The Experience of the Body

[JustLikeYou]

The Experience of the Body: The Enchantress



We have nearly nothing from Ra on this archetype specifically:

81.12 Questioner: The eleventh archetype would then be the Experience of the Body which represents the catalyst which has been processed by the mind/body/spirit complex and is called the Enchantress because it produces further seed for growth. Is this correct?

Ra: I am Ra. This is correct.

This is the only female Experience archetype, just as the Wheel is the only male Catalyst archetype. The significance of this is that as the catalyst for learning is easily the most prominent in the Body Cycle, so the processing of this catalyst (which we call the Experience) is easily the most passive. The body is the creature of the mind, as Ra tells us, so it is the mind which creates the bodily experience and the bodily experience is always pointing the mind back to itself. As such, the movements of the Body Cycle, though vivid, are ephemeral and of relatively small significance as merely bodily happenings. Study of the body tells us that cancer is a disorganized cell growth. If this is seen only from the Body Cycle, one may use diet and exercise to solve the problem. Not very profound. Yet if the cancer is seen as a signal of something greater, we will discover that Ra was right that it is a consequence of repressed anger. Suddenly the experience of cancer is much more robust. The passivity of the processing of bodily catalyst is a consequence of the body's mind-reflective nature. The body will process the cancer no matter what you do. If anything, it seems to me that the seed for further growth which is embedded in the Enchantress card is that it yields information directly to the mind. If the mind is still refusing to change, the body will grow more and more uncomfortable -- the cancer will get worse and worse.

Recall that the Matrix of the Body is Homeostasis. The body will always seek homeostasis no matter what the mind and spirit do, but it is the particular form of homeostasis which interest the evolution-minded entity. For example, there is balance in the experience of a sugar high followed by a sugar crash. Neither would be experienced had you not eaten so much sugar all at one time, and the only way to avoid one is to also avoid the other. But if this particular kind of homeostasis is not desired, the body will need to be potentiated in order to reduce the sugar intake.

The Experience, being the matrix now informed, is the new homeostatic equilibrium which is found after the movements of potentiation (from the mind possessed of wisdom) run their course. Simply put, this card displays your newly formed habit in the process of being tested. If, for example, you decide that it is time to cut back on sugar because you are tired of crashing from low blood-sugar, you will eventually be tested: you'll find yourself in the presence of a sugary food you love and happen to be craving, along the simultaneous knowledge that this is exactly what you must sacrifice in order to change your experience. In order to pass this test, you must find the strength to close the jaws of the lion (i.e. resolutely say 'no' to the sweets). This test is most easily passed when the water of your desires is balanced perfectly as upon the head without spilling a single drop. In short, the mind must hold itself in balance and at bay as the body speaks for itself by silently saying no to that which it no longer wishes to experience. This card represents an exchange of the raw and violent for the refined and subtle.

In 17.20, Ra refers to the "wheel of action" as "what you call karma". Though it should be fairly evident to students of the Tarot by now, this is a clear association between the Wheel of Fortune and the concept of karma, especially when the association between the Matrix of the Body and the concept of inertia are considered (in 34.4, Ra says that "Our understanding of karma is that which may be called inertia"). To put it simply, if the Potentiator of the Body represents what goes around, the Catalyst of the Body represents what comes around. But the Experience of the Body, being passive, awaits its programming from the mind. For this reason, the male and female eagles sit upon her head on either side of the pitcher full of desires and affectations: the body will never have the strength to pass the test of karma and end the cycle unless it has a balanced blessing from above. For if the water spills, the lion will be startled and bite the hand of the Enchantress. The Wheel of Fortune is deeply connected to the Catalyst of the Mind (the Empress), a connection which is depicted by the wheel within the wheel. The Enchantress, though, is just as deeply connected to the Experience of the Mind (the Emperor). Because the process of bodily experience is passive, it is not subject to direct change. Have you ever known anyone who felt a slave to their habits and didn't know how to change them? This is because habits are not changed in the body, but in the mind. The Emperor, the Experience of the Mind, must accept what is being offered to it by the Empress in the form of events which occur upon the Wheel of Fortune. Only when this acceptance of self has occurred will the "braking" be "invoked," for "this stoppage of the inertia of action may be called forgiveness" (34.4).

