01:15 Introduction
   
Gene: In this episode, we begin our discussion of the Trimorphic Protennoia, Three Forms of the First Thought.
   
Gene: Hello Dave.
   
David: Hello Gene. Are you ready for something completely different?
   
Gene: Ooh yeah!
   
David: OK. It sounds like you're ready.  I may need another cup of coffee! But anyway, before we get started, I want to remind everyone that Show Notes, Chapter Markers, and Transcripts for all of our episodes are available on our website - [WayOfTheHermit.com](http://wayofthehermit.com/). In our last episode, we completed our 5-part discussion of the “Gospel of Thomas.” In this episode, we begin our study of another Gnostic text from the Nag Hammadi collection, the “Trimorphic Protennoia.’
   
Gene: And, I’m going to state the obvious - that’s not a catchy title! But, to break that down - in Greek, “tri” means “three” and “morphic” means “forms” - so “trimorphic,” means “three forms.” And then “proto” means “first” and “ennoia” is “thought” - so together, it means - “three forms of the first thought.”
   
David: Which is not a catchy title either.
   
Gene: True. We’ve gone from the “Gospel of Thomas,” which many people have heard of, to this one, which… to be honest, I had never heard of before we started doing these studies on the Nag Hammadi texts.
   
02:27 Review
   
David: Me either, but it really is the next logical step in the study that we're doing. It's part of the "Sethian Descent Cycle," as identified by John D. Turner, who classified Gnostic texts that describe the descent of the soul, and the texts that describe the return journey… and this text, takes us all the way to the bottom.
   
Gene: I mean, we didn’t know it at the time, but we’ve already been following that scheme. We started with the “Secret Gospel of John,” which is like the cosmic myth of the descent from the One, the Monad, through the three worlds. It ended with with the “divine spark,” the pattern of wholeness being activated by the Epinoia, which awakens the “true voice” within. And then in the “Gospel of Thomas,” that voice, called there, the voice of Jesus… spoke - teaching the hidden or esoteric doctrines, with short sayings and stories.
   
David: Which leads us now, to the “Trimorphic Protennoia,” which explains what lies behind or beneath that inner voice… and really all voices, inner or outer.
   
Gene: Yeah.
   
David: It’s an exploration of the nature of consciousness, and mystery of where our thoughts and words come from.
   
Gene: You know, the name of the text may not be catchy, but it describes exactly what it is. It presents thought as a three-fold process, and makes the claim that this process, the “Trimorphic Protennoia,” is the archetypal substance out of which consciousness, and all creation, emerges.
   
David: It takes the stance, that we talked about in the “Secret Gospel of John,” called “consciousness first,” or really, “consciousness only,” asserting that consciousness is the only reality. Basically, everything is a thought in the mind of God.
   
Gene: Which is the philosophy of “personal analytical idealism,” which the engineers and philosophers - Federico Faggin and Bernardo Kastrup talk about. They both make the claim that this philosophy unifies quantum physics with mysticism.
   
David: I’ve heard Kastrup reference the “Gospel of Thomas” even. I’ll link to some of their work in the “Show Notes,” but anyway, according to the philosophy of the text, reality is composed of three forms of consciousness, which it refers to as Thought, Voice and Word, or as Father, Mother and Son.
   
Gene: Which is, of course, the “Holy Trinity” in Christianity. And, it’s also interesting that the text equates the three forms with the One, the Father, so they are three, but form a Unity.
   
David: The "Holy Trinity" entered Christian doctrine through Augustine, who had studied Plotinus’ Enneads, where he discusses this same concept of consciousness having a triple form. So, an added bonus is that this text explains the mystery, or really the enigma, of the ”Holy Trinity" - how the three are still one.
   
Gene: And what’s interesting is that it’s explained from a first person perspective. Going back to how we got here - the “Secret Gospel of John,”  was a big cosmology, an unfolding, told from the outside and top-down. In the “Gospel of Thomas,” it was more personal - Jesus acting as the inner voice, told from the inside, but through him, so it’s second hand. But now in this text, it’s consciousness talking about itself, told in the first person.
   
