Toward Ecosophy

On to the next stage of the Master Healer grade! This is the first of two sets of instructional papers that were given to Healers preparing for the Master Healer attunement. This set of papers covers the intellectual, psychological, and spiritual complexes that get in the way of healing on the broadest scale. These may not interfere with physical health, in other words, but they certainly mess with the capacity to live a full and happy life.

As a reminder to all, the Essene teachings can be studied and practiced whether or not you have received an attunement -- though the attunement does make the practices more effective. The next Apprentice attunement, the first step in the process, will take place on Saturday, April 8 -- I'll post detailed directions next week.

With that, let's proceed to the lessons. ( Read more... )

With this installment we launch into the practices and teachings belonging to the third level of the Modern Order of Essenes. As discussed last week, you need to know your way around the Cabalistic Tree of Life to make use of this material; last week's post includes links to a series of instructional papers that will teach you the basics.

In more general news, a number of people have expressed interest in receiving the Apprentice attunement, and I have tentatively set aside time on Saturday, April 8 for this purpose. If you're interested in receiving the attunement, please confirm that you will be available at some point that day; we can settle the time a little closer to the date.

With that said, let's proceed. ( Read more... )

This Saturday I will be providing attunements for the Healer Grade of the Modern Order of Essenes. What we need to settle at this point is what time or times I will be doing my side of the ceremony. I've already fielded one request for a noon attunement, and that's certainly an option -- but that's about the earliest I'll be available for this. I can do one or two other sessions later in the day, with midnight the latest that will work for me. (All these times are Eastern Standard Time, btw.)

So my question to those of you who have been doing the Essene work is this -- what's a good time for you? It'll require around thirty minutes of your time.

Update:  the time has been settled. There will be two sessions, one at 12:00 noon Eastern time, one at 6:00 pm Eastern time, both on March 4th -- yes, that means tomorrow. See you there!

The instructions for the attunement are as follows: ( Read more... )

Here's the last of the three lessons I received for the Healer grade; it contains two papers, one on hand reflexology, one on the next series of steps in the Healing Breath Meditation. Back in the day, students who had received this material and begun to practice it, and were regularly practicing the teachings of the Candidate and Apprentice grades, were considered qualified to receive the next attunement, the  Healer attunement:

IMPORTANT!

If you are prepared to receive the Healer attunement at this point, you need to post something here, so that we can schedule a day and time. I'm well aware that we all have busy lives, and my life just now is even busier than usual! So I will not simply be setting a time and date and doing a "come one, come all" attunement; I need to hear from potential candidates.( Read more... )

This is the first of three papers assigned to the Healer grade, the second stage in your journey through the Modern Order of Essenes. Your main task in the Healer grade is to work with the energies of the attunement you have already received, by continuing the practice of meditation, the Blessing Walk, and Essene palm healing, while also continuing to develop your practices of foot reflexology and muscle testing. At this stage, however, students learn more about the theory of healing, and also take up the practice of hand reflexology.

The material below on the theory of healing should be read repeatedly, thought through, and frequently reviewed. You will find that it explains much of what Essenes do in their healing work.

This is the last of the five instructional papers for the Apprentice grade of the Essenes, covering muscle testing, aka applied kinesiology. This is a subtle and flexible method of divination that's gotten quite a bit of attention in alternative health care circles. It's not required that you practice it, but you should experiment with it as part of your training in the MOE tradition.

Please note:  next week I will be giving instructions for receiving the first, Apprentice level of Essene attunement, which will be done (as it often was in John Gilbert's time) as a distance attunement. If you want to receive this, you'll need to block out around an hour of time on Saturday, January 14. I will be doing my end of the attunement at noon, 6 pm, and midnight Eastern time. You will need to be prepared to receive it at one of these times, corrected for your own time zone. You only have to set aside one of the times just listed.

The following outline, which was included in the papers I received during my training, is a useful and detailed description of the Healing Hands technique and should be kept handy while practicing the technique until you have the details by heart. I have appended to it a short paper on the next phase of the Essene Healing Breath meditation.

The diagrams I have included here are from the old MOE website. They are not quite accurate -- the tails on the Earth and Air signs should be longer -- but this was back in the day when getting decent computer graphics wasn't the easiest thing in the world. Keep in mind that the line on the Earth sign should go several inches up the wrist and the one on the Air sign should go most of the way to the ends of your fingers.
 

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If you have studied and practiced the materials already presented in this sequence, you've fulfilled the requirements for advancement to the Apprentice Grade of the MOE. The following paper by John Gilbert was the first instruction that new Apprentices received. 

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Introductory Apprentice Lecture

You’ve already learned the Essene Blessing Walk and the Essene Healing Breath.  (If you haven’t, please stop here, go back to the previous papers, and do that right now.) Once you know and use these two important techniques, please take the time to understand the Essene healing philosophy and the Essene healing paradigm.  This is our understanding of how the Universe works to help people heal themselves.

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Another week, another set of Essene teachings!  If you're just starting out, please read the introductory essay here.  

This week's paper introduces the first of the basic Essene spiritual practices, the Blessing Walk. It will take you around six months of daily practice to pass through all the stages of learning the Blessing Walk. You do not have to complete all the stages to go on to the next degree of the MOE – just make a start and see where it takes you.

Next week’s paper introduces the second basic Essene spiritual practice, the Healing Breath meditation. The Blessing Walk and the Healing Breath may be learned together.

Essene Blessing Walk

The Essene Blessing Walk is a marvelous healing tool.  We heal ourselves as we continue to practice this technique, and we send healing energy to others they can use to heal themselves.

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I learned this morning via an email from a friend and fellow initiate that John Gilbert, who brought me into the Ancient Order of Druids in America (AODA) and initiated me into the whole series of esoteric orders and traditions connected to it, passed away on Monday. 

I met John by way of one of those improbable cascades of events you can't get away with if you're writing fiction. I had encountered a reference to AODA in a book on American Druid groups and had tried in vain to get in touch with it.   He was at that time the president of the American Tarot Association, and I wrote to him to ask about being a presenter at a Tarot event hosted by the ATA in Portland, Oregon. After we'd talked about other things via email, I decided that since he was very knowledgeable about the US occult scene, I would ask him if he knew anything about AODA. He responded, "Why, yes.  I'm the acting Scribe of AODA these days." 

As the saying goes, things proceeded from there. 

We only met in person a few times, but we corresponded extensively via email for many years. In the process, I came to realize that John was a bridge to a world that I scarcely knew anything about back then -- the world of traditional American occultism. Born in 1938, he became active in that world when it was still thriving, and remained active all through the long years when so many people lost interest in anything that didn't have a pedigree from overseas.  He studied with Juliet Ashley and Rhodonn Starrus (Matthew Shaw), received the highest degrees of initiation in AODA, the Order of Spiritual Alchemy, the Order of Modern Essenes, and the Holy Order of the Golden Dawn, and was consecrated a bishop in the Universal Gnostic Church. He spent years trying to interest other people in these traditions, with very limited success.  Toward the end of his life, as his energy waned, he quietly wound up those efforts and focused his remaining time on his family. 

To him, and to the traditions and teachings he passed on to me, I owe more than I can possibly say. 

Farewell, John. May the Great Ones welcome you into the halls of Light.