Catalyst

Guides

Catalyst & Incarnation

Every experience is raw material for choosing, and each life is a deliberate forgetting that makes the choice count.

Every experience is raw material for choosing, and each life is a deliberate forgetting that makes the choice count.

In plain language

Ra calls every experience that comes to us — chosen or random, sweet or bitter — catalyst: the raw material of the spiritual life. By itself it does nothing; what matters is what we do with it. The same event can be used to grow in love or in control. The catalyst is neutral; the use is the choosing.

Two more pieces complete the picture. Karma, in Ra's account, is not punishment but inertia — actions set in motion keep rolling until forgiveness brakes the wheel (). And each incarnation begins in a forgetting: we arrive without the memory of our unity with the Creator, and that is precisely the point, since only choices made in the dark carry weight (). Overseeing it all is the Higher Self, described as one's own future self in mid-sixth density, which helps set each life's lessons but leaves the choosing to us (, ).

The teaching

How catalyst polarizes. All experience is meant to be either accepted and loved or else controlled; when neither path is taken, the catalyst fails its design and harder catalyst follows (). The polarity of the outcome turns on the use, not on the catalyst itself. Ra's worked example is anger (): the positive entity blesses the anger and works it in the mind until its randomness is understood, then accepts and integrates it; the negative entity funnels the same energy into control of others. Control is the key to the negative use of catalyst, acceptance the key to the positive — and that raw energy, left wholly unused, can even turn inward as disease ().

Karma as inertia. Ra describes karma as a kind of inertia: actions continue, balancing themselves, until a higher principle brakes them — and that braking is forgiveness, the two inseparable (). Karma is mechanical, not a moral debt; and because self and other-self are one, it is forgiveness that finally stops the wheel.

Why we forget. Ra grounds the forgetting in the image of a card game. Where every hand lies open, the play is harmonious but the player gains little polarity; only when the cards are hidden — a lifetime's loves, limitations, and griefs dealt face down — do the choices count. The game, Ra says, is won by those who lose their cards in the melting influence of love ().

The Higher Self and programming. The Higher Self is oneself in mid-sixth density, reaching back from one's own future (). It helps program a life's lessons, but its reach is bounded by free will: it is like a map on which the destination and the roads are well known, while the actual choices remain the entity's own (). The lessons it sets always concern other-selves and giving, rather than events and receiving ().

In Ra's words

The two paths every experience offers:

The catalyst, and all catalyst, is designed to offer experience. This experience in your density may be loved and accepted, or it may be controlled. These are the two paths. When neither path is chosen, the catalyst fails in its design, and the entity proceeds until catalyst strikes it which causes it to form a bias towards acceptance and love or separation and control.

Karma as inertia, and forgiveness as its brake:

Our understanding of karma is that which may be called inertia. Those actions which are put into motion will continue, using the ways of balancing, until such time as the controlling or higher principle, which you may liken unto your braking, or stopping, is invoked. This stoppage of the inertia of action may be called forgiveness. These two concepts are inseparable.

Why the forgetting is necessary — the lifelong card game:

This game can only be won by those who lose their cards in the melting influence of love; can only be won by those who lay their pleasures, their limitations, their all upon the table face up and say inwardly: “All, all of you players, each other-self, whatever your hand, I love you.”

This is the game: to know, to accept, to forgive, to balance, and to open the self in love. This cannot be done without the forgetting, for it would carry no weight in the life of the mind/body/spirit beingness totality.

The Higher Self as one's own future self:

You are existing at all levels simultaneously. It is specifically correct that your higher self is you in mid-sixth density and, in your way of measuring what you know of as time, your higher self is your self in your future.

In Ra's words — Suffering and Catalyst

Ra calls every experience the entity encounters — random or deliberate, sweet or bitter — catalyst: raw material programmed for the unique requirements of this mind/body/spirit complex, without which the desire to evolve and the faith in the process do not normally manifest (). The design of catalyst is simple: it is offered to be loved and accepted, or to be controlled and used for separation — those are the two paths — and when neither choice is made, the catalyst has failed its purpose and more follows (). Pain, Ra notes, is among the most common forms of catalyst, and it frequently goes awry, producing bitterness and hardening rather than patience (). The polarity of the entity does not determine what catalyst arrives but only how it is used: anger, Ra's worked example, can be consciously channeled toward acceptance and integration or toward control of other-selves, depending entirely on the entity's inner orientation (, ). Sometimes catalyst simply fails (). The collection then turns to karma — understood by Ra not as moral ledger but as inertia, the continuation of motion already put into action — which is stopped by a single mechanism: forgiveness (). That forgiveness must include the self as thoroughly as it includes the other: one who has set an action in motion may forgive itself and never again make that error, and this too brakes the karmic wheel (). Forgiveness of other-self and forgiveness of self are, in Ra's account, one motion (). Ra's account of Jesus on the cross illustrates this stopping of the wheel at the moment of full forgiveness (). The collection closes with a concrete case: an entity who chose, before incarnation, a program of suffering deliberately designed to cultivate compassion through the absence of its ordinary supports ().