05:54 Trimorphic Protenoia
   
David: You could even describe it as an autobiography of consciousness. Before we dive into the text itself, Gene - could you tell us a bit more about the history of the “Trimorphic Protennoia.”
   
Gene: Sure. Like the other texts we’ve been discussing, it was discovered in the Nag Hammadi find in Egypt, but unlike some of the others, this is the only surviving copy. It dates to the mid-second century, and was written in Coptic, it being a translation from an earlier Greek text, which is the case with most of the Nag Hammadi texts.
   
David: And like you said, it’s written in the first person. The speaker is assumed to be Barbelo - the “Protennoia,” the first thought of the Monad, as we discussed in the “Secret Gospel of John.” And as She was described there - She is both male and female.
   
Gene: Which ties back to the last saying from the “Gospel of Thomas” that said that “every female who makes themselves male will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”
   
David: And the “Trimorphic Protennoia” explains how this is possible, which is by coming to know the nature of consciousness, which it says has three modes or aspects.
   
Gene: And the idea of a “Great Goddess” with three faces or aspects, reminds me of the Greek goddess Hecate.
   
David: There is a definite connection there, too. Hecate is the primary deity in the Chaldean Oracles and is portrayed there as having three aspects, one in each of the worlds. And in the Eleusinian Mysteries, Hecate is the "guide of souls," who leads Persephone, who represents the soul, out of hell.
   
Gene: Which is exactly what Barbelo does in this text. She makes three descents, the final one being into the depths of Tartarus, to awaken sleeping souls to their divine nature - so she’s also the “Holy Spirit.”
   
David: The three parts of the text, discuss these three descents, and also address her three aspects- Father, Mother and Son, or - Thought, Voice and Word.
   
Gene: So do you want to say something about the translations we’re using.
   
David: Yes. We’re going to use two translations, both of which I’ve linked in the “Show Notes.” One is called the “Trimorphic Protennoia,” which is the John D. Turner translation. It maintains some of the names like “Trimorphic Protennoia,” which is important, especially with tricky material like this, but it’s pretty formal, almost Bible-like. And the other translation I’ve linked, is called the “Three Forms of First Thought,” translated by Willis Barnstone, which is much more readable, but in my opinion, some of the meaning is lost in the translation.
   
Gene: And our plan is to do four episodes on the “Trimorphic Protennoia.”
   
David: Right, that’s the plan. Like we said, the text has three parts, but the first part is about twice as long as the other parts. So, dividing it into four parts makes it about equal.
   
Gene: Cool, cool. Ready to dig into it?
   
08:49 Protennoia - First Thought
   
David: I am. The text begins with - “I am Protennoia (the “first thought”), the Thought that dwells in the Light. I am the movement that dwells in the All, she in whom the All takes its stand, the first-born among those who came to be, she who exists before the All.
   
Gene: So, like we’ve said, this is Barbelo, the first thought of the Monad. And it says She “dwells in the light.”
   
David: And light represents consciousness. So, She’s saying that She is the “Thought” already existing within consciousness. And that She also “dwells in the All,” which is not the same as the One, in these passages “All” means everyone and everything that comes into being.
   
Gene: The next part about being the “movement” and the “rest” within the All is about how consciousness moves and rests in us. It flows like water, like when we’re thinking, but it comes to rest when it fixes on a particular thought, or an object of interest.
   
David: It ties back to Saying 50 in the “Gospel of Thomas,” that says - “If they ask you: ‘What is the sign of your Father among you?’ (then) say to them: ‘It is movement and repose.’” And the last part about being the “first born” of those that came into being, and existing before the All - that’s about Her being the basis of our experience. Without consciousness there is no experience. So she exists prior to anyone or anything’s experience.
   
