The Matrix of the Spirit
-Archetype Fifteen-

In the Law of One material, the archetypes form a fundamental part of understanding the structure and evolution of the mind, body, and spirit. The Matrix of the Spirit is the unpotentiated spirit. The heavy veiling of the unconscious mind from the conscious mind in third density, plus the inherently mysterious nature of the spirit complex, entail that this archetype describes the most hidden and poorly understood part of the self. Here we behold the self as an incomprehensible other. The persona is the Adversary.

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Overview of the Archetype

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The Matrix of the Spirit is symbolized by Typhon standing in the center, trampling two broken pillars. Typhon has a crocodile head, a rhinoceros horn, bat wings, a pig’s body, cloven feet, and a snake emerging from the navel. Typhon holds a scepter in the right hand and a torch pointing toward the ground in the left. In front of Typhon two human figures, one male and one female, kneel with one knee down and one up. They each wear a goat’s head mask and a loincloth, and they are chained together at the neck. One points up and the other points down.

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Symbolic Elements

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Typhon

The crocodile head represents violence and cruelty. The bat’s wings indicate that Typhon lurks in the night: a symbol of primeval darkness. The torch in Typhon’s hand is pointed down, representing a source of light wasted—a spiritual power misused. The pig’s body and tail indicate revelry in filth. The snake emerging at Typhon’s navel symbolizes gluttony by indicating a blockage preventing activation of the higher energy centers. Typhon also represents the inability to generate or to be fruitful. The destroyed pillars are those of the Significator of the Mind. They represent not the moral polarity built into the foundation of the third density experience, but our own conceptual separation of good from evil, right from wrong. The Storyteller constructs a belief system in which these two concepts are held apart from each other. Typhon has trampled those pillars, leaving rubble, confusion, and vulnerability where there once was structure, order, and protection.

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The Two Human Figures

The two human figures represent the conscious (transparent) and unconscious (hidden) selves. They also represent self and other in the external world. The chain that binds them represents their captivity: they are stuck with each other. The goat’s head masks show that they do not think for themselves, following spiritually unhelpful social norms instead. This conformity places them in the service of Typhon. They point in opposite directions, indicating a fundamental conflict between them. They want to move in opposite directions, but they are chained together and so neither has the ability to move in the desired direction. They represent the condition of being stuck in a prison with a servant of the Devil, the condition of being a spiritual slave to society, and the army of Typhon’s adherents who say and do apparently contradictory things because they are seized by the Devil.

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Functions and Dynamics

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We experience the Matrix of the Spirit as an enduring part of the human condition. We take it as a baseline and inextricable feature of the world. This feature is our experience of living in a prison in which we are bound to the very people we despise. Typhon, or the Devil, is the culmination of everything that we hate, everything that stands in opposition to what we believe. The Adversary is the enemy. We do not merely disagree with the Adversary; we consider the Adversary to be a living expression of everything that is wrong with ourselves and with the world. The Adversary must be fought and defeated. The goat’s heads on the human figures indicate not only that the relationship between conscious and unconscious, self and other, is reciprocal, but that each treats the other as an embodiment of the Adversary. The mysterious realm of spirit is felt consciously as both powerful and terrifying. Our social norms steer us away from this mystery because it has no regard for those norms. Thus we polarize into opposition camps, both internally and externally.

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The Role of Catalysts

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The Matrix of the Spirit is the stage on which all spiritual activity plays out. The function of the Adversary is to guard the power of the channel to the One Infinite Creator against any attempt to use it without proper preparation. The hideousness of the Adversary is the inner protection against opening a link to the infinite power of the Creator before initiations of mind and body have taken place. Once those initiations have occurred, the Devil becomes less and less ugly. The Adversary is motivated by the inner storm that her very existence stirs up in those who see her as the Adversary. She knows that this storm is a necessary step in awakening to her true nature as an emissary of the Creator and not a mere Devil. As Ra says, Lucifer is the true light-bringer in that the knowledge of good and evil provided the impetus to move, to work, and to learn.

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Veiling and Unveiling

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The Matrix of the Spirit is the most hidden and poorly understood part of the self. The heavy veiling of the unconscious mind from the conscious mind, plus the inherently mysterious nature of the spirit complex, means that we behold the self as an incomprehensible other. The Adversary persona is feminine. The feminine archetypes depict the parts of ourselves that are veiled from us and so appear as other. We see ourselves through a glass darkly. The veiling hides the feminine from the masculine, but it does not hide the masculine from the feminine. The Adversary is deeply, fundamentally, and inescapably misunderstood. To be an Adversary is to be an adversary to someone else.

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Polarity and Balance

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The Adversary is neither positively nor negatively oriented. She recognizes morality neither in others nor herself. Rather, she is an expression of the deeper power available in a radically individualistic approach to rightness: if it feels right, it is right. All of the available channels back to the power of the Creator are available to her, but because many of those channels are morally opposed to one another, she lacks moral coherence. The Adversary is fundamentally capricious. The moral valence of an action is insignificant to her; what she indulges in is the strength of feeling behind those actions. Mixed expressions are the common condition. One distorted expression is the Adversary in the closet who attempts to live out a controversial truth while hiding it from the world. The opposite distorted expression is the ostentatious presentation of the Devil that shuts down all possibility of potentiation.

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Integration and Transformation

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The Adversary’s empowering capacity is her authenticity. Though hopelessly misunderstood, she makes no effort to control her image; on the contrary, she enjoys the misunderstanding because it signals to her that whoever sees her as the Devil is not ready for understanding. The Adversary’s virtue is her courage and willingness to face vitriol and threats on her wellbeing because of what she represents. On the personal level the Adversary is what Jung called the Shadow—the rejected self. On the interpersonal level the Adversary is a Rival. On the social level the Adversary is the Enemy. Integration occurs as the initiations of mind and body prepare the seeker so that the Devil becomes less and less ugly and the channel to the Creator may be approached with proper preparation.

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Practical Application

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In practical terms, working with the Matrix of the Spirit involves recognizing the Adversary as the stage on which all spiritual activity plays out and as the inner protection against opening a link to the infinite power of the Creator before proper preparation. Meditation and honest self-inquiry can reveal the Shadow aspects that have been rejected and the ways in which social norms have chained the conscious and unconscious selves together. The work is not to fight the Adversary as an enemy but to recognize that this persona is to be pursued, not avoided, and that the storm stirred by the Adversary is a necessary step in awakening to her true nature as an emissary of the Creator.

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Summary

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The Matrix of the Spirit is the unpotentiated spirit—the Adversary who guards the channel to the One Infinite Creator against use without proper preparation. Through its symbolism of Typhon trampling the pillars of conceptual separation, the chained and masked figures pointing in opposite directions, and the wasted torch, it shows the condition of living in a prison bound to that which is despised and the necessity of the Shadow as the stage on which spiritual activity plays out. This archetype guides the seeker to recognize the Adversary as the rejected self, the Rival, and the Enemy, to understand that this persona is to be pursued rather than avoided, and to allow the initiations of mind and body to prepare the way so that the Devil may become less ugly and the channel to the Creator may be approached.