A heartfelt welcome to all of you – I’m absolutely thrilled that so many people are planning to take part in this course! 🙂
If I’d tell you how many takers I realistically expected, and how many I was prepared to call a “success” when I posted the course offer, you’d know why “absolutely thrilled” is most decidedly not an exaggeration… 😉 It’s fantastic that so many people want to join the Modern Order of Essenes and practice what it has to offer.
And here we are, finally – at Unit 1 of our Modern Order of Essenes course. This post consists of two parts:
In the Introduction, I’m going to explain a few things about the course in general, how the units are structured, how to follow along, the House Rules, etc. And in Unit 1, we’re going to dive right in. Enjoy!
Introduction
This is the first time I’m teaching the Modern Order of Essenes. I’m stating this first just so you know things might not be perfect right from the start. I’m doing my best, and will improve stuff as necessary when we move along.
That is to say, everything below is subject to change and adaptation – and I’d very much appreciate your feedback, constructive criticism, thoughts, experiences, … as we proceed through the course. Throughout our shared work, I’m expecting to learn at least as much as you will, and maybe more.
General Info
My current plan is this:
I’m going to post a new unit every two weeks, on Sundays. (If you want to be notified about these posts, btw, you can sign up for the mailing list called “Modern Order of Essenes” below this post.)
I have somewhat restructured the material to make it fit into these units (and, hopefully, into your everyday life). If things proceed as I have planned, there will be 12 units in this first part of the course, followed by the Apprentice attunement.
(If any of you should want to move further and tackle the material for the Healer grade, I’m open to doing this in the same style, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there, ok?)
So for now, what you need to do is check in every second Sunday – and then get to work. 😉
What do the units contain?
Each unit contains a few different things:
- The actual coursework
- A reflection qustion
- Meditation topics
- Commentary
The coursework is simply a list of the things you should study or practice during this unit. In order to keep things simple, I’m not going to re-post the material here, but instead give clear instructions on how to find the relevant material both on JMG’s site and in the pdf file which is hosted by the Octagon Society.
I’m also trying to include a relevant reflection question for each unit – something for you to think about, chew on, or meditate upon. You’re very welcome to discuss it in the comments – and you’re equally welcome to keep it all to yourself. 😉
For those of you who do discursive meditation, I’ll include a few pointers for potential meditation topics. Please feel free to meditate about them – or to pick your own topics. If you don’t do discursive meditation, or have other meditation topics lined up, you can either ignore this section or use the topics as further fodder for thought and introspection.
Finally, I’ll usually have a few things to say about the unit. What this is might vary, but you’ll find my thoughts and notes in the section labelled Commentary.
This latter section is not to be confused with the actual comment section at the bottom of each unit post. It’s this section which is yours – and what the course will turn into very much depends on you and your engagement in the comments…
Comment sections
I thus want to encourage you to make copious use of the comment sections in whichever way benefits you most: For accountability, for questions, for community building, for interaction with your fellow travellers, for getting support, for your musings about the topics, to share experiences and successes, etc.
As long as your comments are related to the course, they are fair game (with a few exceptions, see below).
I will keep the comments for all the course posts open and will continue to approve comments to “older” units even when we move on to the next unit, at least for the foreseeable future. I.e. if you should proceed a bit slower, or have a retrospective question about an earlier unit, it’s up to you whether you want to post your comment at the latest unit or at the one it belongs to. (I might change that rule as we proceed – but for now, that’s how it is.)
On the other hand, if somebody takes more time or should start the course a bit later, they can do their work in their own timeline, but are still very welcome to participate in the group comments of the latest unit to be a part of the community.
The House Rules
As I said, almost any comments which are related to the course are fair game in the comment section. But in order to make the comment sections a valuable resource and an agreeable space for all of us (me very much included!), there are a few basic rules:
- No insults, no profanity or swearing. Behave like civilized and polite adults, even if you should disagree with somebody. (Bonus points if you’re not just polite, but friendly and caring!)
- Keep your comments at a reasonable length.
- Keep them related to the course.
- It’s fine to participate in the course anonymously. But to facilitate community building and recognizability in the comment section, I suggest you use the same nickname in the comments throughout the course.
