09-27-2011, 02:28 PM
[font=Verdana][/font][font=Verdana]My original intention was to cover the first seven archetypes quickly so that we could all get to the Body and Spirit Cycles, which were not covered as closely in the Law of One. In attempting to do this, I discovered that I still had a great deal to say about the Mind Cycle which was not covered in the Law of One. Therefore, I've decided to post these thoughts each in their own thread. This is a lesson in patience for me. :-)
The Matrix of the Mind: The Magician[/font]
![[Image: 5fDJR.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/5fDJR.jpg)
[font=Verdana]Ra stresses the importance of the activities of the right and left hands, but he is never asked whether the hands have significance beyond that of the STO/STS polarity. My inclination is to assume that the right and left hands signify the Male and Female Principles (respectively), and that one of the aspects of these principles is the STO/STS polarity. In the case of the Magician, I always think of right and left hands as input and output (respectively). The Magician bursts with will and one of the symbols of that will is his vision of a bird in flight. His left hand reaching toward the cage indicates the input, the desire, the volition, the impetus; whereas his right hand holding the magical device indicates a focus strong enough to transform desire into action. The function of will, then, is to take in a desire and to put out a focused intention. The conscious mind, as a Creator in its own right, requires only focused intention in order for the unconscious to be compelled to reveal itself. Once the magician speaks his will clearly and with focus, there is bound to be a result.[/font]
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[font=Verdana]And yet the function between those two arms, the robed figure, is perfectly white. This fact indicates that the will has no experience, no notion of what the results of his desire to free the caged bird might be. The ignorance of the magician is the ignorance of himself. He wants something, but he doesn't know why or what. The deepest thrust of bird in the cage for me is that which ultimately drives a human being: the “pursuit of happiness”. The conscious mind knows that it wants some kind of experience, but it only has the most abstract and theoretical concepts of what the experience is.[/font] As the uninformed aspect of the Significator of the Mind, the Magician is the conscious expression of seeking motivated by the biases latent in the Significator. Though you want something, your will for that something is naive, flimsy, blank. In my case, I was raised in a devout Catholic household. My seeking was constantly informed by biases toward ritual and theology. Even today, these are concepts around which my spiritual life revolves -- though I have let go of the Catholic structures. This is a way in which my mind is biased in its desire, for how can you will one kind of experience rather than another unless you have biases? The strange paradox of the Magician is that its will comes from some vague inkling that there is something else -- and yet the Magician is blank and unmoving, so how can it have this inkling of a Beyond? It nevertheless does, and this inkling of the Beyond is what brings all manner of knowledge out of the High Priestess.
[font=Verdana][/font]
[font=Verdana]The caged bird is, in fact, an ibis, commonly associated with Thoth, or Tehuti, the Egyptian deity of wisdom and possibility. On the Tree of Life, this deity is identified with the second sphere, also known as Chokmah. This illuminated, male sphere is a place of pure concept where time and space themselves are only concepts, and not experienced realities. The bird, therefore, represents the blankness and constriction of the inexperienced. The Magician may not know it, but what he wants is to transform what is possible into what is manifest. What he surely does not know is that this transformation is the only way to widen the cage and give the bird room to fly. The conscious mind, then, wakes up after the Forgetting in a very constricting world, with no experience at all, and its one greatest desire is to release itself from that which would constrict it. It asks of the unconscious mind: "Show me more than this."[/font]
[font=Verdana][/font]
[font=Verdana]To be a virtuous magician is to have a clear and focused mind. Thus, one must choose the conceptual object of will with precision and clarity. The more complex and confused the concept you focus your will upon, the more seemingly random your experience will be. Thus, when people talk about the Law of Attraction, they are speaking about the activity of the Matrix of the Mind; however, simplicity and clarity are often unappreciated. The Magician must be careful that his will is coherent and not self-contradictory.[/font] In philosophical circles, this virtue is described thus: A useful answer will only come when one asks the right question. The Magician must become a master at asking the right question.
