09-18-2011, 10:10 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-15-2012, 04:44 PM by Steppingfeet.)
Before I begin, I want to emphasize that I do not consider myself a master of the Archetypical Mind. I have spent time with these concept complexes, examining Ra's descriptions for clarity and in some cases expanding them in ways I find useful and intriguing. I don't expect to offer anything particularly unique, but I wanted to share my perspective with Bring4th, hoping to help the baffled and learn from the adept.
I've decided that there is too much to say about the specific cards in the Mind Cycle to include these comments in a thread which elaborates the definitions of the classification names. I've split them up accordingly.
I'm going to assume that the reader has read through Book IV at least once and is familiar with the pictures on the cards. If there’s interest, I’ll put pictures in the threads. The deck I use is the Brotherhood of Light deck (it's beautiful, though I would have chosen many of the colors differently for reasons that would be obvious to any follower of Ra’s).
Granted that everyone reading has a decent grasp of the first seven cards, I'd like to bring out the definitions of the classifications in order to comprehend words like "Significator" and "Potentiator" more clearly.
Ra: I am Ra. At the beginning of this creation or, as you may call it, octave there were those things known which were the harvest of the preceding octave. About the preceding creation, we know as little as we do of the octave to come. However, we are aware of those pieces of gathered concept which were the tools which the Creator had in the knowing of the self.
These tools were of three kinds. Firstly, there was an awareness of the efficiency for experience of mind, body, and spirit. Secondly, there was an awareness of the most efficacious nature or, if you will, significator of mind, body, and spirit. Thirdly, there was the awareness of two aspects of mind, of body, and of spirit that the significator could use to balance all catalyst. You may call these two the matrix and the potentiator.
So the Creator knew that the mind/body/spirit means of experience would bring plenty of knowledge to the Creator about itself and it therefore split itself into three parts for this experience. A "most efficacious nature" is another way of saying two things: first, the Significator names the "nature" of the mind, body and/or spirit; second, the particular nature (or Significator) is the most efficient of the possibilities known to the Creator. We therefore know that the Significator cards name the natures of mind, body and spirit. These natures have a specific architecture which relates them to each other (and happens to be the “most efficacious” of the architectures). By way of speaking what this relationship between mind, body and spirit is, we already know from reading the Law of One that the mind creates body, the spirit connects mind to infinity. It is a beautifully simple way to individualize the infinite in order to experience finitude: each mind is individual and each body reflects this, yet each mind is only individual because each spirit channels infinity (which is unified) to that mind uniquely. These basic features can be seen in the Significator cards themselves.
The Significators therefore depict each of the mind, body and spirit as a whole and post-veil the Significators depict the mind complex, body complex and spirit complex, each as a whole. The most accurate analogy I can provide for the Significator's importance in the context of the cycle of which it is a part is that this card represents the complex itself which is present to all of these experiences.
The Creator also knew that within this Significator (or nature), there were two concepts which would bring the Creator experience: the Potentiator which gives of itself to the Matrix. So the One chose to split its experience into Three (mind, body, spirit) in order to know itself as many. It also knew that each of the three needed to split into three (Significator, Matrix, Potentiator) in order for the experience to happen at all (the mind, body and spirit must each have three parts in order for each to experience itself flowing into itself). This is the origin of the original nine archetypes.
So the Matrix is that part of the Significator which receives the imprint of the Potentiator. The Potentiator is that part of the Significator which projects that which is to be experienced upon the Matrix. The Matrix is the screen, the Potentiator is the signal, the Significator is the eye.
Ra: I am Ra. You have been most interested in the Significator which must needs become complex. The Hierophant is the original archetype of mind which has been made complex through the subtile movements of the conscious and unconscious. The complexities of mind were evolved rather than the simple melding of experience from Potentiator to Matrix.
The mind itself became an actor possessed of free will and, more especially, will. As the Significator of the mind, the Hierophant has the will to know, but what shall it do with its knowledge, and for what reasons does it seek? The potentials of a complex significator are manifold.
The veil is the act of granting the Significator complexity. It is important that Ra only says that the mind "became an actor possessed of free will," because this suggest that free will does not extend to body and spirit (though I would say that the Choice does extend to them, but it does not take the form of will). Strictly speaking, this seems fairly obvious because the mind is what has will -- by definition. Prior to the veiling, the will of the mind conformed to the will of the individual portion of the Creator tapped by Intelligent Infinity, which (as I understand him), Ra names an "entity", which seems to encompass all of the incarnations and disincarnations that this particular portion of the Creator experiences. I believe this is what Ra means when he says that the Logos viewed itself as offering free will to its Creation: each individual part of the Creator, each entity, has its own free will...but within these entities, there is a particular kind of experience called veiled 3-D, and in this experience, the individual incarnation has free will apart from the will of the entity that that incarnation represents! This fact is supported by the danger of incarnating as a Wanderer: you can lose your polarity because the choice is left up to the Significator of the Mind in that particular incarnation. You might just undergo the Remembering only to discover that your Significator switched polarities on you!