The metaphor of the lion in this card is therefore two-fold: on the one hand, it represents that which causes the body discomfort; on the other hand, it represents that which is a focus of muddled and hidden emotions and thoughts (desires and affectations) in the mind. The lion is both the lion outside the self which is dangerous and and hurtful and the lion within the self which is hungry and violent. What goes around comes around.

The peace and confidence of forgiveness (which originate with the Emperor) are a necessary requisite for the Enchantress to pass her test. The wings upon her head and the serpent upon her brow demonstrate this inner strength. Where the Matrix of the Body, the blind movement of the body uninformed by wisdom, was only capable of very inefficient movement through the steps of evolution (as depicted by the winged turtle which attempts to carry its home with it as it flies), the Experience of the body has wings upon her head which allow her to float through her experience as in a perfect dance with the created world, receiving the gentle abundance of the manifest reality in the same measure that she gives.

The male and female eagles which are separate and not united (just as the male and female serpents in the Potentiator of the Body are separate and not united) suggest that there will be alternating flows of energy: sometimes the appropriate response to the world is to offer more of the yang, sometimes more of the yin.

The right and left hands of the enchantress suggest the different approaches of the right and left hand paths. The right hand reaches to the forehead of the lion as if to pet and stroke it, whereas the left hand reaches to the throat of the lion as if to choke and threaten it. Her arms also criss-cross, forming a cross which is suggestive of the sacrifice which must be made in order to balance the self and move forward upon the path.

This archetype reveals itself to me in many different spheres of my life. In general, I find that the content of the Body Cycle refers to all actions taken in the physical world and not just actions that directly relate to the material which composes my human shape. The body is everything in the physical experience and it is well to observe this carefully. The wheel of karma is operative an all actions taken. If you irritate your co-workers, they will make your work experience less comfortable. If you speak judgmentally to another person, you will find that others speak judgmentally to you. In any situation, if you approach that situation spilling the water of your desires, that is, acting out the unconscious imbalances (i.e. emotional baggage) which you bring with you to your experience, you will find yourself constantly attacked by the lion out in the world. In my past, unaddressed sexual feelings were transmuted into bodily experiences in many ways: any time I acted out from an unbalanced sexual chakra, I attracted a karmic response from the world which would not only balance the energy I put out into the world but also contain within itself a suggestion to the mind that there are emotions which need to be faced and accepted.

More than anything else, I find that this card depicts the Light Touch in action.

[Plenum]

the Enchantress card: the woman playing with her Lion

note: Ra calls this card 11, whereas the standard tarot lists this as card 8 and calls it a different name - "Strength"

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thanks so much for your above analysis and observations. It is very detailed and a fine breakdown of the visual elements of this card.

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I guess I can only offer my perspective on this archetype; which is not a direct response to yours.

I start with the Crowley depiction of this card:



as one can see, this is a much 'rawer' and 'visceral' depiction of this energy/archetype. The butt naked woman (female energy) is 'mounted' on the lion with many heads (male energy) and she has the reins and the control. What she is holding/grabbing in her right hand is up for question. Some think it is a uterus?? (reference) but I will call it as I see it, and say that it is a giant erect nipple (male bias).

inside the uterus/giant breast are snakes?? and beams of light. I don't know what the hell this is lol.

let us forgo the imagery (for the moment), and return to what Ra has given us.

* the Enchantress is the Experience of the Body
* "it produces further seed for growth"

let us back up a bit and note that the Enchantress is the card that follows the Wheel of Fortune (card 10). What the Wheel does is that it is the Catalyst of the Body - it places us in new and novel sitations (a chance meeting in an elevator, a chance to try new foods, new experiences) and then once this has happened, The Enchantress takes over. She takes the raw experience and then weaves it into a Story. We become 'entranced' by the next time we will have this experience, try to plan for it, 'load it' with meaning. It is, for lack of a better word 'Lust' brought into physical being.

the 'Lust' or 'Enchanting' is very much a Delusion; we become bound by the story and narrative; a narrative that only exists within our heads. We want this fantasy/experience to play out in the real world, ie the Body.

it is very much in line with the thinking that we are here to experience what we wanted to experience, and that the physical being/world is just a way of making this 'real'. As Ra says, nothing is to be overcome, but it is to be experienced and then accepted. And as we also know, one cannot snap out of Lust/Enchanting without either 'doing it for real' or penetrating the nature of the delusion (the less painful way). There is no 'error' in following through on your Lust; it is just that is has more real-life consequences for other people. If one can resolve the Lust/Enchanting through an archetypal balancing of energies in your mind, then there is more efficiency with that route.

