Dweller on the Threshold

The two aspects of ourselves we call in to view by our discipline of self development, the negative and positive, have a definite name. Occult traditions have grouped them together and called it “The Dweller on The Threshold”. Tradition and modern experience, say that this spiritual being, which is the sum total of all our past karma, has to be faced and passed before we can know the deepest truth. Because of this it is sometimes called “The Guardian of The Threshold”, for it holds back those who cannot face it and understand it.

The actual outworking of facing the Guardian manifest in certain seemingly ordinary ways. As mentioned in the very beginning, unless the student is under guidance, he or she will probably not associate the events that come to pass with their development. The events that the Guardian evokes are often taken as signs of failure instead of progress. I will give you some examples of the negative aspect first to illustrate this point.

Meeting the Guardian of the Threshold

This is a concept which was originally defined in the Esoteric study of Freemasonry. It is that which has to be faced before any candidate can become an “Entered Apprentice” on the path of Initiation. The student can only manage this task to see the TRUTH of all his personalities under the supervision of a master Mason.

Learning to control, or face, the Dweller, gives us strength to face the dark forces. If we enter the arena without this strength, as some do, it may lead to great confusion of mind and personal unbalance. We must all face what we are. We must wrestle with ourselves until we are changed, and the Dark Dweller becomes a Being of Light. Then we have free access to the halls of Light also.

So much for the negative aspect of development. What about the positive unfoldment and inspirational abilities? The appearance of this other side of personal alchemy is often to be noted within a few weeks of seeking development. That is, noted by the trained occultist – the student may overlook these signs.

Steps to the Mountain Peak

THE process of occult training, as we have already said, opens the doors of the mind to the content of our inner self, and our inner world. One might say that it helps us to become conscious of the many impressions playing upon our sympathetic nervous system from the psychic and Cosmic Planes.

Becoming aware of the ideas, impressions, feelings and impact of our psychic nature, opens up huge new avenues of experience. In a way it is like walking along a dark narrow alley, and then suddenly stepping out on to a sunlit beach. Our horizon has suddenly expanded, and our world enlarged.

The new horizons of thought, feeling and experience that open to us as we practice with the occult principles, bring us in touch with much of practical use. Those creative artists, musicians, business men, designers and writers who lead the way in their field, are unconsciously tapping finer psychic nature for information. As the student advances, he or she also find themselves becoming more creative in their particular field.

Creativity is not limited to the arts or sciences. One can be a creative housewife, mother, husband, employee or employer. What it means is that we receive ideas and impressions that others do not, and that through the occult training of mind, personality and will, we are able to express, these ideas. This we do by making new things, events, situations in our daily life. I have only generalised here, because the thoughtful student will be able to apply these principles to their personal life themselves

It might be interesting to note some of the sources of these new abilities and ideas. The person who reads this will not need a detailed explanation of such sources as telepathy, attunement with the unconscious memory, or psychic contact with other persons in or out of the body. Regarding the latter, most of such contacts, in the beginning, arc made without the student being aware of it. This usually happens while asleep or in meditation. This can even apply to contact with a Master. Very often it is the development of an intuitive ability that is a first step. See Using Your Intuition

Although until one has definite proof of such contact it must be assumed that it has not been made. This is simply to avoid becoming too imaginative, and assuming things we do not KNOW! The evidence of such contacts is quite definite in some cases. The information received, seemingly coming from our own mind, is later found to have never been known by the receiver. Thus we obtain information that we could never have received through mere reasoning. Although again we must realise that our own inner Master could have been the source.

Sometimes the information is personal instruction to aid our own development. Other times it pertains to our occult work, or to people we have contacted.

Example: Before I went to New Mexico I had a spontaneous realisation about Lurch in my House of the Ancestors dream. I realised that of course, Lurch in that comedy series representing Frankenstein’s monster. And Frankenstein’s monster was a composite made up of many dead bodies, dead people. So of course he is a wonderful depiction of the Dweller of the Threshold, the karma from past lives, the bits that need to be faced, healed, or met and integrated.

Meeting your Karma (cause and effect)

Through sincere attempts to advance on the path, the student evokes the Dweller. He or she is also unconsciously, or consciously, calling up the negative aspect of their karma from previous incarnations. To achieve our goal of adeptship we must first work out our bad karma. When this dark cloud, which stands between us and the Sun, is dispersed, we can bathe in the Divine Light. In facing our Dweller, we draw the poison element out of our past lives.

As this is gradually achieved, we are left with the positive experience of past incarnations. We have learnt to resist the evil, and now we have achieved the good. This will manifest in our life as the seeping through of past powers, abilities and knowledge. We often do not know just how much this is true until we come to some emergency or crisis in life. Then, to our great surprise, knowledge, power and ability flow through us to a degree we never realised we possessed. But we find ourselves not in a struggle against evil, or the urge to merge with the light, but a state of balance between the two.