So the complexity of the Significator of the Mind arises through the free will of the Significator. This complexity is depicted quite directly in the Transformation card. It is worth noting that a thing which transforms is necessarily complex. The mind can only transform from one state to another if there is complexity within that mind, if there is separation from itself. In the space of this separation from itself (the veil), the mind (Significator) begins as a thing (Matrix) which does not know itself (Potentiator). In order for information within the mind (Significator) to transfer from itself (Potentiator) to itself (Matrix), it (Matrix) must be capable of knowing something about itself (Potentiator): The knower (Significator) must be both ignorant (Matrix) and informed (Experience). The known (Significator) must be both hidden (Potentiator) and revealed (Catalyst). In each cycle, these four cards depict the movements which are involved in the act of potentiating the matrix, for each cycle has a veil between its potentiator and matrix, necessitating the Catalyst and Experience which are the flip-side of the Potentiator and Matrix.
This quotation supports the notion that the first four classifications do, indeed, fall under the rubric of the fifth:
92.15 Questioner: Then, the dynamic process between the Matrix, Potentiator, Catalyst, and Experience of the Mind forms the nature of the mind or the Significator of the Mind. Is this correct?
Ra: I am Ra. As our previous response suggests, the Significator of the Mind is both actor and acted upon. With this exception the statement is largely correct.
Whereas the Matrix, Potentiator, Catalyst and Experience cards depict the ongoing process of the matrix receiving a potentiator which is hidden from it, the Transformation card depicts the transformation, the quantum shift, the upgrade, the level up, the graduation, the next kind of experience which is available when one has learned enough about oneself.
The mind's transformation is a releasing of a contradictory attitude toward itself: the conscious mind (Matrix/Experience) may either appreciate, woo and gradually court that which is in the unconscious (Potentiator/Catalyst) as it decides to reveal itself...or it may demand, enforce, and plunder at will that which is in the unconscious. Until a choice is made, the mind will not enter a new kind of experience, but will remain in the same form until it has learned enough about itself to will to make this choice.
Finally, the Great Way is the card which depicts the cycle as a whole. Whereas the Significator depicts the complex, the Great Way depicts the entire cycle which brings the Significator experience. Thus, one may think of the cycle and the Great Way as being analogous to the mathematical set (cycle) that contains itself (Great Way). So the Significator can be viewed as the Complex without any vision of the process of evolution occuring, whereas the Great Way depicts the Complex within the context of the process of evolution. Each transformation brings the Significator into closer and closer approximation of the Great Way card which depicts the goal within itself. What is perhaps most interesting about comparing the Significator cards to the Great Way cards is that the Significator can be either naive or wise and would still look the same to an outside viewer; whereas, the Great Way depicts the Significator glorified and removed of all naivete.
Simple definitions:
Although the material I have drawn from in grasping the names of the classifications relates primarily to the Mind Cycle, my examination of all 22 cards suggests to me that these simple definitions bear a great deal of staying power:
Matrix - Significator Uninformed
Potentiator - Significator Hidden
Catalyst - Significator Revealed
Experience - Significator Informed
Significator - The Complex Itself
Transformation - Significator Focused enough to Choose
Great Way - Environment in which the Significator explores itself
Summary:
If the Great Way is the Path, the Significator is the one who walks, the Matrix, Potentiator, Catalyst and Experience are the gears that turn within the Significator to translate the decision to walk into the movement of the feet, and the Transformation is the jet pack that can be switched on only by pursuing the path with awareness and mindfulness.
For those familiar with science, I think of the process of catalyzing the matrix as represented by cards 1-4 as the process of filling in the various details within the context of a scientific theory. We can liken this to exploring the boundaries of the belief system that motivates all of one’s actions. Conversely, I think of the process of transformation as the process of overthrowing an old scientific theory in favor of a new one. We can liken this to a basic revision of the belief system. So if I love music and want to be a musician, I will experiment with different instruments to see what I like best. This is the process of catalyzing the matrix. But if I found out that I was far more proficient at production of music than playing an instrument, I will undergo a complete revision of my notions of what it is that I want, thereby allowing for an entirely new system within which to undergo matrix potentiation through processing of catalyst. This is the process of transformation. The key to transforming is that you are aware of the process and choose accelerate the change via a complete overhaul rather than a small tweak.
