S2E17: The Trimorphic Protennoia - Part 3 of 4

In this episode, David and Gene journey into the heart of one of Gnosticism's most profound and transformative myths - the second descent of the Trimorphic Protennoia. This stage represents the "pregnancy" phase in the evolution of consciousness, following the implantation of the seed idea of Unity, during the first descent.

What follows is a psychic apocalypse, an inner "Dark Night of the Soul" where the very foundations of the ego-built world begin to crumble. The established parts of the mind, the Archons, are gripped by a terrifying premonition of their own dissolution. The text vividly portrays this as the birth pangs of a New Aeon, where the death of the old self gives way to the birth of the True Self, an identity conscious of its divine origins.

The Protennoia, having planted the seed as Father, now reveals herself as the Mother - the womb in which this new consciousness gestates. She is the androgynous and self-contained, as symbolized by the Ouroboros. She is the Voice that emerges from the silent Thought. As a prophetess and teacher, she foretells the end of the age of ignorance ruled by the Demiurge.

Hearing her "exalted Speech," the terrified Archons confront their creator, the "false god" who has claimed to be the sole deity. In this dramatic confrontation, the man behind the curtain is exposed, and the entire authority structure of the ego collapses. The Archons, realizing their "tree of life" is actually a "tree of death," are forced to question their very existence and all the choices they have made while under the spell of separation.

From this chaos, a new hope dawns. Acting as a "Mother of Mercy," the Protennoia speaks directly to the "Sons of the Thought" - those parts of the mind ready to receive her hidden mysteries. She invites them into the "Aeon of Barbelo," a new and eternal state of being.

This is a spiritual initiation, a promise of being glorified, enthroned, and baptized in a perfect, exalted Light. The episode unpacks this mystical initiation, explaining that it is not an external ceremony but an internal transformation, an organic process that unfolds from within. This journey leads consciousness back to its source, culminating in the Protennoia taking her seat on a branch of the true Tree of Life, having weathered the apocalypse to establish a new, unshakable center within the self.

Deep Dive:

• The Trimorphic Protennoia - Three Forms of First Thought

Chapters:

• 01:15 Introduction
• 01:56 Review
• 06:25 The Second Descent
• 09:40 Voice From Thought
• 14:00 The Changeless Aeon
• 17:03 Shaking the Foundations of Chaos
• 20:51 False God Revealed
• 23:11 The End is Near
• 26:25 Aeon of Barbelo
• 29:42 Invitation to Initiation
• 33:13 Voice of the Holy Spirit
• 36:05 Conclusions

Resources:

• Trimorphic Protennoia - John D. Turner
• Three Forms of First Thought - Willis Barnstone
• Gnosis.org - The Gnosis Archive6
• The Nag Hammadi Scriptures
• Shekinah (Wikipedia)
• Creative Evolution by Henri Bergson
• The Red Book: A Reader's Edition by Carl Jung
• Jesus and the Lost Goddess by Freke and Gandy

Chapters

• 1:15 Introduction
• 1:56 Review
• 6:25 The Second Descent
• 9:40 Voice From Thought
• 14:00 The Changeless Aeon
• 17:03 Shaking the Foundations of Chaos
• 20:51 False God Revealed
• 23:11 The End is Near
• 26:25 Aeon of Barbelo
• 29:42 Invitation to Initiation
• 33:13 Voice of the Holy Spirit
• 36:05 Conclusions

Transcript

01:15 Introduction
   
Gene: Hello Dave.
   
David: Hello Gene. Are you doin’ alright today?
   
Gene: Yeah. How are you doin’ today?
   
David: Good. I think that the part of the text that we’re covering today is pretty cool.
   
Gene: I’m excited about this part. I really connected with it.
   
David: Me, too. The part we’ve covered so far has been really abstract, and this seemed way more accessible.
   
Gene: Yeah.
   
David: Anyway, as always, before we get started, as always, I want to remind everyone that Show Notes, Chapter Markers, and Transcripts for all of our episodes are available on our website - WayOfTheHermit.com. In our last episode, we finished the first of the three descents of the “Trimorphic Protennoia.” In this episode, we’re going to talk about the second descent.
   
01:56 Review
   
Gene: And as we’ve discussed, the name “Trimorphic Protennoia,” means “Three Forms of First Thought,” with the three forms that it takes on corresponding to Father, Mother and Son. It’s the Gnostic equivalent of the “Holy Trinity.”
   