It has often been noted that with those who take to the Path with sincere effort, at the outset they seem to lose whatever psychic abilities they had in regard to clairvoyance, clairaudience etc. I know this is not true of every student, but it certainly seems to be true of those in whom the psychic abilities manifest spasmodically and out of conscious control.

This loss of ability is a good sign, for it shows that the inner life is becoming marshalled and directed. No longer do psychic experiences occur spontaneously without conscious control. This period is certainly a frustrating one, for it seems as if even the little we had has been lost. What is happening is that we are learning to tap the psychic awareness at will, and when desired. This is a great step forward on the previous uncontrolled phenomena, and it takes time.

During this period of blankness it is certainly an effort to be patient, but we must. Any attempt at forcing the development at this stage will only throw us back to the previous level. We may indeed have psychic experiences through these forced methods, but without being able to consciously direct the process, we still have not grown spiritually? I know several people who have spasmodic visions and experiences of a very vivid type. These persons feel very important because of these events, but when they attempt to understand what the vision’s message or meaning is, they are at a loss to know.

The developed occultist is certainly not one who receives information that he cannot understand or use. His contact with the inner world is such that he learns to receive definite answers to questions, and what he sees has meaning to him. Therefore be patient, for it is worth the frustration to get to the next stage. See Inner World

The advancement to the next level of unfoldment is a gentle process, it may take many years, and at first we will not realise that we have begun to reach it. It is characterised by the growth of the faculty of intuition. Through the growth of this ability we begin to receive from within definite information concerning questions that are troubling us. For instance, a student is thinking about the progress of a fellow student on the Path, and is wondering how best they can be helped. As he thinks, suddenly a flash of understanding comes to him, and he sees exactly what the student has to do, why he had to do it, and what the outcome will be. He will also probably find that on talking to the person concerned, he will say that he had in fact felt an urge to do the very same thing for some time, but wondered if it were worthwhile, but this confirmation has really encouraged him to try.

On the other hand, a businessman may be considering a difficult decision. He can either follow his usual course, or take a new departure that might not work. Suddenly he receives the impression, very strongly, that if he takes a difficult course, unknown persons will come to his aid as he proceeds, and although the beginning of the prospect will be tortuous, it will quickly become a success. His reasoning warns him against chancing it, but he takes the plunge, and finds that events unfold exactly as foreseen. See Breakthrough to Creativity by Shafica Karagulla.

Darkness into Light

As we proceed, the faculty of intuition becomes a more and more regular ability. From this point onwards, the student’s contacts with the inner world are definitely enlarging. Eventually, this ability will become such that he will be able to consult it at any time, and get an immediate response.

This, then, is the beginning of real development, and slowly the other psychic faculties will unfold to be used at will. It must be remembered though, that these stages of progress tie in with the facing of the Dweller, and the greater unfoldment of psychic faculties will not occur until we have dispersed this karmic cloud. Some students have so much negative karma that this is indeed a lengthy process, to be counted not in years but incarnations. But this will not bar them entirely from psychic contact, just from the complete unfoldment of Adeptship. However, many are being born and reaching maturity now who have worked off a great deal of their Karma already. These young students may well be those who are now ready to take the higher stages of the Path.

How much Karma we have worked off in our past incarnations we can only tell from the response we receive from the efforts we give to our studies and spiritual exercises. If the response is a very rapid unfoldment of understanding and ability, then the spiritual picture is certainly a bright one if we persevere with our efforts. The student who finds the way slower and harder, need not despair, for each step on the Path that is carved out is theirs forever unless they choose to retrace their steps.

These steps that we carve on the Path to the Mountain Peak, are changes in ourselves, for the Path is within us. Each step takes us nearer the goal, which is Cosmic Consciousness and Mastership. Our efforts on the Path develop intuition. Intuition becomes psychic awareness, and psychic awareness enlarges into Cosmic Consciousness. See Enlightenment

This, then, is the Heaven we are told is within, and enthroned in this Heaven within is the Timeless Centre of our being. From the Holy Throne radiates the Inner Light, which is the Light that Lighteth every man that cometh into the world. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not.

Everyone is seeking this Light and the happiness it brings, but few realise it. Some seek it in sensual gratification, but find it not there. Others seek it in worldly power, but only discover the perpetual turmoil of sexual impulse, aggression and competitiveness.

The happiness of the Light can be ours, and will be ours, for it is our home from whence we came, and to where we shall return. In the darkness we experience many things, and we learn to long for the Light, which, if we seek it we shall find.

Meanwhile, let us remember that we have been sent into the darkness to learn its lessons. Let us study it, and face it, for it is one with the Dweller. When we understand it, and overcome it, then will its darkness become Light, and we will be HOME.