That’s it for now, although I reserve the right to add or change the House Rules later.
Also, I read and approve all the comments. I’ll try to approve them at least once a day during the time we work on this course together, but I’ve got a life, too… So please be patient if it might take longer than you thought until your comment appears.
And finally, remember that the comment section is your shared space. It depends on you, and you alone, what you’ll get out of it. Thus I suggest you put at least as much in as you’d like to get out – and then be prepared for a nice surprise! 😉
Final notes
Since I’m teaching the course for the first time, I’ve done my best to guess what is reasonably doable within two weeks, and on an average day – but of course no good plan survives the first contact with reality, and since mine is an exceptionally good plan, I fully expect having to adapt it as we proceed. 😉
Thus the number of units might change, and also their structure.
In addition, not everybody’s life is the same.
If you feel you could do more in a certain week, don’t let me stop you – you’re very welcome to proceed faster, practice more (within reason, please don’t wear yourself out!), or e.g. read ccomplementary texts or books.
And if the coursework should be too much for you, either in a specific week or overall, then please don’t drop out. It’s no problem at all if you proceed more slowly. You’ll still be very welcome to use the comment section, and be a part of the community.
(Also, if it should be too much for you, or too little, I’d really, really appreciate the feedback so I can adjust things for the future!)
Finally, if for any reason you feel this course isn’t working for you, I’d also love to get your feedback to help me improve it – and maybe there are also things I could do or recommend to help make things a better fit for you. So please don’t be shy to talk about what doesn’t work for you in the comments, too!
With this, I think we’ve covered all the preliminaries. Let’s dive right into Unit 1, shall we? 🙂
Unit 1
Unit 1 introduces you to the Modern Order of Essenes as such, and also to one of its core practices, the Blessing Walk.
Coursework
- To Read – JMG’s Introductory Notes
JMG made three introductory points about what the MOE is, and especially what it isn’t. 😉 Please read them in order to avoid confusion.
Available online here (Read up to “I want this material to get into circulation so that it has a chance of survival.”)
- To Study – Intro (Background)
Your second task in Unit 1 is to study the first part of the Intro text: the subsection titled “The Modern Order of Essenes”.
Online Version (only the section titled “The Modern Order of Essenes” – the other two sections are part of later units)
PDF Version (Pages 4 and 5) - To Practice – Blessing Walk, Step 1
Your third task, and the most important one, is to start practicing the Blessing Walk – in particular, Step 1 of the Blessing Walk. The later steps will be part of upcoming units.
Online Version (only Step 1)
PDF Version (Page 11 and top of page 12) - To Read – What is the Modern Order of Essenes?
If you haven’t already done so, read my complementary essay titled What is the Modern Order of Essenes to get a better idea of what it is you’ll be doing.
Reflection Question
While you do the work of Unit 1, take some time to reflect on the following question:
Why have you joined the Modern Order of Essenes?
Meditation Topics
If you need fodder for your discursive meditations beyond what you have found in the study/reading texts, the following topics should give you something to work with:
- Why did the founders pick the name “Modern Order of Essenes”? What does the name as a whole and its elements mean?
- Why does the MOE include not just healing practices, but also study texts, meditations, and blessings?
- What is the difference between healing others and healing yourself?
- How do you imagine zone therapy/reflexology might work?
- What is the purpose of attunements?
- What is the difference between an organization and a tradition? What would it mean if the MOE would be one or the other? How else could it be organized?
- What do you want to get out of this work for yourself?
- What do you want to get out of this work for others?
- What are you willing to put in?
And if you have enough ideas on your own and don’t need any from this list, that’s even better!
Sidenote: Some of the meditation topics might repeat on occasion. This will sometimes be due to the fact that I’m just a fallible human being – and sometimes it will be on purpose because it will pay to meditate on certain things more than once. 😉
Commentary
So there you have it – Unit 1 of our MOE course. I hope you aren’t too disappointed because the workload looks rather doable… 😉
Workload in Unit 1 and Establishing Practice Habits
Seriously, though: I’ve tried to space things out as evenly as possible over the Units, but the workload will pick up a bit when we introduce more practices. Unit 1 is deliberately “easy”, though. Partially that’s to give you a chance to find your footing, get to know each other in the comments, etc.
