Anna, Grandmother of Jesus
Claire Heartsong
Copyright Laura Anne Duffy-Gipson aka Claire Heartsong 2002
Published by S.E.E. Publishing /Publishing at Smashwords
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DEDICATION
CLAIRE’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
VIRGINIA’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
CHAPTER 1: A LETTER FROM ANNA OF MOUNT CARMEL
CHAPTER 2: ANNA COMES FORTH NEAR BETHELEHEM
CHAPTER 3: THE ESSENES OF JERUSALEM AND MOUNT CARMEL
CHAPTER 4: ANNA’S INITIATIONS IN EGYPT
CHAPTER 5: ALEXANDRIA
CHAPTER 6: ANNA’S RETURN TO MOUNT CARMEL
CHAPTER 7: HISMARIAM’S ASCENSION
CHAPTER 8: ANNA REVEALS THE RESURRECTION MYSTERIES
CHAPTER 9: MATTHIAS AND JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA
CHAPTER 10: ANNA’S LIGHT CONCEPTION INITIATION
CHAPTER 11: THE MEETING OF ANNA AND JOACHIM
CHAPTER 12: ANNA AND JOACHIM’S CHILDREN
CHAPTER 13: MARY ANNA’S CONCEPTION AND BIRTH
CHAPTER 14: MARY ANNA’S CHILDHOOD
CHAPTER 15: ANNA’S VISION ON THE MOUNT
CHAPTER 16: MARY ANNA AND JOSEPH BEN JACOB
CHAPTER 17: YESHUA’S LIGHT CONCEPTION
CHAPTER 18: JOACHIM’S DEPARTURE
CHAPTER 19: YESHUA BEN JOSEPH’S BIRTH
CHAPTER 20: THE VISITATION OF THE MAGI
CHAPTER 21: EGYPTIAN SOJOURN
CHAPTER 22: RITE OF PASSAGE ON MOUNT SINAI
CHAPTER 23: THE HOMECOMING
CHAPTER 24: YESHUA’S CHILDHOOD
CHAPTER 25: MARY MAGDALENE AND MARIAM’S CHILDHOOD
CHAPTER 26: YESHUA IN BRITAIN
CHAPTER 27: YESHUA RETURNS FROM BRITAIN
CHAPTER 28: YESHUA REPORTS HIS JOURNEY TO INDIA
CHAPTER 29: YESHUA MEETS BABAJI
CHAPTER 30: JOSPEH BEN JACOB’S ASCENSION
CHAPTER 31: YESHUA’S EGYPTIAN INITIATIONS
CHAPTER 32: THE GREAT PYRAMID INITIATION
CHAPTER 33: THE WAY IS PREPARED
CHAPTER 34: YESHUA’S SAYINGS
CHAPTER 35: THE POWER OF YESHUA’S HEALING
CHAPTER 36: A MESSAGE OF HOPE
CHAPTER 37: THE STORM GATHERS
CHAPTER 38: THE LAST SUPPER
CHAPTER 39: IN GETHSEMANE
CHAPTER 40: THE SECRETS OF CALVARY
CHAPTER 41: RAISING THE IMMORTAL CHRIST BODY
CHAPTER 42: THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
CHAPTER 43: THE PASSAGE OF THE HOLY GRAIL
CHAPTER 44: AFTERWORD FROM CLAIRE
APPENDIX A: RELATIONSHIP CHART
APPENDIX B: CHRONOLOAY
APPENDIX C: GLOSSARY OF TERMS
DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to the return of the Divine Mother,
Birthing the compassionate Christ in every heart.
May all beings know freedom and union.
May all beings be at peace.
In the Oneness
I AM
Om
CLAIRE’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My eternal gratitude to the Father-Mother of my soul, who hearing my childhood cry continues to answer my prayer: “Who am I? What is my purpose here in this strange land? How do I return Home? Open me to love and wisdom!” To Anna, Yeshua, Mother Mary, and the Councils of Light, I AM yours in service to the upliftment of all life, as we continue to collaborate in Oneness. My life ever acknowledges the eternal Friend and Beloved whose company and embrace sustains me.
I wish to acknowledge my earthly mother Eileen, for bearing me forth to begin another wondrous adventure; my earthly father Harold, who now is free to guide me into greener pastures from the other side; and my brother Hal, for being here. In eternal embrace, I thank my life partners, Jim and Arthur, for your unconditional love, as our separate paths return us to the One. My beloved daughters, Susanne, Lara, Melinda, and Heidi and your mates, who know the cost of the pearl of great price, you are always in my heart. To my grandchildren, who are the light of the world, may this book guide you into your true legacy.
Heartfelt gratitude to my large spiritual family for all the championing encouragement and tangible support, which has manifested this book into the earthplane. Of these, I especially wish to acknowledge Tom Kenyon, Joan Reddish, Virginia Essene, MiraEl, and Jodi Levy. A book of this magnitude could not have taken its polished form without those who have contributed to its production: Historical research and preliminary editing – Allisone… Proof reading – Alma Rose, Scott Moore, Larry Gautreaux, Mary Grace, Beth Black, and Jack Kerlin… and Final Editing and Production – Virginia Essene, Pat Proud, Alma Scheer, and the SHARE/S.E.E. board. My thanks to Shannon at Lightbourne for the cover design, Aaron Abbasson for the maps, and to Todd Billingsley for his book design and desktop publishing.
Thank you, dear friend, for calling Anna forth in this form. May her words of love bring you comfort and her life of wisdom inspire your way! Thanks to one and all!
VIRGINIA’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It is with deep appreciation that we at the Share Foundation wish to thank every single one of our spiritual supporters who have assisted us financially through these many years of publication projects, whether specifically named here or not. You know who you are. In particular, however, we wish to thank the entire Winzenried family and the now physically departed Holly Johnson-Moreno whose constancy over the years has been heartwarming.
We also wish to thank those individuals who responded to our recent request for support of this current book and have listed your names alphabetically by first name below. Whether you gave just a few dollars or a larger amount, we hope you feel a sense of satisfaction in choosing to support this publication’s release.