David: That’s right. And so, the first descent was in the aspect of the Father, which represents complete Unity, unknowable in its essence, immeasurable, and unarticulated.
   
Gene: The three aspects are also associated with Thought, Voice and Word. So  the first descent was about the underlying thought that ultimately becomes articulated through words.
   
David: As the name implies (Trimorphic), it’s a three-step process through which "the first thought," or consciousness, unfolds.
   
Gene: With the idea being that everything that we conceive of is made out of consciousness. It’s the building block of reality.
   
David: Which reminds me of the Zen Koan which says - “If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?”
   
Gene: Yep.
   
David: And the answer, like the answer to all Koans, is a paradox. The tree falling produces pressure waves in the air, but do you call that sound… if there isn’t a conscious observer to interpret it as sound?
   
Gene: Which brings up the “Observer Paradox” in quantum mechanics. Does something actually happen, or is it real, if it’s not somehow measured or observed?
   
David: But just on an individual level, if you aren’t conscious, then your world ceases to exist. Consciousness constantly creates our inner world, and without it, without consciousness, the world ends… at least as far as we can know.
   
Gene: So, you could say that consciousness is sort of like a cornerstone. It’s the basic building block that everything else that we know, is constructed from. And like we talked about last time, it’s like a fractal, it’s recursive, and it’s in everything.
   
David: That’s a good summary of the first descent - it expresses that idea of how we’re all part of a bigger process of unfolding - that our idea of being separate is really an illusion. The first part of the text ends the the Protennoia saying - “And I bore fruit in them, that is, the Thought of the unchanging Aeon, and my house, and their Father.”
   
Gene: She’s saying that the seed that she plants in us, that ultimately bears fruit, is the idea of our unity with everything else - that we are not, and never really have been, separate from the stream of life. Like we’ve said before, we’re not living life, life is living us.
   
David: And in the storyline that’s being told, the Protennoia tricks the Demiurge by planting this seed, which ends up being the cause of his dissolution. But, if you think about it, who’s foolin’ who here?
   
Gene: What do you mean?
   
David: I mean, I think she’s fooling us. The story does what it describes. It plants the seed, the idea of the “unchanging aeon” and the “house of the Father”, the idea of unity, into your mind.
   
Gene: How do you think she’s fooling us?
   
Gene: That’s an interesting idea. In linguistics, that’s called a “performative utterance” - text that performs the act it describes. So, in this instance, it’s acting like a self-initiation manual. By contemplating what it describes, we are implanting that idea in our own subconscious. It’s like a mental virus.
   
David: Right. If that seed idea finds fertile ground, meaning that you’re prepared to understand and accept it, and you tend to it, it bears fruit - meaning that it ends up changing the way you feel, think and act.
   
Gene: Those people are referred to in the Gnostic Tradition as the “Sons,” or “Children of Light,” or in other texts “The Seed of Seth.”
   
David: In the context of the story in the text, the conception of this idea, is likened to an impregnation. The idea of unity, of the “unchanging Aeon,” has been implanted in the first descent, and it has to gestate for a while, but it is a very destabilizing thought, that will ultimately bring about the collapse of the false world of the Demiurge.
   
Gene: With the Demiurge representing our ego, and the world we’ve created based on the lie that we’re separate, and not part of the “Kingdom of God,” as the text calls it. So, it’s like an “apocalypse.”
   
06:25 The Second Descent
   
David: But also, a homecoming. And that’s where the story picks up with the second descent. The Protennoia has implanted this idea of unity into the subconscious… and it begins to cause fear in the established personality.
   
Gene: Like we said before, it is like a conception actually, an “immaculate conception,” because it’s not a physical thing, but something is being born, in your head. So in the second descent, the Protennoia takes on the role of Mother.
   
David: That’s right. This part is about the pregnancy phase. The idea of unity has been implanted and it starts to have an effect on all of consciousness. There’s a feeling of dread among the all of the Archons, the parts of the mind. They can feel that something is happening, and to them it feels like the end of the world.
   
Gene: It’s likened in the text to “birth pangs.” It’s the end of the old Aeon, or Age, ruled by the Demiurge, and the beginning of a New Age, that will be ruled over by the child that has been conceived, Christ, the “Annointed One,” the “True Self.”
   