Gene: It makes me think about a child’s mind, or our mind… before we have a voice or can speak. You look at a pre-verbal child and you wonder what are they thinking? Or how do you even think without words?
   
David: Right. This first section is about the deepest layer of the psyche, the foundational layer, the organizing principle of consciousness, the basic building block that creates the structure that eventually allows the use of words. Next part?
   
Gene: OK. The next part says - “She (the Protennoia) is called by three names, although she dwells alone, since she is perfect. I am invisible within the Thought of the Invisible One. I am revealed in the immeasurable, ineffable (things). I am incomprehensible, dwelling in the incomprehensible. I move in every creature.”
   
David: She has three aspects, but She “dwells alone,” meaning She is whole and complete - three but also One in her essence. She is “perfect” because She isn’t lacking anything, being both male and female.
   
Gene: And She’s “immeasurable,” because consciousness is what allows us to make measurements, but IT can’t be measured.
   
David: And the same goes for being “incomprehensible,” She is “incomprehensible,” because She is the power to comprehend. And finally, it says that She moves “in every creature.”
   
Gene: Which is again, the philosophy of “Personal Idealism,” - all is consciousness. Like the “Gospel of Thomas” said, “lift a stone, and I am there.” It’s in everything, just not on the surface - here it says it’s “invisible.”
   
David: It’s invisible because it’s what we perceive with. It’s again, the line from “John Dies at the End” - “you can’t see your own eyeball.”
   
Gene: That one never gets old.
   
David: I know, but it works - consciousness is the organ of mental perception -  the inner eye.
   
Gene: It is.
   
12:23 Epinoia - Subsequent Thoughts
   
David: Alright, the next part says - “I am the life of my Epinoia that dwells within every Power and every eternal movement, and (in) invisible Lights and within the Archons and Angels and Demons, and every soul dwelling in Tartarus, and (in) every material soul. I dwell in those who came to be.”
   
Gene: “Epinoia” means “afterthought,” so She’s saying that She, being the “first thought” is the life of everything that comes after - all subsequent thoughts. She is the process that creates all of the thoughts that come after Her.
   
David: In other words, She’s the source of our stream of consciousness. And it’s saying that this process exists in everyone and everything that has come into existence, even the parts of ourselves and others that would be considered wrong or even evil.
   
Gene: Which… is not condoning anything, it’s just saying that consciousness is in everything, even the lowest of the low, which it symbolizes as those in Hell, imprisoned by the lower forces of the material world.
   
David: And in this context, that could even refer to physical objects, like wood or stones, as in Saying 77 from the “Gospel of Thomas,” but it’s also our minds dominated by material concerns.
   
Gene: Right.
   
David: Next part?
   
Gene: OK. The next part continues the theme of omnipresence. It says - “I move in everyone and I delve into them all. I walk uprightly, and those who sleep, I awaken. And I am the sight of those who dwell in sleep.”
   
David: “Those who dwell in sleep,” could be the “spiritually dead,” that we’ve talked about - those who don’t realize their connection to Unity, which She “awakens,” but you could also take that to mean just sleeping.
   
Gene: How so?
   
David: She’s the whole consciousness, not just waking consciousness. She's also the consciousness that keeps your body alive while you sleep. And she’s the consciousness that wakes you back up. The program that reboots “you” every day, that reloads your personality back every day when you wake up.
   
Gene: That’s true. We take that and the other subconscious processes for granted… until they don’t work - then we notice them!
   
David: Right. She also says that She “walks uprightly,” meaning that She is still connected vertically to the higher worlds… but also horizontally, dwelling in all creatures that have come into existence.
   
Gene: So She’s claiming to be immanent and omnipresent, “dwelling in,” everything.
   
David: She’s universal - it’s saying everything and everyone possesses some level of consciousness. It may not be apparent in physical objects, but the main idea is that there is one material out which everything is constructed - an archetypal pattern.
   
Gene: The real “God Particle,” which the Alchemists called the “Prima Materia.”
   