As always, we wish to acknowledge Alma Scheer, our office manager, our board of directors, and those who have assisted with this book’s publication process: Lightbourne for the cover, Pat Proud for editing, and Todd Billingsley and Ron Cantoni for the book design.
May all of you be forever blessed by your willingness to serve the light in your own special way and with your own exquisite spiritual qualities!
*************
Our thanks to the following contributors: Alan Durick, Albert D. Wheeler, Jr., Alexis Ponder, Alice Jordan, Alvin Schultz, Anne Kari Dreyer, Arlyne Waller, Arthur Saldanha, Barbara Heacock, Bernadette Hodas, Bernard McGinity, M.D., Billie L. Baines, Cheryl Mason, Clark Baron, Diana Lanoff, Dora Strnad, Dorlean Rollins, Dorothy Turkowski, Elizabeth Marshall Mott, Flaucy Schwenk, Forrest Rollins, Frank Vatrano, Gregg Wills, Hazel Perkins, Helen Howard, J. Mullineux, Jack Vasoyan, Jean Burgio, Jean Edwards, John Afton, Karin Ditmarsch, Kathe Cunningham, Kathleen R. Braithwaite, Kathryn Kevany, Kele J. Dooley, Kurt Roedl, Laura Gray, Leanora Ainsworth, Lou Stevens, Margaretha Winzenried, Martha Barrow, Mary Ellis, Mary H. Lindsay, Mary Jane Adams, Mary K. and Sidney M. Awldrop, Maurice Tetrault, Melinda Stahl, Mona Mason, Morgaine Avalon, Nancy McKee and Barbara Stroaton, Neva Martin, Nourian and Kay Tetrault, Peg Fahley, Peter Simpson, Philip C. J. Shih, Phyllis Stender, Raaja Fischer, Rada Jovasevic, Richard B. Forschmidt, Richard Prevoost, Richard Ware, Risto Toukola, Russell Jackson, Ruth C. Waters, Ruth Whitaker, Sharon Ann Torell, Sheila Donley, Shirley Burns, Stefania Richter, Susan Hoop, Susan McKee, Susan Pucci Clerici, Susan Reilly, Teddy Skjoldemose, Theresa M. Laucius, Thomas Hayde, Thomas L. and Claudia J. Cooper, Velma Bosworth, Vi Bella, Walter Walchuck, and Wayne and Alice Wills.
FORWARD BY VIRGINIA ESSENE
There are those among us who serve as celestial historians and storytellers, bringing to light inner perceptions long hidden within the human psyche, as well as information that helps explain our life on Earth with its mysteries great and small. If it is higher consciousness you seek, we invite you to bring your spiritual nature and an open mind as we go journeying into non-traditional concepts that continue to influence human lives today.
Since 1986, S.E.E. Publishing Company – part of the non-profit SHARE Foundation – has brought you a wide spectrum of inspired and channeled information in book format. Now, in our 10th book, we introduce an extraordinary, powerful woman called Anna, who light-conceived her daughter, Mary, and taught her the Essene philosophies and way of life so Mary could fulfill her role as mother for the expected Messiah, Jesus.
Although readers of the Edgar Cayce materials may know something of the Essenes and Anna’s spiritual importance to Mary, her grandson Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and others, one must wonder why bibles and history books rarely mention her essential role. How is it possible that Anna has been forgotten or ignored by two major religions for so long? It is for this reason that we introduce you to Anna and a small, secretive group of Jews who deliberately created a holy community of light servers capable of supporting the divine plan known as “the greatest story ever told.”
In looking at Judaic literature for an answer, we find that it totally ignores the vital role Anna played in those profound biblical times before the birth of Jesus. Whether earlier mainstream Jews rejected the importance of the entire Essene group at large, or just Anna because she was a woman, is not known. Perhaps, like the Roman Catholic Church that eventually sainted Anna as St. Anne, they were both merely ignorant of her true role in the Holy Land events of 2,000 years ago. Unbelievably, the recent Catholic Encyclopedia dismisses Anna with the following comment. “Of the mother of our Lady nothing is certainly known: even for her name and that of husband Joachim we have to depend upon the apocryphal Protevangelium of James which, though in its earliest forms is very ancient, is not a trustworthy document.”
Although officially sainted, Anna’s importance seems greatly diluted within the Roman Catholic Church until later in the 6th century when the Emperor Justinian I dedicated a shrine to her. Then in the early 700’s, Pope Constantine is said to have introduced devotion to her in the church in Rome. Further silence about her life continues until the 14th and 15th century when her popularity seems to have brightened again. This touching appreciation of Anna is artistically expressed by world famous artist, Leonardo Da Vinci (1425-1519AD), in his drawing entitled: “The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist,” now in the National Gallery in London. In this group portrait, Anna is shown just behind her daughter Mary’s side, with Anna’s hand obviously pointing upward to a sketch of the Holy City, perhaps acknowledging her recognition of the family’s spiritual source as well as the importance of the baby Jesus and John the Baptist.
As the centuries passed and the Catholic Church’s motives became more and more unethical, certain theologians and philosophers openly accused the church and challenged their behaviors. As the Reformation movements continued their accusations, it was Frederick the Great, himself, in 1790 AD, who wrote: “Jesus really was an Essene: he was imbued with Essene ethics.” Less than a century later, as the religious questioning and fervor continued, Earnest Renan wrote a book suggesting that ”Christianity is an Essenism that has largely succeeded.”
