the Church of God; hence the Gnostics were called the Knowers.

The early church (Christian) fathers had knowledge of the exoteric teachings relative to the Christos as the Divine Principle inherent in man. The founders of the formal church had lost the primitive knowledge, therefore, they personified the Christos into a person, a personal Savior and called him Christ; losing sight of the Spiritual principle; making the inculcations into a creed, a belief, an acceptance of the person instead of the Spirit, wholly losing sight of the Divinity hidden in the person. Unfortunately, in the greater number of the modern formal churches, even the Spirit of the Christ is being negated by ungodly ideologies based an atheism, and lost.

The Jews, on the other hand, never even accepted either the concept of the Christos, or the Divine Principle resident in man, or the formal church teachings, and it would be doubly difficult for them to accept the ancient inculcations.

The only means whereby a bond could ever be established between Hebrew and Christian, would be if both accepted the Primitive Christian concept of the Christos and the Light of God that "lightest the world" and must be made manifest by man in man, if man is to become Immortalized, Christic or, according to St. John, a Brother of the Light, by "walking," i.e., Living in the Light.

Like all of the great leaders, messengers, Anointed, Initiates and Masters of the past as well as of the present, the Nazarene was fully aware of the difficulty of his mission; of how few would understand or accept it. This is clearly indicated by several of his utterances, notably: "To you (the few, because others will not accept) is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, to others (the many) it is not so given," and again: "Many are called, but few are chosen (accepted." The Initiates of all true Fraternities of Initiation accepted and made every effort to live the Christos concept.
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