This hymn or poem is an important Gnostic text and should be essential reading for anyone interested in early mystical literature. Also known as "The Hymn of the Pearl", it is an allegorical tale. Instead of an outer journey, as it first seems, it is interpreted here as a deeper, inner one. It contains a message that can be quite profound, depending on the reader's level of spiritual understanding. This book works on the inner psyche, creating an interactive balance, in some cases, between the upper (hidden) and lower (physical) worlds. That was the aim of many Gnostic stories, poems and parables. With that in mind, this book has much to offer.

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 this ancient mystical religion based on an intuitive process of knowing oneself and the hidden aspects of life and existence. Upon the publication of the 100-year anniversary edition of the series, the appeal for this same material remains stronger than ever.

The original title of this beautiful Gnostic Poem has been lost, and it is now generally referred to as The Hymn of the Soul. Preuschen, however, calls it The Song of Deliverance (Das Lied von der Erlösung); while in my Fragments (1900) I ventured to name it The Hymn of the Robe of Glory. I here, also, prefer to retain this title, as it seems the more appropriate.The original text of the Poem is in Old Syriac, in lines of twelve syllables with a cæsura, and so in couplets, for the most part of six syllables. A text of a Greek version has recently been discovered by Bonnet at Rome (C. Vallicellanus B. 35) and published in his text of The Acts of Thomas (1903). It is partly literal, partly paraphrastic, with occasional doublets and omissions of whole lines. In addition there is a summary in Greek by a certain Nicetas, Archibishop of Thessalonica, who flourished prior to the XIth century (the date of the MS. in which his abridgment is found), but who is otherwise unknown. This seems to be based on another Greek version.The copy of the original Syriac text is found in a single MS. only (Brit. Mus. Add. 14645), which contains a collection of Lives of Saints, and bears the precise date 936 A.D. Our Poem is found in the text of the Syriac translation from the Greek of The Acts of Judas Thomas the Apostle; it has, however, evidently nothing to do with the original Greek text of these Acts, and its style and contents are quite foreign to the rest of the matter. It is manifestly an independent document incorporated by the Syrian redactor, who introduces it in the usual naïve fashion of such compilations.

George Robert Stowe Mead (1863-1933) was a major translator, editor, and commentator on Gnostic and hermetic literature and thus a pivotal figure linking the late 19th-century esoteric revival to 20th-century art, literature, and psychology. As a young convert to the new movement of theosophy, he served as private secretary to its co-founder, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, and after founding the European section of the Theosophical Society edited its London journal, Lucifer, for many years. Mead's initial interest in theosophy and Hinduism soon blossomed into a lifelong and wide-ranging engagement with the texts of Gnosticism, neo-Platonism, and hermeticism. His editions and commentaries on previously inaccessible sources became standard works before the First World War and an important source of inspiration to such figures as Jung, Ezra Pound, Yeats, and Robert Duncan. A new entry in the Western Masters Series of concise biographies noting key figures in the Western esoteric tradition, G.R.S. Mead and the Gnostic Quest introduces Mead's life, works, and influences, combining a substantial biography with a collection of his most important writings.