Please comment. I am very interested in discussing all of these things further, and if any of you want to bring in relevant quotations from Ra or other L/L contacts, please do so.
Joseph
I've decided that there is too much to say about the specific cards in the Mind Cycle to include these comments in a thread which elaborates the definitions of the classification names. I've split them up accordingly.
I'm going to assume that the reader has read through Book IV at least once and is familiar with the pictures on the cards. If there’s interest, I’ll put pictures in the threads. The deck I use is the Brotherhood of Light deck (it's beautiful, though I would have chosen many of the colors differently for reasons that would be obvious to any follower of Ra’s).
Granted that everyone reading has a decent grasp of the first seven cards, I'd like to bring out the definitions of the classifications in order to comprehend words like "Significator" and "Potentiator" more clearly.
Ra: I am Ra. At the beginning of this creation or, as you may call it, octave there were those things known which were the harvest of the preceding octave. About the preceding creation, we know as little as we do of the octave to come. However, we are aware of those pieces of gathered concept which were the tools which the Creator had in the knowing of the self.
These tools were of three kinds. Firstly, there was an awareness of the efficiency for experience of mind, body, and spirit. Secondly, there was an awareness of the most efficacious nature or, if you will, significator of mind, body, and spirit. Thirdly, there was the awareness of two aspects of mind, of body, and of spirit that the significator could use to balance all catalyst. You may call these two the matrix and the potentiator.
So the Creator knew that the mind/body/spirit means of experience would bring plenty of knowledge to the Creator about itself and it therefore split itself into three parts for this experience. A "most efficacious nature" is another way of saying two things: first, the Significator names the "nature" of the mind, body and/or spirit; second, the particular nature (or Significator) is the most efficient of the possibilities known to the Creator. We therefore know that the Significator cards name the natures of mind, body and spirit. These natures have a specific architecture which relates them to each other (and happens to be the “most efficacious” of the architectures). By way of speaking what this relationship between mind, body and spirit is, we already know from reading the Law of One that the mind creates body, the spirit connects mind to infinity. It is a beautifully simple way to individualize the infinite in order to experience finitude: each mind is individual and each body reflects this, yet each mind is only individual because each spirit channels infinity (which is unified) to that mind uniquely. These basic features can be seen in the Significator cards themselves.
The Significators therefore depict each of the mind, body and spirit as a whole and post-veil the Significators depict the mind complex, body complex and spirit complex, each as a whole. The most accurate analogy I can provide for the Significator's importance in the context of the cycle of which it is a part is that this card represents the complex itself which is present to all of these experiences.
The Creator also knew that within this Significator (or nature), there were two concepts which would bring the Creator experience: the Potentiator which gives of itself to the Matrix. So the One chose to split its experience into Three (mind, body, spirit) in order to know itself as many. It also knew that each of the three needed to split into three (Significator, Matrix, Potentiator) in order for the experience to happen at all (the mind, body and spirit must each have three parts in order for each to experience itself flowing into itself). This is the origin of the original nine archetypes.
So the Matrix is that part of the Significator which receives the imprint of the Potentiator. The Potentiator is that part of the Significator which projects that which is to be experienced upon the Matrix. The Matrix is the screen, the Potentiator is the signal, the Significator is the eye.
Ra: I am Ra. You have been most interested in the Significator which must needs become complex. The Hierophant is the original archetype of mind which has been made complex through the subtile movements of the conscious and unconscious. The complexities of mind were evolved rather than the simple melding of experience from Potentiator to Matrix.
The mind itself became an actor possessed of free will and, more especially, will. As the Significator of the mind, the Hierophant has the will to know, but what shall it do with its knowledge, and for what reasons does it seek? The potentials of a complex significator are manifold.
The veil is the act of granting the Significator complexity. It is important that Ra only says that the mind "became an actor possessed of free will," because this suggest that free will does not extend to body and spirit (though I would say that the Choice does extend to them, but it does not take the form of will). Strictly speaking, this seems fairly obvious because the mind is what has will -- by definition. Prior to the veiling, the will of the mind conformed to the will of the individual portion of the Creator tapped by Intelligent Infinity, which (as I understand him), Ra names an "entity", which seems to encompass all of the incarnations and disincarnations that this particular portion of the Creator experiences. I believe this is what Ra means when he says that the Logos viewed itself as offering free will to its Creation: each individual part of the Creator, each entity, has its own free will...but within these entities, there is a particular kind of experience called veiled 3-D, and in this experience, the individual incarnation has free will apart from the will of the entity that that incarnation represents! This fact is supported by the danger of incarnating as a Wanderer: you can lose your polarity because the choice is left up to the Significator of the Mind in that particular incarnation. You might just undergo the Remembering only to discover that your Significator switched polarities on you!