The passages

— Why catalyst is needed at all

The purpose of incarnative existence is evolution of mind, body, and spirit. In order to do this it is not strictly necessary to have catalyst. However, without catalyst the desire to evolve and the faith in the process do not normally manifest, and thus evolution occurs not.

Therefore, catalyst is programmed, and the program is designed for the mind/body/spirit complex for its unique requirements. Thus it is desirable that a mind/body/spirit complex be aware of and hearken to the voice of its experiential catalyst, gleaning from it that which it incarnated to glean.

— The two uses of catalyst, and what happens when neither is chosen

The catalyst, and all catalyst, is designed to offer experience. This experience in your density may be loved and accepted, or it may be controlled. These are the two paths. When neither path is chosen, the catalyst fails in its design, and the entity proceeds until catalyst strikes it which causes it to form a bias towards acceptance and love or separation and control. There is no lack of space/time in which this catalyst may work.

— The catalyst of pain, and how it goes awry

The pain may be of the physical complex. More often it is of the mental and emotional complex. In some few cases the pain is spiritual in complex-nature. This creates a potential for learning. The lessons to be learned vary. Almost always these lessons include patience, tolerance, and the ability for the light touch.

Very often the catalyst for emotional pain, whether it be the death of the physical complex of one other-self which is loved or some other seeming loss, will simply result in the opposite: in a bitterness, an impatience, a souring. This is catalyst which has gone awry. In these cases, then, there will be additional catalyst provided to offer the unmanifested self further opportunities for discovering the self as all-sufficient Creator containing all that there is and full of joy.

— Use determines outcome, not polarity

The catalytic mechanisms are dependent not upon the chosen polarity of a mind/body/spirit complex, but upon the use, or purpose, to which this catalysis is put. Thus the entity which uses the experience of anger to polarize consciously, positively or negatively, does not experience the bodily catalyst but rather uses the catalyst in mental configuration.

— Anger: the worked example of positive and negative use

The entity polarizing positively perceives the anger. This entity, if using this catalyst mentally, blesses and loves this anger in itself. It then intensifies this anger consciously in mind alone until the folly of this red-ray energy is perceived, not as folly in itself, but as energy subject to spiritual entropy due to the randomness of energy being used.

Positive orientation then provides the will and faith to continue this mentally intense experience of letting the anger be understood, accepted, and integrated with the mind/body/spirit complex. The other-self which is the object of anger is thus transformed into an object of acceptance, understanding, and accommodation, all being reintegrated using the great energy which anger began.

The negatively oriented mind/body/spirit complex will use this anger in a similarly conscious fashion, refusing to accept the undirected, or random, energy of anger and instead, through will and faith, funneling this energy into a practical means of venting the negative aspect of this emotion so as to obtain control over other-self or otherwise control the situation causing anger.

Control is the key to negatively polarized use of catalyst. Acceptance is the key to positively polarized use of catalyst. Between these polarities lies the potential for this random and undirected energy creating a bodily complex analog of what you call the cancerous growth of tissue.

— Sometimes catalyst simply fails

In many cases catalyst is not used.

— Karma as inertia, forgiveness as the brake

Our understanding of karma is that which may be called inertia. Those actions which are put into motion will continue, using the ways of balancing, until such time as the controlling or higher principle, which you may liken unto your braking, or stopping, is invoked. This stoppage of the inertia of action may be called forgiveness. These two concepts are inseparable.

— Forgiveness stops the pattern at any point in the incarnation

However, both self and any involved other-self may, at any time, through the process of understanding, acceptance, and forgiveness, ameliorate these patterns.

This is true at any point in an incarnative pattern. Thus one who has set in motion an action may forgive itself and never again make that error. This also brakes, or stops, what you call karma.

