122: Wisdom Traditions 1: The Essenes

The weird thing happened. Weird, weird, weird guys. I'm super excited for this episode. Welcome, let's get that out of there. We do that in reverse order. This is something that I've always wanted to do, like before we hit the podcast, before I was ever even out there speaking publicly, I always wanted to do some sort of segment or maybe write a book or something. In my mind, I always pictured it as like demystifying

the occult. Well, unfortunately that's already a book. So the next best thing, which I think is better, really is introducing a new segment. So so we internally were very hype over the Spirit Science segment, which obviously we're going to record another one too here after this one. But anyway, so like launching Spirit Science is allowing us to springboard into this new segment,

Wisdom Traditions. So what I want to do with this is go through all of the ancient wisdom traditions that are shrouded in mystery and sort of like dissect them, you know, and go into the nitty gritty the history of them, the beliefs, the doctrines, the esoteric symbolism and all that stuff. And yeah, I mean It's just something that I've kind of been like building

up my mind to do the whole time look back on her. It's like an opportunity, Like a lot of times will breeze past a lot of these wisdom traditions or maybe talk about them for a little bit, you know, or whatever. And this is our opportunity to give each one of these traditions, like time ye has to really dive deep and give people a more full picture of what these wisdom traditions are about, you know, the history of

you. We're like compartmentalizing it all into one episode so that if if you're like, man I really want to know what the Rosa crusions are about exactly, or man, I really want to see what's up with the es scenes, You're already here. But I also really excited for this too, because Ryan's been doing a lot of research because I called him up about my Halloween costume. Oh yeah, and he says, I'm studying right now. Man,

I'm deep in studying right now. I got you a bad time, obviously, No, dude, I was like, for that was yesterday, right, I was really really deep into studying this stuff, and like I felt this pressure of like I've got to get more information, but you know, there's only so little time. So yeah, that's my bad. But I was I get in these modes where I'm locked in and I'm like, don't talk to me, like I need to just be about this right now. Yeah, I'll lose my train of thought, like you know, yeah,

lose because it's like you're you're grasping for something. You're reading texts and you're you're you're looking for like specific angles and information and you're trying to consume all of it. But you know, the main thing about this is it's also more evergreen, because like evergreen meaning like it'll be relevant now but also in the future, like it's it's one and done series. You know, per series about these different traditions that forever there'll be great guides and resources and

things like that. And you look back through a catalog and we do have episodes where we talked about some of these traditions, but even during them, we've always been like, well, yeah, but maybe in a future episode will go deeper, right Always we've always said that, yeah, this will be our opportunity to finally go deeper with those and yeah, just like get it all Yeah, and the evergreen thing is awesome because it's not topical.

It's not you can listen to this in a thousand years and it's still going to describe the shit that you know, these wisdom traditions have been about four hundreds and or thousands of years. So before I get into the Essenes, which is the subject of this, the first wisdom tradition segment I wanted to talk about. So I was doing my research for this and I found a text. It's a really interesting text by Julie Scott, who is the modern

grand Master of the Rosicrusians. Wow. So the Rosicrucians do publish a lot of their texts online just for like people to read, you know, because it's like, from my understanding, the Rosicrusians particularly are more interested in education,

like you know, giving the knowledge. It's like, sure, they do have texts that are secret and you got to be a part of the order to get but they also provide a lot of it publicly to sort of entice people and allow them to like get their feet wet and study the material, which is really cool. Yeah, I love any kind of thing. You know. It's not gatekeepy, they're not precious about it, you know,

it's just like here it is right exactly love. Yeah. So this text is titled The Mystery Schools and the Rosicrusion Order A which the Amo r C is the modern American chapter of the Rosicrucian Order AMRC, meaning the ancient mystic order rose crusis. So in this text, written by the Grand Master of the Rosicrucians, she gives sort of like a synopsis of the main mystery traditions or wisdom traditions of the past that like all these modern esoteric societies are

drawing their information. So eventually we're going to hit all of these. So we've got dynastic Egypt, which is around three thousand to thirty BC. We've got the Essenes, which is what we're going to focus on today, second century BCE to one hundred CE, so they were around the first century.

The Atlantis a prehistory prehistory in uh, what's those parentheses, you know, like prehistory, pre dynastic Egypt, the Orphic mysteries, which we have covered before, the Delphic Mysteries, the Pythagorean school, the Thraek Mysteries, which I believe is more Persian like the modern. Well, I say modern,

we're talking thousands of years ago. The later like evolution of what Zoroasterronism used to be, the mysteries of Eleusis, which is more Grecian mysteries, the Isis mysteries, Hermeticism, Kabbalah, gnosticism, alchemy, Neoplatonism, Martinism, Rosicrucianism as it was in the past to modern day, and then the President the President AMRC, which eventually would just do a whole you know, rosicrution

episode. But this is just a sample of like going forward with this segment, Like there's there's gonna be episodes dedicated to dissecting each of these traditions and more like I've already found some really other cool ones that I had never heard of that were like my imally yeah secret like like like wisdom traditions you didn't even know about. Oh yeah, there's plenty of them, damn. See that's why we needed this segment, Yeah, so that we can like dedicate

time. It also helps us too. I think it helps us more of like a laser focused vision on the show and like what we want it to be because it's like we've always kind of been doing this. Yeah, you know, it's just yeah, more focused. Yeah, that's a good way to put it, and that gives us energy to say, Okay, well

now spirit science we have a different angle. I love the segment things, so so let's get into it. So I want to talk about for as far as the S scenes, there's a lot of legend about the S scenes, but the majority of my focus was on the historical fact. Awesome, like you know, reading about what's actually known about them, what was actually written about them two thousand years ago. So the legend that stuff is equally as important, I would say, because you know it's grounded in reality.

You can see the real history. Yeah. Well what's crazy about that is like when you know, everything that I read today, like the notes that I've gathered, is all of the real history, and it's honestly like more mind blowing than the legend because it's confirmation exactly. Bro, Like when I read things about like the real history and life of Jesus rather than like parables and stuff like that, that feels even cooler to me to really like read

the real history. Right. I love that. So here's what Julie Scott, the Grand Master of the Rosicrucian order and modern times had to say about the Essenes. The Escenes were mystics who came together in spiritual communities throughout Egypt and Israel. One of these centers was most probably Cumron, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Jesus is believed by many to have been a member of the Essene community. Many of their practices paralleled those of the Pythagoreans.

Among the different groups of Essenes were the Therapeutae, which we're going to go in depth about today, the Therapeutae near Alexandria, specializing in healing, as described by Philo of Alexandria, health of the body, the soul, and the spirit always figures prominently in the Rosicrucian tradition and its antecedents. So like,

let's let's let's analyze that for just a moment. The first level I believe, just from my experience and everybody around me who's ever come to this knowledge, the first level of finding out about all of this mystery knowledge, these mystery religions. First level is fear. First level is paranoia. Z Illuminati Freemasons around the world. Oh my god, you know what I mean. It's it's like your first feeling that you okay, when you understand that

there are these groups. The first level is always like they're bad, they worship the devil, they're anti Christian. Listen that, dude, you have them the the leader of the whole order sitting here telling you who, by the way, the leader of a secret society in modern times, it's gonna be well read and well studied. They have to be to be, you know, having gone through all the initiations and then by all of the peers at the highest level acknowledged to be the grand master. They have to be

somebody who knows their stuff, you know. So, like what she's saying about these traditions is pretty important, and she's telling you right here. It's believed by many that Jesus was one of them. Yeah, isn't there any isn't there something in the Bible about because I might be jumping ahead a little bit, but is s scene and like Nazarene. Yeah, that's not in the Bible, but that's the belief. Okay, that's where we're going.

Yeah, that the Nazarenes were actually the scenes so actually like scenes have been majority of well majorly majorly scrubbed from history, like there's no single mention of them in the Bible. The only genuine historical references of the scenes are by Philo of Alexandria, Pliny the Elder, and Flavius Josephus, which were these famous Jewish figures two thousand years ago. So that's that's the texts that we're

going to focus on as the writings of these three. Now there is speculation about the s scenes, and we're gonna get into this here too before we get into the actual documents. But the speculation is such that the Dead Sea Scrolls which were found in Cumron may have been written by the scenes. There's no proof, there's heavy speculation. I mean, it's pretty obvious that it's probably true, you know, like all that we covered a lot of this

in the Metatron episode. Remember the we read from third Enoch, which was part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which was found at Kumron, which was probably written by scenes. You know, they were mystics. So when we get into the real history, what is an s scene? Right in the first century meaning like zero to one hundred AD or now they say ce the common era. In the first century, there were three main types of Jews religiously, I mean, and it was the Pharisees, which are your typical.