David: Which is an identity that is conscious of our connection to divinity.
   
Gene: Truly a “Son of God,” meaning that the relationship is a real one - Father to Son. It’s where we’ve literally come from.
   
David: But, this birth feels like death, to who we thought we were. In the Second Descent, all of the parts of consciousness feel their power slipping away, and they become afraid.
   
Gene: There’s “much weeping and gnashing of teeth,” as the Bible says. It’s what’s called in many traditions, the “Dark Night of the Soul.”
   
David: The Barnstone Translation of this text calls this section “On Destiny.” It’s a foreshadowing of what is to come. The truth about our nature is still not completely conscious. It describes that unsettled feeling that comes when you know that things are not right, and you don’t know how to make them right.
   
Gene: Basically, the “world” that has been created on the idea of being separate, is being destroyed, to be replaced by what the text calls an “Unchanging Aeon.” But this is the in-between phase, before it actually becomes reality. It’s step 2 of 3.
   
David: So, it’s both a death and a birth. In psychological terms, the death part is painful because it involves letting go of who you thought you were, and the realization of the futility of many of the things you’ve pursued or valued in life… that’s painful.
   
Gene: It is, but once that idea of being part of the bigger picture really sinks in, there’s no other way. You have to die to who you thought you were, to become who you really are. The “only way out is through,” as they say.
   
David: That’s true. I’ve got a quote from the “Gospel of Thomas” that’s a good lead it to our discussion of the second part.
   
Gene: Go for it.
   
David: It’s the 2nd saying in the text, in which Jesus says - “The one who seeks should not cease seeking until he finds. And when he finds, he will be dismayed. And when he is dismayed, he will be astonished. And he will be king over the All."
   
Gene: We’re at that middle part about being “dismayed.”
   
09:40 Voice From Thought
   
David: Exactly. All right. The second descent of the “Trimorphic Protennoia” begins by saying - “I am the Voice that appeared through my Thought, for I am 'He who is syzygetic' since I am called 'the Thought of the Invisible One'. Since I am called 'the unchanging Speech', I am called 'She who is syzygetic'.”
   
Gene: OK, that’s the Taylor translation. The Barnstone translation says “I am the one who is joined to another.” But Taylor used the word “syzygetic” because it’s a direct translation of the Greek word “syzygos,” which means “yoked together.” It is also used in cosmology to mean a conjunction or an alignment.
   
David: And the passage says first “I am ‘He who is syzygetic.’” and it also says “I am called ‘She who is syzygetic.’” So both “he” and “she.”
   
Gene: Again, Barbelo, who is the “Trimorphic Protennoia,” is said to be both male and female, since it’s the pattern that unfolds into everything. It’s beyond sex and gender, beyond anything physical.
   
David: But it manifests as both, and that’s what’s being referred to here, she’s transitioning from representing the Father, the one who plants the idea or seed, to representing the Mother, the womb where the seed grows.
   
Gene: She’s both Father and Mother. It’s about how consciousness is always interacting with itself, because there isn’t anything else.
   
David: It’s the Thought, the one who plants the Thought, and the space where the Thought grows and takes shape, the Mind.
   
Gene: It makes me think of the Rebis, the “Divine Hermaphrodite,” that is complete within itself… and also, the “Sacred Marriage.”
   
David: Or the Ouroboros, the serpent swallowing its own tail. All of those symbols are about wholeness, and being complete within oneself.
   
Gene: Right.
   
David: OK. The next part says - “Now I have come the second time in the likeness of a female, and have spoken with them. And I shall tell them of the coming end of the Aeon and teach them of the beginning of the Aeon to come, the one without change, the one in which our appearance will be changed.”
   
Gene: She’s explaining her mission. She’s the midwife of the “New Aeon.”
   
David: Right. She’s acting as a prophetess or a teacher.
   
Gene: In Rabbinic Judaism, this voice from within, that proclaims God’s will or judgment is called “bat kol,” which means “daughter of the voice,” or the “small voice.” It’s the quiet voice of truth within that is available to anyone with “ears to hear,” as they say.
   
David: And this voice foretells the coming of the end of the current age, the one ruled by the Demiurge, the ego. Then she teaches about the New Age to come, which is ruled by the “True Self,” that she says will be an age “without change.”
   
Gene: Meaning that we don’t identify with the ever changing kaleidoscope of our thoughts and emotions, but with something that has stability - “Witness Consciousness” again.
   