[font=Verdana][/font]
Suppose that you have a bad habit, like smoking cigarettes. On the bodily level, you want to get rid of that habit; yet on the mental level there is something that keeps you coming back. The question that the Magician asks is all-important here. Every time the conscious mind experiences a desire to smoke a cigarette, there is actually a desire-conflict. The conscious mind always wants to know what lies within the unconscious mind, but it is not always willing to accept the answer. The conscious mind may be telling the unconscious mind "I want to know, but I don't want to know that." This is the sense in which a desire for some experience in the world can be an indirect question that the Magician is asking of the High Priestess. Because the conscious mind wants to let go of the habit of cigarettes, but it also does not want to know what the habit is hiding in the unconscious mind, there is an impasse. Until the Magician makes a choice, the way is going to be barred -- here we have a deep connection to the Transformation of the Mind.
[font=Verdana]The Magician shows himself in my experience anytime I find myself seeking some kind of knowledge without knowing exactly what it is I seek or why. Consider the conscious mind in your everyday activities. Every now and again a curiosity will strike you. You ask yourself a question to which you don't know the answer. It is important to keep always in mind that you are all, so your mind is the All-Mind. Therefore, all knowledge of any kind is a form of self-knowledge. So the question you ask yourself might be "What is the Sun made of?", but it might also be "Why do I keep acting this way?" The question might be "Why won't my brother just accept me as I am?", but it might also be "What is preventing me from living in the present moment?", or "Where does Archetype 1 reveal itself in my experience?" Regardless of the question, there is a will to know, and that will, if focused and intent enough, is sure to yield an answer.[/font]
[font=Verdana][/font]
[font=Verdana]The magical orb, in my view, is a sign of the Creative capacity of the mind (consider that the orb is only found in the Mind Cycle). At every step of the way where this orb is seen, the mind is actively creating some aspect of the body. The Magician's orb is perhaps the most subtle orb of all, for his manner of creating the manifest reality around him is entirely ignorant. The Magician has only questions, so the answers that the Magician receives (which transforms him thereby into the Emperor) may come in any form at any time. The only thing that is certain is its eventual arrival. Consider the answers that Don's questions often receive: he is frequently surprised by the answer Ra gives, revealing Don's ignorance over and over. This is reflective of the Magician, the conscious mind as it relates to knowledge of itself.[/font]
The Matrix of the Mind: The Magician[/font]
[font=Verdana]Ra stresses the importance of the activities of the right and left hands, but he is never asked whether the hands have significance beyond that of the STO/STS polarity. My inclination is to assume that the right and left hands signify the Male and Female Principles (respectively), and that one of the aspects of these principles is the STO/STS polarity. In the case of the Magician, I always think of right and left hands as input and output (respectively). The Magician bursts with will and one of the symbols of that will is his vision of a bird in flight. His left hand reaching toward the cage indicates the input, the desire, the volition, the impetus; whereas his right hand holding the magical device indicates a focus strong enough to transform desire into action. The function of will, then, is to take in a desire and to put out a focused intention. The conscious mind, as a Creator in its own right, requires only focused intention in order for the unconscious to be compelled to reveal itself. Once the magician speaks his will clearly and with focus, there is bound to be a result.[/font]
[font=Verdana][/font]
[font=Verdana]And yet the function between those two arms, the robed figure, is perfectly white. This fact indicates that the will has no experience, no notion of what the results of his desire to free the caged bird might be. The ignorance of the magician is the ignorance of himself. He wants something, but he doesn't know why or what. The deepest thrust of bird in the cage for me is that which ultimately drives a human being: the “pursuit of happiness”. The conscious mind knows that it wants some kind of experience, but it only has the most abstract and theoretical concepts of what the experience is.[/font] As the uninformed aspect of the Significator of the Mind, the Magician is the conscious expression of seeking motivated by the biases latent in the Significator. Though you want something, your will for that something is naive, flimsy, blank. In my case, I was raised in a devout Catholic household. My seeking was constantly informed by biases toward ritual and theology. Even today, these are concepts around which my spiritual life revolves -- though I have let go of the Catholic structures. This is a way in which my mind is biased in its desire, for how can you will one kind of experience rather than another unless you have biases? The strange paradox of the Magician is that its will comes from some vague inkling that there is something else -- and yet the Magician is blank and unmoving, so how can it have this inkling of a Beyond? It nevertheless does, and this inkling of the Beyond is what brings all manner of knowledge out of the High Priestess.
