The Catalyst of the Spirit
-Archetype Seventeen-

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 Catalyst of the Spirit is the archetype of faith that arises after the potentiation of the spirit. Ra names this archetype “Faith,” preferring this name to “Hope.” The persona is the Faithful—the unconscious mind fully exposed and allowing spiritual energy to flow through her into manifestation.

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Overview of the Archetype

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The Catalyst of the Spirit is symbolized by a woman who kneels with her right foot on land and her left foot on sea, her legs forming right angles. Her right hand pours liquid from a pitcher onto the land and her left pours liquid from a pitcher into the sea. She faces to her own left, while behind her a stem with three blossoms grows with a butterfly above it. Above her a bright star shines with a white triangle above an inverted black triangle in the center of the star. Seven smaller stars surround the central star.

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Symbolic Elements

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The Woman and the Lodestar

The woman represents the unconscious mind. The lodestar above her is the Logos shining through the dark night of the spirit complex into her awareness. The seven smaller stars around the lodestar represent the energy centers through which the Logos is able to express itself. These energy centers shine as lesser expressions of the central aspect of self. In this archetype the energy centers must be open, unblocked, and minimally balanced so that spiritual work may be done without the inhibiting intrusion of mental or bodily work yet to be done. The two triangles in the middle of the lodestar show that the right- and left-hand paths are mirror images of each other, and that the left-hand path is the shadow side or illusory image of the right-hand path. They appear together within the lodestar, showing that one cannot behold the Logos in faith without exposing oneself to the availability of both moral paths.

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The Nakedness, Flower, and Butterfly

The woman’s nakedness represents the unconscious mind fully exposed. The Revelation of the Potentiator has exposed all the elements of the unconscious mind that we have been hiding from. The veil is only lifted insofar as a certain aspect of the unconscious mind controls the contact between mind and spirit. Seeing her naked only magnifies the mystery of her link to the lodestar. The flower represents spring, signaling that the devastation is over and new life is flourishing. It also represents the reproductive capacity of acts of faith. The unconscious mind allows the spiritual energy to flow through her and into manifestation without ever looking back to see what grew from the seeds thus sown. The butterfly refers specifically to the acquisition of wings. Through the Potentiation of the Spirit the earthbound caterpillar has sprouted wings and is able to fly. The butterfly is the messenger that bridges the gap between Logos and mind. In the Catalyst of the Spirit we may finally enter the spirit complex as a Traveler to move from the limits of the earthbound mind to the limitless light of the star in the distance.

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The Pitchers and the Legs

The pitchers of liquid resemble the pitchers in the hands of the Alchemist. Whereas the Alchemist was refining the energies on hand without giving or taking any new energies, the Faithful allows these spiritual energies to pour out from and through her. The energy mysteriously enters her from the distant star, through the chasm of the night sky, into her eyes, and out through her hands. The outpouring also represents the shedding of moral and social norms that had kept her caged as a demon. The two right angles formed by her legs represent the proximity of the physical and the metaphysical.

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Functions and Dynamics

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Faith is not the sort of thing that most people refer to when they use the word. The common understanding makes it a kind of belief held regardless of evidence. But belief is a mental phenomenon. Faith extends far beyond the bounds of any conceptualization or mythic narrative. It is beholden to no myth and answers only to the mysterious Creator. To have faith is to accept the mystery and the indictment of all mythic belief that this mystery represents. Faith is a kind of trust. On the right-hand path, faith is trust in the deep, sincere benevolence of the universe, the Creator, and the other human beings with whom we share the Creation. In faith we behold the light, however dim, and take its warmth at face value. In faith we open ourselves in our entirety to that light, allowing it in with no obstruction. Faith is not blind; rather, its gaze is fixed on the light and so does not see the results of faith in manifestation.

