Within the Nag Hammadi Library, thought to have been written during the first two centuries c.e., are ancient texts written by a group who called themselves the Gnostics. June Singer has recast the wisdom found in these texts into a book of hours, the traditional framework for an ongoing meditative practice. Its purpose is to enable readers to maintain an awareness of the presence of the divine mystery within the everyday world.A Gnostic Book of Hours is divided into eight offices or prayers for different parts of the day: matins (midnight), lauds (daybreak), prime (beginning of the workday), terce, sext, none (the little hours during the work day), vespers (sundown) and compline (retiring to sleep). For each office, Singer has selected a text for each day of the week. She annotates and interprets the ancient text and makes it relevant to today's readers. There are many paths to the holy, writes Singer, and each of us must find our own. Each path leads through differing labyrinthine ways. Yet all come to the same center, the kingdom within. There the nameless One who is called by many names awaits us. "A complete program for daily meditation. "A perfect tool for serious spiritual seekers. "Brings ancient mystical texts into context for contemporary readers.

Scientists and mystics throughout history have realized that every human being is a carrier of opposite and complementary life energies. Given a variety of names -- yin and yang, poetic and rational, emotional and intellectual, feminine and masculine -- these energies exist in everyone, regardless of sex. Androgyny involves recognizing the eternal flux of these opposing energies within us.

On a journey that takes us through Taoism, Gnosticism, Kabbalah, Alchemy, Astrology, Tibetan Tantra, Kundalini Yoga, and the works of Plato, Freud, and Jung, June Singer shows how crucial awareness of the androgynous soul has been to those inquiring into the mysteries of human nature. Consciousness of our own androgyny can lead to a new sense of personal unity within the larger universe. It is no accident that men and women today are expressing previously undeveloped sides of their natures.

One of the most thorough investigations of the subject in the current literature, Androgyny is full of psychological and spiritual insights that speak to today's sexual confusion. Singer shows how we can embrace both complementary and contradictory attitudes toward sex and gender. Finally, she proposes a range of choices by which we can identify ourselves, secure that the masculine/feminine interaction within each of us is not only normal but the dynamic factor in our wholeness.