<p> This study explored one aspect of religious life, prayer, at a dynamic time in human development, adolescence. This phenomenology examined the experience of adolescent prayer among those who subscribed to Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Eighteen high school seniors from two Minnesota high schools, six from each religious group, completed a 7-day journal identifying and explaining their prayer experiences. After, each adolescent participated in a conversational interview with the researcher further exploring their individual prayer experiences. Journal and interview data were analyzed according transcendental phenomenology methods to create a synthesis of the adolescent prayer experience. Five themes of adolescent prayer were identified in the differing categories of human experience: (a) fitting prayer into adolescent life, (b) prayer's connection with the divine, (c) building identity through prayer, (d) emotional transitions from prayer, and (e) prayer as a coping method. In the end, a cyclical model of the adolescent prayer experience was created describing how prayer leads to the solidification of identity, emotional change, and a readiness to cope during everyday life.</p>

<p> The alchemical hermeneutic methodology utilizes a depth psychological understanding of alchemical operations as an interpretive lens. These processes, viewed from a depth psychological perspective, become the hermeneutical foci through which to interpret select spiritual texts. Following Jung and Romanyshyn, this dissertation further develops an alchemical hermeneutic, and utilizes this textual approach in the interpretation of four texts/traditions in order to create new horizons of meaning, expand the reader&rsquo;s relationship to text and self at personal and transpersonal levels, as well as broaden, deepen, and define a more psychologically sophisticated approach to certain spiritual texts. This multipaper theoretical dissertation discusses this hermeneutic process and uses the alchemical approach in the interpretation of the following texts and traditions: The <i>Yoga S&umacr;tras</i> of Pata&ntilde;jali, <i> The Dark Night</i> by John of the Cross, and select passages on the heart from the <i>Upanis&dotbelow;ads</i> and Eastern Christian spirituality.</p>

<p> In searching for restorative stories that elevate understanding and engender the capacity for seeing through the cultural chaos and confusion of modern times, this dissertation turns to Egypt at the beginning of its recorded history, approximately 3100 BCE. The ancient Egyptians faced many of the same challenges facing the world today, and they learned to weather them by creating a resilient cultural model that endured cycles of growth and decline. Their culture perpetuated while adapting and transforming. In their surviving records are some of their rituals, practices, and beliefs that provide much-needed perspectives, observations, and stories that contributed to their own renewal and capacity to regenerate their culture. </p><p> The mythological roots of renewal in ancient Egypt reveals one deity in particular who embodies the capacity to harmonize and balance the opposites&mdash;Ma&lsquo;at. She is central to the act of fostering daily reciprocal relationship and maintaining the flow of energy between the divine and the human realms. She is both the daughter of the solar god Re and his source of life. She is the embodiment of the cosmic patterns and natural laws. She is the incarnation of the offerings to the gods and their reciprocal response flowing back to the human realm. She governs the tides of justice, truth, balance, and harmony. </p><p> The collective psyche&rsquo;s inherent capacity for renewal and resilience is revealed through Ma&lsquo;at&rsquo;s story and prominence in Egyptian history. Their images and literature reveal that in the presence of Ma&lsquo;at, it is possible for human consciousness to discover the transcendent space where opposites reconcile to initiate new harmony, create unity, and guide all things to their rightful place. Balancing and harmonizing any duality creates a continuous circulation of energy in the psyche. This circulation has the potential to birth a conscious, ethical heart, an awakened heart which&mdash;as these ancient people would say&mdash;directs our saying and our doing. By recognizing Ma&lsquo;at&rsquo;s essential characteristics, understanding her relationship with her fellow deities, and identifying her foundational role within the ancient Egyptian civilization it is possible to participate in the awakening of Ma&lsquo;at&rsquo;s roots of renewal in our own times.</p><p>