And once the Lust/Enchanting is satisfied/experienced, one steps onto the Hanged Man, which takes the lessons of the Body further.

peace all

[JustLikeYou]

Retrospectively, I am rather dissatisfied with my commentary on this Archetype. I do not think that I got it all wrong, but I do think that you bring out the point that I failed to address directly enough: there is an interplay between mind and body which is of the utmost importance in this Archetype. Ra says, for example, that when the mental catalyst of anger is not properly processed by the mind, it is "passed to the body" as cancer. This is significant. It suggests that the response to refusing to process catalyst for the mind is to necessarily potentiate the body. This makes sense. What happens when we do not process anger? We "act it out". Punching a wall or having a shouting match are one form of acting out, but when one chooses not to do this and decides to just "get over it", the question must be asked: where did the anger go? The only answer I can imagine is that it is sent into the systems of the body as a vibration of disorder. Potentiate the body enough with a vibration of disorder and viola, you have cancer.

The cancer itself is thus the catalyst yielded to the body. Now the question is this: how does the body process the cancer? It adapts. The body will dispatch compounds and cells which attempt to eliminate the cancer. The body will adjust its functioning in order to allow maximal operative ability despite being crippled with cancer: many people never know they even have cancer until they are nearly dead. The body will make amazing adjustments just to make sure that it can continue functioning as well as possible. But if the cancer is bad enough, the adaptation taken by the body may be downright crippling.

So in the case of cancer, where is the seed for further catalyst? Well people with cancer often feel sick because of it. I know that the treatments we give these people are usually more painful than the cancer itself, but the adaptation of the body changes your homeostasis. You no longer have as much energy, enthusiasm, strength, etc. This change in the homeostasis of the body is a direct message to the mind: something's gotta give!

Let us take another instance: suppose your mind has a bias toward misogyny but you refuse to admit it. You are at work and you unconsciously act out this bias by treating women differently from men. The Wheel of Fortune will spin your unwise actions back at you in the way that your coworkers treat you. Perhaps you are slapped, or a coworker takes you aside to talk to you about it. Perhaps people just avoid you in general. In tandem with every Catalyst for the Body comes further catalyst for the mind. In the physical world, you are getting what you gave, but in the mental world, you are being shown over and over what it is that you gave and why. The processing of this catalyst in the world place will be an ongoing change in the circumstances in which you find yourself. The matrix of your workplace will continue to adapt to a new homeostasis (one which is more and more restrictive) if you keep choosing not to process your misogyny in the mind rather than the body.

On the flip-side of this coin, one can choose to act wisely and thus create a less and less restrictive environment. Act with balance (as the enchantress does), and you will find yourself consistently rewarded. Either way, your environment will seek homeostasis.

In terms of "lust", I can get aboard that train. What you give is what you get. And those who do not know themselves do not know it, but they actually desire their environments. If you tell yourself over and over that you are stupid, you will experience an environment where people treat you as if you are stupid. You created it and obviously wanted it because you directly chose it. To take our misogynist for example, this man is creating a world where women hate him. If you lust for a world where people respect you, then it is important to make sure that you enchant your world with respect. The world is strangely small and manageable when the significance of this fact is realized.

[Shemaya]

It's hard to explain, but I had experience where I experienced this card as depicted by Crowley....the sense of the darkness of the multi-headed creature/s and my naked vulnerability in the experience (my body is reacting just remembering the experience), the energy of it, just like Crowley's version of the card. I would say she is reaching out to a tongue rather than a uterus or nipple, and immersed in the experience with a desire to tame the lion, roaring lion in this case. And the strength later that came from it after I had processed the catalyst, the experience was very archetypal and spirit-led.

Thank you JustLike You and Plenum, you have been so helpful...helping me to get a deeper understanding, thank you