The Catalyst of the Spirit

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I noticed there wasn't a thread about this archetype yet so I thought I'd start one up to get some discussion going. There isn't much in the Ra material about this one so you'll have to bear with me.

Let's start with the pictures! (my favourite part )


The depiction of this card is fairly undistorted from the set used in the Ra material and later decks, though the directions are reversed. There is a nude woman under a sky full of stars, in most depictions she has one foot on solid land and the other in the the water. She is holding two decanters from which she pours water on the one hand into the body of water before her and on the other hand onto the ground at her feet. From the land a plant grows, supporting a bird or a butterfly.

I like that the last card, which is from the Sépher de Moïse deck, is named "the Stars," pointing out that in central star is not alone but surrounded by seven others making 8, a number which symbolizes infinity.

Ra had a different name for this archetype however:

80.13 Questioner: Then is this, from the point of view of the fifteenth archetype, somewhat of an excursion into the Matrix of the Spirit in this process? Does that make any sense?

Ra: I am Ra. The excursion of which you speak and the process of disassociation is most usually linked with that archetype you call Hope which we would prefer to call Faith. This archetype is the Catalyst of the Spirit and, because of the illuminations of the Potentiator of the Spirit, will begin to cause these changes in the adept’s viewpoint.

To give that quote some context Don and Ra were discussing the disassociation of the adept from the illusion of the physical world. Ra relates this disassociation to the 17th archetype and names it Hope or Faith. This starts the wheels turning in my head.

Let's look at this archetype in relation to the previous archetype on the spirit track the Potentiator, the Lightning Struck Tower. In that card we have had our illusions shattered by a great flash of inspiration and are thrown to the ground. The Star then picks up that thread and we now find ourselves groping along in the darkness of the Matrix of the Spirit using starlight to navigate towards the wonders we glimpsed in that brief flash of light. Can we be certain of what we saw? Not really, because it was only for an instant and has been shrouded in darkness once more. That is why we need faith.

The woman is nude representing the need for our faith to be pure and unshrouded, transparent and honest. She pours water out of the two decanters and never seems to run out (though the liquid pouring from one is yellow in the Brotherhood of Light card . . . I'm just not gonna touch that). One empties into the body of water, adding it's essence to the rest, the other empties onto the ground, feeding a plant on which a butterfly or bird. To me these represent the two things accomplished by faith and seeking, the one pouring into the water can be seen as the seeker increasing the planetary vibration by adding their own vibrations to the planetary whole. The one pouring onto the ground nourishes the plant upon which the butterfly or bird, representing the enlightened soul, perches.

Well, that's my interpretation. Feel free to add your own thoughts/critiques!