Gates

This is the gate of the creative artist, the performer, the actor — the design of these people always draws attention, even though, paradoxically, they also need to work alone. Their creativity is always rooted in a philosophy: "I have to do this my own way." Such creativity waxes and wanes, and can appear and vanish in the blink of an eye. These people are here to create for the sake of creation itself, far more than for any recognition that may come to them.

The irony is that when they simply immerse themselves in the creative process without thinking about the goal, they have every chance of being recognised. Metaphorically speaking, the 8th gate is their agent. And if the 1st is the performer, the actor, the artist, then the 8th knows how to present that art and sell the work.

This is the gate of the creative self. The energy of the urge to create endlessly and with a unique expression. Creative energy is defined by drawing attention to itself.

Creativity as a primal force. The energetic potential to manifest inspiration without limit. The most yang hexagram of all 64, one that carries a deep need for creative self-expression. Creativity that demands attention and a unique direction. Doing something of your own and bringing the potential of the new to the collective.

People with the 2nd gate activated in their Design have an innate attunement to the direction in which someone or something needs to move. The power of this gate can be symbolised by the acorn, which knows how to become an oak, yet in order to grow it needs the sunlight and water of the 14th gate (resources and commitment). These people know where they want to go, but without the 14th gate they lack the capacity to do it. This is the ignition key to the motor of the 14th gate. People with the 2nd gate can fall into frustration or exhaust themselves trying to do all the work themselves. They are not the ones who necessarily have to do all the work.

Rather, they have the gift of coordinating and directing the creative process. The secret for these people is to find the right allies in life, through whom they can put their talents to use.

The Direction of the Self is a self-moving energy that carries the soul forward. The irony of this energy is that you may have only slight awareness of your own direction, while for others you can be an excellent guide.

The most receptive of all the hexagrams. Receptivity as the underlying base through which any response is defined. The root of action and direction. The seat of the Higher Self in the vehicle, giving direction to the mechanical "self".

People with the 3rd gate in their Design are always ready to do something new. They are like a river with no banks and no bed. Chaos is always potentially there, if they do not wait for the right moment in time and the right conditions for their potential to show itself. They have to be able to endure the frustrating wait of the 60th gate, which controls the timing of when and how things can be realised in the outer world. The 3rd needs the discipline and the limitation of the 60th so that this flow of energy is transformed into something of lasting value. These are people who need a certain Structure in life. If they are unable to acknowledge the natural limits of structure, then their innovative qualities will never be able to have a lasting impact on the world.

The melancholy of the 3rd gate comes from feeling bound by the rigidity of the physical plane — whether that is someone who does not change as life changes, or an old system that holds new possibilities back.

The energy to finish things and bring them to completion. Once a task is set in motion it has a direction, but not always a straight path or a visible way to resolve it. This energy helps to organise or order the solution so that it fits the goal.

The fundamental challenge of initiation is to transcend confusion and establish order. The code gives force to the potential of mutation. There is genetic mutation, inherited from our parents and ancestors, and there is cultural mutation, taken on through the examples and influence of the cultural environment.

People with this gate love answering the questions born in the 63rd gate. At this stage of the energy in the circuit, all of it is still only concepts, and all these answers have to be tested and tried. That is why many of these people's answers can be foolish or unfounded (they have not been confirmed by testing), and are not the true answer or the solution to the question, but simply a release of the mental pressure they feel.

These people are often irritated by the mind not understanding something. As soon as they understand something, that understanding is replaced by a new question, and so on endlessly. As in the 63rd gate, the questions and potential answers that are part of this channel are not meant for the individual — they need to be shared with others. People with the 4th but without the 63rd are people with a potential answer to any problem except their own. This gate drives the search for an answer. Not just any answer, but THE answer.

This gate drives the search for an answer. Not just any answer, but THE answer.

The energy to succeed despite not knowing. Logic as the means of grounding things as facts. The pressure of doubt potentially leads to having an answer to it. Answers and formulas that are only potentials, not necessarily solutions or facts.

This energy is the body's mechanical need for a fixed rhythm of life. Your habits will unconsciously reach for a rhythm of their own. Perhaps you eat at six in the morning, and nothing should interfere with that schedule.

A fundamental alignment with natural rhythms. Being in the flow that binds all life forms into a universal rhythm. The patterns and habits of a fixed daily rhythm that are natural to the individual rather than imposed from outside.

