SL02-07 Advent and the Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth

This episode is being recorded on the 1st Sunday of Advent.  Advent is a season of anticipation, hope and light.  It is one of my favorite seasons of the liturgical calendar as it comes into place just as the days are getting noticeably shorter and the nights are getting noticeably longer.  Just as the autumn warmth of "Indian Summer" in north America starts giving in to cooler and cooler temperatures and northern winds and cold and snow. I recently read the Nag Hammadi text titled "The Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth".  A link to the gnosis.org website where the complete text can be found will be in the show summary.  I encourage you to discover it yourself.  I found it enriching to my prayer life.  I also was pleased to discover the ritual vowel phrases, like the intonements we exercise before each of our imaginal prayer exercises, fascinating.  According to scholars these ritual vowel phrases are "meditational vocalizations based on the sacred name: IAO."  The gnosis.org website goes on to explain that the text probably dates to the 2nd and 3rd century and appears to be some form of an initiation rite into a visionary journey. This episodes imaginal prayer exercise will be different than the others.  This episode will focus on listening to the text in its entirety with little "commentary" from me on breathing in and visioning.  Then, depending on how this episode goes, I will record part two of this episode by taking the prayer portion of the text and reading it in verses and pausing for our breathing and envisioning/imagining exercises. I hope you enjoy this text and the rich meditation it offers. http://gnosis.org/naghamm/discourse-meyer.html