David: Right. What do you think about the part that says that this New Age will be “the one in which our appearance will be changed.”
   
Gene: I’m hoping it means you get to have perfect six-pack abs while eating pizza all day.
   
David: Well yeah - that would be cool!
   
Gene: No, I’m just poking a little fun at the literal reading of statements like that.
   
David: I know. I mean if you interpret those statements literally, the “Unchanging Aeon,” where, as the “Nine Inch Nails” song says, “every day is exactly the same,” that seems more like hell, than heaven.
   
Gene: Yeah - every day would be just another boring day on the island of Peggy Peggy.
   
David: Exactly. Unchanging here, means a stable point of view from which to observe life from. One that doesn’t change just because we get mad or happy or whatever we think or feel. And the appearance that it’s talking about is what’s called the “resurrection body” or the “diamond body” or the “rainbow body” in various mystical traditions. It’s not a physical transformation, but an unveiling of what we’ve always been beneath these veils of skin, our “body of light.”
   
Gene: That’s good. Ready for the next part?
   
David: Yes.
   
14:00 The Changeless Aeon
   
Gene: OK. The next part says - “We shall be purified within those Aeons from which I revealed myself in the Thought of the likeness of my masculinity. I settled among those who are worthy in the Thought of my changeless Aeon.”
   
David: The “Thought of the likeness of (her) masculinity” is the “Thought of the Father,” or of unity, which is also the “Thought of the changeless Aeon.” And the purification she’s talking about, is tending to this idea, in order to bring it to fruition.
   
Gene: The part where it says “I settled among those are are worthy” of the Thought, made me think of the “shekhinah,” because the Semitic root of the word “shekhinah” means “to settle, inhabit or indwell.”
   
David: She’s the indwelling presence of God that the “Temple of Solomon” was built to invoke - again, the “body of light.” That part about revealing herself in the “likeness” of her masculinity, made me think of how the DNA of mother and father create a “likeness,” or a reflection of themselves in the child. And it’s supposed to have the same effect here, to make us more God-like, by identifying with that higher part of ourself.
   
Gene: That’s really good. I like that. The next part says - “For I shall tell you a mystery of this particular Aeon, and tell you about the forces that are in it. The birth beckons; hour begets hour, day begets day. The months made known the month. Time has gone round succeeding time. This particular Aeon was completed in this fashion, and it was estimated, and it (was) short, for it was a finger that released a finger, and a joint that was separated from a joint.”
   
David: It’s saying that this process is not an “intervention,” but an evolutionary process that just unfolds, like your hand does when you unfold a fist, joint by joint, with each one following the other, because there is an underlying connection between them.
   
Gene: Just like how a fertilized human egg unfolds into a human being. And how consciousness necessarily unfolds that way, too - as part of an ongoing process, that’s bigger than just an individual person. It’s the unfolding of humanity, and history.
   
David: Which ties back to  Henri Bergson’s ideas about time as being an evolutionary process, and not just a numeric measurement. He pointed out that every moment contains within itself, all that has happened up that point. So, every moment in time is a unique event, that has never happened exactly this way before and never will again, because each experience changes us and the world. And so, in every moment, we're creating something new, whether we're consciously aware of it or not. It's that creative process, unfolding.
   
Gene: So what this passage is saying is that there is an inevitability to what’s happening. That’s how she’s able to foresee the coming of the end of the current age and the age to come.
   
David:  Because she’s speaking from the perspective the whole process, the three-in-one. She is the process. Ready for the next one?
   
Gene: Yes.
   
17:03 Shaking the Foundations of Chaos
   
David: The next part says - “Then, when the great Authorities knew that the time of fulfillment had appeared - just as in the pangs of the parturient it (the time) has drawn near…”.
   
Gene: Can I interrupt for just a second?
   
David: Sure.
   
Gene: “Parturient,” means a woman in labor. So, here it’s talking about the birth pangs, as the time is drawing near for the birth.
   
David: Yes. And as this time approaches it says - “so also had the destruction approached - all together the elements trembled, and the foundations of the underworld and the ceilings of Chaos shook, and a great fire shone within their midst, and the rocks and the earth were shaken like a reed shaken by the wind. And the lots of Fate and those who apportion the domiciles were greatly disturbed over a great thunder. And the thrones of the Powers were disturbed, since they were overturned, and their King was afraid.”
   
