Guardian of the Threshold
Everyone must face and deal with the three temptations. However, if one approaches the spiritual world across the ‘threshold’ that is guarded by the ‘Guardian’, then one has the task of recognising the forces of the three temptations in one’s own being and of ridding oneself of them.
This means leaving them on this side of the threshold while one’s consciousness is still on the other side. For this, one must become free of the body in one’s thinking (thinking must become ‘body-free’); feeling must become free of the influence of chance; and willing must be cleansed of the lust for power.
If, for example, one were to carry lusting after power across the threshold into the spiritual world, one could thereby bring about tremendously destructive effects. For the will is strengthened to such a degree in the spiritual world, that it manifests in ways of which a person in the state of consciousness on this side of the threshold has no inkling.
Therefore the Guardian of the Threshold stands on the threshold and shows us our double. That is, the Guardian shows us our subconscious, reveals it to us so that we have before us an unerring and true picture of the extent and inner constitution of all the powers that we carry within us – powers that entangle us in the three temptations of existence.
if we are brave enough to withstand this sight without despairing over our own nature, without losing all courage so that we become, as it were, living ashes – if we have the courage to endure this truth – then we can cross over the threshold. Transformations then occur within our thinking, feeling and willing.
Indeed, one’s thinking becomes something quite different from what it was before. Until then, if we reflected upon something in order to draw logical conclusions, our thinking flowed onward from one thought to the next.
Now it becomes transformed into a stream directed upward. A thought becomes a question that ascends to the hierarchies and with persons who have died – then we return with the answer and recall it upon awakening in ordinary consciousness. Thought becomes an answer. The power of thinking becomes the power of vertial memory.
Feeling, for its part, is transformed. It becomes no longer the expression of what one feels with regard to oneself. Instead, it becomes an ever-widening circle that takes up not only what one has in one’s soul as impressions and sensations from without, but also what lives as missions and tasks within other beings.
how many of us have stood looking into that mirror not knowing it is a threshold, or not daring?
How do we reach this ‘Guardian’ or what spiritual practices should be employed to do so? Is this another Tomberg mystery?
I just saw I didn’t leave a reference for the book I quoted from – it is the Inner Development lectures by Valentin Tomberg. So in that sense you are right, but he certainly isn’t the only person to talk about the lesser and greater Guardians. The former might be described, perhaps, as the sum of our fears, our lowest self, but I think that is to simplify. In answer to your question, without meaning to seem trite, as it’s surely easier to say than do consciously, one must commit to the road of inner development and the great work of at-one-ment and universal salvation. By proceeding along the path this meeting becomes inevitable. There are other types of guardians at other types of threshold – seen at akashic gateways, for instance, which require perfect will and motivation to gain entry (for our own protection). I’m not sure if any of this helped…..in terms of ‘practice’ I’d say meditations and contemplative prayer are the ways in. Also burning desire to do this work.
thanks again great summary
That illustration is a reworked, westernized version of an Eastern Orthodox icon I have. Notice that the dragon isn’t being killed, just lanced in one eye. Ala the KJV “exept that thine eye become one…” As in monachos: monastic, a unified or whole one. Plus those circles. Or the half circle that implies the balance is underground, in the unconscious.
The dragon is wild eros, earthy and earthly. The physical, created “good,” is fine its own sphere– let’s not succumb to the temptation of docetism. However, the female figure is key. As anima/psyche she holds the leash, but too tightly. She also is already crowned, she knows how the kingdom is within. She has looked into that black cave and dealt with its contents.
He, the hero/knight, is still fighting as if this were The Enemy, external to himself. Remember that Parsifal , in his grail search, met the king, whose wounded thigh, caused by a lance, brought such pain the kingdom itself was withering. But Parsifal didn’t ask the right question. Which would have healed the king– restoring him and the kingdom to wholeness.
The grass here is in squares; brings to mind the alchemical and Hermetic task of squaring the circle. Bringing Malkuth back to Daath, and Daath is then no longer dark. Let’s hope he puts down the lance and, so difficult for the male human, asks the wisdom of anima for directions. He will find what he seeks by first looking within. Then by realizing that what he seeks means a leap of faith across the abyss. By giving up character armor and defense mechanisms.
Dear Rafi, it is so wonderful to hear from you, thank you for your comment. Thank you also for your recent email – I picked it up about a week ago but I’m currently in central America and haven’t been able to access internet too easily, I plan to respond properly when I get back home and can devote a bit more attention to it. What you say – both here and there – really rang true for me, and it was also wonderful to have a reconnection with a friend made through MoTT. (I also agree, by the way, with some of the things you said about this to do with the organization, I often find it easier to just ‘open the book’ and see what comes out, as it is so dense that reading straight through can be tricky. Interesting point you make about the grass in squares and reference to squaring the circle, which is something I thought long and hard about in the past few months – those spiritual exercises do take some time right….more later xx