Whatever the reasons for this scarcity of past information, we now invite you to open a new chapter in biblical history by meeting both Anna and the Essenes. It is time to acknowledge that a complex plan of assistance from celestial realms required incarnation of embodied spiritual volunteers to help anchor and fulfill the ancient prophecies of bringing a Messiah into physical life. It is our contention that Jesus’ grandmother, Anna, willingly cooperated with many celestial beings to assist in the divine event of bringing Mary, Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and others, onto planet earth. However, only by having the disciplined and devoted members of the Essene community at Mount Carmel, Israel as a receptive matrix of energy, was this possible. (see frontispiece map)**
Who were these secretive Essenes is the question? The only commentaries the early western world had about the existence of the Essenes came from classical writers such as Josephus, Philo, and Pliny the Elder. Unfortunately, although their comments are interesting, I believe these authors were describing a different Essene settlement at Qumran, not Anna’s community in Mount Carmel. Although the Essenes had their common characteristics of living as a disciplined spiritual, agricultural community of ascetic, reclusive, pacifist individuals, divorced from the mainstream of social, political, and Judaic religious practice, there were major differences as well as commonalities.
The Mount Carmel Essenes were said to maintain a strict, ritual purity, to share their possessions in common, to work hard and keep no slaves. They did not seek pleasure and wealth and they elected their own leaders from among themselves. Because they had strict dietary and health habits, refused to offer animal sacrifices as other Jews did, and used a solar not a lunar calendar, they were considered very odd by their contemporaries. It was reputed that some of the Essenes could even foretell the future.
What these early writers failed to realize was that there were several Essene communities and that it was the members of a small mystical group at Mount Carmel who were intensely devoted and involved in bringing a Messiah to planet Earth. None of the writers apparently realized that the wisdom Anna shared with her daughter, Mary, and later with her grandson, Jesus, were profound spiritual teachings and initiations whose influence would help formulate later Christian belief.
Within the pages of this book, you will come to know Anna in her role as head mistress of the Essene spiritual community at Mount Carmel, the secret enclave of the School of the Prophets, which allowed her to share her celestial knowledge with all those entrusted to her tutelage. An extraordinary woman, able to extend her physical life for 500+ years, Anna reveals the intimacy of the Essene community and their personal relationships against the backdrop of the Roman occupation of the holy lands. You will discover her unusual abilities and responsibilities including the light conception and birth of Mary, and Mary’s own light conception, birth and upbringing of Jesus. This panorama explaining what the Essenes had to do for Jesus, Mary Magdalene and a host of other well-known disciples and helpmates of the Christ drama, emphasizes their essential role in assisting Jesus fulfill his part as the Messiah.
We see how Jesus’ resurrection allowed the formation of a church that deified Jesus as a savior – not as an Essene teacher and healer who taught each person to express their own inner Christ. Thus the growth of Christianity as both a theology and an organizational entity began and Essenism was set aside.
It is interesting that until 1928 there was little information describing the Essene teachings for the contemporary public to read. Then a dedicated linguist and researcher named Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, PhD, was able to find and translate a startling third century Aramaic manuscript and Old Slavonic text. This material contained extensive information about an unusual spiritual group called the Essenes, focusing on their profound dedication to the health and healing practices as epitomized by Jesus. For 50 years Dr. Szekely continued his life work of translating and publishing these actual Essene writings, in 26 different languages, mostly in small inexpensive booklets. His work brought the Essene beliefs into greater world attention and he was able to co-found an international Essene organization with 20th Century mystic and Nobel Prize winner, Romain Rolland.
Even so, no particular mention was made of Anna and her daughter Mary in Dr. Szekely’s writings. Rather, it was the focus on Jesus’ teachings and healing practices contained in the Essene gospels that would now capture public attention. In one of his books, The Gospel of the Essenes, he related the following Prologue to the Essene Worship.
“When God saw that his people would perish because they did not see the Light of Life, He chose the best of Israel so that they might make the Light of Life to shine before the sons of men. And those chosen were called Essenes because they taught the ignorant, healed the sick, and gathered on the eve of every seventh day to rejoice with the Angels.”
It was not until the 1930’s and 40’s in America, however, that the first fascinating description of the Essene community at Mount Carmel was revealed. Through his self-induced trance-like states, psychic Edgar Cayce discussed both Anna and the Essenes among his 14,000 “readings.” He described the Essenes as members of a small spiritual Jewish sect that began a hundred years before Jesus’ birth in the 2nd Century BC and continued some 68 years after the crucifixion of Jesus and the destruction of the Jewish temple. Cayce’s readings about the Essenes confirmed there was a definite connection between Jesus’ family and friends and the Essene communities.
After defining the term Essene as “expectancy,” Cayce clarified that divisions had arisen among the Jews into various sects such as the Pharisee and the Sadducees, and also to a small group called Essenes. This latter group represented those Jews who cherished individuals who had been visited by the supernatural or who had unusual experiences in their dreams, visions, or inner voices. Cayce reported that these designated Essenes were an outgrowth of the teachings of Melchizedek, as propagated by Elijah, Elisha, and Samuel, and that they consequently offered themselves as channels to receive spiritual information of divine origin. They joined together in a community of love and devotion, living a holy life of performing good deeds, honoring women equal with men. Above all, the Essenes believed in a divine plan for human evolution and deliberately prepared themselves to be worthy of hosting a Messiah into the world.
Mr. Cayce specifically mentions Anna as being in the Promised Land in the days preceding and just following the entrance of the Prince of Peace into the physical world. He describes her as being a seeress and prophetess among an organization that could interpret time and place according to the stars and could calculate numerological effects upon physical life. She was apparently highly regarded among the Essenes, and initiated innumerable people, including the 12 maidens whose purity was high enough to receive the light conception energies needed to conceive the Messiah. Anna, herself, birthed Mary via the light conception process and also helped Mary do the same. In this way, and many others, she was a holy woman actively involved in the preparation of the Messiah’s arrival.
It is fascinating that part of what Mr. Cayce’s readings described would actually be physically discovered in Israel in 1947. Indeed, because of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Quamran, Israel, archeologists have uncovered a female skeleton there, just as Cayce’s reading said they would. This scientific evidence corroborated Cayce’s remarks that there really were Essenes and that women were part of the community, even at Quamran.
It has taken nearly 2,000 years to find the Dead Sea Scroll evidence proving that the Essenes really existed and that they played a dramatic role in human history. Like voices from the past, this 800 piece archeological discovery in modern day Israel proves there were Essenes living in community at Qumran.
