The Potentiator of the Spirit
-Archetype Sixteen-

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 Potentiator of the Spirit is the archetype of sudden spiritual awakening that strikes the mental construct we have built as a temple for living closer to the Creator. The persona is the Disgraced Priest—the one whose pinnacle of holiness is destroyed by the lightning of the inner Logos.

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Overview of the Archetype

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The Potentiator of the Spirit is symbolized by a tower or pyramid being struck by lightning. The capstone or battlement on top is dislodged and falling off. Two figures fall from the top, one male and one female.

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Symbolic Elements

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The Tower or Pyramid

The pyramid is the place of initiation. It—and any triangle we see in the Egyptian Tarot—does not represent the spirit, but the temple in which we attempt to use the spirit to contact the Creator. This interpretation matches another name occasionally used for this image, “The House of God.” The temple is constructed entirely by human hands. The constructed nature of the temple is reminiscent of the Significator of the Mind: in that image, the master of ceremonies (the Storyteller) sits within a temple of his own construction. The capstone or crown on the temple symbolizes the pinnacle of holiness or moral rectitude, a place where the transparent spiritual self has made a dwelling for itself. In constructing our own moral and spiritual ideologies, we, as a rule, place ourselves at the top of this ideology: we see ourselves as instances of enlightened achievement of the goals of human life.

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The Lightning and the Falling Figures

The lightning represents sudden spiritual awakening. Many Tarot decks have the lightning originating from the Sun. Since this archetype is a Potentiator, it represents the inner Logos, which is symbolized by the Sun. It is appropriate, then, that the Sun is depicted as the source of the lightning. This reminds us that we do not choose when spiritual awakening happens. It finds us in its own time. Sudden spiritual awakening destroys the pinnacle of holiness in which we have made ourselves cozy, knocking both the transparent and hidden self out of the temple and crashing to the ground in abject humiliation. The tower represents the mental construct we have designed for ourselves as a means of securing for ourselves a favorable character arc in the narrative of our lives. It is built out of beliefs and the lightning strike occurs because these beliefs have hardened into dogmas that keep us spiritually locked away from the Creator. The two figures are the transparent and hidden selves (analogous to self and other). They are in this adventure together.

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Functions and Dynamics

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The Potentiator of the Spirit is the sudden spiritual awakening that finds us in its own time. The destruction of the tower does not have to play out as an outwardly destructive event. Sudden spiritual awakening always causes our world to come crashing down: a mental phenomenon in response to a spiritual event. New spiritual awareness comes at the cost of a penthouse within our worldview, a penthouse we worked hard to get to. The loss of the penthouse can be entirely an inward event in which we discover for ourselves that we were not nearly so spiritually advanced or perfected as we had reckoned. But it can also manifest as the literal loss of a penthouse. What matters is the spiritual and moral value that this self-conceived achievement of status represents.

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The Role of Catalysts

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The Potentiator of the Spirit arises when the beliefs that form the temple have hardened into dogmas that keep us spiritually locked away from the Creator. The lightning of the inner Logos strikes without our choosing the moment. The two figures falling represent the transparent and hidden selves being knocked from the pinnacle they had constructed. On the personal level this is the sudden recognition that we were not as spiritually advanced as we had believed. On the interpersonal level it is the revelation that demolishes the mental structures that had allowed a relationship to persist in its static condition. On the social level it is the earth-shattering event that reveals the hidden reality to the group consciousness and revalues the social norms that had separated the acceptable from the rejected.

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Veiling and Unveiling

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The tower is a structure built of beliefs. The lightning strikes because these beliefs have hardened into dogmas. The veil between the transparent and hidden selves remains, yet both are knocked from the temple together. The destruction of the pinnacle of holiness is the unveiling that occurs when the inner Logos finds us. The humiliation of the fall is the necessary condition for the subsequent catalyst of faith. Unveiling is not chosen; it finds us when the dogmas have locked us away from the Creator.

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Polarity and Balance

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The Potentiator of the Spirit does not itself polarize. It is the sudden awakening that destroys the pinnacle of holiness regardless of the path that will subsequently be chosen. The two figures falling together show that the transparent and hidden selves are in this adventure together. The right-hand and left-hand paths become available only after the fall, in the Catalyst of the Spirit. The lightning does not choose the path; it merely destroys the structure that had kept both paths locked away. Mixed expressions are the common condition before the lightning strikes; the pure polarized expressions become available only after the temple has fallen.

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Integration and Transformation

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The Potentiator of the Spirit is the threshold at which the mental construct of holiness is destroyed so that a new configuration may arise. Distorted expressions include attempts to induce the lightning through public confessions that are actually ploys to reinforce one’s own image of enlightenment, or through social interventions that cross the line into mere trolling. Integration occurs as the falling figures accept the humiliation of the fall and the subsequent Catalyst of the Spirit allows the spiritual energy to pour through the now-exposed unconscious mind. When the pinnacle has been destroyed and the dogmas have been revealed as such, the seeker is prepared for the faith that answers only to the mysterious Creator.

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Practical Application

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In practical terms, working with the Potentiator of the Spirit involves recognizing when beliefs have hardened into dogmas that lock us away from the Creator and when the lightning of sudden spiritual awakening has already struck. Meditation and honest self-inquiry can reveal the penthouse within the worldview that we have constructed and the humiliation that follows its destruction. The work is not to force the lightning but to notice when it has already found us and to allow the transparent and hidden selves to fall together from the pinnacle they had built. By accepting the destruction of the temple of our own construction, the seeker creates the conditions under which the Catalyst of the Spirit may arise and the spiritual energy may begin to flow.

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Summary

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The Potentiator of the Spirit is the sudden spiritual awakening that strikes the temple we have built of hardened beliefs and knocks both the transparent and hidden selves from the pinnacle of holiness. Through its symbolism of the tower struck by lightning from the sun, the falling capstone, and the two figures falling together, it shows that we do not choose the moment of awakening and that the destruction of the mental construct of moral rectitude is the necessary condition for subsequent faith. This archetype guides the seeker to recognize when dogmas have locked the self away from the Creator, to accept the humiliation of the fall when the lightning strikes, and to allow the transparent and hidden selves to fall together so that the Catalyst of the Spirit may arise.