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The Role of Catalysts

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Following the devastation of the potentiating lightning, the unconscious mind of the Faithful is exposed and vulnerable. The trauma she has endured through the torment of her caged life as a demon has finally come to an end and she no longer has either the will or capacity to defend herself. She has collapsed onto the ground, grateful that it is finally over, and happily releasing the biases that have kept her in her cage for so long. The faith of the Faithful lies in the motivating influence of the glimmer of spiritual light that remains after the moment of Revelation has passed. A new spiritual energy is now available to the Faithful and the motivating influence of that spiritual energy is undeniable. The star that appears above her is the guiding light whose hidden communication to her reveals her destiny to her. But that destiny is fraught. Within that star she can see a positive, glorious expression of divine unfoldment that might flow through her as an instrument of the higher will; but she can also see the shadow side of this glory: the eternal emptiness and isolation of a universe that lacks a Creator entirely.

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Veiling and Unveiling

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The veil is only lifted insofar as a certain aspect of the unconscious mind controls the contact between mind and spirit. Her desires, intentions and values are fully revealed, but why she feels as she does or follows the star as she follows it cannot be known. The darkness of the night sky represents the veiled spirit complex. Between the unconscious mind and the light of the Logos there is a huge chasm of darkness that one’s inner witness must traverse if it is to make contact and reunite with the One Creator. The butterfly bridges that gap. Unveiling occurs as the spiritual energy pours through the Faithful into manifestation and the flower of new life springs up from the outpouring.

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Polarity and Balance

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The right-hand path Faithful is wholesome through and through. Having endured deep suffering, she emerges genuinely pure of heart. The positively oriented Faithful is the unconscious mind reborn as an angelic state of mind, embracing the inner light as her only guide, living her life in service to the Creator she beholds. The left-hand path Faithful represents the human will finally and fully broken. The last remnants of attachment to a sunny, storybook life have fallen away. She has turned to the dark side. This Broken Soul now understands the beauty and satisfaction of her utter helplessness before the will and dominion of her oppressor. Mixed expressions are the common condition. These two opposite potentials are always available and, to some degree, present in the Catalyst of the Spirit. Reckoning with the power and potential of each as they simultaneously offer themselves is the stuff of faith.

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Integration and Transformation

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To be the Faithful is to live in and through one’s own despair. Despair is not an abandonment of faith, but a mixture of positive and negative faith. Insofar as we see a benevolent Creator and the universe as that Creator made manifest, then our vision motivates us to open our hearts to the world. But insofar as we see beyond ourselves a dark emptiness, devoid of love and intelligence, our faith will turn in upon itself. The doubt of the faithful is an experience of teetering between these two extremes. The new reality that emerges after the Revelation imparts to the Faithful a vision of the way things might be from now on and this vision guides her hand as she finally releases her own inhibitions, allowing the spiritual energy to flow through her and into the manifest world. That vision is impossibly distant from her. Her faith is a necessary absurdity.

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Practical Application

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In practical terms, working with the Catalyst of the Spirit involves recognizing the inner motivation to act in accord with the deep feeling of rightness after the lightning of potentiation has struck. Meditation and honest self-inquiry can reveal the glimmer of spiritual light that remains after Revelation and the despair that arises from teetering between the two potentials within the lodestar. The work is not to force a pure polarized expression but to allow the spiritual energy to pour through the unconscious mind into manifestation without looking back to see what grows from the seeds. By fixing the gaze on the light of the lodestar and allowing the Faithful to empty herself of the biases that had kept her caged, the seeker creates the conditions under which the energy of the spirit may flow into the world.

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Summary

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The Catalyst of the Spirit is the archetype of faith that arises after the potentiation of the spirit—the Faithful who allows spiritual energy to pour through her into manifestation. Through its symbolism of the woman kneeling between land and sea, the pitchers pouring liquid, the flower and butterfly, and the lodestar containing both triangles, it shows how the unconscious mind, fully exposed, becomes a conduit for the Logos and how faith extends beyond any mythic belief to answer only to the mysterious Creator. This archetype guides the seeker to recognize the necessary absurdity of faith, to live in and through despair as a mixture of positive and negative faith, and to allow the spiritual energy to flow into the world without attachment to outcomes.