— Forgiveness of other-self is forgiveness of self

Forgiveness of other-self is forgiveness of self. An understanding of this insists upon full forgiveness upon the conscious level of self and other-self, for they are one. A full forgiveness is thus impossible without the inclusion of self.

— The stoppage of the wheel demonstrated

The entity was absolved karmically of the destruction of an other-self when it was in its last portion of lifetime and spoke upon what you would call a cross saying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” In forgiveness lies the stoppage of the wheel of action, or what you call karma.

— A program of suffering chosen before incarnation

As we have said, this instrument, feeling that it lacked compassion to balance wisdom, chose an incarnative experience whereby it was, of necessity, placed in situations of accepting self in the absence of other-selves’ acceptance, and the acceptance of other-self without expecting a return or energy transfer. This is not an easy program for an incarnation but was deemed proper by this entity.

This entity, therefore, must needs meditate and consciously, moment by moment, accept the self in its limitations which have been placed for the very purpose of bringing this entity to the precise tuning we are using.

Further, having learned to radiate acceptance and love without expecting return, this entity now must balance this by learning to accept the gifts of love and acceptance of others, which this instrument feels some discomfort in accepting. These two balancing workings will aid this entity in the release from the distortion called pain.

In Ra's words — Death and Between Lives

Ra consistently reframes physical death not as termination but as passage — specifically, the move from space/time into time/space, where the indigo-ray or "form-maker" body activates and the review work begins (, ). The only requirement of those present at death is to release and affirm, not to perform ritual (). Yet the will of the dying entity can arrest the process — holding a spirit in its yellow-ray shell through sheer attachment (). Once released, a structured period of full review unfolds: each bias, each lesson, each misstep seen clearly against the whole, then forgiven, then assessed for what must come next (, ). Akhenaten's post-death review stands as a concrete illustration (). The whole architecture requires the veil — without forgetting, the game carries no weight and polarity cannot be earned (, ). As entities mature through third density, that between-lives interval lengthens to match the depth of work the review now requires ().

The passages

— Death is the gateway, not the end of a ritual

These drawings of which you speak are some of many which distort the teaching of our perception of death as the gateway to further experience. The distortions concern those considerations of specific nature as to processes of the so-called “dead” mind/body/spirit complex. This may be termed, in your philosophy, the distortion of Gnosticism: that is, the belief that one may achieve knowledge and a proper position by means of carefully perceived and accentuated movements, concepts, and symbols.

In fact, the process of the physical death is as we have described before: one in which there is aid available, and the only need at death is the releasing of that entity from its body by those around it and the praising of the process by those who grieve. By these means may the mind/body/spirit which has experienced physical death be aided, not by the various perceptions of careful and repeated rituals.

— Every moment already an instance of death and rebirth

This is correct and may be seen to be additionally correct in that each moment, and certainly each diurnal period of the bodily incarnation, offers death and rebirth to one which is attempting to use the catalyst which is offered it.

— Why post-veil death bites in a way pre-veil death could not

The patterns of illness, disease, and death are a benignant demesne within the plan of incarnational experience. As such, some healing would occur by decision of mind/body/spirits, and incarnations were experienced with the normal ending of illness to death, accepted as such since, without the veil, it is clear that the mind/body/spirit continues. Thusly, the experiences, both good and bad, or joyful and sad, of the mind/body/spirit before veiling would be pale, without vibrancy or the keen edge of interest that such brings in the post-veiling mind/body/spirit complex.

— The form-maker body activates first

The first body which activates itself upon death is the “form-maker,” or the indigo-ray body. This body remains—you have called it the “ka”—until etherea has been penetrated and understanding has been gained by the mind/body/spirit totality. Once this is achieved, if the proper body to be activated is green-ray, then this will occur.

— When will alone traps an entity at the threshold

The stimulus for this is the faculty of the will. If the will of yellow-ray mind/body/spirit [complex] is that which is stronger than the progressive impetus of the physical death towards realization of that which comes—that is, if the will is concentrated enough upon the previous experience—the entity’s shell of yellow ray, though no longer activated, cannot either be completely deactivated and, until the will is released, the mind/body/spirit complex is caught. This often occurs, as we see you are aware, in the case of sudden death as well as in the case of extreme concern for a thing or an other-self.

— Incarnation as a crossing between realms

The incarnative process involves being incarnated from time/space to space/time.

— The structure of time/space review and healing

The hallmark of time/space is the inequity between time and space.