[font=Verdana][/font]
[font=Verdana]The caged bird is, in fact, an ibis, commonly associated with Thoth, or Tehuti, the Egyptian deity of wisdom and possibility. On the Tree of Life, this deity is identified with the second sphere, also known as Chokmah. This illuminated, male sphere is a place of pure concept where time and space themselves are only concepts, and not experienced realities. The bird, therefore, represents the blankness and constriction of the inexperienced. The Magician may not know it, but what he wants is to transform what is possible into what is manifest. What he surely does not know is that this transformation is the only way to widen the cage and give the bird room to fly. The conscious mind, then, wakes up after the Forgetting in a very constricting world, with no experience at all, and its one greatest desire is to release itself from that which would constrict it. It asks of the unconscious mind: "Show me more than this."[/font]
[font=Verdana][/font]
[font=Verdana]To be a virtuous magician is to have a clear and focused mind. Thus, one must choose the conceptual object of will with precision and clarity. The more complex and confused the concept you focus your will upon, the more seemingly random your experience will be. Thus, when people talk about the Law of Attraction, they are speaking about the activity of the Matrix of the Mind; however, simplicity and clarity are often unappreciated. The Magician must be careful that his will is coherent and not self-contradictory.[/font] In philosophical circles, this virtue is described thus: A useful answer will only come when one asks the right question. The Magician must become a master at asking the right question.
[font=Verdana][/font]
Suppose that you have a bad habit, like smoking cigarettes. On the bodily level, you want to get rid of that habit; yet on the mental level there is something that keeps you coming back. The question that the Magician asks is all-important here. Every time the conscious mind experiences a desire to smoke a cigarette, there is actually a desire-conflict. The conscious mind always wants to know what lies within the unconscious mind, but it is not always willing to accept the answer. The conscious mind may be telling the unconscious mind "I want to know, but I don't want to know that." This is the sense in which a desire for some experience in the world can be an indirect question that the Magician is asking of the High Priestess. Because the conscious mind wants to let go of the habit of cigarettes, but it also does not want to know what the habit is hiding in the unconscious mind, there is an impasse. Until the Magician makes a choice, the way is going to be barred -- here we have a deep connection to the Transformation of the Mind.
[font=Verdana]The Magician shows himself in my experience anytime I find myself seeking some kind of knowledge without knowing exactly what it is I seek or why. Consider the conscious mind in your everyday activities. Every now and again a curiosity will strike you. You ask yourself a question to which you don't know the answer. It is important to keep always in mind that you are all, so your mind is the All-Mind. Therefore, all knowledge of any kind is a form of self-knowledge. So the question you ask yourself might be "What is the Sun made of?", but it might also be "Why do I keep acting this way?" The question might be "Why won't my brother just accept me as I am?", but it might also be "What is preventing me from living in the present moment?", or "Where does Archetype 1 reveal itself in my experience?" Regardless of the question, there is a will to know, and that will, if focused and intent enough, is sure to yield an answer.[/font]
[font=Verdana][/font]
[font=Verdana]The magical orb, in my view, is a sign of the Creative capacity of the mind (consider that the orb is only found in the Mind Cycle). At every step of the way where this orb is seen, the mind is actively creating some aspect of the body. The Magician's orb is perhaps the most subtle orb of all, for his manner of creating the manifest reality around him is entirely ignorant. The Magician has only questions, so the answers that the Magician receives (which transforms him thereby into the Emperor) may come in any form at any time. The only thing that is certain is its eventual arrival. Consider the answers that Don's questions often receive: he is frequently surprised by the answer Ra gives, revealing Don's ignorance over and over. This is reflective of the Magician, the conscious mind as it relates to knowledge of itself.[/font]