Gene: Like we said earlier, the powers that be, the parts of ourselves that see us as separated from divinity, experience the birth of the New Aeon as the destruction of their whole world - their death.
   
David: Which it is. I mean that’s the reason for all of the apocalypse imagery, just like in the book of Revelation. It’s about the death of the old worldview, the old self, the one we created, and the birth of an expanded sense of self, the “True Self,” the Savior.
   
Gene: And the “great fire” is also in Revelation as a “lake of fire.” It’s where the Devil, the Beast and the False Prophet end up, in that story.
   
David: Which also has two connotations associated with it - destructive and purification. It’s the fire of Gnosis that burns away illusions to illuminate the truth. Those old parts of ourselves, which those figures in Revelation relate to, our Shadow, have to die to make way for a new view of who we are. ***
   
Gene: It also makes me think of the Pentecostal Fire, or Kundalini Shakti - the inner sun that awakens consciousness to its divine nature.
   
David: Right. The next part says - “And those who pursue Fate paid their allotment of visits to the path, and they said to the Powers, "What is this disturbance and this shaking that has come upon us through a Voice (belonging) to the exalted Speech? And our entire habitation has been shaken, and the entire circuit of the path of ascent has met with destruction, and the path upon which we go, which takes us up to the Archgenitor of our birth, has ceased to be established for us."
   
Gene: The whole applecart has been upset. The “Powers” it’s talking about are the Archons, or the “Seven Kings,” in the book of Revelation - the parts of ourselves that are comfortable with the way things are.’
   
David: They’re beginning to realize that things are going to change. They’ve heard a voice that they don’t recognize. The voice that spoke to them “below their language” in the first descent. It’s basically the transmission from the Protennoia that implanted the “idea of the Father,” into them, that's causing all the upset.
   
Gene: That makes me think of the “Abramelin Process,” in the Western Magical Tradition that is intended to awaken a transpersonal voice, one that you realize is not quote-unquote “you,” what it calls the “Knowledge and Conversation” of one’s “Holy Guardian Angel.”
   
David: That's a good connection, because in this story too, it's because of that communication from the Protennoia, that they’re aware that there is something higher than what they’ve taken to be “god,” the Demiurge. And also, their “paths of ascent,” the things that used to feel "uplifting," have been destroyed.
   
Gene: That’s the dawning realization that the things that used to satisfy have “turned to ashes in your mouth,” as the saying goes.
   
David: The old ways aren’t working anymore. And even the Demiurge is afraid, meaning the man behind the curtain, the Ego.
   
20:52 False God Revealed
   
Gene: Which is why they decide to go off to see the Wizard, so to speak… in the next part which says - “Then the Powers answered, saying, "We too are at loss about it, since we did not know what was responsible for it. But arise, let us go up to the Archgenitor and ask him." And the powers all gathered and went up to the Archgenitor. They said to him, "Where is your boasting in which you boast? Did we not hear you say, "I am God, and I am your Father, and it is I who begot you and there is none beside me"?”
   
David: This is what Carl Jung called the confrontation with the Self, and with the Shadow. It’s the existential dilemma that you reach when you truly ask yourself - “Who am I… really?”
   
Gene: I’m imagining looking into a mirror and shouting at the reflection.
   
David: Which is a good image. It’s all part of the realization that if you aren’t totally separate, which is the idea around which your whole personality has been built, then all of the things that you’ve valued or thought were important, may be meaningless.
   
Gene: And it’s a realization of your insignificance within the bigger scheme of things. It’s the ultimate exposure - naked and vulnerable, in the harsh light of your own awareness.
   
David: And, like in the “Wizard of Oz,” the man behind the curtain, the one that you’ve been trying to please, is revealed to be a “false god.”
   
Gene: Exactly. The next part says - “Now behold, there has appeared a Voice belonging to that invisible Speech of the Aeon which we know not. And we ourselves did not recognize to whom we belong, for that Voice which we listened to is foreign to us, and we did not recognize it; we did not know whence it was. It came and put fear in our midst and weakening in the members of our arms.”
   
David: I think that’s what’s called in the Bible - “Fear of the Lord.”
   
Gene: What do you think about that part about “weakening” the “members of their arms”?
   
David: I’d say that that is again, about the things that we’ve spent time on, the things that used to satisfy, not having that effect anymore. It’s the realization of the futility of many of the things we’ve spent time and energy on.
   