They were like big Torah guys, like, you know, really would preach the Torah and we're really into it. I kind of buy the book Torah. Following Yeah, I mean for the most part, like sort of a priestly class. You had the sad Juices, which you know, if that rings a bell, it's the group of it's it's the group of people in the Bible who like had Jesus killed. I know. They're the ones who went and like took it to the roaming governor Pontcha's pilot and was like,

we need to kill him. It was the Sadducees. They were reported in ancient times to be very barbarous, very vicious, nasty, just like holier than now. They were the ones who like ran the temple, took money from all the commoners, wouldn't allow them to read the temple scrolls. They were they were your typical like priestly class that's like subjugating the rest of you know, contemporary Israel gatekeepers. They were like the elite, yeah,

priestly class. Yeah, like you can't touch us. Sound sound like pretty bad guys, right, exactly. People, the s scenes of the Yeska the s scenes were a deeply devout, extremely advanced mystical society. This is

historical fact. Yeah, like, this is not just legend. This is mentioned by these ancient writers who actually went firsthand and like observed their community and was taking all these crazy notes about this, this, this, this is what they believe, this is what they do, and we're going to dive into that. But yeah, it's crazy. So as scene Pharisee Sadducees.

Now, there is a fourth version of Judaism which is not as well known, and they're known as the Zelots. And you know, around the time of first century Judea, especially up in around sixty nine a d. When the Great Temple of I guess it was in Jerusalem. I'm not really it was in Jerusalem, right, the main temple, the Holy Temple sounds right like King Solomon all that. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know exactly where the temple was, I'm not you know, but it was torn

down in around seventy a d. By the Romans. It was a huge, terrible, tragic thing. The Zelots were a group of Jews who were sort of like radically opposing that movement. They were like extremely just zealous about you know, the Temple and protecting it. And the belief is that they were wiped out. But this is in seventy CE and the Romans reclaimed Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Yeah, yeah, okay, So

getting into the legend. So I had written this down. The Esscenes were a mystic Jewish sector in the Second Temple period that flourished from the second century BEAT, which they changed before Christ and after you know, ad to be before the Common Era and in the Common Era to the first century CE. Contemporaries of their time reported that they were an extremely advanced mystical society. Now

here's where we get into the legend. It's believed by many. There's no genuine historical proof of this, but you know, it's like we can think out of the box a little bit and examine the evidence. It's believed that Enoch created the scenes. Oh wow, It's believed that Enoch is the fig you're known as Hermestriz Majistus. It's believed that the Esscenes were the first wisdom

tradition right, like the first ever. Yeah, you know, and it would make sense if Enoch was truly the sage you know, Hermestris Magistus who dispensed the knowledge of Atlantis. Enoch would have lived somewhere around five to seven thousand years ago based on what they believe, you know, and thees scenes, I mean, they were flourishing, meaning they were at their peak only

two thousand years ago. And it's crazy because when you read the texts of Pliny, Josephus, and Philo, they're telling you straight up, this order is extremely ancient. The practices that they observe our secret ancient texts that have existed for thousands of ages. They say that in the texts, So it was ancient even two thousand years ago, like more ancient, right than two thousand? Yes, yeah, yeah, that's historical fact, that's not legend,

right, So that's that's the crazy part. But okay, so if you if you look at the very limited number of data available about Enoch in the Bible, he is regarded as the seventh from Adam, which is funny because seven and and you know, Hebrew culture was the number of perfection. But also even like if you remember our Agele's Wisdom episode we talk about I

think it's called the the septarian or something like that. It's the concept that like everything is perfected in Seven's the musical scale, the seven classical planets, the rays of light, the chakra septarian it's yeah, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, seven days of the week. You know, God made the earth and then rested on the seventh day. There's all the symbolism behind seven.

The seventh letter of the alphabet is G, which could symbolically mean God, which is like the Freemasons they have the G. It's also seven, you know, so crazy. So Enoch is the seventh from Adam, the number of perfection. You look at the actual translation from Hebrew or Aramaic to what the name Enoch actually means. It means founder or initiator, which come on, now, yeah, if somebody founded the scenes, so the timeline is matching up. His name means the initiator. Yeah, it's like he's also

in the Bible even or it might be the Books of Enoch. He's regarded as being the scribe of God. You know, he went away after three hundred and sixty five days and ascended. That's that's genesis. Yeah, and just to like further drive it, you know with the Hermes Tris Magister stuff, her Ummis and Hermie's yeah, describe of God their scribes, like it's

all matching up. And in terms of like to anybody out there who hears like there's no concrete historical evidence and that like you know, makes you feel some type of way. We're talking about potentially seven thousand years ago. Yeah, what would you have expected to survive? You know? Right there any societies from that long ago that we have nothing to show for, right even just physical scientific you know, nothing to do with wisdom, traditions or spirituality

or any of that stuff. We have lost countless things from that long ago. Yeah. Just because we don't have literally like like physical evidence of something that was said been thousand years ago, it doesn't mean nothing. This stuff is lining up already exactly. There's something to this sho. There's got to be, That's what there's absolutely got to be come on now and then you

know, I know I'm going off on a tangent. But when we were talking about Enoch the other day and how on the Metatron episode, how he's represented. It even says he's represented he has many names through many cultures. It's like, come on, man, this this shit is obviously lining up. So John the Baptist, which you know, for for those you know, I have to be mindful of the fact that although the Bible is common knowledge to so many people, there are a lot of people who even grew

up Christian or Catholic and they have no knowledge of the Bible. So like, I felt like some of these things I want to explain in very simple terms, Like John the Baptist was the cousin of Jesus in the story He's the one who baptizes Jesus in the water, right, the story where Jesus

gets his first baptism. What is that he initiates him, right, John the initiator, John the Baptist. He baptizes people, takes him out into the water, and the story goes he baptizes his cousin Jesus, and John says something I'm not good with remembering exactly the quotes for Batam, but he says something like, you know, I'm not great as the one who comes after me, and he's referencing, you know, his cousin Jesus. But anyway, so we find that I believe that's the first time that baptism was

introduced. I don't think baptism was an ancient Jewish practice. I think it's a more Christian practice. Wow. You see what I'm saying. Now, here's the catch. Remember I just told you that Essenes were flourishing in the first century BCE, around one hundred BCE up to one hundred a Yeah. Yeah, So like before Jesus was even born, we had people writing about these doctrines and practices of the Essenes, and very clearly we're going to read

it very clearly. One of their practices was every single morning, an scene initiate would baptize themselves or bathe in cold water. Wow, it's ritual purity. So then okay, question, according to the Bible, that baptism that John performed on Jesus, are you saying that was like in the Christian canon, the first baptism if I remember correctly. Wow. I could be very wrong, but I'm pretty sure. And then and the fact that the scenes,

oh they've been baptizing for thousands of years. That's my point. Like there's practices that they had. It's like there's there's there's things in the Christian and other religions and other societies that come. Yeah, and you might even read the Bible and be thinking like, okay, but where did you why did you think to do that? Or why Like when it talks about the what did they call the wise men that are going and following the star?

Why are they doing that? Why are they following the star? Most people who read the Bible don't think about that. Why did these wise men show up? Well, you know why because the first mention of baptism is John and Jesus preaching first ever baptism according to the Bible. Right, But you know the Bible talks about the wise men following the North Star. You do a little bit of digging and you find out thousands of years before that it was Zoroastrianism, yeah, you know, and and at face value, and

it was the Zoroastrian magi who followed in exactly. There's something going on. At face value, you're reading the Bible and thinking, oh, this is the first time any of this stuff is happening. But think for a second, where did they get that from? Right, Well, we haven't even talked about how John the Baptist and Jesus were Nazarene, they were from Nazareth. Let's pump. But the idea here, it's there's there's a again,

it's like the Essenes probably were at Kumron. It's like, we can't know because we don't have a time machine to go back thousands of years ago, but there's a lot of evidence that, you know, it's like it's probably true the Nazarenes were believed to be the Essenes, right, you know, so it's really crazy. So John the Baptist, no matter how you slice it or dice it, even when you read about him in the Bible, with a little bit of cannon text about him, it's like the way he

dresses is distinct. He has like animal fur clothes on with like these leather sandals something like that, and it's like they make a very subtle reference about him being the second coming of Elijah. But you know, if you talk to mystics or initiates of any order, or like Benjamin Krim, he's a really big theosophy name who went out there and was saying this a lot that. Anyway, the belief is that John the Baptist is the reincarnation of Elijah.

You know, there's this undercurrent of these mystical traditions kind of like being connected the whole time throughout human history and we're only getting these little crumbs.

