Messengers of the Light

This music has its heritage in ancient Gnosticism. To set the context, consider this: Sixty-four years ago in this month of December, 1945, two poor Egyptian brothers were digging for fertilizer near the limestone caves of Upper Egypt. It was a place called Nag Hammadi. The older brother, Mohammed Ali Samman, came upon a large earthenware vessel containing twelve leather-bound codices. He disregarded the find at first, being disappointed there was no gold in the jar. And later, his mother even used some of the documents to build a fire for tea! But eventually he gave the treasure to a priest who sent them off to Cairo to be examined.

Soon, the world was to learn that this treasure contained fifty-two ancient Gnostic scriptures dating back to the first century after Christ. It also contained three texts belonging to the spiritual cousins of the Gnostics, the Egyptian Hermeticists. And, it contained a portion of Plato’s Republic. But why were these manuscripts hidden in a jar and buried in the desert of Upper Egypt?

Scholars tell us that the Gnostics were considered to be heretics by the church authorities of the time. They had begun to methodically erase the Gnostic presence from the earth. In the year, 367 AD, when Bishop Athanasius condemned anyone who used a scripture that was not accepted as part of the official canon of holy scriptures authorized by the Roman Catholic church, the Gnostics realized that they and their writings were about to be destroyed.

And so they took their copies of these scriptures and wrapped them in leather and buried them in a large earthenware vessel near the limestone caves of Nag Hammadi, Egypt. That was 1,642 years ago!

Sixty-four years ago the sacred texts were rediscovered. And it’s only been since the mid-1970’s since scholars really began to translate and study these amazing books. Their presence is just beginning to be felt in our culture today. We now have many books like Elaine Pagel’s Gnostic Gospels that are making their way through our culture, informing us about who the Gnostics were and what they knew by their experience.

And so tonight is an extension of that fantastic discovery in Nag Hammadi. The Gnostic vision of reality has been rekindled and contemporary Gnostics are carrying on the traditions learned from the ancients. Out of our experience has come this new music that extends and celebrates the Gnostic vision.
Our album is called Hymns of the Pearl; this title evokes the title of one of the most beautiful of all the Gnostic writings called The Hymn of the Pearl, a Syrian myth that tells the story of the descent of the spirit into a human body where it must awaken from the sleep into which it has fallen and remember its true home and origins, and its true purpose for being here in the material world.

The spirit, depicted as the son or daughter of the King and Queen of Heaven, having fallen into the darkness of the material world, must now leave the chummy surroundings of the tavern and search for the ancient dragon that guards the priceless pearl. The royal prodigy is to enchant the dragon and claim the pearl and take it back home to the heavenly realm.

Of course, this priceless pearl is a metaphor for the priceless attainment of enlightenment, and it is for this attainment that we have all been sent here, for we are all the children of the divine, and the knowledge and power of the divine is our true heritage and potential. We only have to put the dragon to sleep and claim that pearl. And that, of course, is the work of a lifetime.

And so these new Gnostic hymns are tools to aid you on your long journey back home to your true source. My hope is that they both inspire you and stimulate you to move forward in your path so that one day you can hold the priceless pearl in your hand and take it with you on your next adventure after this life ends.