Maternal Powers

We have already noted more than once that, besides individualized, self-centered forms of mind, which are an expression of the Paternal principle of the universe, Magi often encounter entities that are manifestations of certain important properties of the Medium itself, immanence — the Maternal pole.

Although differentiated, personal mind seems more “familiar” to us, universal, functional, “distributed” mind in the Medium also plays its role in world processes.

Just as any individual vortex in one sense or another is a self-aware being, and collective vortices acquire individuality, each current of the Medium, each mode of interaction manifests its own form of awareness.

In other words, everything ordered and directed is — to one degree or another — aware, and therefore can be considered as a volitional agent, even when it is deprived of its own individuality.

Such agents can carry out their activity both at the expense of their own internal sources of will (it is precisely such beings and entities that form all world hierarchies of mind), and as a result of “reflected activity” arising as the response of the Medium to certain requests or needs of a being. That is, the Medium “responds” to a strong volitional impulse that arises in beings, and this response is perceived as a special functional entity, which is brought to life by “external” activity. It is clear that, being manifestations of the Medium, the Mother, these entities appear, like waves on the surface of the ocean, and again return to the Womb of the Medium, having fulfilled their purpose. In this they are similar to the Service Spirits, which are also born from the Dinur Current, and depart into this Current after completing their task; however, they also differ in a number of important properties.

First, Dinur is a current of Creative energy, Will, the Primordial Fire, and therefore the will that gives birth to the Service Spirits is the very Creative Desire of the Deity. The entities of the Currents are born of passive immanence, and at the expense of “external” sources of will.

Second, Service beings are born in pairs, and maintain world balance in their confrontation. Current entities do not have a combative nature, although they may enter into various confrontations, but only temporarily and only insofar as obstacles hinder the fulfillment of their function.

Third, Service beings are usually coeval with the world; they exist for long periods of time, whereas Current entities are born in response to a specific request and again immerse into the Waters of Immanence upon its fulfillment. Accordingly, they are not included in any world hierarchies, and, in fact, are “macro-elementals,” manifested and temporarily formed properties of the Medium itself.

We have already noted that all such “Maternal” manifestations of mind can be divided into two large groups: Guardians and Conductors.

Guardians are a manifestation of the inertia of each current in the Medium, the property of its internal stability and integrity. The best known among them are:

• Hierophants, manifesting at the moment of passing the Gates of Initiations, and guarding the current of mind in moments of its instability,
• Morpheuses, also safeguarding mind in the unstable current of dreaming,
• Guardians of Families and Lines, which are a kind of “elementals” of non-egregoric collectivities,
• Kabirs, forming the basis of the internal stability of “natural forces,” and others.

Strictly speaking, the same group should also include the Archons themselves — Guardians of the Interval, as a manifestation of the stability of the Interworld — the womb and potential foundation of worlds; however, their scale is too great to fit into any classification.

Conductors are an expression of the teleological, goal-oriented nature of any current. They appear as an “answer” to the striving of any current to be completed, to reach its goal. Among them the best known are:

Forces of disembodiment — gallu, namtarru and thanatoi, ensuring the transition of mind from an embodied state to an intermediate one, and paired with them

Forces of embodiment – disy, completing the cycle and conducting mind to a new birth,

Psychopomps, leading elementers through the Interval — Anubises and Upuaouts,

Forces of Transcendence, arising as Pleroma’s response to the striving of mind for liberation — idams and luminaries,

and others.

Buddhist descriptions offer vivid and inspiring pictures of the manifestation of such “Enlightening” Conductors in response to the efforts of practitioners, and, strictly speaking, the radiant figures of the Dhyani-Buddhas are the pinnacle of this group. In other words, it is incorrect to assume that, for example, Buddha Amitabha exists somewhere “by himself”; He manifests as an Enlightened form of mind only in response to a request of the practitioner, but once manifested, serves as an absolutely unerring and reliable beacon on the Path.

Thus, “maternal” forces can manifest at different stages of life and postmortem, ensuring the flow of currents that are internally integral and possess the will to realization. It is important to understand that these entities are not volutive; it is impossible to “negotiate with them” or “bargain” with them — the conditions of their manifestation are set by the nature of the current itself upon its formation.

Likewise, it is important to understand that the “request” that calls Conductors and Guardians into manifestation and functioning is not merely a conscious desire or demand; it is a deep inner property of the current (of mind or of a process), and if there is no such essential need in the current, then it is impossible to simulate it or somehow invoke it. One can perform the Initiation Ritual as often as one likes, but if mind has not inwardly reached the sought degree, the Hierophant will not appear.

Nevertheless, in the case of their manifestation, relying on these manifestations of the Medium and correctly identifying them and establishing proper interaction with them can significantly ease passage through stages or achieving goals.