Gene: Or also, their lack of defenses for what’s coming down the pike.
   
23:11 The End is Near
   
David: Which ties into the next part which says - “So now let us weep and mourn most bitterly! As for the future, let us make our entire flight before we are imprisoned perforce, and taken down to the bosom of the underworld. For already the slackening of our bondage has approached, and the times are cut short, and the days have shortened, and our time has been fulfilled, and the weeping of our destruction has approached us, so that we may be taken to the place we recognize.”
   
Gene: It’s the thrashing around of the forces trying to hold onto their Old Temple, their old way of life. But also realizing that it’s too late for that now.
   
David: They are now repeating the message that the Protennoia gave them - that the “End Times” are here. They feel the end approaching and they see it as their death.
   
Gene: It’s like walking through a door, but not knowing what’s on the other side.
   
David: But they sort of do know what’s on the other side, they said “our destruction has approached us, so that we may be taken to the place we recognize.” It’s back to where they, meaning we, really came from, in the beginning - when we first started constructing our sense of self.
   
Gene: But they don’t want to go back there, because it means giving up what they are, and also questioning all the things they’ve done since the beginning.
   
David: That’s what the next part is about. It says - “For as for our tree from which we grew, a fruit of ignorance is what it has; and also its leaves, it is death that dwells in them, and darkness dwells under the shadow of its boughs. And it was in deceit and lust that we harvested it, this (tree) through which ignorant Chaos became for us a dwelling place. For behold, even he, the Archgenitor of our birth, about whom we boast, even he did not know this Speech."
   
Gene: This part was foreshadowed in the “Secret Gospel of John,” in which it called the “Tree of Knowledge,” the “Tree of Death.”
   
David: That’s right, because to “eat” from the “Tree of Knowledge,” means you have to be separate. Knowledge requires a “knower” and a “known.” To acquire knowledge, requires a separation. But that is also the root delusion, that we’re separate and not part of a whole.
   
Gene: And it’s also a collapse of the whole authority structure. They’re basically now questioning all of their life choices. The one who they thought knew everything, the one who claimed to be their Father, the “only god,” has been exposed as an imposter.
   
David: The one they’ve been trying to please. Esoterically, that would be our ego-based desires, or the projection of those desires onto authority figures, that people often allow to guide their actions.
   
Gene: So even all the quote-unquote “spiritual work,” that has gone on before is also called into question - whether it has really been helping or just leading you farther away from the truth.
   
David: Because of that root delusion of separation. The Truth is, and always was, inside all along. We’ve just been too distracted by the fruits of the tree that we’ve been living in, to realize it.
   
Gene: We can’t see the forest for the trees.
   
David: Right. Too caught up in the life we’ve created to see what’s missing and what the root cause is. Ready for the next one?
   
26:25 Aeon of Barbelo
   
Gene: I am. This one is the Trimorphic Protennoia actually speaking to some of the Aeons. She says - “So now, O sons of the Thought, listen to me, to the Speech of the Mother of your mercy, for you have become worthy of the mystery hidden from the Aeons, so that you might receive it. And the consummation of this particular Aeon and of the evil life has approached, and there dawns the beginning of the Aeon to come, which has no change forever.”
   
David: That represents light dawning in the darkness of the “Dark Night of the Soul.” It’s hope and consolation, coming from her acting as the “Mother of Mercy.”
   
Gene: It’s also her first communication with the Archons in words. We’re moving toward the third descent. It’s Thought, being Voiced, and becoming Words.
   
David: It is. But here it’s still selective, so they all can’t hear it. It’s the parts that have been prepared to hear her voice, the ones she calls the “Sons of Thought,” that are “worthy of the mystery hidden from the (other) Aeons.”
   
Gene: That mystery being that what looks like the end, is actually a new beginning of the “Aeon to come, which has no change forever.”
   
David: Which as we said earlier, means a new center of gravity within yourself, that’s a solid foundation to build a New Temple on.
   
Gene: Exactly. Man, the next part is really interesting.
   
David: Let’s hear it.
   
Gene: The Protennoia says - “I am androgynous. I am Mother (and) I am Father, since I copulate with myself. I copulated with myself and (with) those who love me, and it is through me alone that the All stands firm. I am the Womb that gives shape to the All by giving birth to the Light that shines in splendor.”
   
