XV
The Matrix of the Spirit
The Devil · The Spirit
Archetype XV · Matrix · The Spirit
The primeval darkness before illumination — spirit's night, mistaken for evil only because it cannot yet be seen.
“We do not wish to be facile in such a central query, but we may note that the nature of the spirit is so infinitely subtle that the fructifying influence of light upon the great darkness of the spirit is very often not as apparent as the darkness itself. … Therefore, the melody, shall we say, of this Matrix often seems to be of a negative and evil, as you would call it, nature.”
Ra · 80.10 · read in context ›
The contact ended before Ra walked the spirit cycle through the card-by-card image work given the mind; what follows draws on session eighty's direct run-through of this Matrix.
The concept
The spirit cycle takes the tarot's third seven, cards fifteen through twenty-one (). Its Matrix, the Devil, is what Ra names outright: the Night of the Soul, or Primeval Darkness — again a station incapable of movement or work, as the Matrix of the Mind is unmoved before its Potentiator is reached into (). But where the mind's stillness is a foundation waiting to be dipped into, the spirit's stillness resists being characterized at all. Spirit's energies, though the most profound of the three complexes, move less than mind's or body's, so the Matrix here is described as the deepest darkness and its Potentiator, Lightning, as the most sudden awakening and illumination the system offers ().
Ra develops that darkness through moonlight rather than sunlight. The adept's spiritual work is an excursion into hidden things illuminated only by a light that can deceive as well as uncover — few adepts grasp the light of the sun outright, and most work by moonlight, which shows a true picture in shadow or shows chimera (, ). The difficulty compounds because of what the adept is doing at the same time: gaining freedom from the opinions and bonds of other-selves, in service to others or to self, is a necessary part of waking up, yet that same freedom looks like evil to those still bound by it. The disassociation involved may be true separation from other-selves, or its opposite — a deeper association with the heart of all other-selves, reached by disassociating only from the illusory husks that obscure that unity (, ).
Working with the archetype
This darkness is not aimless; it is bound to a next station. The disassociation an adept undergoes is most often linked to the archetype Ra prefers to call Faith rather than Hope, its Catalyst, which begins reshaping the adept's viewpoint once the Potentiator of the Spirit has done its illuminating work (). Ra's general instruction for working with any archetype pair still applies here: study each station on its own, then paired with its neighbor, attending to the polarity each carries, before attempting the advanced practice of clothing one's self within it ().
In Ra's words
The naming that gives this archetype its character:
The Matrix of the Spirit is what you may call the Night of the Soul, or Primeval Darkness. Again we have that which is not capable of movement or work. The potential power of this extremely receptive Matrix is such that the Potentiator may be seen as Lightning.
Why the spirit's darkness resists the mind's kind of description:
The Matrix of the Spirit is difficult to characterize since the nature of spirit is less motile. The energies and movements of the spirit are, by far, the most profound, yet, having more close association with time/space, do not have the characteristics of dynamic motion. Thusly one may see the Matrix as the deepest darkness and the Potentiator of Spirit as the most sudden awakening, illuminating, and generative influence.
Why an adept's own freedom can look like evil to those not yet free:
It is also to be noted that an adept is one which has freed itself more and more from the constraints of the thoughts, opinions, and bonds of other-selves. Whether this is done for service to others or service to self, it is a necessary part of the awakening of the adept. This freedom is seen by those not free as what you would call evil or black. The magic is recognized; the nature is often not.
The Matrix elsewhere: the Matrix of the Mind · the Matrix of the Body
Study passages
Could you elaborate please on the nature and quality of the Matrix and the Potentiator?
Now, the fifteenth archetype, which is the Matrix of the Spirit, has been called the Devil. Can you tell me why that is so?
I would like to try and understand the archetypes of the mind of this Logos prior to the extension of the First Distortion. In order to better understand that which we experience now I believe that this is a logical approach. We have, as you have stated, the Matrix, Potentiator, and the Significator. I understand the Matrix as being that which is the conscious, what we call the conscious mind, but since it is also that from which the mind is made, I am at a loss to fully understand these three terms, especially with respect to the time before there was a division between conscious and unconscious. I think it is important to get a good understanding of these three things. Could you expand even more upon the Matrix of the Mind, the Potentiator, and the Significator, how they differ, and what their relationships are, please?
I am sorry for my lack of penetration of these mechanisms, and I apologize for some rather stupid questions, but I think we have here a point that is somewhat central to what we are presently attempting to understand. So even though my next questions may be almost unacceptably stupid, I will attempt to try to understand what this power that our visitor seeks is and how he uses it. For it seems to me that this is central to the mind and the evolution of it in which we are involved. As this entity that is our visitor increases his power through these works, what is the power that he increases? Can you describe it?