He said, “I am finding it unbelievably difficult. I thought when you told me only do two postures to a minute that it was a ridiculously small routine. But on trying to keep it up I see that even that much is difficult. I think that there are unconscious objections to doing these postures.”

Over the past few weeks, slowly a deeper realisation has come on the inner results of practising postures as mentioned in these reports. One thing that has already being dealt with is the bringing up of the unconscious fears of illness, or attitudes. These are not simply ideas or feelings as many believe, but are inextricably woven into the structure and cells of our body. So bringing them out of the body is like carving out the fabric of our intellect, emotions, and body, a growth or structure that is built into them. These may even the apparent to our imagination as dark frightening shapes all creatures that have been living in our being like parasites. One man in class during the vowel sounds (chanting) said, “As you began the sounds I had the terrifying sensation that you were calling a dark shape out of my body.” Questioning him afterwards I discovered that he had a fear of weakness for that part of his body, and the “dark shape” was probably a representation or embodiment of his fear. The fact that the sounds seemed to call it out of him would suggest that an initiate would actually be able to call these dark shapes out of us by his word and power of his own conquest that lay behind it.

These dark shapes, that together are probably our Dweller of the Threshold, only lose their hold upon us tardily. They have become like things feeding upon our mental and emotional, and even physical, substance, and fight for their life.

In cleansing our temple through the inner methods, we have to remember the masters warning about casting out demons, that seven worst demons may come in. Our patience, perseverance in the face of what is being brought to light, is our protection, as is our constant contact with that mood in us that is Beyond all opposites, conceptions and ideas. Only thus can each new thing be dealt with. In taking any practice further and further into our limits, the boundary between our conscious and unconscious is broken down. The body is taken to the edge of its limits and endurance, so playing upon any innate weakness of form, structure, organ or activity. If this is done patiently and yet perseveringly, a slow adaptation will take place, but not always easily. Rather like a slow increase of current in an electric apparatus, eventually something will burn out. But in the body, if one goes ahead slowly, adaptation instead of burnout takes place.

Apart from this, the act of daily practice questions all our old habits and desires. Like a crowd of children that have for long being able to follow their own bent, and are now held rigid in discipline, there follows moments of rebellion. If through perseverance one carries gently but irrevocably on one’s way, these children eventually become a disciplined group. This may take years.

Meanwhile, the daily practice of that against which ones undisciplined nature rebels, practices that is not concerned with immediate results, touches us with the eternal. Into our nature comes that influence that carries on despite all the efforts of the world to stop. To remain steadfast in face of all one’s fears and desires, hopes and ambitions, is to express the infinite, and build it firmly into ourselves.

So we slowly come to be removed from the rabble of our unconscious life.

Example: Actually it took another two and a half years before I was brought to see that I was prepared to do things that I would have been ashamed to admit, had I really faced them. The shock was precipitated by a dream. I thought I was in the dining room of my old home, trying to light the room properly so that I could see to write. Only one bulb would go on at a time, and I noticed that there was a small sheltered light in the right-hand corner, rather like a light over a prie-dieu. After some unsuccessful attempts to get a better illumination, I heard a noise at the door. I opened it, and there, in the dark outside, stood a company of completely silent people. Among them there was one immensely tall and overpowering figure. Their eyes were all fixed upon me, and I knew that they were a posse of police come to take me to prison. I was overwhelmed and thought ‘My time has come!’ Then I woke as from a nightmare. At the time I had no associations; but two or three days later, when reading a book on the Tarot cards, I came upon a description of card number fifteen, the ‘Devil’, ‘the Monstrous Dweller on the Threshold’, ‘built up of a synthesis of all our faults, horrible and hard to face, inspiring a feeling of terror and hopelessness’. This struck me at once as the giant figure I had seen in the dream. The next day, meditating on the dream and my difficulties, I suddenly saw as it were a lightning flash that broke through the ceiling of the outside hall so that the sunlight came flooding in, and the gruesome and condemning group scattered and fled.

“Thou hast entered the immeasurable regions. I am the Dweller of

the Threshold. What wouldst thou with me?

Dost thou fear me? Am I not thy beloved? Is it not for me that thou hast

rendered up the delights of thy race? Wouldst thou be wise? Mine

is the wisdom of the countless ages. Kiss me, my mortal lover.”

To put it in a nutshell, the way to move is to experience. In fact what one moves or travels through is intense experience. Therefore, if one cannot dare to consciously experience very deeply and fully, one cannot travel. It is therefore of extreme help if one has a deeply held feeling that the universe is your home, and it does not wish you harm, although it may hold dangers. You need a belief that what you meet is part of your own larger being, and so not alien or attempting destruction.