15:19 Invisible One
   
David: And that really is what the “Trimorphic Protennoia” is claiming to be - that universal substance. The next part says, “I am the Invisible One within the All. It is I who counsel those who are hidden, since I know the All that exists in it.”
   
Gene: She’s talking about how She stands between the Invisible One, Unity, and the All, multiplicity.
   
David: And it's saying that She is the representative of the One within the All - basically, the “Voice of God," the voice we hear in our head, and really, the act of hearing itself.
   
Gene: What do you think is meant by counseling “those who are hidden?”
   
David: I think that refers to the subconscious parts of ourselves, or parts that we’ve lost or repressed - the parts that are invisible to us, but are still part of our consciousness. And She knows how they fit into the whole picture - our complete self.
   
Gene: That makes sense. The next part says - “I am numberless beyond everyone. I am immeasurable, ineffable, yet whenever I wish, I shall reveal myself of my own accord. I am the head of the All. I exist before the All, and I am the All, since I exist in everyone.”
   
David: We’ve talked about Her being numberless and measureless, because consciousness enables the act of numbering and measuring.
   
Gene: Right. The part about Her revealing Herself when she wants to, reminds me of our discussion about the door between Unity and normal consciousness and how you have to request entry by knocking on it, because the door opens from the inside.
   
David: Which is sometimes referred to as “grace.” The last part about being the “head” of the All, is about how She is what minds are made of - headless Herself, She is the “head of the All,” of everything.
   
Gene: Nice. But She even says that She IS all things - that the individual bodies, minds and personas that we see and experience are basically just masks that She puts on.
   
David: We’ve used the phrase “we aren’t living life, life is living us.”
   
Gene: Yeah.
   
David: She is the life that it’s talking about. We’re the temporary forms, She’s the process.
   
Gene: In the “Gospel of Thomas,” this process was called the “Kingdom of Heaven.”
   
David: Right.
   
Gene: So what does it mean to enter the “Kingdom of Heaven,” - aren’t we already there?
   
David: Well… to quote from that “Gospel of Thomas” - “The Kingdom of Heaven is spread out upon the earth and people do not see it.”
   
Gene: Yeah - you’re supposed to learn to see it. It’s a change of perspective.
   
David: Right. As we’ve discussed, consciousness is in everything, so what it’s calling the “Kingdom of Heaven” is here and now, we’re already there. But, the difference is that the mystic or the Gnostic, knows what it is, and can hopefully, act accordingly. Next part?
   
18:12 The Quiet Voice
   
Gene: Sure. “I am a Voice speaking softly. I exist from the first. I dwell within the Silence that surrounds every one of them. And it is the hidden Voice that dwells within my, within the incomprehensible, immeasurable Thought, within the immeasurable Silence.”
   
David: She started off the text saying “I am the Thought that dwells in the Light.” Then She said that She was the “life,” of everything that comes into being, but that She is invisible. Here, She’s saying that She becomes known through Her voice, what we experience as our thoughts. So, she is like the “pregnant silence,” that births all thoughts, all experiences of things.
   
Gene: But, there’s a distinction between just our regular thoughts and the “still small voice,” as it’s called in the Bible - the “true voice,” or “inner guide.”
   
David: Yes, which is what’s indicated by Her saying that She speaks “softly.” The “true voice” that you’re talking about, the “guide” or “awakener,” is contacted through the intuitive practices we’ve talked about - mindfulness, meditation, prayer, contemplation.
   
Gene: The point being that we have to get past what the Buddhists call the “monkey mind,” the chattering stream of consciousness that comments on everything. You have to tune out the analytical side and rely more on intuition, to hear that quiet voice.
   
David: Yeah - which is an elevation of the feminine, the intuitive, to an active role, or what the “Gospel of Thomas” called “making the female male,” so that you can consciously participate in the process, instead of just being carried along by it.
   
