Gate 55 ⌇ The Gate of Spirit

The first line is our foundation line. It is the line of introspection. The first line always represents the essence of what the gate is about. Above the lines it says, Abundance is strictly a question of spirit.  Whether one’s glass is half empty or half full. It is called ‘Cooperation.’ Jupiter exalted, The expansion of activity in cooperation with powerful forces through principled actions that guarantee continued support and engender prosperity. The nature of spirit of the 55.1. Everything about the 55th gate is establishing the spirit that will be necessary to enable the individual to be social. It provides the spirit for the gate 22, which is the gate of Grace which opens up the possibility of being open to social interaction as an individual. The nature of the 55th gate is that in this first line it is going to find its spirit, but if will only find its spirit if it is dealing socially with forces that are more powerful than it. That is obviously subjective. But what it is really saying is that the moment that the 55’s bring inferior forces into their life, because of the nature of their high/low wave, they can go even lower than the inferior forces that are going to impact on them as a conditioning force. Whenever I am dealing with a client who has the first line, I am always telling them: It is very important that you are looking towards a place to go in your relationships; somebody that knows more than you, somebody who has more experience than you do; somebody that has a knowledge that you need, whatever the case may be. But something that you need to recognize is that they are of value to you in your social process, because they are making your cup more full. Inferior forces are going to drain your cup.

Venus in detriment. The concentration on harmonic relationships with powerful forces that provide for continuity but not necessarily advancement. This is the ability to be social with these forces but so much energy is spent on maintaining the sociability, the wave being the cause of all of that, that they do not really get the advantage that comes with the relationship. The potential to find the spirit through cooperation with powerful forces. You can see that it is deeply conditioned. The spirit is not going to come from inferior forces. It can’t. That is the whole thing to recognize. The nature of that is that only is there a potential for the spirit in cooperation with powerful forces. The detriment, The potential to harmonize with powerful forces but not necessarily for the benefit of the spirit.  Again, because this is all about relationships - a social process - and because it is in the deepest of the waves of moods, the moodiness inherent in the relationship can be distracting so that the real progression, the real fulfillment of the spirit, cannot take place.

The probably most disliked people can be the 55.2’s. The second line is very difficult. This is the projection outwards of the emotional spirit, whether it is at its lowest end or at its highest end. Because there is no introspection involved in that it projects out blindly, because that is the nature of the emotional wave. Everything about the 55 is leading to the social process. Don’t ever forget that about the nature of it. What the second line is being projected on is that that spirit is projected onto others. Individuals are always attracting attention. So do the individuals with this line, but they often attract negative attention. It is called ‘Distrust.’ One thing to see about emotional spirit is that it is going beyond this word. Trust is just about the motor. My joke about trust: in the english language there is a rust in trust. 

Abundance hampered by slander or gossip. Venus exalted, The gift of being able to penetrate to the center that may demonstrate effectively through its relating talents that its trustfulness is genuine. “ You can trust whatever my spirit is carrying, you can trust that this is really me. I really am happy, even though tomorrow I may look very sad. You can really trust that I really am happy. You can really trust that I am happy with you, even though tomorrow I may look very sad with you.” Earth in detriment, The direct challenge to the slanderers who will always have the advantage of quoting the Bard: “Me thinks he doth protest too much.” Only continued example can overcome distrust. In the Book of Letters, Emotional stability and strength of spirit is dependant on being trusted by others.  These people are not introspective, they don’t really go through their process of seeing that their cup is always half empty/half full. Because they are not aligning themselves with powerful forces, they are not nurturing their spirit which is their opportunity to fill their cup. They are just projecting their emotional spirit outwards. When they are at the high end, that can be lovely. But they still have people talk behind their back. The 55.2 is always talked about and not often nicely, and they are often distrusted. They have to understand that they can never challenge the distrusters because the more they say, "You can really trust me," the more they are distrusted. That is the nature of what that line is about. One of the most powerful forces, this projection force is one of the main images of what moodiness is, which is not nice. People do not like it, they do not trust it because it seems to be very uncomfortable, this movement from one end of the scale to the other end of the scale.