I'm going to go to church and read the Bible my whole thing. It really clicked in my brain, not only when we started seeing the phenomenon and stuff, but when I started reading about Zoroasternism in the connection there a thousand years before Christ and like the magi following the star which they prophesied that would happen, and their religion on their turf, but it linked up with Jesus

on his turf. It's like it started like opening my brain to realize we pull our mind away from the Bible, we pull our mind away from Buddhism or Hinduism or every religion. We pull our mind away from it, and we think God is above all of that. You know, they're all just reporting. Yeah, they're trying to figure it out, they're trying to put it in a way that people can understand, and then unfortunately, some messed up people are adding their own stuff to it, right to twist people's minds

and stuff. But yeah, you're reading the Bible and you're you're thinking, like who are these magi that show up and and all this stuff. But in the Bible, you would never see a reference. They would never say explicitly three magi from you know, the Order of Zoroaster or whatever. They would never say that because, like you just said, then that pulls you

back from the Bible. Yeah, so they would never say it. They just want to give you a time three kings or the Yeah, I think there was a manuscript a long time ago or some translation that does say magi, but they don't like tell you what it is. They say the word and they move past. But it's just crazy. So so we're going to go deeper now. So the Dead Sea Scrolls, again, they were found

in Kumaran. There's a belief that they were written by the Esscenes. And also like it's it's indisputable, it's indisputable that the Dead Sea Scrolls, whoever wrote them, would have considered them highly secretive. They hit them, Yeah, around the time of exty nine or seventy a d. When the temple

was being invaded and destroyed by the Romans. Yeah, so that's why in the first place, we have all these hidden scrolls that are popping up because we have these orders that are like, we have to protect these scrolls. We can't let them get burned by these people. Yeah, you know, so the crazy thing is years before nineteen forty seven. I'm talking like in real history in the nineteen forties, Edgar Casey. Do I believe every single thing that Edgar Casey knows? Well, I don't said, I don't know

everything he said. So no, I don't know. I haven't heard everything he's ever said. But I will say studying the Edgar Casey material, I believe a lot of it, it resonates with me. I just you know, come to find out he saw a lady, Like a lot of his experience is parallel my dad's, and it's just crazy, Like I think there's something to Edgar Casey. He seems like he's in the line of sages for

sure. You know, he's definitely a mystic, a sage whatever. And he actually predicted the Dead Sea Scrolls being found, like just mirror a few years before they were found. But in his reading about this, he so he did these past life. He wasn't like, he wasn't like doing like you here where people do like hypnosis on people and get information out of them. He was going into a trance, and he was for all intents and purposes like astro projecting or like remote viewing the past. Do you see what

I'm saying? Right? And did he also access the UK he came up with that got or he was like the big name that that came from. Actually a lot of the New Age stuff comes from Edgar Casey. He was way ahead of his time. And the big thing that he said in that reading was that Jesus was a part of the scenes. Again we're separating the history from the legend, but we also have this third dimension of this psychic experience that it's like, you know, you could you could take that as

evidence. Yeah, yeah, if you want. But Edgar Casey said in his readings that actually the Essenes were so devoutly mystical that they had a prophecy that there would be someone born unto them that would be a great mystic or a great sage or you know, an enlightened being who would awaken other people, and it would it would be the vessel of the immortal christ soul.

You know, because the idea of Christ has existed long before Jesus. It's in Osiris, you know, the we just talked about the Irish myths, and there's this these myths all around the world of some solar deity that incarnate in myth. The majority of these wisdom traditions have that christ consciousness somewhere in them. Yeah, it's just some solar Christianity by thousands of years. Yeah.

So anyway, so he had this reading that Jesus was a part of the Essenes, that they had these scrolls and cumron and all this stuff. And part of his reading too was that John the Baptist was a re incarnation of Elijah, and that John the Baptist was a high level initiate of the Essenes and and all this stuff. So it's it's just very it's very cool, you can say psychic lore. But now getting into now we're gonna shift into like the facts. Let's shift, you know what I mean. We're

gonna get away from legend, We're gonna get away from mystics. We're gonna start reading some ancient texts. Let's take a shift. Take a shift right on me. Okay, Yeah, we're gonna take a big shift here.

So there was this around the Maccabean Revolt, which I'm not exactly sure when that was maybe like one hundred or one hundred and fifty years before Christ there was this priestly class known as the the the Sons of Zadok, which Zadok was a figure in the Old Testament who was like considered the high priest of the court of King Solomon, and supposedly in the story it's like Zadok will

be the one. I think. It's like they come from the line of Elijah, and like they are the priestly class, you know how you know how Israel is all like super like there's twelve tribes, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of Judah, the tribe of this There's twelve tribes and they take it very seriously in biblical texts. So it was believed that the Sons

of Zadok were some special mystical lineage of priests. Anyway, it's reported that the Essenes may have also descended from this mystical tribe, giving just another layer of some sort of evidence that there was something very significant about them in ancient history. So the Sons of Zadok are a family of priests descended from Zadok described in the prophecies of Ezekiel, Zadok himself was the first high priest in

Solomon's Temple in the tenth century BCE. His descendants were high priests in that temple until its destruction in five hundred and eighty seven BCE. Because you know, the temple has been destroyed twice wow. Ezekiel's prophecy came several decades after that destruction and describes the Zadokite families loyalty to God while the rest of the

nation rebelled against God. The sons of Zadok are mentioned four times in the Hebrew Bible as a part of the Third Temple prophecies in the final chapters of the Book of Ezekiel, and are a theme of Jewish and Christian interpretation of

these chapters. Various documents of the texts found at Kumron, which are the Dead Sea scrolls, mentioned the teachers of the community as cohan nim sons of Zadok, which cohan Nime is Hebrew for priests, leading some scholars to assume that the Essenes from Cumron included priests who refused to participate in the Hellenization of the priesthood taking place in Jerusalem. So the Greeks and the Romans, and they were coming in and they were like trying to morphite morphi exactly, the

directing statues of Jupiter and Zeus and all that. And you know, anyway, so very very cool. So Essenes here is. Let me see which one this is from. In regard to the origin of the Essenes, neither Josephus nor Philo can give a specific date, but both make clear that the

Essenian roots are incredibly ancient. Josephus declares again this is from his words from his text, that the Essenes have existed from time immemorial and countless generations, while Filo of Alexandria agrees, calling the Essenes the most ancient of all the initiates, with a teaching perpetuated through an immense space of ages. Josephus and Philo, as well as several other ancient writers, including Pliny the Elder,

are in consensus on two points regarding the origin of the Esscenes. Pliny is Pli and I why okay, there's a band called Pliny in their dope. Oh nice, sorry nice. They are in consistus on two points. The origin is lost in prehistory. With searching certain ancient legends linking them with Enoch. And there was a major manifestation of the Essenes by Moses at Mount Sinai.

So it's believed that when Moses came and he had his old ten commandment stick and he went up and he saw God on the mountain, that the Escenes would have had a major revival. You know, it's like after that, during that, like it's the Escenes revered Moses as their greatest profit.

Remember Jesus went around you, right, you know what I mean? And I guess Enoch was, Well, there's another I have a speculation on why they didn't reference Enoch because actually we find in their doctrines that they were very secretive about their texts. They never divulged their text or the names of their angels to outsiders, only two initiates. They say, that would kind of

lend itself to the reason they don't mention Eno. Yeah, there's actually no surviving texts of the Essenes, Like the only the only thing we have about them, which we're about to dive into, are what ancient historians and philosophers wrote about them. Yeah, there's no texts about them. There's there's nothing that's tragedy. They were wiped out of history. They're not mentioned in the

Bible. The only the only evidence we have are like four documents and texts that were found in the desert in the nineteen forties and fifties that are speculated to be about them. Now I might be really jumping ahead here, but I mean, did Kabbala Does that have anything to do with the Essene? Did it does? I thought, like absolutely it don't. Okay, Like

