to be yearning to better know the Barbelo. Hymn 5: Thanksgiving to the Barbelo is easily the shortest of the Hymns and is the final Hymn on the Second Stele. It roughly reads, “You have heard!… You have Saved!...We give thanks! We praise Always! We will glorify you!” As the title indicates, this section serves as a thanks to the Barbelo for acquainting itself with the Immovable Race. Stele 3 Stele 3 assumes the collective voice of the immovable race of the Gnostics, offspring of Seth. Hymn 6: Collective thanksgiving and petition to Barbelo the parent Begins the third Stele and begins with a rhythm that is very reminiscent of the fifth Hymn. This Hymn, while continuing the trend of praise for the great parent Barbelo is also much more contemplative than the previous Hymns. It attempts to make more claims about the Barbelo and how only it knows itself, through itself. This hymn also takes on the voice of more than just Seth and Adam (“We all Praise you”) Hymn 7: Collective Thanksgiving to the Barbelo adopts the same plurality of voice as the sixth hymn and this time discusses their salvation through means of intellect bestowed by the Barbelo. The trends of the Barbelo being contained within itself, being before and after itself, and generally a superior glorified being continue in this final hymn. The nature of the actual wording of the final two Hymns couples with the plural voice seems to indicate that these Hymns are specifically suited for use within a large congregation of gnostics in order to thank the Barbelo for salvation through knowledge. Dositheus’s Directions for Use of the Hymns: The Mystical Ascent This final section refers to the mystical ascent of the soul back to the Pleroma within Barbelo described in Zostrianos. The Silence referred to is the climax moment of contemplation in ascension, where the soul resides in the third and highest realm within Barbelo, at which point the descension back to the first realm where Adam and Seth reside begins, blessing the other realms on the way down. The text indicates that those who remember and recite the tablets and always glorifies the Barbelo will ascend to the Pleroma, where they rightly should be. References 3rd-century Christian texts Sethian texts Nag Hammadi library