Pleroma: The Great Perfection
The concept of pleroma is a cornerstone of Western Magic aimed at the full realization, reintegration and liberation of the Magus.
The state of actual fullness, creative perfection, free from any limitations, has always been that guiding star that guided wayfarers through all the obstacles on the Way.
We have often said that the Great Spirit, the Absolute, includes an infinite number of possibilities and forms of its manifestation while remaining completely formless and unmanifest. From the point of view of its unitary aspect — the individual mind, the Monad — among such forms the original binary of potential/actual existence is of primary importance, the realization of which is expressed in another supreme duality – being and mind.
In this sense the world-process is a transformation of potential perfection, in which being and mind are not yet manifest and indistinguishable, into actual perfection, in which being and mind are already one and indivisible. It is clear that from the absolute standpoint there is no difference between these states, and within the very heart of the Great Spirit they are primordially present simultaneously and wholly; yet for the relative mind of a manifested being this Great transition is the very essence of existence.
In other words, for us the world moves from the unmanifest to full manifestation, and accordingly the development of the microcosm mirrors this evolution of the macrocosm. And although this process is without beginning or endless, and from the relative point of view there is no escape from the cycle, wayfarers of different schools and traditions have always known that one can leave this miserable infinity only by abandoning identification with it, by finding within oneself that absolute state in which the Great perfection was never lost. It is precisely this quest that forms the deep foundation of any Way, any development of the individual spirit. Accordingly, the splintering of mind, which obstructs this awareness, can be overcome either by a return to potential fullness or by integration into the pleroma.
And although mind as such, in its ultimate aspect, in its absolute reality, is homogeneous and without qualities, it can manifest, be realized, and be actualized only in differentiated currents — the currents of selves, personalities, psychic phenomena. Accordingly, the process of integration of mind must proceed in the opposite direction — from the ordering of psychic currents toward the manifested presence — the individuality of the Monad.
The Western myth is precisely aimed at full realization, the maximum manifestation of individuality and the all-unity it describes as “the Kingdom of God”; pleroma is the concrete designation of this, essentially qualityless state.
Magical practice, with all its particular aims and tasks, at its core seeks this merging of being with mind, which at the early stages of understanding is crudely described by the primitive notions of “control” or “power.”
Accordingly, in order to attain actual fullness, pleromic fullness, the Magus must address two global tasks: he must integrate his thinking/psychic processes and he must integrate his actions.
In this respect the Magus’s Way considers its two poles: Myth and Law – the description of the system and the mode of action accordant with that description.
On the one hand, the Magus strives to make his actions, first, as much his own as possible (and therefore he strives to integrate, to order all manifestations of his individuality, to rid himself of heterogeneous influences and affects, of demons, predators and parasites of the mind), and, second, to be maximally conscious (for this he seeks understanding, structure and order in his actions). All this converges in “Magic” as such and in its mode of existence — the Ritual. On the other hand, the Magus must gain experience in overcoming fragmentation, the experience of non-egregoric unity founded not on the suppression of individuality but, on the contrary, on its maximal manifestation and realization. In other words — the Magus must acquire the capacity to love. Only when the Magus has awakened Power within himself and has realized Love within himself can he integrate them into one and attain the Great Perfection of the pleroma. Neglect of either of these poles turns the Magus either into a whiny “enlightened” incapable of action, or into a cold soldier, at war with the whole world and with himself. But true freedom is achieved only when the mind depends on neither limiting nor non-limiting factors — when there is no suppression or oppression, no division or fusion.
“Accordingly, the fragmentation of consciousness preventing this sensation can be exhausted either by returning to potential fullness or by integrating into the pleroma.”
In other words, this means that in the corrupted world there are 2 paths:
1) back to the source, that is, beyond the boundary, into death, into life beyond death.
2) Into the pleroma, into life in life.
Perhaps there is a surreal reality, but a reality is still reality.
There may be relative consciousness, but Consciousness is always consciousness.
The world process is an energetic tension of varying magnitude and vibration.
For us, the world Moves. The movement of the world lies in understanding cyclicity, the change of vibrations.
This process is irreversible and infinite, and there is no exit from “bad” infinity due to the endless movement and development enclosed in the cycle.
The world process is enclosed in the energetic correspondence of spatial expansion to the actual manifestation.
The actual manifestation is manifested in correspondence to the expansion of space to the manifested development of the souls inhabiting this space.
Are there other virtual realities…. in which the great spirit places itself in a chain of consumption?! And who built the bodies of existing myths full of unimaginable gluttony?
Very interesting. Thank you.