This gate expresses the energy of sexual reproduction and influences whether or not there is offspring. On another level this energy controls who gets access to the inner circle and who does not.

Growth cannot exist without friction. The possibility of awareness in three streams: sensation, emotionality and sensitivity. It governs the pH balance in the physical body. The setting of boundaries where emotional and intimate decisions have been made on the basis of who is let in and who is not. Intimacy governed by the emotional cycle of hope and pain.

This energy leads to leadership. It can show up in many ways, from democracy to dictatorship — it all depends on the situation and the energy supporting it.

The need for leadership in order to guide an ordered society. Logical direction leading into the future. The design of the "alpha" leader. Proven patterns that can be relied upon.

These people are creative agents — impresarios — who always need to express their own unique contribution as well as the contribution of others. They look for something, or someone, they can promote. They have the ability to stand up and hold everyone's attention. Even if nobody follows them, they will continue on their unique path alone. Without the 1st gate, these people are always looking for the inspiring qualities of a creator or a leader. Their role, however, is not so much to carry the burden of leadership as to help promote something or someone new.

The energy of taking part, of being an example or doing something that makes a statement, often in a larger sense. This is not a contribution to group work. It is individual energy, and it will contribute to the group only as an example: "Look, this is how it can be done!"

Its core value lies in applying individual achievement to collective goals. The expression of the individual's possibilities. Role-model behaviour that leads by example rather than by force or by attachment to the whole.

This is the gate of determination and of commitment to a process that demands enormous persistence and stamina. These people can hold a single focus; they have a natural gift for working through detail. Without the 52nd, these people may find it hard to stay still enough to direct their energy in one direction.

This is the energy and the strength to stay focused. It is driven by repetition and experimentation. Without the opposing 52nd gate, this energy can express the qualities of ADD or ADHD (attention deficit disorder; attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).

Fulfilling potential through detailed attention to particular aspects. The power of resolve and the ability to sustain focus. Prolonged experimentation, testing, repetition and practice. The power of focus deepens understanding over time.

This is one of the gates of Love; it is the gate of the love of being oneself. When it connects with the 20th, it means expressing yourself verbally and spontaneously, though not necessarily with awareness.

These people are here to express one of six behavioural patterns, according to the line activated in the 10th gate: (1) Investigator, (2) Hermit, (3) Martyr, (4) Opportunist, (5) Heretic and (6) Role Model. If this gate is not part of a defined channel, these people are often deeply preoccupied with the behaviour of others.

This gate carries the energy of understanding the norms of behaviour accepted in society. How that is expressed can take several forms, depending on whether the norms are accepted wholly, fought against (when the situation calls for it), or let go of entirely. The expression will be consistent with your own theme and style. This is the energy of love of self. It also continuously holds the energy for love of others.

Survival and the perfection of form. Love of life, love of being alive. A powerful conditioning influence. The behaviour of humanity directed towards self-awareness. Definition in being oneself. Mystical love of the self in the present moment.

This gate gathers ideas together into the structure of a scenario. More a sensing energy than a logical one. It sorts and divides images in order to create a larger picture or a larger scenario.

Conceptual possibilities arise out of realisation. Visual memory is responsible for articulation. The left eye as portal and interface into the right hemisphere of the brain. Ideas are the tools used to express what has been felt. A stimulation that seeks to share its ideas. A system of cycles in which ideas are stimulated into images.

The quality of restraint and the value of meditation and non-action in the face of temptation. The mechanical expression of the emotional flow. A social caution connected to the natural resistance of the collective. The wanderer of consequences, who brings awareness in the right spirit and the right measure, and then withdraws.

People with this gate can articulate their thoughts with extraordinary clarity when they are in the right mood. If they can express themselves clearly, their words and actions can have a profound emotional impact on others. Here the mutative potential comes through the tone and vibration of the voice rather than through the words themselves.

The quality of restraint and the value of meditation and non-action in the face of temptation. The mechanical expression of the emotional flow. A social caution connected to the natural resistance of the collective. The wanderer of consequences, who brings awareness in the right spirit and the right measure, and then withdraws. Highly expressive when in the mood.

Universal ideas and values within an order that inspire humanistic cooperation. The individual's openness to interaction is directed towards the possibilities of the future. A reflection that points back to the experience of the past. The "listener", who draws in those who come to share their experience. The witness who hears the secrets of lived experience.

