The Path of The One
Over two decades before the Matrix Resurrections, Neo’s journey began with his being asleep at the beginning of The Matrix. After attaining his powers as “the One,” and fighting his way through The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, he found himself in the position of saving everyone in the Matrix after Agent Smith had taken over everything.
You could say that the “path of the One” was quite an elevation in status for Neo – from a sleeper to a savior.
Tracing his path, we find that there were five clear levels of ascent that he experienced. These are expounded on through our Knowledge Base. This article is the “Cliff Notes” version of all of the information we present there.
The fives levels (or worlds) that Neo ascends through, in order, are:
- The Matrix world
- The Program world
- The world of the Oracle
- The world of the Architect
- The world of the Deus ex Machina/the Source
Each of these worlds plays a specific role on the path of the One.
“The entire duration of exile is really a process of rectification, of tikkun (repair) … the process of redemption is a linear series of events. Each event emerges from the previous one, and is the preparation for the subsequent stage. This chronology is a synthesis of the spiritually divine Order of Creation, which slowly unfolds in synchronization with the physical world, before our eyes.”
‘Secrets of the Redemption,’ Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (mid-18th century)
The 1st World of the Matrix
Neo is not the only human who is freed from the Matrix. Thus, he’s not the only one to ‘feel’ that something wasn’t quite right. Some, no doubt, chose to ignore this internal ‘provoking.’ Others chose to become seekers.
Unbeknownst to most of the population, however, they were not only ‘enslaved’ — they were also unaware of the other levels of existence beyond their own.
And in that state, they lacked what they needed to learn about these other worlds.
The parallel to this in our world is reflected in this quote from a famous personality:
“We think reality is what we can apportion through the limited instruments of the five senses. But reality is of course far beyond that. Spiritual data … We don’t have the correct instruments to receive it … And we live primarily in the realm of the senses.”
Russell Brand
The 2nd World of Programs
So what did they lack? A certain man named Morpheus and his famous red pill! Until they make that choice, the humans in the Matrix remain completely unaware that their world is one of concealment to the truth.
In addition, they are not in control of anything. Their existence is being run by a system outside of their realm.
As the Oracle informed Neo:
“See those birds? At some point a program was written to govern them. A program was written to watch over the trees, and the wind, the sunrise, and sunset.”
There’s an interesting spiritual text that reflects this same idea:
Every single blade of grass has a corresponding guiding force that hits it and tells it to grow.
Midrash Rabbah, Genesis 10:6
This is the realm of choice. The blue pill or the red pill. The choice is just the beginning. Getting through this second level is a struggle and can involve great sacrifice and even cause relationships to become strained.
The 3rd World of the Oracle
So there are all these programs running around. But something has to be governing them in order to have order in the Matrix?
And is there any guidance for humans looking beyond the world of their ‘physical senses as mentioned above?
You bet. And everyone breaking free meets with her and gets their ‘direction’ moving forwards. Remember, the Oracle is all about the future, as she told Neo in The Matrix Reloaded.
Some even meet with her on more than one occasion – especially if they’re advancing toward their purpose.
In all three movies, Neo meets with the Oracle. And each time, she knows precisely what to tell him, based on “where he was at” – and where he needed to go next.
The 4th World of the Architect
If someone made it as far as the Oracle, they did very well. They have escaped the false reality of the Matrix and have their ‘purpose’ as given to them – and them alone.
Once in a great while however (six times to be exact), someone makes such a strong connection to the rest of humanity, that they merit getting to the fourth world – that of the Architect.
Here is where your ‘past’ matters – as can be seen across the hundreds of video screens in his lair. All the separate parts of Neo’s past led to his arrival before the Architect at precisely that moment.
To quote Morpheus,
What happened, happened and couldn’t have happened any other way.
Don’t think that guy in the chair had everything right however. The Oracle made clear how “singular minded” he is and how he cannot see past the choices he does not understand.
So anything he said, had a pretty fair chance of having error in it. Including his ideas about the Matrix prophecy.
Too bad Neo forgot the Oracle’s words when he believed the Architect about that.
Too bad a lot of fans forgot too – and think the prophecy was a lie – as it wasn’t. (As we explain in our Knowledge Base.)
The 5th World of the Deus Ex Machina
That could have been it for Neo. After all, he did reach the level of the ‘creator’ of the Matrix. We’re giving that a lower-case ‘c’ as he is only the program-level creator.
Being a program himself, there is that which created him – the Creator with an upper-case ‘C.’
The problem here is this “higher-level” Creator, called “the Source,” is beyond the four worlds of existence, mentioned to this point. Even though the Architect, the Oracle and some of the humans had heard of “the Source,” they really don’t have any specific information about it.
No one can think of something that is outside of existence, as our thoughts are relegated to within existence.
“It is a pickle,” as the Oracle might say!
This 5th and final level, being outside existence, can thus be considered as ‘nothing’ to that within existence.
How then, was Neo able to get this far?
The only way to connect with this realm of ‘nothing’ is to become ‘nothing’ yourself. This is a state of self-abnegation. Putting everyone and everything else ahead of yourself 100 percent.
- Neo did this to a degree in the first Matrix movie, when he turned to fight Smith.
- He did it to a greater degree in The Matrix Reloaded, when he faced the sentinels at the very end (who all fell before him!)
- Finally, in The Matrix Revolutions, he (along with Trinity) went on a mission to try to save humanity, knowing they would not be returning.
THAT last act, was one of 100 percent selflessness. It was deliberate. That led to the connection to the 5th level of pre-existence.
What Will The Matrix Resurrections Hold?
What lies next, in The Matrix Resurrections – seeing that Neo actually did die in the third film? Well, the title is a bit of a giveaway, though we can say that Neo and Trinity are not the only ones it refers to – not remotely!
All of the ideas touched on in this brief article are elaborated upon in our Knowledge Base. As this is a course of study, and one that will likely be new to 99 percent of the readers, we recommend starting with the first article and going from there. We build everything “one brick at a time.”
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