So the complexity of the Significator of the Mind arises through the free will of the Significator. This complexity is depicted quite directly in the Transformation card. It is worth noting that a thing which transforms is necessarily complex. The mind can only transform from one state to another if there is complexity within that mind, if there is separation from itself. In the space of this separation from itself (the veil), the mind (Significator) begins as a thing (Matrix) which does not know itself (Potentiator). In order for information within the mind (Significator) to transfer from itself (Potentiator) to itself (Matrix), it (Matrix) must be capable of knowing something about itself (Potentiator): The knower (Significator) must be both ignorant (Matrix) and informed (Experience). The known (Significator) must be both hidden (Potentiator) and revealed (Catalyst). In each cycle, these four cards depict the movements which are involved in the act of potentiating the matrix, for each cycle has a veil between its potentiator and matrix, necessitating the Catalyst and Experience which are the flip-side of the Potentiator and Matrix.
This quotation supports the notion that the first four classifications do, indeed, fall under the rubric of the fifth:
92.15 Questioner: Then, the dynamic process between the Matrix, Potentiator, Catalyst, and Experience of the Mind forms the nature of the mind or the Significator of the Mind. Is this correct?
Ra: I am Ra. As our previous response suggests, the Significator of the Mind is both actor and acted upon. With this exception the statement is largely correct.
Whereas the Matrix, Potentiator, Catalyst and Experience cards depict the ongoing process of the matrix receiving a potentiator which is hidden from it, the Transformation card depicts the transformation, the quantum shift, the upgrade, the level up, the graduation, the next kind of experience which is available when one has learned enough about oneself.
The mind's transformation is a releasing of a contradictory attitude toward itself: the conscious mind (Matrix/Experience) may either appreciate, woo and gradually court that which is in the unconscious (Potentiator/Catalyst) as it decides to reveal itself...or it may demand, enforce, and plunder at will that which is in the unconscious. Until a choice is made, the mind will not enter a new kind of experience, but will remain in the same form until it has learned enough about itself to will to make this choice.
Finally, the Great Way is the card which depicts the cycle as a whole. Whereas the Significator depicts the complex, the Great Way depicts the entire cycle which brings the Significator experience. Thus, one may think of the cycle and the Great Way as being analogous to the mathematical set (cycle) that contains itself (Great Way). So the Significator can be viewed as the Complex without any vision of the process of evolution occuring, whereas the Great Way depicts the Complex within the context of the process of evolution. Each transformation brings the Significator into closer and closer approximation of the Great Way card which depicts the goal within itself. What is perhaps most interesting about comparing the Significator cards to the Great Way cards is that the Significator can be either naive or wise and would still look the same to an outside viewer; whereas, the Great Way depicts the Significator glorified and removed of all naivete.
Simple definitions:
Although the material I have drawn from in grasping the names of the classifications relates primarily to the Mind Cycle, my examination of all 22 cards suggests to me that these simple definitions bear a great deal of staying power:
Matrix - Significator Uninformed
Potentiator - Significator Hidden
Catalyst - Significator Revealed
Experience - Significator Informed
Significator - The Complex Itself
Transformation - Significator Focused enough to Choose
Great Way - Environment in which the Significator explores itself
Summary:
If the Great Way is the Path, the Significator is the one who walks, the Matrix, Potentiator, Catalyst and Experience are the gears that turn within the Significator to translate the decision to walk into the movement of the feet, and the Transformation is the jet pack that can be switched on only by pursuing the path with awareness and mindfulness.
For those familiar with science, I think of the process of catalyzing the matrix as represented by cards 1-4 as the process of filling in the various details within the context of a scientific theory. We can liken this to exploring the boundaries of the belief system that motivates all of one’s actions. Conversely, I think of the process of transformation as the process of overthrowing an old scientific theory in favor of a new one. We can liken this to a basic revision of the belief system. So if I love music and want to be a musician, I will experiment with different instruments to see what I like best. This is the process of catalyzing the matrix. But if I found out that I was far more proficient at production of music than playing an instrument, I will undergo a complete revision of my notions of what it is that I want, thereby allowing for an entirely new system within which to undergo matrix potentiation through processing of catalyst. This is the process of transformation. The key to transforming is that you are aware of the process and choose accelerate the change via a complete overhaul rather than a small tweak.
Please comment. I am very interested in discussing all of these things further, and if any of you want to bring in relevant quotations from Ra or other L/L contacts, please do so.
Joseph