Cabala is esoteric Judaism, right, it's sounding pretty similar so far. And know if like Kabbala like came from this, I don't know for certain if it came from it, but there's there's some sort of the knowledge would be mingled, right because I'm hearing like mystic Judaism rightes scenes in Israel or in Jerusalem or around that same area we're talking about, very similar. There's a lot of overlap here. Yeah, so I was just picking my care There

is an overlap, Yeah for sure. Yeah. That is kind of fascinating. It almost makes you wonder like maybe maybe some of this stuff survived, Maybe it just changed a little bit so that it could survive. True. Yeah, that's a great point. Just yeah, So okay, so before so Pliny the Elder wrote very little about the scenes. But Josephus or Flavius Josephus is the most famous Jewish historian of all time. He wrote he lived around the time of Jesus and wrote a lot about contemporary stuff back then,

you know, like two thousand years ago. He's a very prominent figure that everybody studies when they study religion at some sort of college level. And then the other one is Philo of Alexandria. He is probably the most famous Jewish philosopher. It's cool, actually, I thought I was thinking of you when I was reading his text, because he writes a lot about like Plato Pythagoras, because they sounds Greek. Philo of Alexandria. I'm pretty sure he's Jewish,

but he speaks Greek. He lived in Alexandria at Egypt. He could be Greek. But I mean, I Filo all the time. I would feel so dumb if he was Greek the whole time. Alexandria. Well, he lived in Alexandria Egypt, so then he could. I mean, who knows, you know who, But it sounds it sounds kind of Greek, is it. It was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher. So he was so he was double dipping. Yeah, he was double dipping. Okay, he was born in twenty five b C. That's kind of tight. Damn sure he

would have been alive when Jesus was around. I'm pretty sure he wrote about him. So anyway, So this is from Plinning the Elder on Natural History, which was written somewhere around the first through the third centuries, So somewhere from zero to two hundred a d. Lying on the west side of the Asphalt Lake and sufficiently distant to escape its noxious fumes, are the Essenes. This is a descent group that lives apart from the world, and that is

amazing beyond all others throughout the whole world. They have no women among them. Now I want to note, I want to note there's two versions of the scenes. One of them didn't have any women. One of them the women were the priests. So it's like there's a split there. I was. It's important to mention that. But this is a descent group that lives apart from the world. They have no women among them. They are strangers to sexual desire, They have no money, They only have palm trees as

companions day after day. However, their numbers are fully recruited by numerous strangers that come to them, driven there by storms of fortune to adopt their way of life and tired for the miseries of life. And this way through thousands of ages. Incredible to relate this descent group sustains its existence forever without a single birth placing taking place. There the wariness of others' lives is a very fruitful source of its population. So it sounds like monks. They absolutely were.

That's what I'm saying. That they were ascetic mystics who we're gonna get we're gonna get into that. But but but note here that Pliny two thousand years ago just said, it's incredible to relate that they have sustained their existence forever through countless thousands of ages. He said, thousands of ages without a single birth taking place. So again there was a split. There was scenes

that were celibate. They were purely ascetic. It's not that they like hated women and judged them, but that they lived a life devoted to being constantly you know, in the spirit like they were completely like like monks. Exactly exactly why they were monks like Tibetan monks. You don't see women Tibetan or like like Catholic monasteries. Yeah, like nuns and priests, right right, sure, yeah yeah, but yeah, so they didn't have children. They

recruited people who were suffering. They would go out and anybody that came to them, if they were sick, if they were elderly, if they were poored, they would tick them in. They would feed them and treat their wounds and their sickness, and they would allow anybody to approach and try to join their order. But they had an extremely strict initiation process which went on for several years. They had to like prove that they were worthy and go

for a long period of times without even speaking. And sorry, it sounds like the in Game of Thrones when Sam goes to the library. Yes, yes, yeah, the great library. Yeah. All they were taking in all the sick people. Yeah, I wonder if that's kind of and also all the priests and stuff from Game of Thrones, like very similar to Catholicism. They're all supposed to be they're supposed to be celibate, they're all supposed to like stave off desire and all it is. Yeah, that's a good

point. That's that's very similar. Yeah, and again there was another group of essenes who did take wives, you know, because they believed, well, this is this is a part of creation, like we're you know, the human race won't survive unless we use our magical divine powers to create life and propel the human race. So it's funny how they were complete opposite celibate but like, no, we're having kids. Yeah yeah, I like that

a little better. But yeah, and it's also important to note that, like we're going to dive deeper here into their beliefs, and I just want to say, like, these are beliefs and practices that are so extreme and so strict that I don't think the only way you could do this in modern society is if you went off and we're a monk and you you know, like we're going to get into their doctrine. Now I looked into that. Wait, being a monk, Yeah, yeah, we look into all kinds

of stuff. Well, it's a two month retreat and you go to Thailand, so you just like play for tend for a couple of months. Yeah, No, seriously, you just want to walk up and down the red light district. I know. I was. Actually I just want one of those cool robes. Yeah, but I want to earn it. You know, you shave your head, they shave your eyebrows. Like you get there, you check in all your money, your phone, everything, they put it away, and you like, live by the rules. The only rule.

And I read the rules. You can't eat standing up. See I find that offensive. Yeah, I love eating too well. You have to enjoy what you're eating. You have to, like I love, I'll eat right over the trash can so that whatever's left I can just fucking drop it and I'm done. Yeah, Casey gets so mad at me. Why are you're standing eating? Also, it's quicker, it's quicker. You can't you can't sleep in a high place, which I thought about it a lot.

I think it just means bead like you have to sleep on the ground. Oh yeah, no, that makes sense. It's so that's the only two rules. I remember. I didn't do it, but obviously I didn't do it. But because podcasts, I have to take a pause, right, yeah, yeah. There was a while where he was genuinely talking about like I think I want to do this. I think I want to do this. In my head, I'm like, you're never going to do it,

you know, but no, that is really cool. But yeah, I just wanted to say, like, it's obvious that we don't share all of these opinions, you know, because because some of them it's like it's it's pretty extreme, but it's fascinating. It's fascinating to see these traditions that have existed in the ancient past that up until now we knew zero about. We meaning like anybody who's never heard of this, yeah, because you're not commonly taught this. And also it's like, dude, I'm thirty years old and

I'm just now finding out a lot about this stuff. Because I was like, you know what, I want to do an episode on it and break it down and like consume everything I can about it. Why isn't this the kind of stuff, This is the kind of stuff that should be in school. It's like, it's funny because in school it's like you're not allowed to talk religion, you're not allowed to talk about the Bible or or you know, certain things. But like, in reality, they should talk about all

of them. They should. I feel like we should be educated on all of them. Absolutely, it's rich culture, if nothing else, If nothing else, exactly, don't teach me how to do the fucking Pythagorean theorem. Teach me about pythagorists, right, Like, teach me what he was thinking about spirituality in the both or why do I need the Pythagorean theorem for Bruh, I don't ever be with a's and b's and all that. That's what I'm saying, Like, I don't need that. Yeah, teach me about

that. It's kind of lame, right, we only learn about Pythagorea and theorem. But there's so much more to the dude, that's beyond Oh yeah, a little geometry equation and it's infinitely cooler. Yeah, Like, dude, only teach me that if I'm trying to be like a mathematician or something that involves heavy math. Otherwise, bruh, get that out of here. So now we're going to get into the doctrine. Yeah. This is an exer from Philo of Alexandria on the Therapeutae, which was the Egyptian sect of

the Essenes that lived near Alexandria, Egypt. And in every house there is a sacred shrine which is called the holy place in the monastery in which they retire by themselves and perform all the mysteries of a holy life, bringing in nothing neither meat nor drink, nor anything else which is indispensable towards supplying the necessities of the body, but studying in that place the laws and the sacred oracles of God, enunciated by the Holy prophets, and hymns and psalms,

and all kinds of other things, by reason of which knowledge and piety are increased and brought to perfection. Therefore, they always retain an imperishable recollection of God, so that not even in their dreams is any other object ever presented to their eyes except the beauty of the divine virtues and of the divine powers. Therefore, many persons speak in their sleep, divulging and publishing the celebrated doctrines of the sacred philosophy. And they are accustomed to pray twice every day,

at morning and evening when the sun is rising, retreating God. In treating God that the happiness of the coming day may be real happiness, so that their minds may be filled with heavenly light. And when the sun is setting, they pray that their soul being entirely lightened and relieved of the burden of the outward senses and of the appropriate object of these outward senses, may be able to trace out truth existing in its own consistory and council chamber.

And the interval between morning and evening is by them devoted wholly to meditation. Buh, let's go meditation. What that sound like? That sound like China, Yeah, Tibet, India, Persia, the Middle East. They're not talking about meditation. Yeah in the Bible, no way, that's mystical. That's right. I mean, throughout our lives we've heard people that say that stuff's evil. That was written two thousand years ago. Right, you see what I'm saying. Like they We're gonna keep going. Okay, that that

right there? Blew my mind. You know, let me find where I was. Meditation and the interval between morning and evening is by them devoted wholly to meditation on in practice of virtue, for they take up the sacred scriptures

and philosophize concerning them. Investigating Listen to this. This is very important, investigating the allegories of their national philosophy, since they look upon their literal expressions as symbols of some secret meaning of nature intended to be conveyed in those figurative expressions. They practiced esoteric arts. They had symbolism concealing the true mystery of the divine and consciousness. Again, this was written two thousand years ago.

