I’d like to tell you three things about me...

My Experience as a Gnostic Priest

Relief on a tomb at Eleusis, c. 440 B.C.E.

I am an ordained Gnostic priest, a member of a vibrant community of “spiritual athletes” who take the spirit seriously, but not somberly! We call our community, The Pearl, after the ancient Gnostic myth often called the Song of the Pearl. To read about this myth in my book, see chapter 15. Gnostics believe we have our origins in another realm of existence—the Divine Light—and we are sent into this world of illusion to find our true origins and destiny. We are meant to realize the potential of the spark of divine Light, which is the spirit within us. This is a process of gaining more and more gnosis about reality, about the divine, and about our selves. You can read more about gnosis in the Introduction of my book, and about the spirit, the soul, and the self in chapter 8. To contact me at the Pearl, go to www.thepearl.org.

I am the clinical director of the counseling center at Marine Corps Air Station, Miramar in San Diego county. We work with active-duty Marines and their family members. Due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the separation of families, many members of our Marine community are under tremendous stress. As a mental health counselor, my work here is to assist my clients to find the source of life and healing within. My book, The Knowledge thatLeads to Wholeness, points to a way of accessing the deepest and truest part of ourselves where we can know what we need to know and find the healing for old wounds, and the power to realize our highest goals.

My roots in psychology are in Carl Jung (1875-1961), the Swiss psychologist who discovered that the psyche (Greek for “soul”) is an organ that opens up to a vast and unknown dimension of reality that is populated by real, autonomous beings. The way we experience these beings varies, but we all encounter them as archetypes, i.e. psychic forces that seem to be within us but have their own will and agenda. Jung loved the Gnostics whom he considered to be “pioneers of the psyche.” As a Gnostic depth psychologist, I understand that psychological and spiritual wholeness depends on our forming conscious relationships with the archetypes in such a way that they are integrated under the rule of the spirit.

Since I was 11 years old, I’ve played the guitar. I began writing songs in high school to cope with growing up in an unhealthy family. In my twenties, I began a music group called, Parousia, a Greek word meaning, “the presence,” or “the manifestation.” The early Christians used the word to refer to the second coming of Christ. I had dreamed of the word without any conscious knowledge as to its meaning. So I decided to name our band after the dream word. Now I realize that the dream was prophetic because the parousia points to the realization of psychological and spiritual wholeness, the theme of my book!

Music is a way for us all to connect to the deepest and best parts of ourselves. Today, I write songs to stimulate the search for gnosis. Many of my newest songs are available on the Pearl’s website: www.thepearl.org The focus is not on expensive musical production, but on the lyrics. I simply play the guitar and sing from the heart.

 

 

 

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