David: That is really interesting. We’ve talked about most of that already, just in different terms. She, being consciousness, has only herself to interact with, because there isn’t anything else. She is Thought and the Mind within which Thoughts arise and interact with each other. It’s like the story of the tree falling in the forest, she “gives shape to the all,” because without consciousness, nothing can be said to exist.
   
Gene: Right. Again it’s like the Ouroboros, or the Alpha and Omega and everything in-between. It’s a self-contained system that interacts with itself to spawn everything that exists.
   
David: And, it’s just a basic truth for anyone willing to look deep enough. It’s not something you’re supposed to believe in. It’s a philosophical truth. It’s something that you can actually see, if you’ve got the courage, because it’s unsettling to the normal way of looking at the world.
   
Gene: It is indeed. In the next part, she says - “I am the Aeon to come. I am the fulfillment of the All, that is, Meirothea, the glory of the Mother. I cast voiced Speech into the ears of those who know me.”
   
David: She’s stating clearly that she is the Aeon to come, which is the culmination of the divine plan. And that she’ll be able to directly communicate with those who have “ears to hear,” the ones that “know her.”
   
Gene: That’s called the “Aeon of Barbelo,” in some of the other Gnostic texts.
   
29:42 Invitation to Initiation
   
David: Right. The next part is her invitation to participate in this New Age. She says - “And I am inviting you into the exalted, perfect Light. Moreover, (as for) this (Light), when you enter it, you will be glorified by those who give glory, and those who enthrone will enthrone you. You will accept robes from those who give robes, and the baptizers will baptize you, and you will become gloriously glorious, the way you first were when you were (Light).”
   
Gene: You know, when I read that, it made me think about people who actually see those things… angels and such. And I believe that some people do, my dad even had an experience like that, and he was the most down to earth person I’ve ever known.
   
David: Did he tell lots of people about it?
   
Gene: No, just me and my sister, I think.
   
David: I believe that people have those experiences, too. But, I also think that those are the sort of things you shouldn’t talk about.
   
Gene: “Pearls before swine.”
   
David: Right. They’ll get devalued, or you’ll use it to build up your ego. And, in my way of thinking, it’s when your ego, or your sense of separation, thins or goes away, when you have those experiences.
   
Gene: It’s sort of like you’ve vacated a space for it, made room for it to enter your mind, and your experience.
   
David: Yeah, that’s how I think about those things. But, all that aside, esoterically, the “thrones” are the places of authority previously held by the Archons, who have now been dethroned. The “robes” are the “body of light” our etheric bodies for each of the four worlds that have been purified - the “new appearance” that we were promised earlier. And the “baptizers” are our initiators, the “Sons of Light,” from the previous part, those that first glimpse the truth, before it becomes conscious - the ones that lead us into the light of Gnosis.
   
Gene: And, in an esoteric sense, all of those things are inside us.
   
David: Exactly.
   
Gene: And, the way it’s worded there, too. It’s no longer her talking down to someone from above. It’s like an equal inviting equals.
   
David: Yeah, it represents an elevation to another state.
   
Gene: It’s describing a spiritual initiation ceremony - something that happens inside yourself, in which you become someone else and take on a new name and a new identity.
   
David: That’s good. The next part is basically a summary of the Second Descent. It says - “And I hid myself in everyone and revealed myself within them, and every mind seeking me longed for me, for it is I who gave shape to the All when it had no form. And I transformed their forms into (other) forms, until the time when a form will be given to the All.”
   
Gene: That’s really a message of hope. It’s saying that she’s within everyone, just waiting to reveal herself to those who long for her company. And when she does reveal herself, she transforms you into something new, something more god-like.
   
David: And because it’s inside, it’s not something that someone else can do for you. It can’t be transferred, bought or sold. It’s just lying there, beneath the surface, waiting to be discovered by each individual.
   
Gene: But once you do, it’s like a bread crumb trail that leads you back to the source, to the place you came from.
   
David: Yes. It’s an organic process that unfolds from within, if you let it.
   
Gene: Are you ready for the last part?
   
David: I am.
   
33:13 Voice of the Holy Spirit
   
Gene: I’m going to break the last quote into two parts. There’s some missing parts in here too, which I’ll just skip over.
   
David: OK.
   
