Echoes from the Gnosis

by G.R.S. Mead

Book Overview

Between 1906 and 1908, G. R. S. Mead published eleven small books under the series title "Echoes from the Gnosis." These books contain translations and interpretations of the Gnostic writings of the ancients. Long before the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Library, Mead translated these esoteric texts of various origins (Christian, Roman, Greek). He wanted to make this material accessible to the growing number of people at the time eager to encounter...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0835608417
• ISBN13: 9780835608411
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Quest Books (IL)
• Length: 560 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Pioneer translations of Gnosis by competent Theosophist

Echoes from the Gnosis: 100th Anniversary Edition of the Spiritual Classics by G.R.S. Mead edited by John Algeo, introduction Robert Gilbert, Commentary by Stephan Hoeller (Quest Books) Long before the mid-twentieth-century discovery of the Nag Hammadi Library, G. R. S. Mead had translated ancient Gnostic texts. Here in one book is the entire collection of his eleven volumes first published between 1906 and 1908, including "The Hymn of Jesus" and "The Wedding Song of Wisdom." Each Gnostic text has added historical background, source information, literary comment, and spiritual interpretation. Mead, who devoted his life to esoteric studies and was a pioneer in the Gnostic revival, uniquely understood the complex symbolism of his subject. The reader may be surprised to learn that some of these texts were originally not books, but instead initiatory mystery rituals. Editor John Algeo preserves Mead's own inspired language. To enhance the texts for today's readers, the volume includes new explanatory essays by contemporary Gnostic Stephan Hoeller and a biography by Robert Gilbert, a world authority on Mead. Newcomers, as well as those familiar with Gnosticism, will treasure this definitive edition for its accessible, deep insights into the visionary religion that is once more attracting spiritual seekers. George Robert Stow Mead was born at Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England, on March 22, 1863. He came from a military family--his father was a colonel in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps--but he chose to follow an academic career instead. From King's School, Rochester, he went up to St. John's College, Cambridge, to study mathematics but changed to classics, in which he graduated with a B.A. degree in 1884. In that same year, he joined the Theosophical Society and determined to devote his life to the cause of Theosophy. As a first step, he took up postgraduate study of Oriental philosophy at Oxford, but mundane necessity then led to his teaching classics at various minor "public schools" (which in England are exclusive and expensive private schools). During his vacations, Mead worked as a volunteer at the London headquarters of the Theosophical Society, at 17 Lansdowne Road in Bayswater, and on one of his visits, in May 1887, he first met H. P. Blavatsky. He was at once captivated, and two years later HPB repaid his devotion by giving him her absolute trust and appointing him her private secretary. Mead recalled after her death, "She handed over to me the charge of all her keys, of her MSS., her writing desk and the nests of drawers in which she kept her most private papers; not only this, but she . . . absolutely refused to be bothered with her letters, and made me take over her voluminous correspondence, and that too without opening it first herself" ("Concerning H.P.B." 135). In addition to handling HPB's correspondence, Mead also edited most of her later published works, and acted, without acknowledg¬ment, as assistant editor of her magazine Lucifer, fo