When we get to the third line, we get to a very interesting line. In the 25th hexagram, which is the gate of the spirit of the Self, not the emotional spirit, in the third line we have a line that deals almost exclusively with the concept of what we call failure. Whether or not the essence of the Self, the spirit of the Self, can survive failure. We live in a very nice time because the detriment is Pluto, and we are not going to experience that - any of us in our life times or the channel being activated in our life times - so it is a time in which we can escape the deep pain of failure. That is the 25.3. When you come here to 55.3, you are dealing with the same theme. Remember, that third lines because of their adaptation, because of the bonds made and broken, because of the wave of allegiance and rejection, that you are always going to have situations where given whoever has the perspective, that the bond being broken can seem like a failure. It may not seem like a failure to the breaker of the bond but it may seem like a failure to the one who has had the bond broken, or vice versa. But the reality is that failure is always going to be a theme in third lines. This is one of the things to recognize. If you are looking for a heart that can fail, look at the 21.3. 

The third line of the 55th hexagram is called ‘Innocence.’  Here “I was only following orders” is a genuine defense. Saturn exalted, When the form is correct and attempts at actualization have been disciplined and within guidelines, failure cannot be personally attributed.  What I say to people who have this line is, "If you are in the mood and you do things when you are in the mood, if you fail that is not your fault. Do not blame yourself. You have not lost anything in that.” But you have to recognize that it has to be within its form. The form here is to honor the nature of the moods. When you get to the detriment, you find Mars fixing it.  A struggle against conformity or individual initiative can bring a superior to ruin, while safely hiding behind his shield. If you look at the detriment in the Book of Letters it says, The energy to selfishly protect one’s spirit at the expense of others.  So you come into an office and you come in with your spirit at the high end, and you fill up your boss with that spirit so that it is twice as high, and you make all kinds of commitments. Then you go to the low end of your spirit and you get it reflected back from your boss, and none of the things you committed yourself to do will you do, all you want to do is quit and get out because the cup is half empty and you feel terrible. Then the boss gets fired because he had already gone and said, "Here is our projection for next year. We have all these wonderful projects and Mr. Johns back here is really wonderful at this." They end up loosing their job. 

The thing to recognize about innocence is that the only way that there is innocence here is when the mood is honored, and only then can the spirit survive. The moment that the mood is not honored, all chaos breaks out. When the mood is being honored, these people will break bonds. This is natural for them. This is honoring their mood. One of the things that happens to these people is that they become very ill, emotionally ill, when i.e. they are in jobs and they do not quit, they don’t break the bond, they don’t act innocently. They try to compensate for all of that and they just don’t walk away, which is what their moods dictate them.

Fourth line, upper trigram, externalization. Remember, the resonance to the first line. We saw in the first line that the spirit is protected by aligning itself with more powerful forces, and that is the essence for the spirit in terms of everything that is coming out of the nature of this gate. When you get to the fourth line, it already has incorporated that into its process. That means that it is looking for powerful forces, but it is a fourth line and externalization has this quality of being very fixed. One of the interesting things about this line is that this line works much better when it is in an undefined emotional system, because these people are fixed on who feels good and who doesn’t. This is what they know, and in their relationships - their assimilation - they will be with one person because that person makes them feel good, and they will not be with somebody else because they don’t make them feel good. It is very clear to them, but they get very fixed in that. They are not very good at dealing with a lot of people because this can be confusing for them. But they are very concerned about who is exactly the right one. 