And partially it’s because I think it’s more important for you to establish good, lasting practice habits than to dive in with everything you have and exhaust yourself in the first two weeks…
Thus my suggestion is to focus on the Blessing Walk, and not just on its actual performance or practice, but also on how and when you integrate it into your day. Play around with this. Try doing it at different times or on different occasions if you want, figure out how to remind yourself so you won’t forget – whatever you need to do to establish a solid habit of daily MOE practice.
If you establish a regular Blessing Walk habit now, you’ll greatly benefit from it later.
When to do the Blessing Walk
Secondly, about the Blessing Walk itself: Ideally, you will later integrate the Blessing Walk seemlessly into your life (very ideally, you will integrate it so seamlessly that you do it all the time without even having to think about it, but that’s of course easier said than done…).
I.e. at a later stage, it makes sense to practice Blessing Walks while you go about your life. At the beginning, though, most people will need to focus on what they’re doing. My suggestion is thus to practice the Blessing Walk deliberately in Unit 1:
Set aside some dedicated time each day to do a Blessing Walk. This can be an actual walk, but it can also be another occasion, e.g. relaxed grocery shopping or a coffee break at work. (You can also vary and play with it, see above.)
The important thing is that at the beginning of your Blessing Walk career, you’ll need some capacity of mind to practice the Blessing Walk consciously. I.e. during your inintial Blessing Walks, you shouldn’t be so busy with other things to make you forget you’re Blessing-Walking – or that focusing on the Blessing Walk will force you to ignore important or dangerous things.
Thus I don’t recommend practicing Step 1 of the Blessing Walk while you are focused on important things like the traffic on the road. You can do that later, but for now, take the time to deliberately perform each Blessing Walk.
A word on “healing practices”
Thirdly, I suppose some of you might be a bit disappointed because we’re not starting out with “healing practices” right away, even though you signed up for a course of spiritual healing.
I’d encourage you to follow along anyway, and to take the Blessing Walk practice seriously. It’s a very powerful practice – and it’s very easy to underestimate it because it appears to be so… simple, I guess, is the right word. Just give it a serious chance, ok? I’m fairly sure you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Further Resources
The Octagon Society website hosts a few audio files narrated by John Gilbert, packaged in one zip file. You can download this zip file here.
The audio file with the name “Walk.mp3” is relevant to the content of this Unit. (Store the others for later, I’ll let you know when to check them out.)
Walk.mp3 covers the Blessing Walk, but all steps of it. I.e. you can either listen through all of it now to get a feeling for where we’ll be heading, or you can simply stop the audio for now when it moves on to the next step of the Blessing Walk, and then listen further as we proceed.
And finally, if you are so inclined, the comment sections on JMG’s original posts are well worth browsing, both for the introductory text and for the Blessing Walk. There are a few nuggets of advice in there, and also other interesting stuff.
Outlook
Unit 2 will go live on Sunday, March 2nd 2025.
Until then, I’m looking forward to your comments – and I’d very much appreciate your feedback about what works and what doesn’t work for you in Unit 1! 🙂
RL Lee says
A heartfelt thanks to you, Regine, for putting this all together and leading us through this work. I’ve been eagerly awaiting this post and you did NOT disappoint! 🙂 My favorite quote so far was when I read, “No good plan survives the first contact with reality”– that made me chuckle, because, dang, isn’t that the truth! But, that being said, I’ve printed out the material and started working through making a plan to schedule time for daily walks. I’m excited to see how everyone is getting along as well. Again, I’m very grateful for your work putting this out there for us all!🙏🏼
Regine says
Hi RL,
Thanks for your nice comment, and kudos to you for sticking out your head and being the first to post one! 😉
I’m glad you enjoyed the text so far, and I hope it will be helpful in your work. Please do let me know if there is anything I could improve (that holds for everybody who participates, btw!).