You may have heard or read about the Dead Sea Scrolls that are now considered the oldest biblical evidence in existence. If not, I recommend them as proof that the Essenes existed. However, they are primarily focused on the community at Qumran and do not necessarily identify the work of the Mount Carmel community. Among the treasure trove discovered in the jars found in the first explored cave near the former Qumran community, there were seven nearly intact scrolls ready to translate. One of these was an entirely readable scroll containing the Old Testament scripture of the book of Isaiah that predated the earliest Jewish example of that same biblical source! So there was great excitement and fear among theologians and historians as to what this would mean to our present religious understandings. (When I visited Jerusalem in 1984 a handsome building called the Shrine of the Book had been built to keep the scrolls safe and to display the wonderful ancient Isaiah manuscript behind humidified glass in one continuous roll all around the circular room. It was thrilling to see a piece of such ancient writing even though I couldn’t read the words.)
The curious part of this extraordinary find is that it has been a continuing and laborious translation process by many professionals of different nations and religions. Both the secrecy of the scrolls’ content and the lengthy process of translating the materials have caused scholarly outrage, accusations and arguments worldwide, colored by competitive and often uncooperative attitudes among those involved. Nonetheless, today the public can finally read some of the translations of what the Essenes scribed those 2000 years ago including actual contents of some gospels contained in the scrolls. Regrettably, the scrolls were not individually signed by their scribes, neither was the location or date of their work given. So many mysteries still remain. For anyone interested, however, a profusion of information is available on this topic in books, in countless articles and in over 19,000 web site listings about the Dead Sea Scrolls!
In spite of all this information I am saddened to say that nowhere in the Dead Sea Scrolls research have I seen mention of Jesus’ grandmother, Anna, and very little about his mother, Mary. This suggests to me that the truth about the esoteric Essenes and Anna, who helped bring forth the Messiah, remains hidden in the earlier School of the Prophets community at Mount Carmel. Perhaps through other inspired authors, including information contained in this volume, or from a still hidden archeological find at Mount Carmel’s physical site, we may finally know and appreciate what has gone before. In the meantime, the implications and meaning of the Essene topic invites us, these two thousand years later, to interpret their historical and religious value, as always, by our own individual opinion, perception and conclusion.
It is our hope in presenting this book about Anna and the Essenes that you may find something inspiring that raises your consciousness and gives you courage and commitment to fulfill the particular soul purposes you wish to complete. If the material we share gives you new insight and increased willingness to be the finest spiritual human you can be, then we rest content.
In departing, I would like to leave you with one short commentary from an actual scroll fragment taken from the Essene Book of Revelation.
“I have reached the inner vision
And through thy spirit in me
I have heard thy wondrous secret.
Through thy mystic insight
Thou hast caused a spring of knowledge
To well up within me,
A fountain of power, pouring forth living waters:
A flood of love and of all-embracing wisdom
Like the splendor of Eternal Light.”
― CHAPTER 1―
A LETTER FROM ANNA OF MOUNT CARMEL
My dear friend,
I bring you greetings of love and peace this day. I am Anna, also known as the mother of Mary and the grandmother of Jesus. The fact that you are reading this letter, as an introduction to my story, is something of a miracle. For I send this message to you across great spans of time and space. And yet, I am here, closer than you might think.
I extend to you a personal invitation to come and embark on a journey with me that will follow the hidden initiatory path that my family and I walked 2,000 years ago. Our meeting and travels together will be accomplished through your imagination as you read the pages upon which I reveal myself. The only difference between my path and yours today, is that your present daily life is the temple and mystery school, and you are your own master teacher and guru. Then, when you come together in masterful equality, the power of your individual influence can be amplified through beneficent group intention.
I offer you my version of a complex, compelling, and life-transforming story, among many, that presents Jesus, the human, and Jesus, the Christ. Along the circuitous path that leads us to meet with the Christ “face to face,” much will be revealed about the ancient Essene initiations that I mastered. These same initiations I facilitated for Mother Mary, Yeshua ben Joseph (Jesus), Mary Magdalene, and others adepts who embodied and exemplified the Christ or the “Way of the Teacher of Righteousness,” (the way of rightful use of energy). I gave these wisdom and high alchemy teachings (internal energy practices) to many, and now I pass the secrets of physical and spiritual immortality, resurrection, and other mysteries on to you. This I do because, you, my dear friend, have asked for freedom and empowerment. You are well prepared to use these gifts for the benefit of all as we move through a perilous passage during Earth’s birth changes.
I realize that times of irreversible change, such as you are encountering now in your world, can be harrowing to entrenched beliefs and dogmatic protocol that have previously pointed the way to God and how to relate to “Him.” I am available to meet you wherever you are. Then, together we will travel to a meeting place where the known and unknown court one another and begin to merge. This mystical courtship of consciousness is a mysterious walk between the worlds. It is the rendezvous point where the intuitive, unconditionally loving Divine Feminine is found. In Her embrace all polarities meet, heal into wholeness, and become empowered, balanced and harmonious expressions of love.
You may find that traveling with me involves becoming something of a metaphysical sleuth: digging, probing, exposing, examining, and offering up the old cosmological Creator/Creation and savior/victim/tyrant paradigms to a clearer light. Understand, my friend, my purpose in bringing greater clarity to the path that the Christ initiate takes is not to contend or to prove that I know the truth about “what really happened” 2,000 years ago, nor is it my intention to make another’s viewpoint wrong.
With much soul searching, I look out upon great vistas of the Earth’s historical landscape. I see a wilderness riddled with endless rounds of suffering and littered with tattered, dramatic scripts. As I feel humanity’s heartache, I ask these poignant questions: Are we finished with our gathering of wisdom through duality? Have we had enough repetitions of our favorite melodramatic roles? Can we embrace both polarities as equally divine and know that God-Goddess expresses in all forms? Can we be content to simply rest in love, having known love’s opposite?