The line is called ‘Assimilation.’ Jupiter exalted, The establishment of a framework that balances principles with energy and leads inevitably to expansion and prosperity. Their principle is always clear for them: their cup is either half full or half empty, and they know that. Why I say that it works so good for people who are emotionally undefined is that they, when they hook into an emotional person, can easier tell whether that is filling their cup or not. They are in the other one’s wave and they can tell right away. It is very clear for them. They are looking for that framework which will bring out that principle for them and give them the energy that will lead to expansion and prosperity. In other words, they need to find people that in their own track will make them feel good. These are people that are always looking for bliss. These people always ask you if you are happy because they want to be happy, and they do not want to be sad. They are always looking for someone - whatever framework it is - that is going to be the one that makes them happy. "These people are real jerks. I don’t like what they think and I don’t like seeing them in public. But they make me feel good and that is why they are my friends." They can be very fixed on that because for them the powerful force is any force that will give them the sense that their cup is half full. The potential spirit that comes when emotional awareness and energy are balanced and principled   or  Boundless energy that ignores awareness at the risk of the spirit.  The reality is that the moment you are dealing with a fourth line, you are dealing with this wave of Kindness/Meanness. If you are not clear about it and you don’t have your framework right so that you know the timing, you crash. I.e. you call up your friend and you can tell by their mood whether you should have anything to do with them that day. Otherwise, you end up in situations where you get into relationships where you think that this one will give you the track you want, the "I want to be happy." And the moment that this is not there you can have a real crash. 

Teenagers who have this line have a very hard time because they are so focused on "I need to fill my cup" and always getting deeply depressed on the other side, when their  cup is half empty."  After all, this is where you have anorexia nervosa, this is where you have bulimia. This is where you have all of these problems trying to fill the spirit after it has been crashed. It is a key to recognize - particularly with young people that have the 55.4 - that they can be fixed on being happy, but they will always meet the other side. Sorry. They need to find people that will allow them within the framework, within the principle, to accept both the happy and the sad, of what it is to be a moody person. Please keep in mind, that somebody who is emotional and goes into the aura of somebody who is not emotional can drain them or bring them up. The emotionally defined one gets back what he sent out because the emotionally open one will reflect the mood back twice as strongly.

When you have the second line and you have ‘Distrust’, and when you come to the resonance of this line, the fifth line, you come to ‘Growth.’ The only way to overcome distrust is through the power of seduction, our wave of Selfishness/Selflessness. Growth has Uranus exalted. It says, The unusual ability in a position of power to accept advice and transform it innovatively.  - So the unusual ability only exists in a position of power, otherwise it is not there - This gift in a position of power allows one to continue  to lead rather than  being perceived as being led.  One of the things to recognize about this is that the only way in which these people are going to fulfill their spirit is if they are in power socially. This is the whole thing for them - to be in power. If you have a boss that has the 55.5, he does not care if you like him or not when he is in a bad mood. They know that you will come around when it is time for your pay check. The position of power allows them immunity in the social sense. They don’t have to feel that somebody else is measuring their cup because they are in a position of power. If they are not in a position of power, they can become very unhappy. They carry underneath it the resonance of the distrust, where people are suspicious of them because their moods go up and down so much. 

In the Book of Letters, The emotional strength and spirit derived from positions of power.  These people feel good in their spirit when they have work, i.e. in which they have a sense of authority, and they can live through their moods without being challenged because of the nature of their moods. On the other side, Sun in detriment.  An integrative openness that in its broad acceptance of advice may be eventually eclipsed. An emotional openness where the spirit is at risk from conditioning.  What happens is that when they are not in power, they try to get there through harmonizing. In doing so, it can end up being a problem because they don’t have the authority and the power to withstand the condemnation. Remember, that we are dealing with individuality here. We are talking about freaks and geniuses, about strangers, about those who can be rejected or alienated, put on the outside, ostracized. What you have in the detriment is this need to find a way to get to the power source but at the same time, because they are going up and down in their wave, they may not be able to get there because they don’t have the authority. 

