Essene, Virginia (1928-)

Contemporary channel, Virginia Essene was born Virginia Varner in Denver, Colorado, in 1928. She attended the University of Colorado, where she earned a B.A. degree in psychology and social science. After several years of being an elementary schoolteacher, she completed a master's degree at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1954. Through the 1960s and 1970s she taught at several schools (University of Oregon, San Jose State University). She continues to teach in various adult education courses on a variety of topics, but has concentrated through the 1990s on hospice work and counseling with the bereaved. She founded the Casa Serena hospice care unit in San Jose, California.

Essene is not as well known for her educational and hospice work, but for her channeling activity. In 1984, she visited Israel and, while at the Sea of Galilee, had a life-changing mystical experience, during which she experienced what she believed to be the "energies of Jesus." She began to channel messages from him that became the basis of a book, New Teachings for an Awakened Humanity (1986, rev. exp. ed. 1995). She founded the spiritual Education Endeavors Publishing Company and the Share Foundation to nurture and disseminate her channeled material. She has subsequently published Secret Truths: A Young Adults Guide for Creating Peace, Descent of the Dove (with Ann Valentin), You Are Becoming a Galagtic Human (with Sheldon Nidle), and The Hathor Material (with Tom Kenyon) (1966).

New Teachings for an Awakened Humanity espoused the idea of the "Love Corps" an alliance of people who seek inner peace and the application of such peace to the global situation. Those who associate with Essene—the SHARE Foundation and the Love Corps—dedicate themselves to a process of achieving inner peace through meditation and self-healing and in sharing that reality with others. The Love Corps work is carried out by a group of "lightworkers" who work for the foundation.

The SHARE Foundation may be contacted 1556 Halford Ave., #288, Santa Clara, CA 95051-2661. It publishes a newsletter, Love Corps. Essene was originally ordained by the Unity-in-Diversity Church and later became a priest in the theosophically oriented Church of Antioch. In 1997 she affiliated with the Madonna Ministry and information about her and her writings as well as the SHARE foundation may be found on the ministry's website.

Sources:

The Christ [through Virginia Essene]. New Teachings for an Awakened Humanity. Santa Clara, Calif.: S.E.E. Publishing, 1986. Rev. exp. Ed., 1995.

Essene, Virginia. The Earth, the Cosmos and You: Revelations by Archangel Michael. Santa Clara, Calif.: S.E.E. Publishing, 1999.

Essene, Virginia, and Tom Kenyon. The Hathor Material. Santa Clara, Calif.: S.E.E. Publishing, 1996.

Feurst, Irving, and Virgina Essene. Energy Blessing from the Stars: 7 Initiations. Santa Clara, Calif.: S.E.E. Publishing, 1998.

Madonna Ministry. http://www.madonnaministry.org/. October 15, 1999.