The Magician: Matrix of the Mind

[Cobrien]

^ What she said. If I got it wrong, tell me how.

I'm sorry to hear that you judge my approach to this study as purely intellectual; I don't experience it that way at all. But then there's no telling what others will see in my words.

I agree with you about the internal alchemy system. This is what Ra and Don were trying to bring out of it, and it's what I seek to pull out of them also.

It strikes me as manifestly false that this system is "very obvious" in the images. If it were very obvious, then the study would not be so long and difficult for so many who try. Though perhaps it is very obvious to you, in which case you would make a natural teacher.

Anyway, my point about the caged bird is that once you figure out how to free it, you'll find there is yet another bird in there that is still caged. This isn't an intellectual judgment, but something I've found true in experience. Another way to put this is that we always want something, no matter how many of our desires find fulfilment. Only the very, very few have crossed the threshold from desire to complete satisfaction (and presumably also complete freedom).

The sphere of power is the reaching. Yet you've arrived where you are. Thus the caged bird. The mind is it's own messenger. The relationship between the magician and high priestess is always stressed.

The crux of the developmental system is the polarization between the mind and its messenger. The positions in each card are significant.