Zedek (aka Robert Lloyd) - Songwriter and co-producer
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. 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.
I work at the counseling center at Marine Corps Air Station, Miramar in San Diego county, 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 and our CD, Hymns of the Pearl,point 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.
As a musician, songwriter, and member of The Messengers of the Light, I welcome you all to sample our music and let the message lead you on the path to gnosis, where you discover who you truly are, where you've come from, why you're here, and where you are going when you leave this planet.