I give you my experiences in the context of the old, esoteric (hidden) paradigm of 2,000 years ago. As we proceed together, I invite you to examine, question, and restructure all that I share with you in such a way that you feel acknowledged, empowered, and supported as you pass through the sometimes arduous Christ initiations that are occurring in your life, even as we speak.
How do we go about restructuring paradigms that no longer serve us? First of all, an understanding of old belief structures, such as the one I present in my story, is required. Next, the vision of a new harmonious form of true individual and global empowerment is called forth and allowed to manifest. As these old and new paradigm lenses merge, important questions arise. What eternal principles empower life’s greatest potential and provide a sense of continuity and stability during a time of great transition and change? Are there perspectives within the old way of relating to Creator and Creation that enhance our collectively chosen vision, and what tenets of the past clearly do not work and must be discarded?
Allowing these questions to be our signposts, I invite us to have the courage to be simple, open-minded, optimistic, appreciative, and childlike adventurers. As we visit a broad spectrum of venues, topics, and perspectives, I would rather that we keep questioning as we go along, instead of taking positions that defend answers. Have we not had enough “holy” wars fought over “right answers?”
I invite you to join me in a most timely exploration of these pivotal questions, trusting that the answers are already present, simply awaiting unveiling. I offer my story as a threshing board for winnowing the wheat of eternal wisdom and releasing useless, encumbering chaff. I hold up a mirror to you so that you may behold yourself in greater clarity, knowing that you are the answer to your mind’s most perplexing questions and the fulfillment of your heart’s deepest longing.
Please note that I address you as “my friend” instead of “my child,” because now is a time of empowerment, in which you and planet Earth are passing through a Rite of Passage and are coming of age. While I have played a maternal role for eons in the affairs of humanity, I desire that we meet this day as peers and friends. You have matured sufficiently so that childish temper tantrums and adolescent power games no longer hold your interest. While I gladly offer you my unconditional maternal love, comfort, and example, it is time to be your own Messiah.
We have heard each other’s request to meet. And so it is that I will come to your abode where we will embark on our journey without distance. Its location does not matter; whether in a secluded mountain hermitage, austere desert cave, monastery, sophisticated urban apartment, city ghetto, prison, or sprawling suburban estate, as long as you meet me in your feelings of the present moment. Likewise, my appearance is of little importance. Any caring, strengthening image you may have of me can serve as a sense of initial connection. I assure you, you will recognize me when you see me across the threshold of your open door. My preference is that you might eventually come to know me as I AM, beyond all images that would distance me from you in a hierarchical manner, or that might perpetuate our old dysfunctional relationships.
Remember this, my friend, it is not my story’s cast of characters that is important. It matters little that you know who I have been, even though I have served as an emissary of the celestial realms involved in the original creation of this planet, and my incarnations representing the Divine Mother have been numerous. I would have you know that my journey with you and this beloved jewel of the heavens – Earth – has bequeathed me with great treasures of compassion and wisdom. Neither is my version of the Christ story important, nor is any contending to prove it right or wrong. What is infinitely more important is the life transforming and enhancing energy of love that is carried within and beyond my words.
Although I have made my ascension, I have freely chosen to return into the earthplane from time to time so that I can continue to participate in Earth’s evolution. My profound love for every particle and expression of life moves me to remain close. I have returned at this time so that I might take this long awaited and most extraordinary journey with you. This I do, not as a sacrifice, but because I deeply know that my complete Union in God is inseparable from yours and that of Mother Earth’s. It is reward enough to know that my words have catalyzed your memory of us walking this way before, dreaming our vision of a New Earth, and that our love has brought us together again. We can be comforted in knowing that all our adventures, both past and future, have prepared us for this consummating finale we promised to celebrate.
I gladly serve you as a paradigm shifter, life-coach, mid-wife, and as a very accessible friend. I accompany you side by side on the path that leads to the knowing that you are the beloved Christ you seek. I offer you my hand in full fellowship so that we can remember the enduring thread of light that is the path that weaves all life together into a seamless, ever-changing, impeccable tapestry that reveals Mother-Father God’s infinite love and grace. Regardless of its name, that eternal light reveals your destination to be closer than any limiting thought you may think. You, my eternal friend, are the Path, the Light, and the Way.
Let the door to your Christ heart be open. Enter in and “Know Thy Self!”
Enjoy your homecoming journey of remembrance.
Anna
― CHAPTER 2―
ANNA COMES FORTH NEAR BETHLEHEM
Ah, my beloved friend, we are together at last, just as I promised before you took this incarnation. You see it is destiny and a deeply resounding resonance that draws us to be together this hour. You are coded in your DNA to hear my Call. In truth, it is your own Self who is calling you Home, not me, although your Self is also who I AM. You thought you would never find me, and I wondered when you would invite me in. But, joyfully, we are here together. You are sufficiently prepared for our journey. Fear not, you have everything required to move gracefully along the way.
As we begin our journey, I will tell you, and remind you often, to breathe, relax, and open your heart. With the turning of the pages, you may move more deeply into a greater awareness of your self. There may be a sense that your experience of present and past time is blending and merging. With this shift in your perception, it is possible that your imagination will use my words to actively evoke emotions of all kinds. I recommend that you breathe, open your mind and heart, and become receptive to your internal experience as my words move upon your soul. If you are resisting your feelings that may come with the words, images, and remembrances, there could be some discomfort. My story, in a sense, is the Journey Perilous taken by the Grail Knights. Remember this, my friend: you determine the timing and the pace of our mutual adventure.
One of the requirements I ask of you, as I suggested in my letter, is to be willing to let go of any preconceived notions you may have of me or of the characters represented in my story. First of all, I suggest that you remove me from any pedestal that you might have placed me on, as St. Anne. I do not consider myself a saint. That exalted station distances me from you. I am here. I am your friend.
Secondly, allow the possibility that I lived far longer than you have ever likely considered possible. To those I knew intimately, I revealed myself as an immortal who maintained a physical body, (albeit with some changes) for over six hundred years. I tell you this, at the outset, so that you can relax into my unfolding story, as it becomes increasingly complex.