You’re right about the truth of “plans vs. reality”, of course, but on the other hand, when one doesn’t make a plan, one is usually also hit by reality. So mulling it over, maybe it’s not a matter of plans vs. not-plans, but a matter of reality in itself? 😀
Anyway, I’m really grateful that so many people expressed their serious interest, and am very excited to take this journey with all of you,
Regine
PS: To all of you, and just in case I wasn’t clear enough about this in the text: The comments are also (or mostly) a place for you folks to interact. I don’t intend to bug into all conversations, unless something affects me directly or I feel called to do so. So please don’t hesitate to reply to other people’s comments as well!
Not Gandalf says
Hi Regine, and Hi Everyone!
Re: The Blessing Walk. So, I’m taking this course because it will give me focus (I hope) to go further than I have with the MOE course, but THIS, I have already adapted, and, as I’ve posted elsewhere, this is worth the price of admission;-). I work from home, and so when I walk I see usually no people, so I started with animals, plants, homes, and,of course, the occasional person I meet. It has opened up a lot for me internally, and the effects seem to be noticeable too, namely, often, animals that would usually run from a galumphing human stay put and just watch as I walk by. It has also had a huge impact on the interactions I have on the phone with people in the course of my work. I have found myself to be more interested i having a positive and healing impact on people than on anything else. A huge shift, at least in perception.
Regine says
Hi Not Gandalf,
Thanks a lot for your report and for sharing your experiences! That‘s very interesting and helpful. 🙂
I think you‘re right, the Blessing Walk in itself is worth gold. (Btw, and for what it‘s worth, I also if you‘d continue to practice just that, this alone would lead you very far!)
Anyway, I‘m glad to have you on board, and kudos to you for tackling some of the other work again! 🙂
Will you be ok with „just“ doing the Blessing Walk in these first two weeks, maybe with renewed focus? Or are you chomping at the bit and would like me to recommend something else you could do so you can get started for real now? 😉
Regine
Not Gandalf (Ridgely) says
I have been doing “just” the blessing walk for something along the lines of a year now, and am in no hurry to get ahead of things here. I have another spiritual practice I have been involved with for decades, and so I feel no pressure to find “more”. This class is timely, because I want to add the MOE for it’s resonance and the nuance it brings to my spiritual journey, and, without the impetus, I probably would have continued to “just” walk and smile…
Regine says
lol – „just“ walk and smile. Nicely put! 😀
That‘s fine. You‘re right in that there is no hurry. But sometimes waiting can be hard… 😉
Mark says
I almost bailed on my first Blessing Walk yesterday–it was a gray and treacherously slushy day in the small city-town where I live. But I know from experience once I am outdoors, I am generally glad to be there. And despite the weather, there were plenty of folks out and about on my 15-minute stroll up and down Main Street.
I was doing another blessing ritual (I think for Universal Gnostic Church?) that involved sending blessing to various people in my life. The Blessing Walk, combining the act of walking through the world with the thought process of sending offerings of a blessing “telepathically” makes the ritual more visceral for me than a blessing that exists totally in my head. I noticed it also brought about new levels of awareness of the people around me–looking directly at folks and smiling as you pass on the sidewalk is these days almost a radical act. And, while I didn’t know the people I was offering blessings, it still felt more intimate than a purely intellectual blessing done at waking or retiring (though I know these blessings can also be offered in person, verbally, and these blessing rituals can complement one another.)
The Blessing Walk also did a good job of muting preconceived notions I might be carrying of what a person is about based on their behavior and appearance as they approached. Losing judgemental thoughts is essential for love to flourish–I guess that was a big part of the takeaway for me.
Regine says
Hey Mark,
Thanks for joining, and for your report and reflections – and kudos to you for pulling through with your first walk despite the weather, or whateer else was holding you back… 😉
This is interesting about the more visceral effects of blessing-in-person.
If you don’t mind sharing again in a little while, it’d be interesting to hear if anything in your perception, attitude, etc will change over time. 🙂
> Losing judgemental thoughts is essential for love to flourish–I guess that was a big part of the takeaway for me.
🙂
Regine
Paedrig says
I must say, the blessing walk really is a blessing to the one doing the walk. Taking the time to walk around and deliberately spread love left my heart feeling light and joyous.