That's the kind of stuff that you're reading in Mason Lodges and Rosicrucian and stuff now today. Written by Filo of Alexandra about them two thousand years ago. He's talking about like perceiving your reality symbolically, yeah, and figuratively an allegory thousands of years. That's what I'm saying. There's something going on with this mystical stuff in history that like is hidden from us, Like why doesn't everybody

know about this stuff? Yeah, I know, I'll go to church or whatever practice we have, but it's like this is like huh, yeah, because you know what's wild, Like exoteric religion, what's it all focused about. It's all focused about after this life. It's all focused about what comes next. But you can do now to earn what comes next or whatever.

These mystery traditions, these wisdom traditions are telling you how to try and seek and understand or perceive your reality now, for how truly mystical it is to change your life in this realm. Right, It's like, I can't believe that was reading. I guess even there's a lot more. I'm gonna start cooking. I'm gonna start kicking it up. I'm gonna start kicking in the gear and start cooking it up. Okay, so here's here's the very next

line. They also have writings of ancient men, who, having been the founders of one sector or another, have left behind the many memorials of allegorical system of writing an explanation, whom they take as a kind of model, and imitate the general fashion of their sex, so that they do not occupy themselves solely in contemplation. But they likewise compose psalms and hymns to God in every kind of meter and melody imaginable, which they have necessity arrange a more

dignified rhythm. Therefore, during six days, meaning like of the week, you know, because they observed the Sabbath. Therefore, during six days, each of these individuals retiring into solitude by himself. Remember, they didn't marry and have children, right, right, They were ascetic marrying into solitude by themselves, or excuse me, retiring into solitude philosophizes by himself in one of the places called monastery, never going outside the threshold of the outer court,

and never indeed even looking out. But on the seventh day they all come together is that the meat in a sacred assembly, and they sit down in order according to their ages, with all becoming gravity, keeping their hands inside their garments, having their right hand between their chest and their dress, and

the left hand down on the side, close to their flank. And then the eldest of them, who has the most profound learning in their doctrines, comes forward and speaks with a steadfast look and with a steadfast voice, with great powers of reasoning and great prudence, and making an exhibition of his oratorical powers, like the rhetorations of old or the soface of the present day, but investigating with great pains and explaining with minute accuracy the precise meaning of the

laws, which sits not indeed at the tips of their ears, but permeates through their hearing into the soul, and remains there lastingly. And all the rest listen in silence to the praises which he bestows upon the law showing there is scent only by nods of the head or the eager look of the eyes. And this common holy place which they all come together on the seventh day, is a twofold circuit, being separated partly into the apartment of the men

and partly into a chamber for the women. Remember this see the Egyptian chapter prote a chapter for women. Also in accordance with the usual fashion, here form a part of the audience, having the same feelings of admiration as the men, and having adopted the same sect with equal deliberation and decision. And the wall which is between the houses rises from the ground three or four cubans upward. And yeah, that's just describing the rest is not important. So

they were recognized. Moving on to the next text, they were recognized by contemporaries of the time as being the most advanced and ancient initiatory society. This

is written by Philo of Alexandria and his text on the contemplative life. This is then, what I have to say of those who are called the therapeutae, who have devoted themselves to the contemplation of nature, and who have lived in it and in the soul alone, being citizens of heaven and of the world, very acceptable to the Father and creator of the universe because of their virtue, which has procured them his love as their most appropriate reward, for

which far surpasses all the gifts of fortune, and conducts them to conduct them to the very summit and perfection of happiness. So again, like analyzing that, we're talking about very famous historians and philosophers that were still talking about thousands of years later went and observed these societies, and they reported, they're the happiest people I've ever met. They had the most advanced spiritual ship going on out of any culture I've ever seen. They have thousands, they estimate plinty.

The older estimates they probably had four thousand in their order that were all

living communally, sharing all their possessions. They had no money, They aggressively rejected materialism, and they were just all happy, singing songs together in praise, fasting, and meditating, and like they were in extremely advanced spiritual society who had rituals or rather symbols and allegories, and they had these secret ways that it says that they learned from ancient sages that they explained the mysteries of God through symbols. Bruh. The Bible doesn't say any of that, No,

none of it. And it's closely related to the ship that they talk about in the Bible, Like why are we skipping out on all that? That's crazy. They were literally like like monks, we're talking about a commune. We're talking about fasting, meditation, anti materialism, like they even took bats in cold water, like yeah, plunge, yeah every day. You know, like, wow, how did the Bible just fully gloss over all that? Well, they were wiped out from it. Yeah, I know.

It makes you wonder why is there nothing except for this about these people? It does make you wonder. Really, it's and you have all these other psychic people if you believe that or not, doesn't matter. You have all these other psychic people in modern times getting all these hits independently of each

other. Jesus and John, the Baptists were essuenings, the Mazarines were essuens blah blah blahss that you have all this stuff, you know, and it's like then you read the real historical stuff about them, and it's like damn, and we hadn't even talked about the crystals. Yet crystal. Now we're actually getting into the doctrine. You're ready. They worshiped the one true God is Light. They worshiped the Light. They were like the sons of the

Light. They had ritual initiations. Plus obviously secrecy surrounding the sacred angels rights and texts that was written in Josephus War of the Jews too. They very carefully guarded the name of their holy angels and all of them. They did not divulge the mysteries to outsiders. They just ate with them, gave them clothes and food and medicine if they were sick and poor. And they would laugh with strangers and treat them like family. But they wouldn't reveal the mysteries.

They had to earn it. But now this is from the text War of the Jews too. But now, if anyone has a mind to come over to their sect, he has not immediately admitted, but he has prescribed the same method of living which they use for a year while he continues excluded, and they give him a small hatchet and the forementioned girdle in the white

garment. They only wore white garments because it was pure, and when he hath given evidence during that time he can observe their continents, he approaches nearer to their way of living, and is made a partaker of the waters of purification. Yet he is not even now admitted to live with them, for after this demonstration of his fortitude, his temper has tried two more years. And if he appears to be worthy, then they admit him into their society.

And before he is allowed to touch their common food, he is obliged to take tremendous oaths. In the first place, he will exercise piety towards God, and that he will observe justice towards men, And that he will do no harm to anyone either of his own corridor by the command of others. That he will always hate the wicked and be the assistant to the righteous. He will ever show fidelity like loyalty to all men, and especially to

those in authority, because no one obtains the government without God's assistance. Yeah, I'm not sure about that. One man, if he be an authority, he will at no time whatever abuse his authority, nor endeavor to out shine his subjects, either in his garments or any other finery. And that he will perpetually be a lover of truth and propose to himself to reprove those that tell lies. That he will keep his hands clear from theft his soul

from unlawful gains. He will never conceal anything from those of his own sect, nor discovery of their doctrines to others. Like you, don't reveal the mystery. No, not through though anyone should compel him to do so, at the hazard of his life. Moreover, he swears to communicate their doctrines to no one otherwise than as he received them himself. That he will abstain from roby robbery, and will equally preserve the books belonging to their sect.

I want to know what these books are. I want these books. He will preserve the books belonging to their sect and the names of the angels or messengers. These are the oaths by which they secure their proselytes to themselves. They teach an ancient, esoteric and symbolic ali cory. I think I already read this one though, and these explanations of the sacred scriptures. Okay, here we go, here we go this right here again, It's another part

written two thousand years ago. Okay, he says, and these explanations of the sacred scriptures are delivered by mystic expressions and allegories. For the whole of the law appears to these men to resemble a living animal, and its express commandments seem to be the body and the invisible meaning concealed under and lying beneath the plane words resembles the soul, in which the rational soul begins most excellently to contemplate what belongs to itself, as in a mirror, beholding in these

very words, the exceeding beauty of the sentiments, and unfolding of the explaining of the symbols, and bringing the secret meaning naked to the light to all who are able, by the light of a slight intimation, to perceive what is unseen by what is visible. So they had layers of secrecy regarding their doctrine. Wow, man, and you don't hear people speak this eloquently on

spirituality. This was two thousand years ago. This is I'm just impressed with the eloquence because the way that this is being phrased, it's hitting I don't even have to think about it. That's right there. It's going into my brain and immediately being absorbed. That's so eloquent. Yeah, I haven't. Yeah, I'm kind of pissed now because I want to read these books. Yeah what are these books? Yoah, I want their books. Wow.

That is really blowing my mind. When they're continuing the next line. When therefore, the president appears to have spoken at sufficient length and to have carried out his intentions adequately, so that his explanation has gone on felicitously and fluently through his own acuteness, and the hearing of the others has been profitable.