Gene: There’s also an interesting linguistic break in that passage - it says “the hidden Voice that dwells within my, within the incomprehensible…,” it’s like the ability to describe what it is, in words, is breaking down.
   
David: Which makes sense, because it’s consciousness trying to describe itself as an object of perception, when what it’s saying all along is that it isn’t an object, it’s the organ of perception, the inner eye.
   
20:21 Radiant Waters
   
Gene: Right. The next part says - “I descended into the underworld and shone down on the darkness. I poured water. I am hidden in radiant waters. I gradually dawn on all by my thought.”
   
David: Water is a symbol for consciousness in esoteric texts like this one, in the Bible, and in the Tarot. She is the “radiant waters” of your mind, that flow, and come to rest, as we’ve talked about - your stream of consciousness.
   
Gene: The part about descending into the underworld and into the darkness, is again, the idea that consciousness is everywhere. She’s the awareness, or the mind, in everything, down to the lowest material processes.
   
David: And She says that She gradually dawns on all - just like our mind gradually develops. It’s the same pattern on another scale. You go from a baby, that just feels, that has thoughts, but not words. And then you start vocalizing, consciously using sound to express thoughts. And then finally, you express feelings in words.
   
Gene: But never quite completely. The words are almost always an approximation of the inner thought that they express.
   
David: That’s true.
   
Gene: And, the three developmental stages you just went through there, that’s the three forms of the Protennoia - thought, voice, and word.
   
David: Which makes sense because if it’s supposed to be the fractal pattern that consciousness unfolds from, you’d expect to see that pattern expressed on different scales. The next part says - “I am weighed down with the voice. Through me knowledge comes. I am in the ineffable and unknowable.”
   
Gene: She’s “weighted down” by the voice because words, in a sense, constrain and bind our thoughts - meaning, like I just said, words can’t fully express feelings.
   
David: Right. And the last part, that says "through me knowledge comes," we acquire knowledge through thoughts, but at the same time that process of thinking itself is “ineffable and unknowable,” meaning we can’t examine it from the outside. The next part says - “ I am perception and knowledge, uttering a voice by means of thought. I am the real voice. I cry out in everyone, and they recognize it, since a seed lives in them.”
   
Gene: She’s the seed, the “divine pattern,” that we’ve been talking about… the one that we’re supposed to first connect with, and then tend to.
   
David: She is that… but also everything else we experience. She says here, that everyone recognizes Her voice, because She is in them all.
   
Gene: So if the voice is just there, what does that say about the process of purification and seeking Gnosis? Is it because you have to tune into it?
   
David: Yeah. I think She’s saying that She’s all the voices we hear, because they all arise from Her, but Her true voice is the softest of them all.
   
Gene: That’s a nice way to put it. She’s back there whispering in the background, behind all the noise and static, and you have to activate your receptive part, to tune into what She’s really saying.
   
David: Right. Next part?
   
23:31 The Door
   
Gene: OK. The next part I’m going to break into bite size chunks.
   
David: Alright.
   
Gene: It starts with - “I am the Thought of the Father, and through me proceeded the Voice, that is, the knowledge of the everlasting things.”
   
David: She’s laying out the three forms - the Father, then Her - the Mother, and through Her - the Voice, the Son, who reveals the “everlasting things” that aren’t born and don’t die - because they’re from the realm of the Father, the eternal realm.
   
Gene: They’re what Jung called “Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious.” The next part says - “I exist as Thought for the All - being joined to the unknowable and incomprehensible Thought - I revealed myself - yes, I - among all those who recognize me.”
   
David: She’s saying again that consciousness is the “thought” or the “awareness” within everything, and that She is the medium through which the unknown realm, becomes known.
   
Gene: She’s like the door we’ve talked about in the “Gospel of Thomas.” On one side is wholeness and on the other side is our normal consciousness.
   
David: Exactly. She is the logic of the door, which She says She reveals to those that recognize her, meaning they recognize what She represents. Next part?
   