The blessing I chose to project was, “May you be blessed and healed.” Someone close to me was feeling ill the first morning I read the post, so I chose to include healing in my blessing. Everyone needs healing, right? Then I projected it to everyone in the house, then went on a walk and projected it forth to strangers on the street.
What blessing did everyone else choose? I would love to see how each unique way everyone made this blessing walk their own.
Regine says
Hi Paedrig,
and a heartfelt welcome to you, too.
> I must say, the blessing walk really is a blessing to the one doing the walk.
It is indeed. It’ll be interesting to note if you feel any changes over time, and if so, which ones…
Regine
RL Lee says
Not Gandalf, Thank you for sharing your experience. I kept this in mind when out walking today. When you said, “I started with animals, plants, homes, and, of course, the occasional person I meet.” We had a sizable snow storm here yesterday and with bitter cold winds, there weren’t many humans to bless, but plenty of other Nature! Keeping this perspective in mind will be helpful for me this winter, especially.
When I read Mark’s comment about nearly bailing, it helped me get out the door, thank you Mark! — and I’m glad I didn’t bail. I just threw on some extra layers and shortened the time frame (which helped significantly with sub-0 wind chill). Something, even 10-15 minutes, is probably better than nothing.
Paedrig, I literally had the exact same thought– wait, I’m supposed to be blessing others but this feels more like I’m getting the brunt of all the blessings?! Hmm, interesting how this works… 🤔
I’m really curious to see how my blessing “skills” improve over time. Even though it’s only been a few days, the value of this practice is already apparent. How much more so will it be with consistent practice!?
TemporaryReality says
Hi Regine (and everyone else who’s joining in),
thank you so much for putting this course together. I find that I sometimes bite off more than I can chew and that a kind of “small steps” approach can be helpful in seeing me through. That said, I am neck deep in about 8 other concurrent projects and finding it hard to keep my focus and my even keel as I work through all of those – so while I don’t know if adding MOE study is a great idea right now, it’s possible that doing so can give me a center from which to balance all the rest. At the least, it’ll also give me a reason to NOT turn to the internet when I have some downtime, but to instead pick up the more wholesome and nurturing texts and practices of the MOE.
So, count me in as I practice my will-activation in service of committing to seeing this through, further than I went the first time on my own, thanks to what you’re creating here. That said, I shall head off on a blessing walk right now so I don’t procrastinate or postpone it to “oops, too late.”
Regine says
Hi TemporaryReality,
Glad to have you on board! Very smart of you to head on a Blessing Walk right away… 😉
It might indeed be that the MOE helps you create a balanced center – if nothing else, it’s some time for yourself. (Yes, I know, we’re blessings others etc etc – but it’ll do you at least as much good as it will do these others. Besides, you get to have regular walks! 😉 )
Having said that, if you should ever feel the coursework is becoming too much, my advice would be to carry on with as much of the MOE practices as you can handle at that time. You can always add more later, and finish the course in your own time. I think it’s more important to establish some good habits than to be perfect and to match up to somebody else’s (i.e. my) idea of how much you should be able to do.
(And if this should indeed be the case, please do let me know. Any feedback by you folks will help me to improve things in the future!)
Hope this helps,
Regine
TemporaryReality says
So far, so good! It’s been helpful to have the course as impetus to get my walk in every day. Thanks, too, for the reflection/meditation topics – they were, admittedly, things I’d not really thought about before.
Regine says
Hi again,
Glad to hear they’re helpful (or at least thought-provoking… 😀 ) – and glad to hear you get the walks in. Kudos for pulling through! 🙂
Regine
Darth Beavis says
So–our ancient enemies dare to show themselves…? We shall see whose magics prevail–love and light, or darkness and despair! Tremble then, before the terrible might of…
Yours faithlessly,
THE MODERN ORDER OF PHARISEES
PS. And a big welcome to our new students, who should be well into their first exercise, “The Cursing Drive.”
Regine says
lol. Well, there‘s that.