Applause arises from all of them, as men rejoicing together at what they have seen and heard, and someone rising up scenes a hymn which has been made in honor of God, either such as he has composed himself or some ancient one of some old poet. But they have left behind the many points and songs and trimeter iambix whatever that is, and then psalms of thanksgiving iambic is

like I believe it's like a structure of poetry or hymn or pentameter. Right exactly, yeah, nice, but this says trimeter trimeter it's another right yeah yeah, and uh yeah, so they all sing okay, church. This is this is the best part. Yeah, it does in it. I think that's where church came from from them. Where did they get that ritual? Let's all sing after the sermon, Yeah, and get together once a

week. Trimeter is one type of meter used in poetry in which each line has three metrical feet, right right, nice, that means though this is my favorite, and quite frankly, I think this is the most mind blowing of all of it. So this was in the Wars of the Jews too, by Flavius Josephus. You ready, Alex, you ready, get your

angeliers open, you ready, I'm ready. They also take great pains and studying the writings of the ancients and choose out of them what is most for the advantage of their soul and body, and they inquire after such roots and medicinal stones as may cure their distempers. Dude, dude, See they were using herbs and crystals to heal diseases and spiritual maladies. And not only that,

Yes, that that alone is incredible. And you know, but the thing that is so beautiful about that passage you sent me that you sent me there the other day, and I was just a little teased. It is such a warm sentiment, and it's so refreshing to know that true mystics, thousands of years ago, with the only with only the urge to understand the universe that they live in and nothing more, were wise enough to know that you can pull value from all wisdom, traditions, from all religions all and

you can leave the things that don't serve you. That's what they do now, you know mystics. Yes, yes, that's what it's like this, that's what I'm saying. They did it. Then it's crazy thousands of years ago. Yeah, it's insane, but that is just it's so beautiful. I've said that on this show before, right, take the things that serve you and leave the things that don't. That is true spirituality. Hot take. You're hearing it here on Bledsoe said, So that is spirituality. Spirituality

isn't following one little thing and staying in that box. Well, I mean, I can't. That's a blanket statement. I don't want to because some things are objective can going going, Some things are objectively true, like take the stuff. But here's the point of that. They're they're using what what actually works exactly what I'm saying, they're not tied to a specific like, here's our spiritual proof. This is yeah, exactly, this is the stuff

that has worked since the time of the ancients. Let's write it down and incorporate it. Yeah, you keep moving exactly spiritual flexibility, dude. Well, dude, it's exactly what esoteric occult science is. It's exactly what the rose. You start reading the text of the Rosicrucians, you start reading the modern reformation of the Gnostic movement that has their own you know, uh, I don't know what you call it, like programs where you can read the

beliefs of Gnostics. They say it plainly. They're like, we are pulling from the Persians, the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Romans, the Essenes. I read you the text. She's like, this is what we're pulling from what we in modern times. We're learning from these traditions because meditation works, chalkras are real, crystals are real. Uh okay, So the Persians

had this star system. We like that. They're they're taking these ancient traditions that have real evidence of working, and they're synthesizing it into this this this mystical practice you know what I mean. It's it's the op of religion. It is you know, it's it's just existing in truth. Yeah, you know what I mean. Yeah, it's it's funny because you throw one around

the word like spirituality, and there's so many different perceptions to that. But to me that that is true because you are doing anything necessary to understand the spirit. Right, You're you're grasping it. Everything that works, everything that makes sense, everything that clicks, leave everything that doesn't work. You're focusing

solely on spirit that spirituality. Right. That's beautiful, dude. I'm probably I'm not going to read all of the texts, because I actually have a lot more than I've already read, but I'm gonna get through the good ones.

Okay, So I'm going to summarize their doctrine. But know that the next few things that I'm about to say, all of these come from either On the Contemplative Life by Filo of Alexandria or they come from the War of the Jews too by Josephus, which again, these were both texts that were in thousands of years ago, and there's even more texts that write about them by Josephus, Philo and Planning the Elder. I'm not even sure if I'm

reading much more from Planning the Elder. They fasted during the day. They only ate at night because they believed that to eat during the light of the day when the sun is present, which is supposed to be symbolic of like, you know, God, the great Spirit. They didn't want to feed their body because they were so extreme about only existing in the spirit. They were trying to be as close to spirit as possible, so they would faster

in the day. They wouldn't speak before sunrise. They didn't want to waste their breath and their mental capacities talking about random mundane things before the sun was up. They would only eat at night. A lot of them were so extreme that they would fast for three days or they really extreme ones would fast for six days and only ever eat on the Sabbath, so they one day a week. Some of them, Yeah, not all of that, This is what they said. They were, like, the more extreme of them

would only eat on the Sabbath. Ever. Wow, and they I'm telling you, dude, like they completely rejected any notion or idea of like physical pleasure. Like most of them would only be eaten like the most minutely salted bread because they're like, I don't want just to stain, just keep your body alive. And yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They were like that. They were so seriously focused on at every present moment, trying to to be connected with God. You know what I mean. They're simply eating

to live right right, Yeah, yeah, literally the whole order. Again, most of them probably would be eating at night. But the more extreme you ever think, like, what would happen if you if you went back in time and plucked one of these people out and took them to like a McDonald's, like an Imax movie theater and just or maybe that new Las Vegas sphere. Oh yeah, oh god dude, they'd be like, they'd be freaking out, just die on the Yeah, they would freak out. They

communally shared all of their possessions. They didn't receive like an income, any sort of labor. They did that had any sort of money or any sort of payment or reward, they immediately would bring it to the order. And the Order had like a public inventory of all food, all possessions, all money, and they shared it one hundred percent freely between everybody, and they thrived. They actually were so ascetic, meaning they're like separated from society.

They had communal agrarian style villages. Then it was reported by these riders that their houses were so basic that it looked like they were thrown up in a rush. They had the coursus cheapest rugs. They only wore the plainest white garments, white clothes, white shoes, and it was a part of their doctrine that they would never even get a new robe until the one they were wearing was so dilapidated and worn down that it was breaking apart. Because they

were so much like no nice clothes, no nice shoes. That stuff doesn't matter, None of it matters. We reject it. Where they were like one hundred percent away from society, outside of the major cities, in their own little contained monastic villages doing it. It's like a commune, honestly, a commune where their express purpose is to try to live solely as a soul,

right, not a person exactly. That's beautiful. And it was reported too that they loved doing labor and giving all of their possessions and income to the commune. Why wouldn't you because it's gonna joy and they were happy, it's gonna literally benefit you and everyone else around you to do that, Why wouldn't they? I mean, that's just beautiful. That's interesting to me though, because, like I feel like a lot of people, the allure of

that lifestyle for a lot of people is to not have to work. But then you put yourself in that place and you find that like humans naturally like to work. Well, absolutely, the I think, in my opinion, this is a little bit of a tangent. I think the people don't The reason people don't like to work today is because they don't like their job. Well, yeah, because they really don't get much of anything for doing it. There's also no purpose to you know, it's like back then, you

know, we're talking ancient times. It's like I'm the blacksmith. Yeah, no, I'm the ship right right now. It's like I work for some company, yeah, nine to five, and they get me a little paycheck. Yeah, that's it. But this work that these people were doing is making the whole commune survive, right, It's benefiting every single person in that commune. If that was the sort of society, or if that's how I was living, I would love to work all the time because it's just benefiting

everyone around you, and everyone is working together for each other. Right, that's beautiful. Sounds pretty awesome, it does. They observed extreme ritual purity and chastity. So again, like the section was not in Alexandria, Egypt known as the Therapeutae, that's the Greek word. But they were Essenes. They were like another branch of Essenes, the ones that lived in Israel.