These people, what they need in their lives is  that only when they are in the mood for things do they have the possibility of being in power. The moment that they are trying to do things when they are not in the mood, their power is just simply not going to be there. By the way, when they are in power they can be deeply seductive. They catch you with that.

We come to the sixth line and to the transition point. The place where the mutation will take place that will begin this process of spirit awareness. In terms of resonance, you can see that the third and the sixth line both have Saturn exalted. This line is called ‘Selfishness.’ This is where the emotional spirit will awaken. We will have this process of emotional awareness that will awaken in humanity, and emotional awareness will not exist inside of us. It is something that will exist outside of us. The only way in which emotional awareness is going to be possible is when the individual integrity is complete. It is one of the things to recognize that without the material requirements, the emotional system can never be sedated. When you are sitting together with people and you eat - whether the occasion is a celebration or not - and you make sure that the resources are there. You fill it all up. The nature of the materialism that lies here in the sixth line, the key to it is selfishness. But it is not the selfishness of the Ego, it is the selfishness of the spirit. That is a very different thing. 

Selfishness is a word that people can misunderstand. It is not something that is negative. The spirit requires selfishness, or there will be no transition. It is essential because it is out of the integrity of the individual that this mutation will take place. And the only way it can take place is that the individual will be able to maintain their own uniqueness, because the awareness is going to exist outside of them. One has to be healthy within oneself for the awareness to exist on the outside. Here in the Book of Letters, The potential of finding the spirit through materialism.  When people come to me and they have this line, one of the things I tell them is, "Work. Work. Work.” It is wonderful for them. To provide for oneself is an extraordinary thing. It elevates the spirit. I have seen this all my life, I see all this hunger in the world and I realize where all the turmoil and the dilemmas of the planet lie. This is all about recognizing that you will not get to the spirit until you can look after the body. You have no chance for the spirit unless you can look after the body. I am tired of holy rollers who are full of these pious platitudes. It is not about this, it is about feeding human beings. It is about being able to look after ourselves. This is fundamental. The only way that we can live properly with each other is when we learn to be able to work in the world in harmony with each other. That is what this is about. It is an essential ingredient. I meet people all the time. They think they are ready for enlightenment and they can barely feed themselves. Give me a break! Who is going to feed you? The reality is that there is no spirit unless you deal with the body. All of this other stuff is just intellectual blabla, white magic - ideas can be delicious. You can believe in them, but you cannot eat them. First you have to be able to eat. 

The potential that materialism becomes obsessive with a spirit that will not share. Yes, well. What to do? Materialism can make you feel very good by going through this process and not sharing it. Well, alright. You will get the other side of it. But remember something about this: All sixth lines look out for something very special. They are looking far beyond the nature of what is there. This is not just about the individual being able to have the right spirit to be able to communicate socially through the 12/22. This is the spirit that recognizes that a vast mutation has to take place and it is looking for that field of mutation. It is an emotional driving force in the world. This gate is about eating. Don’t forget, that the 55 is about eating. It is an emotional driving force that says, "We have to have enough to eat, and then we can worry about the spirit." No sense building a church until the fields have been cleared and seed have been planted. Make sure that there is food first, and then you can build a church. 

If somebody does things only for themselves, that is what they do. I don’t judge. Anybody who is involved in this process, anybody that can maintain themselves is a lot closer to the spirit than somebody who can’t. Even if they are selfish. In this line, you  have those who will make sure that others will benefit, and you have those that others will not benefit from. It goes to the family, to the 37.1, to the line of Mother/Father. A mythology for this line is the story of King Midas. Everything that he touched turned into gold, and he touched his food and couldn’t eat it because it turned into gold. The thing to recognize is that we are not dealing with tribal circuitry here. We are dealing with individual circuitry. This is the only place in the individual circuit where materialism is mentioned. The freak and the outsider that is always looking for the collective or the tribe to take them in, this is a signal for them that they have to lead in survival; not simply from that end but from the emotional spirit end as well.