The Cosmos of Mind

The idea that reality — one in its essence — can be approached from two standpoints— as being (that is, as the totality of objects) and as mind (that is, as the totality of subjects) — is one of the cornerstones of any Way of development.

Yet while the study of where attention is directed — that is, the “external” world, along with its mapping and classification — is pursued carefully and persistently, the effort devoted to investigating the sources of that attention is far less substantial. The reason for this imbalance is well known: within mind operate powerful destructive forces that resist its self-study — forces for which the existence of dark regions, unvisited by attention, is advantageous.

Therefore, for Magi striving for harmonious development, the mapping of mind is no less essential than the study of the “external” world.

Let us briefly return to the Myth’s view of mind. As we have said more than once, from the standpoint of mind, unified reality is described as a psychocosmos, just as from the standpoint of being it is regarded as the macrocosmos, or “physical” cosmos.

The foundation of the psychocosmos, as the Myth holds, is an original absolute space — without coordinates and without irregularities. This completely empty (and, at the same time, absolutely potential-filled) space is what the Myth calls mind in the strict sense of the word. But as mind enters the process of self-knowledge— separating out and objectifying, from its unmanifest potential homogeneity, its actual differential characteristics — it forms within itself a totality of processes and agents which, taken as a whole, are called awareness.

These characteristics and agents have, in aggregate, a matrix nature; moreover, the matrices themselves are arranged and sustained by a hierarchy of meanings — the logoi of mind.

Thus the psychocosmos is formed: a set of distinct “worlds,” processes, and agents, ordered by semantic axes within the “empty” space of mind.

Within this psychocosmos, the Myth distinguishes three principal “levels”: the level of “original fullness” (or “emptiness”); the level of self-awareness (the level at which subjects manifest); and the operative level (the level of processes). On the original level, mind lies beyond description; on the second, it is present; and only on the third level does its actual existence unfold.

The level of absolute mind is one and undivided. On the level of presence, mind is binary: there is only the primordial duality “I / not-I.” And on the level of action, it is structured according to the tetragrammatic law.

Accordingly, it is precisely on the level of action that the processes of self-actualization and self-realization of mind take place: relying upon being, it builds its lived hierarchy.

We have also discussed at length that those regions of mind that arise in its self-study as “reactions” to particular incompletions — unfinishedness or insufficient awareness — though separated from potential fullness, are not yet “illuminated.” For this reason they are called “shadow,” and they constitute the habitat of the destructive forces of the psychocosmos. Thus, the task of mind is not only to seek and actualize its potentials, but also to bring that search to completion— toward wholeness and the fullest possible consummation — and to correct those errors committed in previous searches and actualizations.

The description and mapping of mind — the discovery of its dead ends, and of the doors opened within it for development — are among the most important actions that mind, aspiring to inner harmony, must undertake, so that its structure may become truly ordered: psychocosmic, rather than destructive and chaotic.

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