Gene: The next part says - “For it is I who am joined with everyone by virtue of the hidden Thought and an exalted (Voice), even a Voice from the invisible Thought. And it is immeasurable, since it dwells in the Immeasurable One.”
   
David: It’s making a distinction between the two voices that we talked about before, the “exalted voice,” is the “soft voice,” which it says comes from the “invisible Thought.”
   
Gene: So it’s a true reflection of what’s on the other side of the door.
   
David: Right.
   
Gene: OK. The last part of that passage says - “It is a mystery; it is unrestrainable by the Incomprehensible One. It is invisible to all those who are visible in the All. It is a Light dwelling in Light.”
   
David: That one is pretty cool. It says that the process that’s unfolding is “unrestrainable,” even by God… or, that’s how I read it. It is a process that is going to unfold, it just has to run its course.
   
Gene: Yeah, that’s cool. The part about being “invisible to all those who are visible in the All,” made me think about that saying from the Bible about how you can never see God face to face. Even Moses just saw him pass in front of him from the back.
   
David: Which in the context of consciousness, we’re talking about preventing certain things, that are part of our whole self, but not conscious, from making their way into our conscious mind. Which makes me think of that old saying that you don’t really want to see how the sausage is made… do you know what I mean?
   
Gene: I do. You’re talking about the entire contents of our subconscious. There’s all sorts of stuff in that soup. Freud’s concept of the censor was exactly what we’re talking about here, a doorway between the unconscious and conscious mind. Are you ready for the next part?
   
26:41 Seed and Fruit
   
David: Yes. The next part says - “It is we also who alone have separated from the visible world, since we are saved by the hidden wisdom, by means of the ineffable, immeasurable Voice. And he who is hidden within us pays the tributes of his fruit to the Water of Life.”
   
Gene: That’s talking about the “hermits,” the ones who have unified themselves enough to leave the “visible world,” the chattering static of the mind that we talked about, and can hear the “exalted voice,” that carries the “hidden wisdom,” gems from invisible world, the subconscious.
   
David: The last line is pretty interesting. It says “HE who is hidden,” not She.
   
Gene: But, as we know, Barbelo is androgynous, both male and female. So, what do you think it’s trying to point out there by changing the gender of the pronoun?
   
David: I think it’s referring to the concept of the female becoming male, becoming active, in order to pay “tributes of HIS fruit to the Water of Life.” Being active in order to create the fruits.
   
Gene: Which reminds me of a saying from the “Gospel of Thomas,” about giving the saints what is due to them… which we said was - everything.
   
David: Yeah. Both of those sayings are about acknowledging that our personality, our ego, is not the source of our fruits, the things we create and do. The true source of our fruits is the seed.
   
Gene: In Kabbalistic terms, the fruit is embedded in the seed - it unfolds from the seed, and then produces its own seed.
   
David: Which is the same recursive process that we’ve been talking about - “light dwelling in light.” The fruit of one thought is the seed of the next.
   
28:22 The Son
   
Gene: It is. Well, we’ve come to the last two parts. Do you want me to start off?
   
David: Sure, go ahead.
   
Gene: “Then the Son who is perfect in every respect - that is, the Word who originated through that Voice; who proceeded from the height; who has within him the Name; who is a Light - he revealed the everlasting things, and all the unknowns were known. And those things difficult to interpret and secret, he revealed.”
   
David: That sounds like a description of what the “Gospel of Thomas” is supposed to be.
   
Gene: It does!
   
David: But it’s talking about the Autogenes, the Logos from the “Secret Gospel of John,” the self-generating engine that creates our stream of consciousness.
   
Gene: The name it’s referring to, is the Tetragrammaton, the four-lettered name of God. The Autogenes has it “within him,” because he is the manifestation of the Father - he manifests the creative process that the name represents.
   
David: And he is the revealer of the “secret things,” things from the the other side of the door, the unconscious, which are made known to us. Are you ready for the last part?
   
