Dinner discussions are an informal time to meet and get to know each other, to discuss what we’re reading, ask questions, and share ideas and experiences.
During this time of home seclusion, we’ll meet using a Zoom video conference (see below for instructions and the giant, friendly yellow zoom button). Please organise some food to eat while we talk, so we still observe the convention of eating together.
Trimorphic Protennoia
After our deep dive into the mysterious territory of the Secret Book of John, we’ve decided to move into some study of related texts, beginning with Trimorphic Protennoia, or The Three Forms of the First Thought.
The text is another text from the Nag Hammadi corpus (there is a single version in Codex XIII, no other copies of this text survive). It’s classified as “Sethian” material, so it’s within the same tradition as Secret John and several other texts.
In some ways, Trimorphic Protennoia expands and augments some ideas in Secret John, so it forms an interesting next step. Like Secret John, it’s dense and complex, though it’s a great deal shorter.
In this first session, we’ll begin the task of unpacking it. It’s likely this will take more than one session.
How to access the text
Versions of the texts are available in most published collections. It’s in The Nag Hammadi Library and The Gnostic Bible, so you may already have it.
Several translations are also available at The Gnostic Society Library:
- Willis Barnstone’s quite readable translation which is published in The Gnostic Bible
- John Turner’s slightly older translation is also good. This scholarly, annotated version of the same translation references the original manuscript and makes clear which words are guesses because parts of the text are damaged.
Please RSVP by email.
Event Details
How to join
Please try to make sure you have headphones with a microphone so any noise in your environment is kept to a minimum. If you can’t, then stay in muted mode unless you’re speaking. You can also turn your video off (use the camera button) if it’s more comfortable.
To join in, you need to have Zoom installed –
- The Zoom web browser client will download automatically when you start or join your first Zoom meeting, so join a little earlier to give yourself time to install it.
- You can also manually download the Zoom Client for Meetings or a mobile app here: https://zoom.us/download
You can also connect by voice by dialling into one of the following numbers and using your Meeting ID (see above):
+61 3 7018 2005 Australia
+61 8 7150 1149 Australia
+61 2 8015 6011 Australia
+64 9 884 6780 New Zealand
+64 4 886 0026 New Zealand
(dial-in numbers for other countries)
This help article spells out how to download Zoom and join a call – if you’re unsure how to use it, take a look before the first call.
Image: Detail of the cover art of Old Souls Carnival by Medline