They were celibrated. Like their whole lives. It was only men and they yeah, they would they would do the cold water bathing every morning, and they had extreme honor and adoration for the elder initiates. And actually the elder initiates were reported to be very lighthearted, very carefree, almost like children. They're so happy and so and they would laugh and they would they would just smile, and you know, the old guys are just as funny as the

young guys. And they were all like one, you know, they all respected each other as one. But in their ceremonies on the Sabbath day, the elders would speak, you know, because they had the most wisdom. So very cool. There. Let me skip through. We don't need to read the text on that though, because it's very long. They aggressively shunned material desires, and keep only playing possis out of necessity for survival. And

it says here from Filo in on the contemplative life. And the order in which they sit down to meet is a divided one, the men sitting on the right hand, and the women the women apart from them on the left. And in case anyone by chance suspects that cushions, if not very costly, ones still at all events, of a tolerably soft substance. Again we're talking about their furniture's cheek. Of a tolerably soft substance are prepared for men

who are well born and bred. The healthy guys get the tolerably soft cushions, you know. And contemplators of philosophy, he must know that they have nothing but rugs of the coursus materials, cheap mats of the most ordinary kind of papyrus of the land, piled up on the ground and projecting a little near the elbow, so that the feasters may lean upon them. For they

relax in a slight degree the less sedemonian rigor of life. And at all times, in all places they practice a liberal, gentlemanlike kind of hating the allurements of pleasure with all their might. Wow, the cheapest rugs, the healthy young man, they get the tolerable cushion. I love the fact that it says tolerable. It's tolerable, it's enough, meaning that everything else is

intolerable, like everything else is terrible. Oh, I read this from the earlier passage talking about like the ritual purity and chastity, and the women also sharing this feast, the greater part of whom, though old, are virgins in respect of their purity, not indeed through necessity, as some of the priestesses among the Greeks are, who have been compelled to preserve their chastity more than they would have done of their own accord, but out of an admiration

for and love of wisdom, with which they are desirous to pass their lives, on account of which they are indifferent to the pleasures of the body, desiring not a mortal but an immortal offspring, which the soul that is attached to God is alone able to produce by itself and from itself, the Father having sown it into rays of light, shiable only by the intellect, by

means of which it will be able to perceive the doctrines of wisdom. Bro, we're talking about we're talking about doctrines of wisdom coming from a mortal rays of light. Yeah. That sounds like Theosophy or like or Rosicrucianism or I mean, dude, it's like this was written two thousand years ago. I keep saying that because it keeps blowing my mind. Written two thousand years ago

about a society that existed five thousand years before that. At least, oh yeah, at least because they are he also one of them also said thousands of ages, right, Like, so who knows? One of them said time immemorial, right, the most ancient of all orders? Like, bro, what is going on here? Like? And and the current secret societies and wisdom traditions are talking about the same stuff exactly the same stuff, dude, No, they're talking about them. These are the real ogs, That's

what I'm saying. Man, Like I really believe the Eenoch stuff. Oh yeah, it's hard to deny. No, it is. When you get in there and you start doing some cross referencing, it all lines up, makes sense. It lines up exactly. That's why I'm like, just because it does it there's not like physical proof whatever. Just come on, read between the lines, overlap like that stuff happens. It's crazy, bro, Like we all seen Scooby Doo. You know, you just put the pieces

together and it makes sense. I'm serious. There's a couple more main points here. They had the strict belief that the soul is immortal. This is from the Wars of the Jews too by Flavius Josephus. For their doctrine is this that bodies are corruptible, and that the matter they are made of is not permanent, but that the souls are immortal and continue forever, and that they come out of the most subtile air and are united to their bodies as

to prisons. What that sounds like, wow, gnosticism? Wow right, this is the prison realm, or it's the allegory of hell. Right, that they are united to their bodies as to prisons, and to which they are drawn by a natural certain natural enticement. But that when they are set free from the bonds of the flesh, they then, as released from a long bondage, rejoice and mount upwards. What's that sound like? Her meticism. It's the idea that the souls are constantly incarnating upwards on the path of

evolution. They mount upward when they're freed from the flesh. And this is like the opinions of the Greeks, that good souls have their habitations beyond the ocean, in a region that is neither oppressed with storms of rain or snow, or with intense heat, but that this place is such as refreshed by the gentle breathing of a west wind that is perpetually blowing from the ocean, while they allot to bad souls a dark and tempestuous den full of never seasing

punishments. And indeed, the Greeks seem to me to have followed the same notion when they allot the islands of the blessed to their brave men, whom they call heroes and demigods, and to the souls of the wicked, the

region of the ungodly and hades, where their fables relate. The certain persons such as Sisyphus and Tantalus, and Ixion and Titus are punished, which is on this first supposition the souls are immortal, And thence are those exhortations to virtue and dehortations from wickedness collected, whereby good men are better than the conduct of their life and the hope they have of reward after their death. And whereby the vehement inclinations of bad men to vice are restrained by the fear and

expectation that they are in. And although they should lie concealed in this life, they should suffer immortal punishment after their death. These are the divine. These are the divine doctrines of the ess scenes about the soul, which lay in unavoidable bait for such as have once had a taste of their philosophy. Note. I believe, if I'm just putting my personal belief on this, I believe elements of this are true. But I think it's more like,

you know, it's not like dying and going to some other realm. I think, just based on my personal study and what we talk about, and I'm sure you guys would have no problem agreeing with this, I think it's more like you keep coming here, you know what I mean? Yeah, like Ian carnegieh were you were bad this life where you're gonna struggle more the next one, but it's going to teach you more, you know what I mean? Yeah, But it's cool to see how they believe. That's how

I perceive that they live very Oh, this is crazy. They lived very long lives because of perfect sobriety. I forgot to mention. They never drank wine. They considered it folly. They had an extremely clean diet. Most of them only ate bread, you know, every night or once a week. Mean they would eat meat. But it was like the more the more fanatical you know, the market, the cleaner the diet, or the more bland the diet, because they believed it's, you know, you're more spiritual.

But there were reports of the meeting meat. They don't fear death, and they have the utmost loyalty to God and absolute faith in eternal life after death. From wars of the Jews to Josephus. They are long lived also, and so much that many of them live above one hundred years by means of the simplicity of their diet, nay as I think, by means of their regular course of life. They observe. Also they condemned the miseries of

life and are above pain by the generosity of their mind. And as for death, if it will be for their glory, they esteem it better than living. Always and indeed, our war with the Romans gave abundant evidence I

lost my spot because of a stigmatism. Oh, our war with the Romans gave abundant evidence what great souls they had in their trials, wherein although they were tortured and distorted, burnt and torn to pieces, and went through all kinds of instruments of torment, that they might be forced either to blaspheme their legislator, or to eat what was forbidden them, yet they could not be made to do any of it, not once to flatter their tormentors, or

to even shed a tear. But they smiled in their pains of torture and laughter. Those who scorn inflicted their torments upon them, and resigned up their souls with great alacrity, as expecting to receive them again. Alchemy. Yep, Wow, what you're I said? Alacrity? No, No, no, you're saying. I'm saying that they're literally saying, they're like rejoicing and happy at the people who are trying to call them harm torture and torture them. And that's alchemy, right, you know what I mean. It's like

changing your perception. It's that's But also they're so strictly loyal to the order that they never there's not a single report of them, you know, understand, Like they existed in a time where the Romans were massacring Jews and Christians oh around the world. Yeah, hunting them down, torturing them, burning them, peeling their flesh off, crucifying them on crosses. Like we're talking

about vicious, vicious, horrific murder. Yeah. And in all of that them being tortured and killed and played alive, there's not a single report of them giving up their secrets. But actually that they smiled and they embraced death to be one with the spirit. Yeah, talk about spiritual people. What were you going to say, my angel? I interpreted that as a they didn't feel the pain that too, Yeah, it said that, yeah, pain because of your mind, you know, forego all the goodness of life.

You can become a superhero. It's like the It's like when Ryan set himself on fire because he didn't want to drink piss mugs that set themselves on fire and don't feel pain. Okay, I'm actually I'm almost done here. And I skipped a lot of texts about I went really text happy this time, but they had advanced prophecy abilities, which was actually recognized by several contemporaries of the time as well as it was reported that they were consulted by King

Herod. There was a Herodian dynasty, which you know, like in the time of Jesus being born, it was King Herod, right, yeah, yeah, I'm not sure who it was. I think before Herod it was the Maccabean dynasty, and that's when they had the Macabean revolt and they through

through that dynasty out and then brought in the family of Herod. But it was reported that King Herod actually went and consulted the s scenes and had them that he had a bunch of different priests and I can't remember which text I read this in, but it was like the essims prophecy that they provided was the one that was correct. They had advanced knowledge of prophecy. Damn.

So even the king, which remember what we talked about the Edgar Casey stuff, said oh, well, actually they had an ancient prophecy that they would be the society that birth's the savior figure. You know what I'm saying. These people were bad as they were, Yeah, they were next level oh

oh, I said from wars of the Jews too. There are those among them who undertake to foretel things to come by reading the Holy books and using several sorts of purifications, and being perpetually concern conversant and the discourse of the prophets. And it is seldom that they miss in their predictions. Damn. They were split into different sects. We already talked about this earlier. One of the factions were all men, completely solidate till death. The other faction

married woman. But check this out, I said, married woman. They married woman. It's funny because they had strict regulations about like marrying a partner. They had to date, they had to be engaged in date for three years and try out their spouse. That's very healthy, right, that's very healthy. They had to date for three years before married because they had to reject any notion that it was like some sort of you know, possible adulterists

or you know, crazy relationship. It had to be like partners that were equally matched and devoted to the same thing. Now the crazy thing, which I think is like, okay, well, you know, maybe this part's not necessary. But when they're as seen, wives were pregnant, they stayed away from them and let them carry the child on their own because it was like, oh, no, I'm not in this for pleasure. We're doing you know what. The Great Spirit or God or whatever gave us the power

to create life, so this is about that. So they would separate during pregnancy and childbirth and stuff like that. And I'm like, bro, how could you not be in the delivery room? Right, you know what I mean? But it is what it is. I get it if you're trying to achieve what they were trying to achieve, Like the logic makes sense. But yeah, the furniture in the delivery room was tolerable. The cushions were just like, you know, they had the slightest impression when you sat on.

