From the book
Ancient Mystic Oriental Masonry
R. Swinburne Clymer · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordThe Essenes are a Jewish religious community invoked as an example of disciplined, selective, and symbolically taught spiritual life.
- In Ancient Mystic Oriental MasonryThe comparative argument places them among communities whose preparation and instruction are said to resemble the Mysteries and Masonry.
- In this editionEssene forms follow the copy text.
- A place to readI.21: … “Jesus, as taught by Him, and by the Essenes and Gnostics of the first centuries, and” …
Meaning
The Essenes are a Jewish religious community invoked as an example of disciplined, selective, and symbolically taught spiritual life.
Use in the book
The comparative argument places them among communities whose preparation and instruction are said to resemble the Mysteries and Masonry. Their name contributes to the proposed transmission of a hidden teaching across otherwise distinct religious settings. The book’s similarities of method do much of the argumentative work.
Places to read
- Original Introduction · Block 21… “Jesus, as taught by Him, and by the Essenes and Gnostics of the first centuries, and it becomes (Mystic) Masonry. Masonry, in its purity, derived as it is from the old” …
- Foundations of Mystic Masonry · Block 52… “the Jews they had made use of the Essenes, in which sect Jesus * was brought up, and had spent the greater part of His life. Having been instructed by Him” …
- Foundations of Mystic Masonry · Block 57… “the same source. When the mysteries of the Essenes ** were imported by Pythagoras into Italy, without undergoing much variation; they were there denominated the Mysteries of Pythagoras; and, in our” …
- Masonic Symbolism · Block 100“303. "It was the firm opinion of the Essenes that internal purity and rectitude of conduct were strikingly evinced by a person's outward appearance. The belief was probably derived from that” …
- Masonic Symbolism · Block 121… “his minority, and he was adopted by the Essenes, living with them in the wilderness, and when of proper age he was initiated in their Mysteries* and finally arrived to the” …
In this edition
Essene forms follow the copy text. The entry does not expand the comparison into a general history of ancient Judaism.
Reading the argument
The passage should be read as Clymer’s comparative use of the community. It does not make the Essenes themselves witnesses to a modern lodge system or establish every later institution’s descent from them.
Essenes
“Essenes” — 14 occurrences in 8 text blocks: I.21; F.52, 57, 130, 132; S.100, 121–122.
Essenian
“Essenian” — 3 occurrences in 3 text blocks: F.55, 151; N.161.