Gene: Yes.
   
David: OK. The last part says - “And as for those who dwell in Silence with the First Thought, he preached to them. And he revealed himself to those who dwell in darkness, and he showed himself to those who dwell in the abyss, and to those who dwell in the hidden treasuries, he told ineffable mysteries, and he taught unrepeatable doctrines to all those who became Sons of the Light.
   
Gene: Wow. That’s an interesting one to end on.
   
David: I think it is, too.
   
Gene: It reminds me of the apocryphal story of Christ’s “Harrowing of Hell,” in which he raised all the dead who had died before him, not just the saints, but everyone.
   
David: Shining light into all the dark places. Esoterically, that would mean illuminating all the forgotten, fragmented or repressed parts of ourselves - in other words, becoming whole.
   
Gene: In Kabbalah, that’s called “Tikkun Olam,” the rectification of the world. But it’s sort of also like how Bodhisattvas vow to put off their ascension until all have been enlightened.
   
David: In the story of Christ’s “Harrowing of Hell,” as told in the “Gospel of Nicodemus,” Jesus raises Adam, then the Saints, and finally everyone, who are called in that text the “True Brotherhood,” and here, they’re called the “Sons of Light.”
   
Gene: That’s interesting.
   
David: It is indeed. Anything else?
   
Gene: No, that does it for me.
   
30:45 Conclusions
    
David: Alright. Before we end, I again want to remind everyone that I’ve created a “Deep Dive” page for our discussion of the “Trimorphic Protennoia.” And I’ve included a link to it, and to other resources, including the other texts that we mentioned in this episode, in the “Show Notes.” So Gene, what your final thoughts on this first part of the “Three Forms of First Thought?”
    
Gene: It’s strange because in reading it, I feel like I’m having to switch between two modes - there’s sort of a story being told, but it’s really more like a manual of how your mind works. So, for me it’s sort of a call and response.
    
David: What do you mean by that?
    
Gene: I know that sounds weird… but, it’s sort of like - first reading it as a story of an entity, who She is, and what She does. Then, I have to let that just soak in, and for me that may take some time. But then, it dawns on me, like - “Oh yeah! Of course, that’s what it means.”
    
David: Well, She said in the text - “I gradually dawn on all by my thought.” 
    
Gene: That’s true. It’s Her talking to me.
    
David: Right… all the time.
    
Gene: What about you? What did it make you think about?
    
David: Umm… I’m going to make a bold statement.
    
Gene: Cool. Go for it.
    
David: I think that we’ve finally arrived at the heart of the Western Mystical Tradition… and I don’t mean just this text by itself, but I mean the path that we’ve taken to get here, and how this text takes you as far as you can go. It takes you to the threshold of the unknowable.
    
Gene: It’s like in Kabbalah, where the farthest the mind can fathom, they refer to as the “Three Veils of Negative Existence”… which, now that I think about it, are the “Three Modes” we’ve been talking about. Yeah - that’s a connection I hadn’t made until just now.
    
David: That’s a good one that we’ll have to come back to. One more thing I’d like to say, and we’ve said it many times before, if you are really interested in what we’re talking about, it will take concerted effort on your part to really understand the material, because it’s very subtle.
    
Gene: It’s talking about how your mind works, which a tricky subject - because we make so many assumptions about a process that is very much, invisible to us.
    
David: Right. Turning perception around from a focus outside to an inward focus is, in my opinion, what spirituality means. And, to many people, I know it seems weird to hear that that is really what these texts are talking about. 
    
Gene: But, as we’ve said before, if they aren’t ultimately talking about YOU and YOUR inner or “spiritual” world, then they aren’t quote-unquote “spiritual texts” after all.
    
David: Exactly. Alright. Gene, what are we doing next time?
    
Gene: In our next episode, we’ll continue our discussion of the  “Trimorphic Protennoia,” the “Three Forms of First Thought.”