Although I‘d like to stress, just for the sake of any newcomers, that we‘re generally a very friendly and sane bunch… 😛
RL Lee says
I second that, TemporaryReality. I’ve been struggling with trying to fit in daily walks for a long time. Since starting this course, I’ve finally come to the realization I can’t fit them in, rather I have to prioritize them, otherwise it just does NOT happen for me. It’s honestly made me be more intentional about how I structure my whole day- which has its own separate benefit. Still not easy, but it feels like I’m on the right track.
Regine, I’m looking forward to Sunday!! I’ve also found the meditation topics quite helpful.
Regine says
RL, thanks for your note.
Sunday’s post is already scheduled! 😉
Seeker Tom says
Hi Regine (and everyone else),
thank you so much for this course! After years of seeking, about a month ago I have discovered John Michael Greer’s works, got all of his books in the Golden Section series (+ some of the others), and started doing the work. It felt like homecoming. I was thrilled when I found your comment offering this course on one of his posts, and I am looking forward to joining and following it along with the Way of the Golden Section!
Warm regards,
Seeker Tom
Regine says
Hi Seeker Tom,
And a heartfelt welcome to you! 🙂 I’m glad the course comes at the right time for you, then, and glad to have you on board.
For comments, please feel free to either post them to the course post you’re currently working on, or to the then-latest course post to interact with the others who are further along. Both is fine with me.
Regine
Seeker Tom says
Thank you, Regine! I think that I will comment on the posts on which I am currently working.
Some observations after the first few days. To give a bit more context, my workplace is about 20 minutes of a walk from where I live, so I do the Blessing Walk twice a day (no traffic to worry about, and not many things to drag my attention away). Similar to Paedrig, my heart also felt joyful – almost playful – during the walk and offering of the blessings. The sensations were very similar to the ones I tend to get during and after prayer (which makes perfect sense to me, if the energy in question here is also Sophianic). During my first walk, I felt a bit bad for excluding birds, cats and dogs I would see (as I sometimes walk through a park), so I started to extend my blessings to them as well, as it felt natural (I also generally don’t encounter more than 20-30 people on my way; the number is way lower than that in the evening).
These days I am blessed with more time, so I feel that I could allocate a bit more of it to the practice of MOE. Do you have any recommendations? I am already doing Sphere of Protection and Discursive Meditation for some time as a part of my daily practice.
Seeker Tom
Regine says
Thanks for the detailed report! 🙂
The cats and dogs will show up in the exercises soon anyway, and including them right away is of course perfectly fine. 😉
Hm, additional practice – good question. You‘re already doing quite a bit, and I‘m not sure how much more you should/could add before it gets too much. Throwing yet something else into the mix which moves energy around (broadly speaking) could backfire…
What you could do is pull forward the foot reflexology. It hasn‘t been covered in my lessons yet, but will be easy to find in the pdf or in JMG‘s original posts. You could easily do an extended foot massage for yourself each day and will profit greatly for the MOE overall, as it clears energetic blockages.
One other thing to consider, if you don‘t already have enough themes for discursive meditation, is to meditate on the course material. The practical units aren‘t that dense in terms of meditable content, so to speak, but should still give you a few sessions. But some of the more theoretic lesson contain a lot of material, and can be meditated on one small passage at a time. (In this case, you could skip ahead in the original material whenever you need more meditation fodder.)
And the Blessing Walk itself can be done more often, if you‘re so inclined. I think this should be safe – if you feel tired from it or if it should be getting too much, simply scale down again as much as necessary. I.e. you could throw in a few minutes at work during a break, a few minutes doing groceries, etc.
Finally, if you have time left over to invest into your occult/spiritual studies, simply reading things to broaden your horizon would also be an option.
Other than that, the practice will ramp up a bit over time, too.
Does this help? 🙂
Regine
Seeker Tom says
Thank you so much for the answer, it does help indeed. I hope I didn’t overshare in the previous post!
I am not in a rush, so if what I am doing is already a lot, I will focus on broadening my horizons and keep up this pace. 😀
Seeker Tom
Regine says
Indeed, there is no rush at all. 🙂 And nope, you didn‘t overshare. I appreciate the feedback and the shared experiences for everybody who follows along.