The third requirement I ask of you to understand is that I was not above human discord. I felt and came to understand the extreme polarities of the human condition and human emotion because I chose to experience life’s full spectrum. I immersed myself into the physical plane, as does any soul who desires to attain self-mastery. There were times of exquisite beauty and ecstasy. There was also severe tribulation and heartbreak. In truth, beloved, my physical life was little different than yours, except that my long years in the same body was something you have not yet experienced. I share this with you so that you may come to know that you can also accomplish all that I did, and even more.
Anna continues.
(For purposes of simplification, the commonly used Gregorian calendar will be used for dates instead of the Hebrew calendar.)
It was in December of the year 612 BC, that a child had been born in the village of Etam, just three miles south of Bethlehem, in Judea. A descendant of the tribes of Judah, Levi, and Joseph, this child was named Hannah, after the mother of Samuel the Prophet. Her birth took place about 358 years after the reign of David the King and some 110 years after the Kingdom of Israel had been conquered and carried away into captivity by the Assyrians.
Hannah was the physical aspect of my multi-dimensional soul who prepared the body through which I, Anna, chose to reenter the drama of Earth on the twenty-third day of May in the year 596 BC. And a sore drama it was; for Babylon was now coming forth to rule the hearts of men and women who had forgotten their innocence before the Lord.
In 597 BC, while I still abided in the light realms shortly before I requested permission from the Councils of Light for my return to Earth, the Babylonian soldiers of King Nebuchadnezzar swept through Etam. They laid siege to Jerusalem for the second time, and carried away thousands of hostages into captivity. It was in May of the following year during a “near death experience” that Hannah and I voluntarily exchanged places through a process of blending and merging, which I will now briefly explain.
You may well ask, “Why would an adept such as I choose to come into a challenging circumstance like Hannah’s?” While you may perceive tribulations as unpleasant, even dangerous, the opportunity for expansion and empowerment of consciousness is greatly enhanced. Please allow me to explain this “easier said than done” answer more fully. Consider the possibility that an over-soul level exists, where many aspects of consciousness focus collectively. Here, a much broader perspective offers the possibility of assessing many different time-lines, realities, and dimensions. Within this holographic realm of consciousness there is an awareness of simultaneous, interactive experiences functioning together with every possible cause and effect.
From such a place it is easy to view the potentials that will facilitate the greatest growth and evolution for the interconnected wholeness of life. Although the painful growth experiences of human life may seem unbearable on a personal level, the end result fulfills a benevolent Creator’s desire for ever-expanding personal growth. As you are learning, the ultimate purpose of life is to know itself as love. Rather than feeling hopeless and powerless, you can choose to realign with your soul’s original intention and recreate your present challenges into a more harmonious and joyful design. In the more coherent and refined realms of consciousness, the highest possible outcome is always chosen. An impeccable “blueprint” is securely held in place within the blissful realms of sound and light. In every moment, there is an opportunity to remember your soul’s empowered design and to receive guidance from a more inspired choice.
So it was with my experience as Hannah. As all factors, including genetic potentials, were considered from the over-soul perspective, a choice was made to project an aspect into the earthplane. You might think of this aspect, the personality called Hannah, as a facet of the “Anna over-soul,” or group soul collective consciousness, immersed in the illusion of separation. Hannah’s limited point-of-view veiled her awareness of having made a choice to incarnate, as well as her true relationship to her “Anna over-soul.” Nevertheless, the connection was always there. Also the potential for consciously co-creating the highest outcome or destiny through her free-will choices was available to Hannah.
You have heard stories of individuals who died, “went into the light”, and upon regaining consciousness, had a greater awareness and faith in their Creator Source. Such ones often return with many more abilities, even miraculous powers, than they had before they died. So it was with Hannah as I came forth. When she was “out of body,” Hannah awakened and remembered her pre-incarnation choices. These choices were: prepare a physical body that could hold specific DNA coding, live in a precise geographical location and time period, and have experiences that would provide a strong foundation for self-mastery. All of these choices would fulfill an even greater purpose at the appropriate timing. Just as we had agreed, at the precise moment of her awakening, even though she seemed to be dying, there was a powerful “downloading” and merging of Hannah’s human consciousness with the “Anna over-soul” consciousness.
Understanding Hannah’s relationship to her over-soul could assist you to make a deliberate connection with your own over-soul or higher self through meditation and other methods for enhancing consciousness. With this preliminary explanation about why Hannah and I, her “higher self” called Anna, “exchanged” places, let us return to my story.
I now found myself in Hannah’s body, disoriented and near unto death from the wounds and infections which occurred during childbirth. There happened to be an old seeress, named Naomi, who heard the mewing cries of my newborn while giving oxen, camels, donkeys, and goats their ration of water and feed. These were corralled in pens and caves behind the wayside inn where her son-in-law presided over guests. She ran for the help of a midwife who lived nearby, and together they quietly and gently washed and restored my infant and me to health.
Naomi then took me into her humble abode next to the inn, where I remained until my child could walk. She asked after me, “Who was I? What had befallen me that I would choose to be alone without adequate shelter for the bringing forth of my labors in childbirth?” I was hard pressed to remember right away. For many days I was delirious, and the suckling of my child the only thing I knew how to do. I was young of body as I looked upon my form – perhaps sixteen, at the most.
With patient understanding, Naomi nursed my mind and body. She knew the human psyche, could read my palms and face, could look into the past and future, and could commune with my soul across time and space. Thus, this dear one read my Book of Life, and though she did not “Know” as one who is an adept, her intuition was highly developed. Over the following weeks, she and I began to solve the mystery of why I had chosen to be alone within a stable cave to bring forth my child.
Over the next few months I, Anna of the higher realms of light, and the embodiment of Hannah merged as one. As I grounded into the simple tasks of caring for my baby daughter and assisting Naomi with the affairs of her hearth, my memory slowly returned. I recovered quickly, once I got my bearings, for indeed, the energies I brought were of a much higher dimension. Naomi and I gradually pieced together the story of Hannah and how she had come to be with child. And I was then able to heal the wounds that tore at her heart and soul. Briefly now, I will tell you the story, though upon the details I shall not linger.
