# I. The Matrix of the Mind *Canonical page: https://ra.contact/archetypes/matrix-of-the-mind* The conscious mind before experience writes on it — that which reaches. Tarot name: The Magician. Cycle: mind. Station: Matrix. The card shows a male figure whose outstretched hand pours will outward; the wand laid across it is an astrological addition standing in for that gesture, while the sphere beside it marks the spiritual nature of what the will reaches toward (91.19). A caged bird with folded wings pictures a winged spirit that cannot fly until released into conscious manifestation (91.24), and the checkered ground beneath the figure is the image of polarity (91.23). Together the image reads as consciousness before experience writes on it: unmoving, undistorted, reaching outward through free will alone, with no inwardness yet to reach into (91.20). > The Matrix of the Mind is that which reaches … to intelligent infinity, Love, and all that follows from that Logos; to the Matrix or, shall we say, the conscious, waiting self of each entity > > — [92.13](https://ra.contact/sessions/92#92.13) ## The concept The mind cycle fills the tarot's first seven cards (77.12). Its stations run Matrix, Potentiator, Catalyst, Experience, Significator, Transformation, Great Way, and the Matrix of the Mind is the first of them — the tarot's Magician. It is not a symbol or a function to be decoded but a thing in itself, a significant ding an sich (78.33, 88.17): that from which all comes, unmoving, yet the activator in potentiation of all mind activity (79.20). The name explains itself — consciousness is the great foundation, mystery, and revelation that makes this density possible, and the self-conscious entity stands full of the magic of what is to come (78.33). Its Potentiator is the unconscious, the sea into which consciousness dips to create, ideate, and become more self-conscious (79.20). Ra reads the pair as a general polarity — that which reaches is a male principle, that which awaits the reaching a female principle (92.20) — echoing a larger pattern: the Matrix reaches for experience through free will just as intelligent energy, in its kinetic phase, reaches to create the Logos (92.13, 92.18). The veil changes how full that reaching starts out. A newborn's Matrix is new and undistorted, veiled from its Potentiator and ready for the incarnation to come (92.9), its only bias to reach, through free will, toward what experience will bring (92.18) — unlike the adult student's consciousness, already dipped, many times over, into potentiation, catalyst, experience, and transformation (91.33). ## The image In the Egyptian tarot Ra endorses, the Matrix is pictured as a male figure — read not chiefly as biological sex but as the male principle in general (91.18). The out-reaching hand carries the concept of will pouring from every facet of the image; the wand drawn across it Ra names an astrological addition standing in for the hand's own magical gesture, while the sphere near it Ra affirms as the excellent portion of the image, indicating the spiritual nature of the object of will (91.19). That hand reaches outward, not within — without potentiation the conscious mind has no inwardness to reach into (91.20). The caged bird, wings folded, is read through the wings' position: the Magician cannot act without reaching its winged spirit, which cannot fly until released into conscious manifestation (91.24). The checkered ground Ra confirms as the image of polarity, waiting to be tasted by the Matrix — the true source of a polarity elsewhere proposed as a cup, which Ra calls a later distortion (91.23, 91.28-91.30). A proposed sword and coin Ra affirms only as concepts — real struggle, real work accomplished — pictured by objects that do not themselves belong to Ra's original image (91.31-91.32). The star Ra discards outright, astrological and never part of the images designed to evoke the archetypal leitmotifs (91.25). The priests who first drew these cards worked under the influence of Chaldean astrology, so distortion entered before the images reached their present form (89.21); what remains still carries the ordinary residue of Egyptian costume and mythology (92.7). ## Working with the archetype Ra's general method applies to the Matrix as to the rest: study it first as an individual concept complex, then paired with its Potentiator, attending to the polarity each carries (89.19). Clothing one's self within the archetype — taking on its character rather than only considering it — is an advanced practice belonging to the adept long already at work with this system; it is not where the work begins (89.19). Short of that, Ra offers one concrete use: when the conscious mind is full to bursting with unmanageable ideas, so that further ideation stalls, the adept may call upon the new mind — untouched, without bias, without polarity, full of the magic of the Logos — and dwell within it (91.35). The archetypal mind generally is not the foundation of spiritual evolution but a tool for grasping it without distortion, a blueprint of real use to the adept when penetrated lucidly (91.36-91.37). ## In Ra's words The naming of the first archetype, and what makes it the Magician: > We now address your query as to the archetype which is the Matrix of the Mind. As to its name, the name of Magician is understandable when you consider that consciousness is the great foundation, mystery, and revelation which makes this particular density possible. The self-conscious entity is full of the magic of that which is to come. > > — [78.33.7-9](https://ra.contact/sessions/78#78.33) The wand and the sphere, read against the reaching hand Ra affirms as the true image: > The concept of will is indeed pouring forth from each facet of the image of the Matrix of the Mind. The wand, as the will, however, is, shall we say, an astrological derivative of the out-reaching hand forming the, shall we say, magical gesture. > > The excellent portion of the image—which may be seen distinctly as separate from the concept of the wand—is that sphere which indicates the spiritual nature of the object of the will of one wishing to do magical acts within the manifestation of your density. > > — [91.19.2-4](https://ra.contact/sessions/91#91.19) The distortion the priests carried into the images, traced to Chaldean astrology: > You are competent at viewing pictures. You have not yet grasped the nature of the Matrix of the Mind as fully as is reliably possible upon contemplation. We would note that the representations drawn by priests were somewhat distorted by acquaintance with and dependence upon the astrologically based teachings of the Chaldees. > > — [89.21.2-4](https://ra.contact/sessions/89#89.21) Clothing one's self within the archetype, named as advanced practice, and how the pairs are meant to be studied: > The clothing one’s self within the archetype is an advanced practice of the adept which has long studied this archetypical system. > > The concept complexes which together are intended to represent the architecture of a significant and rich portion of the mind are intended to be studied as individual concept complexes—as Matrix, Potentiator, etc.—in viewing mind/body/spirit connections; and in pairs with some concentration upon the polarity of the male and the female. > > If these are studied there comes the moment when the deep threnodies and joyful ditties of the deep mind can successfully be brought forward to intensify, articulate, and heighten some aspect of the magical personality. > > — [89.19.3-5](https://ra.contact/sessions/89#89.19) ## Study set - [78.33](https://ra.contact/sessions/78#78.33) - [79.20](https://ra.contact/sessions/79#79.20) - [89.21](https://ra.contact/sessions/89#89.21) - [91.18](https://ra.contact/sessions/91#91.18) - [92.13](https://ra.contact/sessions/92#92.13) - [92.20](https://ra.contact/sessions/92#92.20) --- Source: *The Ra Contact: Teaching the Law of One* — Don Elkins, Carla Rueckert, Jim McCarty, published by L/L Research (https://www.llresearch.org/). The transcript is quoted verbatim; Catalyst contributes the navigation, the lexicon and the guides. Citations are `session.question` — `14.7` is the seventh exchange of session 14, and reads at https://ra.contact/sessions/14#14.7. Any page's markdown twin is its URL plus `.md`.