The concept

Where the Matrix of the Mind is consciousness itself — unmoving, and reaching — the Potentiator of the Mind is what it reaches into. Ra names it poetically as the High Priestess, and defines it plainly: it is that which potentiates all experience for the mind (78.34). It is not an actor. The Potentiator is a resource, a capacity — the deep unconscious into which consciousness dips in order to create, ideate, and become more self-conscious (79.20).

Ra keeps this archetype distinct from the actual mechanics of incarnation. The potential for a given incarnational experience resides not in the archetypal mind but in the mind/body/spirit complex's insertion into a particular physical vehicle and planetary environment, carrying an element of randomness proportional to how new that complex is to third density (92.11). The Potentiator of the Mind is not that mechanism; it is the archetype that lets an adept articulate and grasp it (92.11, 92.12).

Ra illustrates the archetype's working through the example of the infant, in whom the significant self — the harvest of biases from all previous incarnations — is already highly developed, while the Potentiators of Mind and Body are both involved in the infant's questing for new experience (92.18). Even so, Ra qualifies this: not every action of a mind/body/spirit complex traces back to the mind's potentiating quality alone, since body and, at times, spirit also potentiate action, and as an entity grows aware of its own evolution, more of what precipitates activity shifts to the archetypes of Transformation (92.19). What the Potentiator reaches for is recorded by the Matrix, but experienced by the Significator — and how well it is experienced depends on the acuity of that entity's Catalyst and Experience (92.34).

The image

Ra affirms a deliberate polarity in the card's imagery: the Matrix of the Mind is attracted to the biological male, the Potentiator of the Mind to the biological female — in general terms, that which reaches is a male principle, and that which awaits the reaching is a female principle (92.20). The veiled figure sits between two pillars carrying identical imagery, one shaded darker than the other; Ra confirms this depicts polarity as integral to the structure the Potentiator inhabits. The unfed mind, like intelligent infinity, has no polarity of its own — polarity is not the Matrix's choice but a design it must accept as given (92.22), and the Creator is no respecter of which pillar is chosen, offering itself in full to either (92.24).

The half-hidden book on the figure's lap is Ra's most pointed image: the feminine principle of mind is itself the book, related to sanctified sexuality, which neither principle may use until the male principle has reached and symbolically penetrated its inner secrets — a great dynamic tension between Matrix and Potentiator (92.25). Ra also corrects a reading of the figure as dominant over the material world beneath her: rather, she is immanent, near at hand within all manifestation, offering numerous opportunities for the reaching — but the Potentiator itself never enters manifestation (92.27). The crescent moon on her crown, though not part of Ra's original image, is accepted as without significant distortion (92.28); the ankh at her throat, by contrast, Ra confirms outright as the correct symbol (92.29), one that illuminates the continuation, beyond incarnation, of the consciousness being potentiated within it (92.30). The grapes on her mantle were part of the original image, signifying the fertility of the subconscious mind (92.31, 92.32) — though Ra adds that the mantle covering them protects: to bear fruit is a protected activity (92.32).

Working with the archetype

Ra's general method applies here as with any archetype: study it as an individual concept complex, then in pairs, with attention to the polarity of male and female principle (89.19) — and, once a discipline is sufficiently mastered, move beyond the written to express one's own understanding of the archetypal mind (76.9). The Potentiator of the Mind is, by its own definition, a resource that only awaits — it does no reaching of its own. Its protective imagery underscores that potentiation cannot be forced; it bears fruit only under its own protection.

In Ra's words

The Potentiator, named and defined:

You see here the recapitulation of the beginning knowledge of this Logos; that is, Matrix and Potentiator. The unconscious is, indeed, what may be poetically described as High Priestess, for it is the Potentiator of the Mind, and as potentiator for the mind is that principle which potentiates all experience.

78.34.3-4

What the pre-incarnative potential is, and what it is not:

The amount of randomness of potential catalyst is proportional to the newness of the mind/body/spirit complex to third density.

This, then, becomes a portion of that which you may call a potential for incarnational experience. This is, indeed, carried within that portion of the mind which is of the deep mind, the architecture of which may be envisioned as being represented by that concept complex known as the Potentiator.

It is not in the archetypical mind of an entity that the potential for incarnational experience resides, but in the mind/body/spirit complex’s insertion, shall we say, into the energy web of the physical vehicle and the chosen planetary environment.

92.11.4-7

Male and female principle in the card's imagery:

Firstly, as we have said, the Matrix of the Mind is attracted to the biological male and the Potentiator of the Mind to the biological female. Thusly in energy transfer the female is able to potentiate that which may be within the conscious mind of the male so that it may feel enspirited.

In a more general sense, that which reaches may be seen as a male principle; that which awaits the reaching may be seen as a female principle.

92.20.2-4

The book that neither principle may use until the veil between them is crossed:

The very nature of the feminine principle of mind which, in Ra’s suggestion, was related specifically to what may be termed sanctified sexuality is, itself, without addition, the book which neither the feminine nor the male principle may use until the male principle has reached and penetrated, in a symbolically sexual fashion, the inner secrets of this feminine principle.

All robes, in this case indicating the outer garments of custom, shield these principles. Thusly there is great dynamic tension, if you will, betwixt the Matrix and the Potentiator of the Mind.

92.25.4-6