This gate represents the power to find your own unique direction in life. These people have the skills and the commitment to carry new projects and creative undertakings into life. People with this gate are born to work, but they have to find work that is work they love. It is also the gate of wealth, because they have the power to create wealth by doing creative work.

The 14th always needs the 2nd in order to receive a viable direction. On its own the 14th is the pure potential to keep working, but without the presence of the 2nd these people can be caught in a cycle of endless work with no real sense of where they are going. It is also the gate of servitude.

This energy fuels the direction of your life. The gate sits in the channel of the beat known as "The Keeper of the Keys". It carries with it the guarantee that resources, or an accumulation of material things, will be there. This energy is the fuel for the Self.

The accumulation and holding of power through skilful engagement, a blend of grace and control. Fertile, sacral power at its highest expression. The fuel that empowers the Self and provides direction for the vehicle. The driver, the key and the ignition.

A quality of behaviour that expresses the right balance between extremes. An aura and a magnetism known for its love of humanity. It sets the rhythm of the environment. A unique rhythm that does not sit well with fixed patterns.

This gate represents the honing of artistic or scientific ability through repetition. These people have the enthusiasm to experiment with repeating a process, and that leads to mastery. To reach mastery in any craft, these people need to identify completely with that craft. This is the dancer who becomes the dance, transcending their own skill.

This is the gate in which both the logical formula of the mental field and the intuitive decisions of the Spleen are put to the test and confirmed. Without the 48th, people with the 16th cannot know what to experiment with. They may have many skills, and they are always looking for the depth and knowledge of the 48th, which will supply the ground on which those skills can be applied.

The energy of skills is a talent for life and an enthusiasm for expressing it. Music, dance, art and speech are the usual expressions of this energy. Without the opposing Gate of Depth (48), the expression of this energy can be superficial and changeable. Paired with the 48th gate, there is depth in it. John Lennon, for instance, had the 48th gate and Paul McCartney the 16th, and they complemented each other.

The great art of enriching life through the harmonious conducting of energy. The quality of talent depends on repetition (rehearsal) and experimentation. Throat Center, Circuit of Understanding.

Having a logical mind, these people need to organise the resolution of their doubts into a workable concept, ready to be passed on to others. They need to shape new opinions about mental patterns in such a way that those opinions can withstand both testing and criticism. This is the gate of the right eye and of pattern recognition.

The 17th gate takes the doubt from the 4–63 channel and forms it into a point of view. At this stage of the conceptual process, however, opinions are largely theoretical and require the presence of the 62nd gate to back them up with detail and hard fact.

People of this kind have the ability to see and understand structures and frameworks, but they do not have the ability to share instantly what they have understood. The way the eye sees something is often very hard to translate without using an image. These are visually oriented people. This is also the gate of time distortion — these people have an unusual sense of time.

The ancient law: whoever would rule must know how to serve. Teacher and student. Logic, formulas, understanding and expression that must pass testing and criticism. The right eye, seeing the present moment clearly or not. The eyes of the experiment, which reach for an established pattern and project from that model into the future.

These people always see what is wrong. By nature they know when any pattern acquires a flaw, and they feel better when they challenge that flaw. It is a gift of criticism. A God-given critic. Without the 58th, however, there is a tendency to stop at seeing the mistakes without any wish to do anything about correcting them. Through the 18th gate (whether dormant or active) we receive deep conditioning from our parents. The greatest conditioning always comes from the parent of the opposite sex.

People with definition in the center or in this whole channel will have to deal with that conditioning all their lives. They have to learn that this very conditioning, received as children, is the constant source of their gift of criticism. This gate represents both the fear of authority and the challenge to that authority.

At the centre of attention stands the judgement of dissatisfaction. The gate of the child's necessary education by the parents. The setting of standards through deep parental conditioning. The use of comparison in order to correct. A lifelong process of supplying the necessary correction and improvement. A need for perfecting that hones vitally important skills and understanding.

This energy wants union and needs it. It wants unrestricted access to the community. People with this energy can also come across as over-sensitive, or slightly scattered, or anxious.

The interconnectedness of all things becomes obvious and shows itself through the act of approach. The fuel for the process of being sensitive to our basic needs. An instinct for tribal needs and the offering of support within a community, with access to resources and no social restriction. The force that drives every revolution.