Several weeks before her scheduled wedding, Hannah and her childhood sweetheart, Tomas, came together in the heat of their youthful passion, and Hannah conceived in her womb. They held secret their tryst. However, before a marriage ceremony could take place, Tomas was captured and carried away. Soldiers of Babylon poured into the villages, taking women and children hostage. Many men lost their lives trying to protect home and family. Those who resisted were brutally killed. The remainder was taken into captivity. The blood and carnage that spilled upon the ground were raw and devastating.
Hannah was attending to the care of her two younger brothers while her parents were away gathering food and water. The soldiers found her and her brothers lying huddled beneath their parents' bed. They tore the two boys from her arms and killed them mercilessly, while forcing Hannah to watch. Something in her mind gave way; Hannah would never be the same. Then, after taking their pleasure at the expense of her body and soul, they laid her aside, bruised, unconscious, and wasted. She lay on the muddy street while they set her childhood home on fire. Thinking her dead from a blow to her head, they walked away.
At that point, Hannah was lifted up into the celestial realms, where she met her over-soul who told her that her body could now serve as a vehicle through which miracles would occur to lift Israel from its dark night. So she and I, who were aspects of the same over-soul, communed, and she agreed to allow that higher dimensional aspect of her soul, that I am, to come into her physical form at a later date.
Thus it was, in those days of the second Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, that I inherited the lot of Hannah, who was orphaned, widowed, stripped of all worldly possessions, and left behind by the Babylonians as one who was dead. Returning to consciousness, Hannah suddenly found herself in the position of an outcast, the poorest of the poor, even though she had been born into the royal lineage and House of David. Her mind was besieged by demons. Most of those who would have sheltered her had been carried away, and those relatives of a higher class who remained in Etam scorned her as one defiled, justifying their indifference by the Law of Moses. Thus, wandering in the wilderness of her soul’s dark night, Hannah carried Tomas’ secret child until the appointed hour, when her purpose for being would be fulfilled.
During the remaining months of her pregnancy, we continued to commune and merge in the higher dimensions. As the babe grew within Hannah’s womb, the young mother received comfort and increasing self-awareness from her over-soul’s deep caring. When her labor began, I, Anna, incarnated fully into Hannah’s embodiment through the crown. I entered into the body just as the child came forth.
I named my little one Aurianna. A golden gift of light from the Great Mother was she. Her little face shone with the brilliance of the sun, and her large brown eyes held the twinkle of starry reflected seas. Her personality was almost always serene and calming. Aurianna’s presence was a blessing through all the days she lived near me. During the thirteen years after her birth, I walked from place to place within the villages of Etam and Bethlehem, offering myself to households to be hired and taken in. There were many families that required ones such as I who knew something of midwifery, medicinal herbs, the care of small children, and how to create a peaceful sanctuary within an orderly home.
During the thirteen years Aurianna and I lived within the vicinity of Bethlehem, I met with several wise teachers who were able to recognize my unusually high energy. Some knew me better than I knew myself at the beginning of my reentry into the earthplane. For it requires a period of time to make the necessary attunements, adjustments of mind and body, and transmutations of karmic patterns within cellular memory, before the higher consciousness can fully be present in awareness. This is also true for every soul who comes through the birth canal. And for the few who “walk in,” as I did, it is no different, except that the body is already fully developed and there are fewer veils.
I would have you know that my teachers were among an ancient order that lived in secluded hermitages secreted away in the hills and among the populace of towns and cities. These obscure mystics recognized one another even though they usually appeared as quite ordinary to the uninitiated. It took several years of probationary effort on my part and the patient understanding of my mentors to lift the veils of forgetfulness I had inherited so that I could remember more fully why I had come again.
― CHAPTER 3―
THE ESSENES OF JERUSALEM AND MOUNT CARMEL
As the years passed and I entered fully into my human journey, I experienced much testing of my soul, during which I occasionally faltered. My steady progress prompted my wise teachers to pass me on to a mystic who resided within the walled city of Jerusalem. My new teacher's name was John. That name will do for now, though in time I knew him by another. He took my now thirteen-year-old daughter and me under his protective wing. His jovial and devoted wife, Hannah Elizabeth, made space for us in a small storage room located on the roof of their stone dwelling. To be in the clamor of Jerusalem was something of a rude awakening, yet I relished the opportunity to go deeper into the mysteries of my soul, to awaken, remember, and fulfill my part.
What had once been a proud city was now a broken city, its former glory but a fading memory. Having ignored the repeated warnings of Jeremiah the Prophet, Jerusalem had been devastated by the Babylonian soldiers of Nebuchadnezzar during the course of three successive sieges.
The suffering which our people had experienced during those twenty years from 605 to 585 BC is beyond description. Many had died. Many more were taken into captivity. Others had fled for their lives. Only the poor remained. Such was the situation in Jerusalem when Jeremiah the Prophet wrote his Book of Lamentations. And such was still the situation in Jerusalem when I arrived on the scene in 583 BC.
Now, it was twenty-four years that I remained in Jerusalem. I thrived within the city, even though there was much unrest and violence from time to time. The Temple lay in ruins, and the streets strained with the return of those who had fled. Yet, I learned how to remain calm and centered within my being, regardless of what my senses perceived was occurring on the outer screen.
John was a stone mason by trade and also a scribe/reader of the Temple library. He was esteemed by most of his peers with whom he worked because he had a way of smoothing the feathers among the many discordant factions of Jews and Gentiles. John was, for the most part, a very gentle and unassuming individual, devoted to God. He could also be unbending about certain principles of the Law, as he understood the ancient writings, which he shared with the priests and young men who came for schooling and training to become rabbis. He reminded me in some ways of my father, and thus a need was fulfilled by his attention and care of Aurianna and me.