…

In these metaphysical planes there is a great deal of what you call time which is used to review and re-review the biases and learn/teachings of a prior, as you would call it, space/time incarnation.

The extreme fluidity of these regions makes it possible for much to be penetrated which must needs be absorbed before the process of healing of an entity may be accomplished. Each entity is located in a somewhat immobile state, much as you are located in space/time in a somewhat immobile state in time. In this immobile space the entity has been placed by the form-maker and higher self so that it may be in the proper configuration for learn/teaching that which it has received in the space/time incarnation.

Depending upon this time/space locus there will be certain helpers which assist in this healing process. The process involves seeing in full the experience, seeing it against the backdrop of the mind/body/spirit complex total experience, forgiving the self for all missteps as regards the missed guideposts during the incarnation and, finally, the careful assessment of the next necessities for learning. This is done entirely by the higher self until an entity has become conscious in space/time of the process and means of spiritual evolution, at which time the entity will consciously take part in all decisions.

— The indigo body leads the dead into a far region of time/space

After the death of the physical complex in yellow-ray activation, the mind/body/spirit complex moves to a far different portion of time/space in which the indigo body will allow much healing and review to take place before any movement is made towards another incarnative experience.

I perceive a basic miscalculation upon your part in that time/space is no more homogenous than space/time. It is as complex and complete a system of illusions, dances, and pattern as is space/time, and has as structured a system of what you may call natural laws.

— Akhenaten's review and the resolution it produced

This entity was then put through the series of healing and review of incarnational experience which is appropriate for third-density experience. This entity had been somewhat in the distortions of power ameliorated by the great devotion to the Law of One. This entity thus resolved to enter a series of incarnations in which it had no distortions towards power.

— Why the forgetting is architecturally necessary

In time/space and in the true-color green density, the hands of all are open to the eye. The thoughts, the feelings, the troubles: all these may be seen. There is no deception and no desire for deception. Thus much may be accomplished in harmony, but the mind/body/spirit gains little polarity from this interaction.

Let us re-examine this metaphor and multiply it into the longest poker game you can imagine: a lifetime. The cards are love, dislike, limitation, unhappiness, pleasure, etc. They are dealt, and re-dealt, and re-dealt continuously. You may, during this incarnation begin—and we stress begin—to know your own cards. You may begin to find the love within you. You may begin to balance your pleasure, your limitations, etc. However, your only indication of other-selves’ cards is to look into the eyes.

You cannot remember your hand, their hands, perhaps even the rules of this game. This game can only be won by those who lose their cards in the melting influence of love; can only be won by those who lay their pleasures, their limitations, their all upon the table face up and say inwardly: “All, all of you players, each other-self, whatever your hand, I love you.”

This is the game: to know, to accept, to forgive, to balance, and to open the self in love. This cannot be done without the forgetting, for it would carry no weight in the life of the mind/body/spirit beingness totality.

— How the interval between incarnations lengthens with maturity

The incarnation pattern of the beginning third-density mind/body/spirit complex begins in darkness, for you may think, or consider, of your density as one of, as you may say, a sleep and a forgetting. This is the only plane of forgetting. It is necessary for the third-density entity to forget so that the mechanisms of confusion, or free will, may operate upon the newly individuated consciousness complex.

Thus, the beginning entity is one in all innocence oriented towards animalistic behavior using other-selves only as extensions of self for the preservation of the all-self. The entity becomes slowly aware that it has needs, shall we say, that are not animalistic; that is, that are useless for survival. These needs include: the need for companionship, the need for laughter, the need for beauty, the need to know the universe about it. These are the beginning needs.

As the incarnations begin to accumulate, further needs are discovered: the need to trade, the need to love, the need to be loved, the need to elevate animalistic behaviors to a more universal perspective.

During the first portion of third-density cycles, incarnations are automatic and occur rapidly upon the cessation of energy complex of the physical vehicle. There is small need to review or to heal the experiences of the incarnation. As, what you would call, the energy centers begin to be activated to a higher extent, more of the content of experience during incarnation deals with the lessons of love.

Thus the time, as you may understand it, between incarnations is lengthened to give appropriate attention to the review and the healing of experiences of the previous incarnation. At some point in third density, the green-ray energy center becomes activated, and at that point incarnation ceases to be automatic.

The full corpus on this

Every place Ra touches this subject — the passages above are a starting point, not the whole of it.

Referenced in

Other curated pages that discuss the same passages.