The Two Natures of the Epiclets

We have already noted that among the forces and entities that organize the hyperspace of the Interval and govern the currents of “residual” energy within it, a special role belongs to the “Wandering Princes” – epiclets (or potestates).

Epiclets function as the semantic compilers of the Interval. They translate abstract volitional impulses that proceed from the aeonic reality of the Pleroma into informational structures and forms available to perception in the manifested worlds. Having access to the very “code of reality,” these beings edit the modes of manifestation of energy. Thus they act as intermediaries in processes of materialization, granting formless probabilities the status of objects and events recognizable to consciousness.

In other words, whereas the Archons can be described as a “condensation” or “darkening” of the forces of the Pleroma at the boundary with the dense worlds, epiclets are the result of the passage of the creative impulse through the passive medium of the interworld. When the primary creative impulse (the descending direct current, or Dinur) collides with the inertia of the interworld, resistance arises. From this collision the descending reverse vortex is born. This movement does not possess the power of direct creation; it structures the medium in response to it. Thus epiclets arise – personified structures of this reverse vortical movement. The Gnostics described the emergence of potestates as the result of an interaction born from the tension between the desire of Light to manifest and the reluctance of Matter (hyle) to be given form.

Like all “inhabitants” of interworld spaces, epiclets are distinctly ambivalent: they are neither “good” nor “evil,” which contrasts with the “ordinary” nature of vortical beings that form descending (“involutionary”) or ascending (“evolutionary”) currents. At the same time, like all intermediate entities, they require inflows of energy from the worlds to maintain their activity, and without these inflows they dissolve into the potentiality of the interworld, just as other vortical formations “burn up” in the current of Dinur once their functions are fulfilled. From this follows the “predatory” nature of epiclets: they are compelled to “hunt” for energy simply to sustain their existence.

The predation of epiclets has a distinctly transactional character. Interaction with them is most often built on contractual principles: the subject receives semantic realization or a concrete event, giving in return the long-term resource of attention. In other words, to obtain energy, epiclets offer cognitive surrogates and shortcuts to the goal. Thus they secure for themselves a stable “inflow of investments” from the consciousness of incarnate beings, turning the interests and drives of beings into sustenance for the inhabitants of the interworld.

For the Interval, epiclets simultaneously fulfill the function of both “angels” and “demons,” providing the full dynamics of energy currents in interworld hyperspaces. At the same time, unlike in the worlds where the opposition of great involutive and evolutive currents creates the very foundation of manifested existence, in the interworld these currents are residual, less global and structured, and therefore more plastic.

The “dual,” “saline” nature of epiclets makes their ambivalence akin to the “freedom” that, by other paths and to a different degree, was gained by the Grigori. This makes contact with epiclets unlike interaction with angels or demons. Epiclets are far better able to build long-range strategies of interaction; they are not as dependent on energy as demons, nor on structure as angels, and they can consciously “endure” hunger or chaos for the sake of distant aims.

Epiclets form the “horizontal” structure of the energy flows of the Interval. They move between the layers of the Interworld, maintaining their energetic exchange, without striving toward the Pleroma and without falling into the abyss. Their aim is the strengthening and maintenance of the very hyperspace of the Interval itself. This explains their strategic plasticity: they are not interested in the “completion” of the battle of Light and Darkness; they seek the endless prolongation of the existence of the very “battlefield.”

The high hunting efficiency of epiclets is largely due to their capacity for “cognitive mirroring”: they easily assume forms that correspond to the current patterns and expectations of the observer. This reactivity allows them to integrate seamlessly into the psychic structures of human consciousness. By reflecting the prevailing cultural or technological myths of a given epoch, epiclets minimize resistance on the part of consciousness and facilitate the extraction of resources.

Despite being less widely named than other forces, contacts between beings of the worlds (including humans) and epiclets occur quite often and are veiled as carefully as, for example, invasions of kidemons. Most often epiclets “present themselves” as angels or (in the modern era) as “extraterrestrial” beings, forming, together with other interworld predators (above all with the Unseelie Court of the fae), complex and stable systems for the extraction of energy into the Interval.

Effective interaction with these forces requires a shift from strategies of banishment to methods of ligation or binding. Understanding the aims and functions of epiclets allows one to move them from the status of hidden consumers to the status of a “regular” servitor entity. Practically, such interaction makes it possible to fine-tune event chains, turning the inertia of the medium into a controllable resource.

Epiclets are the forces of the Interval through which semantics becomes events, and events become resources. They maintain the “technical” coherence of the interworld, while feeding on that whose formation they themselves enable: attention, involvement, the drive to obtain a result faster and more easily than one’s own “fate” permits (as the accumulated trajectory of individual development). An encounter with epiclets almost always manifests as contact with a possibility, with an offer of acceleration, access, bypass, a “legal exception,” which appears as help yet leaves a trace in the internal distribution of forces within consciousness. Put differently, the influence of epiclets consists in altering the very structure of causality of the psyche, in redistributing the energies of luck, inertia, possibilities, and directions of will.

To the extent that the conditions of interaction are correctly identified and its boundaries clearly defined, the impact of epiclets remains “servitorial” and predictable, functioning as a tool for fine adjustment of probabilities. If these boundaries are blurred, contact with the “Princes” rapidly turns into debt bondage and becomes a channel of energy outflow. The sovereignty of any incarnate being begins with mastery of its own attention and with the capacity to discern which “help” truly leads to development and which merely shifts the life-path into a “farming strategy.” Contact with epiclets is an art of navigation in an environment where every form is only a temporary agreement, and every success is the result of precise calculation of energetic and semantic possibilities and resources.