John worked upon the restoration of the Temple library that had been destroyed by the Babylonian conquerors, whose continuing presence was felt as a bed of thorns. He always seemed to have boundless energy, sleeping little, and rarely was he heavy with fatigue. I desired to know his secret. As if knowing my readiness, John began to appear in my dreams. These dreams felt as real as my waking life. He would take my arm and lead me through doors and passages into great halls of learning, where there were white robed beings of such light filled countenances that at first it was difficult to comprehend their human features. How wondrous were these encounters! How thankful I was to be with such a master teacher! How grateful I was for the wise ones who first directed my path to Jerusalem.
As the weeks and months went by in this manner, I, too began to experience that I required little sleep. I would awaken after just a few hours of sound rest. Sitting upright upon my pallet, I felt fully enlivened, my heart beating strongly my soul's ancient rhythms. I would meditate on the light and sound current charging every cell, and soon John would etherically appear and escort me to one of the many Halls of Records. Sometimes before I met John, I experienced myself floating up and looking down on my body lying asleep or sitting in meditation. I noticed an elastic-like silver cord attaching me to my body. I was free to go anywhere! You would call my “out of body” experiences astral travel.
In the Hall of Records John would open scrolls and begin to teach me how to decipher the symbols and languages. Thus, my etheric training as a scribe had begun in earnest. My daily chores of helping Hannah Elizabeth with her busy household seemed to pass easily, my meditation upon highly refined and subtle light and sound currents sustained my strength of body. I found little time for socializing. That was all right as far as I was concerned. My desire was for the greater wisdom that was opening up to me.
Although there were not many women in my outer life with whom I could share my most intimate thoughts, there were, within the inner retreats, many females whom I came to love. I relished their companionship, even though uninitiated eyes could not see my companions. Some of these I will introduce to you as we continue our walk together, for they are key characters in our unfolding story.
Few women that I came across in the marketplace or synagogue had access to the learning I was receiving from the Great Ones. While remaining closely tied to their hearths, the lives of most women seemed to be invested in acquiring social graces and status. Frankly, I found their gossip and mundane interests boring and tedious. Even Hannah Elizabeth, though a most caring and gentle soul, could not meet me where I yearned to go.
In those first years, I only found two women in all of Jerusalem who carried the same vibrational resonance and desire for the hidden wisdom teachings. With these sisters of the immortal soul, a pact was made to support each other in all manners, as our circumstances would allow. These two courageous women, Ruth and Mariamne, would grace my life through many years. Fortunately, the number of such women increased, as souls beyond the veil came forth in flesh to play their sacred parts with me.
At the age of sixteen, Aurianna married a man called James, and right away was pregnant with my first grandchild. I, of course, was thrilled by the opportunity to prepare her for giving birth. I had mastered midwifery, having been taught by my mother at a very young age, during the births of my younger brothers. She had taken me with her to attend other women when their hour came. Because of my disposition, which was naturally maternal, I enjoyed the gathering of wisdom that made the passage of the soul into newborn flesh one of love and welcoming.
I assisted the labor through certain sounds or combinations of sounds that would flow from my lips while massaging the mother's great belly, heaving with contractions. Watching the energies with clairvoyant vision, how the colors and thought forms would shift with her breath, I advised the mother in breathing and sounding the names of the One God. I also called forth the angels to be present throughout her labor. I had also learned the way of herbs for relieving pain, infection, swelling, and the bringing in of the milk. In Jerusalem, my two friends and I kept gardens for such medicinal purposes. We also walked out into the fields and pasturelands during the appropriate seasons to gather and replenish our herbal supplies.
So it was that I delivered the first of my many grandchildren. To Aurianna would be born eight children altogether. Because of my calming presence, midwifery skills, and herbal knowledge, both the poor and the wealthy sought after me. Welcoming the souls who would take part in Earth's drama warmed my heart. Thus I was engaged in my outer life. And together with the learning in the night from the secret masters of the Brother-Sisterhood of Light, my days were full to overflowing.
Now that I had a means of livelihood, I took residence in an upper room near the home of Aurianna and James in the Valley Kidron near the old city of David. What a delight to be close to my grandchildren as they grew over the years. For those who showed promise and the desire for esoteric learning, I created a school where they could learn at my knee. Quick they were to learn, and later they followed me to the sands of Egypt. Those whose interest lay in other walks of life came and gathered around me to be entertained and to gain some preparation for life's many lessons. All of my grandchildren enjoyed my stories and our walks within the beauty of Nature's halls of wisdom.
By this time, John had become fully established within the library of the Temple, and his stone masonry no longer took up as much of his attention. When possible, he would bring me into rooms hidden away, where he and a group of master masons, who belonged to a secret order, had access to subterranean passageways which led to ancient catacombs and archives. Not often in the physical did I go into the vaults, yet enough to establish in my mind and heart a knowing that I would do whatever was necessary to learn how to read the ancient texts and share the hidden knowledge. Strong was my desire to bring the fountain of enlightenment to each one who chose to quench their thirsty soul.
Many years before I met him, John had joined a sect of Judaism called the Essenes. These, the most enlightened and uncorrupted of Judaic Hebrews, traced their origins back to the ancient mystery schools of Moses and Akhenaten and beyond. Derived from the root words “esse” (being) and “ene” (source), Essene means “Source of Being” or “Holy One.” We addressed one another as Son or Daughter of Sun. As those who kept the way of healing we were also known. Every Sabbath and high day, members of the Essene Brotherhood would come to John’s household to pray, read, and discuss matters of spirit. Hannah Elizabeth graciously attended to feeding us and then would retire to the hearth to mend, embroider, or rock a child. She would tune in when there was a topic of interest; otherwise, she felt her place was to provide a household of order and serenity.
Our communions were rich and full, providing me with a family in the outer world who took on the luminescence that I witnessed in the inner planes. Of this community, my two women friends, Mariamne and Ruth, were also faithful disciples. So began my walk with the Faithful, the Chosen, or the Elect as some called themselves within the Essene Brother-Sisterhood. I continued in the fellowship of the Essenes throughout the remainder of my long days.