Gene: It starts with the Protennoia saying - “It is through me that the Voice originated, and it is I who put the breath within my own. And I cast into them the eternally Holy Spirit…”
   
David: She’s saying that she is the breath behind the Voice, the Father, but also the container of the Voice, the womb, the Mother. And through her, the Holy Spirit is born within each person.
   
Gene: She says she breathes her life force into it. Sort of like how the Demiurge stole the life force from Sophia and then breathed it into Adam. But here, she shares it willingly.
   
David: And it again calls to mind Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit.  I’ve got a quote from the Bible that relates to that, too.
   
Gene: OK.
   
David: It’s John 14:16-17 where Jesus says - "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever -the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”
   
Gene: That dovetails into the concluding passage of the Second Descent in which the Protennoia says - “and I ascended and entered my Light. I went up upon my branch and sat there among the Sons of the holy Light. And I withdrew to their dwelling place which [...] become glorious [...]. Amen.”
   
David: The ones who know and accept the “advocate” are the “Sons of the Holy Light.”
   
Gene: Right. That’s a perfect fit. I also like the imagery of the Tree, with her taking up permanent residence on a branch, like she’s a bird, or maybe like an angel.
   
David: Or a lofty thought. And there’s the implication that this is the “Tree of Life” as opposed to the “Tree of Death,” from the earlier passage. The “Tree of Death” being rooted in the idea of separation, and the “Tree of Life” being one rooted in the Thought of the Unchangable Aeon, the Truth of our connection to the stream of life, to God.
   
Gene: And so, the branch that she sits on, her new home, is really a “higher place,” within yourself - one with a different perspective, where you can look down on things. She says she sits there “among the Sons of the Holy Light.”
   
David: It’s the “stable place” inside we’ve been talking about - the perspective where nothing changes. You could even call it the throne of the Unchanging Aeon, because if you can sit there with her, take on that perspective, that means you’re like her, one of the “Sons of the Holy Light.” And then you’re able to see the “Unchanging Aeon.”
   
Gene: You’ve weathered the Apocalypse and made it to the other side.
   
David: Exactly. That’s all I’ve got for today.
   
Gene: Drop the mic. I think we’re done.
   
36:05 Conclusions
    
David: Alright. Before we conclude, I want to again remind everyone that I’ve included links to more information on the topics we’ve discussed, links to the books and online versions of the translations we’re using, and many other resources, in the Show Notes. So Gene, what did you think about this part?
    
Gene: It blew me away. I mean, it’s hard to describe just how much I felt like I connected with it. We’ve covered a lot of abstract concepts, but this was more down to earth and relatable… at least to me.
    
David: Yeah, me too. The realization that it’s doing the process on you that it’s describing… you know, implanting the idea of unity - and that it’s the seed idea that kicks off the whole transformation.
    
Gene: That sounds so simple. And people say it pretty much casually, “Like, we’re all One man! Kumbaya!”
    
David: It’s easy to say, but it’s not a simple idea to really believe in, unless you have a direct experience of it. But this is just a fact, it is the core idea behind all true spiritual systems - that there’s a unity behind our apparent multiplicity. 
    
Gene: It’s a deep philosophical truth. 
    
David: Because the implication is that if you look deep enough inside yourself, you’ll see all of the forces, good and bad, inside you - that play out in other people, and in the world.
    
Gene: And that’s a hard mirror to look into. We all want to hold onto our special-ness, which is a kind of blindness. It makes me think David Bowie’s line from “Changes” - “I turned myself to face me, but I never caught a glimpse.”
    
David: It’s hard. I think of the Wolfgang Goethe quote that says - “There is no crime of which I cannot conceive myself guilty.” That is real self-awareness.
    
Gene: That’s like the Johnny Cash song “The Beast in Me.” All of these texts are meant to encourage you to become more and more self-reflective… to be able to see, and think about your own thought processes, and how those came to be, which leads back to the underlying truth of unity - it’s inescapable.
    
David: Right. And the Gnosis experience, the one that changes your perception of the world, is the direct experience of knowing that the same consciousness, the one consciousness, is looking out of everyone’s eyes.
    
Gene: “We’re one, but we’re not the same.” U2.
    
David: I know. Anything else?
    
Gene: That’s all I’ve got.
    
David: Me, too.
    
Gene: Alright. In our next episode, we will conclude our discussion of the “Trimorphic Protennoia,” the “Three Forms of First Thought.”