The rugs were so coarse. Yeah, that's funny, it says. Moreover, there is another order of Essenes talking about the Therapeutae in Alexandria Egypt, who agree with the rest as to their way of living and customs and laws, but different from them in the point of marriage, as thinking that by not marrying, they cut off the principal part of human life, which is the prospect of succession. Nay, rather that if all men should be

of the same opinion, the whole race of mankind would fail. However, they try their spouses for three years, and if they find that they have their natural purgations thrice as trials that they are likely to be fruitful, they then actually marry them. But they do not use to accompany with their wives when they are with child, as a demonstration that they do not marry out

of regard to pleasure, but for the sake of posterity. Now the women go into the baths with some of their garments on, as the men do, with somewhat girded about them. And these are the customs of this order of essenes. Wow. So yeah, I mean, that's that's all my notes. It's it's crazy, right, yeah, it's it's completely unbelievable. So in summary, it sounds like this is potentially the most ancient wisdom tradition who is trying to like crack the code of spiritual reality. And also they

really don't like comfy pillows. Only where on the plain is white robes. No, But but in seriousness, these were the pioneers of our spiritual understanding of this realm, and all those that came after them are like, listen up to these guys, Like the people that we talk about in terms of modern wisdom traditions are doing almost everything almost the same. I just had a revelation. Yeah, for sure, almost almost everything that the knowledge is the

same. Yes, you know, maybe not all the practices because the modern times we're like, well, you know, it's like it's okay to like be with your spouse. That's all righty room, Yeah, it's it's okay to like have comfy pillows. Like, you know, there's definitely a morph over modern times. I like, but no, I just had the craziest

thought too. Like we've already established through historical fact that there was a chapter of the Essenes in Egypt, and we know from the biblical text that when Jesus was born, the king Herod because remember he was consulted by the magi and they were like, oh, it's the star of the prophecy. The star's here, there's you know, the Savior is born, and King Herod's

like, oh, fuck, like I want to kill him. The Jewish prophecy one of the reasons that contemporary Jews of the time, like the Pharisees and the Sadducees especially especially the Sadducees. They hated Jesus so much because he wasn't the Messiah that was according to the prophecy of the Jews, right, because the messiah prophecy was that he would be a royal king. Right. Jesus was not right exactly. He was just a normal dude. He was

a carpenter, you know, and they hated him. They didn't believe him to be you know, like they were like, this is your guy, right, like exactly exactly. So King Herod when Jesus was born, was like, because of this, this this prophecy that the Messiah would be the next king, right, it would be this king who liberated the Exactly. He's like, no, no, I'm the king. So that's that's why he did it. He was like, no, no, me, I don't want anybody born who's going to challenge my dynasty. So he put out

a decree of all the babies killed. Yep, all the babies from zero to two years old, the male ones, yes, kill them all. Yeah. So we know in the story that when Jesus was born they sent him to Egypt. Well, dude, we just realized. I always wondered, where do you go. There was this chapter of scenes that's pretty I mean, you know, we don't know for sure, but it's interesting they sent him there and there's a lot of people that think he was an scene.

Yeah, and him and John were doing some shit. Yeah, and then it's like you get into it, there's a thirty year gap. Exactly what was he doing during that time? Right? You know what I'm saying. It starts to click. That's that's the cross referencing I'm talking about, Like pull the stuff from everywhere, cross reference it. Figure it out. Were they allowed to work out? Did you read about that? I don't know if the essenes were, I don't know, why would they do it?

I mean bread like once a week, bro, they probably know. But Jesus was ripped, Well he got well he might have gone off in these thirty years and got jacked. Well, he probably got jacked, like living in the commune with the scenes, like being a blacksmith, labor and stuff. That's what I mean. Singing their song all starting to make sense. Yeah, Jack lifting up logs and like we know he was jacked.

It just makes sense. It does. And we know he drank Natty light too, Like we know all that that was the one thing about the Esscenes he rejected. And he's like, y'all ain't drinking natty light. That's crazy though, because the Essens rejected wine. But then it's like with damn, jesus first miracle was turn the water to wine, you know. So it's like plot hole. But I feel like everybody would have just turned a blind eye to Jesus if he brought some wine up in the commune, right,

drink wine with Jesus, that's Jesus. Yeah, we ain't worried about it. I would definitely drink wine with Jesus. Fuck yeah, I drink wine with you. We probably have at least once or so. But no,

it's crazy. And then you have all the like Edgar Casey stuff and even like the Lord's Cannon and even like the Theosophy stuff and all these other like not only like psychics in the last one hundred years, but like these secret society traditions like the Theosophist, the Rosicrucians, the Masons, et cetera, et cetera, that are all like, oh no, dude, yeah, like Jesus was a part of an order and went to the temple in Alexandria, Egypt of the Great White Brotherhood, and it's like wait wait, wait

wait, yeah, but we know that THEES scenes from historical fact had a chapter near Alexandria Egypt. It's like this mix of like it's like three layers here. It's like we have the legend as well as like what is said

by the secret societies of modern times. We have these historical documents that are corroborating that they definitely were mystics, and then we have the psychics who are like oh no, yeah, like this, this, this, this, this, this, And we know for a fact that THEES scenes history was wiped out, so obviously there's gonna be lots of gaps, right, So it would only be logical to try to fill those gaps in with what we do know, right, and what we do know lines up very pointedly to

like maybe Jesus was an s scene, Like it seems pretty legit. Well, I have no you know, trouble believing that. For me. The bigger picture here is like the Enoch thing that too, you know what I mean, there's lots of gaps to light filled. Yeah, Like I already believe in my mind about you know, the Jesus scene thing, Jesus being an for me. It's like, was he not chermet Magestus? You know what I mean? That's the big question, right, And so this lends

itself pretty heavily to support that, right, Yeah, it's crazy. I don't know. Wow wow wow wow wow wow wow. Banger, dude, banger, banger, banger. I love that. Like, just had like the most spiritually profound, like in depth intelligent conversation in this. How we end it? Yeah, anger, it's a manger. You know what we should do, man, we should we should do a little soft plug right now. Okay, we have we have new tolerably comfortable pillows coming out.

Yeah, it's it's actually it's it's actually cushion that we take from the rear end of horses and we stitch it together to make them kind of not that soft, right, not very soft. So you've been using horses. But you told me to cut my hair to make the pillows. Nobody told you to cut your hair. You did that because you wanted to know. Ryan said, cut your hair, we're gonna make pillows. You did. Yeah, Actually we were we were actually thinking about taking his hair and fucking stuff

and pillows. That would make a tolerably comfortable pillows Oh for sure, Yeah, a little more tolerably not much, not much, a greasy hair filled pillow. I mean, you know, I would sleep on it. Dude. That was That was as a banger you can delivered hard. Appreciate it. Now we're gonna go uh switch out costumes, touch and makeup, and then we're gonna do the next section, which is spirit science science soft plug we do. We have a Patreon. I feel like we rarely ever plug

this on the show Patreon. It's just bletso said So, or you could find it on bletso setsa dot com. We have an amazing discord community in there, and it's an extra show and an extra show and you know, potentially a more around the corner. Oh yeah, and yeah. It's just it's it's awesome and it's it's it's a way like it's a way to help out the show. And if if you don't want to do that, that's

totally cool. Just listening to the show helps us regardless, absolutely, you know, but we get a lot of questions, how can we help huge fan want to support so check letso said so dot com for some tolerable merch. Yeah, it is tolerable. We should put that kind of like on the thing tolerable. We should just make a shirt that's like just literally just like well yeah, but but it's all white. Yea, no logo, no nothing, no prayer. Yes, that's epic. Alright, let's hit

them with it. Do you want? Bye? Bye? Guys? Weird things happen in the backyard of Bloods House. And see it over the look got it was so weird. You're coming closer to us. I hear stayed straight up like smiling on the inside of it. No one knows mad, Wow, it's come right over come or not happy? Ain't happy anything happened