More reading in "Seth Speaks"

I am still looking for that quotation that I thought I remembered, so I am going back through my Jane Roberts books, particularly "Seth Speaks," which is where I think it ought to be. Even though I've read this book many times, I still find large swaths of information that seems entirely "new" to me. And I realized why so many people like "Seth Speaks": it's essentially the most concise and organized compendium of "Seth-thought."

While perusing, I found an interesting tidbit regarding the Essenes (a topic that interests probably only me and a couple of other people). Seth indicates that the Essenes "had deep roots in some of the mystery religions of the Greeks." A few sentences later, Seth notes that the Essenes were "a surviving group from a larger and more ancient brotherhood." While these groups split and infiltrated different cultures, evolving along the way, they all had certain commonalities. One common feature of these groups was the use of secrecy; of having an inner core group of "secrets" that were protected by layers of lesser truths, or outright fabrications. Individuals were tested (or "tried") at progressive levels before he was allowed access to the core secrets.

Those who are familiar with Freemasonry will recognize this process immediately. Freemasonry places such a strong emphasis on secrecy, and on protecting this secrecy, that many non-Masons often go to extraordinary lengths to discover what is hidden. This, of course, raises the question: Is Freemasonry a continuation of these ancient schools, or merely a modern revival of them? While I won't divulge any of the secrets of Freemasonry, I will say that much of the secrecy of Freemasonry is symbolic rather than actual... which causes me to lean toward the notion that Freemasonry is a continuation of these ancient practices, rather than a modern re-invention of them. Why re-invent a ritual of secrecy in the mid-1700s when there were really no secrets to protect?

Which is not to say that there are no secrets being protected within modern Freemasonry; there are, thought not necessarily the ones that people think they are.