The Catalyst of the Spirit

[spero]

http://www.lawofone.info/images/large/tarot17.jpg
i always thoughts she was pouring water on two patches of earth. one brings forth beauty (STO) the other takes and gives nothing (STS). if spirit (water) is an energy that can be hoarded perhaps that's why the STS side is also visualized as a lake/pond

According to Ra polarization of the spirit only really starts with the Experience of the Spirit, though that polarization is spurred on by the Catalyst.

80.15 Questioner: The only obvious significant difference, I believe, between the positive and negative adepts in using this shuttle is the way they polarize. Is there a relationship between the archetypes of the spirit and whether the polarization is either positive or negative? Is, for instance, the positive calling through the sixteenth archetype and the negative calling through the fifteenth archetype? I am very confused about this and I imagine that that question is either poor or meaningless. Can you answer that?

Ra: I am Ra. It is a challenge to answer such a query, for there is some confusion in its construction. However, we shall attempt to speak upon the subject.

The adept, whether positive or negative, has the same Matrix. The Potentiator is also identical. Due to the Catalyst of each adept the adept may begin to pick and choose that into which it shall look further. The Experience of the Spirit, that which you have called the Moon, is then, by far, the more manifest of influences upon the polarity of the adept. Even the most unhappy of experiences, shall we say, which seem to occur in the Catalyst of the adept, seen from the viewpoint of the spirit, may, with the discrimination possible in shadow, be worked with until light equaling the light of brightest noon descends upon the adept and positive or service-to-others illumination has occurred. The service-to-self adept will satisfy itself with the shadows and, grasping the light of day, will toss back the head in grim laughter, preferring the darkness.

I think this can be seen in the Brotherhood of Light card where the two polarities are united within the star.

lol i read the same quote and see it to mean the catalyst of the spirit is different for a STO vs STS adept lol. Specifically...

...The adept, whether positive or negative, has the same Matrix. The Potentiator is also identical. Due to the Catalyst of each adept the adept may begin to pick and choose that into which it shall look further...

but i can see your interpretation as well lol and concede the real polarization happens in the experience and response to catalyst