The energy and capacity for contemplation and for discerning which undertakings should be brought into form. Recognition in the present moment; awareness that transforms understanding into correct action. Existential contemplation. Knowing in action.

These people are here to be utterly dissolved into the present moment. When the 20th is connected to the 10th, it expresses "who we are" according to the line of the 10th gate. If the 20th is not connected to a motor, it is a verbal gate rather than a gate of action. Such people cannot foresee what they are going to say until they say it. These are words or actions that simply come out in the moment.

The necessary and justified use of force in overcoming persistent and deliberate interference. Power for living on the material plane. The ego's desire to dominate and to control.

The quality of behaviour best suited to dealing with worldly and everyday situations. A publicly available gift for amplifying others through your own emotions. The grace in which the spirit of the knower is realised as a wave. The realisation of spirit and the passing of spiritual discovery on to others.

This is the gate in which the emotional spirit of the individual passes on to others something that can be called a mood. And although this can be a deeply social gate, these people should stay behind closed doors when they are in a bad mood. When the emotional wave rises, they are gracious and sociable; when the wave falls, however, their behaviour can be entirely without grace and can even become antisocial. Without the 12th gate, the 22nd is an emotional wave with no way to be expressed. They may know what they feel, but they cannot express it.

The quality of behaviour best suited to dealing with worldly and everyday situations. A publicly available gift for amplifying others through your own emotions. The grace in which the spirit of the knower is realised as a wave. The realisation of spirit and the passing of spiritual discovery on to others.

This gate represents the potential ability to fit words to the concepts that come from the 43rd. The purpose of this gate is to express individual insights that enrich the ways society thinks — to bring innovative ways of thinking. These people are often misunderstood and taken for outsiders. Their self-expression can be entirely inappropriate socially, or simply out of place.

This is the energy that brings in what has been known and integrates it with expression. In other words, knowing something is combined with expressing it.

Awareness and understanding that lead to an acceptance of diversity. The manifestation of a unique, individual idea within the collective. The destruction of intolerance in order to allow a new language and new ideas to appear. Clear understanding and communication are essential, otherwise rejection follows. The voice that declares "I know", which may reflect either true or false knowing.

This gate scans all the new thoughts that come from the 61st gate, picking out what is useful and potentially able to inspire others. Once this gate reaches clarity, it has an enormous potential to influence others. Without the 61st gate, these people are searching for mysteries in order to unravel them. If they have no clarity about their own nature, their mind can become their worst enemy, endlessly reviewing their own life and trying to make decisions about it.

These people are very single-minded, fairly one-track beings, individual thinkers who need a good deal of time to think things over before something emerges (in the 43rd). They have a great need to hear things again and again in order to put them together and make sense of them. They are also people who cannot stop worrying until the problem is resolved. Solutions can come to them when they find themselves in an atmosphere of silence and stillness (often in the middle of the night).

A natural and spontaneous process of transformation and renewal. The role of this energy is to communicate individual and unique awareness to the collective mind. The risk, and the testing of the spirit, is in trusting that the potential of rationalization will lead to true knowing.

This is the gate of universal, unconditional love. That kind of love is rather cold, in contrast to the warm love of the 46th. People with this gate activated are capable of deep compassion for all living things, though not necessarily of favouring any one of them. Such people are always looking for the excitement and thrill of the 51st. And if they wait, they will get their fear mixed with excitement.

These are people who are continually initiated by life. They undergo many challenges that test and deepen their innocence. Meeting those challenges results in an innocence like the one an old man has, as compared with an infant.

The perfecting of action through cunning and spontaneity. The Spiritual Warrior, the shaman, the priestess archetype. The potential to love existence without any distinction. When a flower is loved as deeply as a person. A transcendent and universal love that can come across as cold or detached. When everyone deserves love in equal measure. When being wounded leads to victory and survival, and that enriches the spirit.

A deceptive energy that manipulates memory for personal or tribal advantage. The information from this gate can come out as great truths or as great lies. This is the gate of the power of the ego and of the thymus gland.

The energy of nurturing. The need to care for yourself or to care for another. This is tribal caring, directed at the family, the group or the team. It is all about having food and protection so as to preserve the tribal unit.

The fuel for the expression of sexuality and of procreation. The impulse to nourish and to be nourished. The value and expression of caring is preservation. The guardianship of those who preserve and protect. Compassion for tending the weak, the sick, the helpless.

This gate holds the individual's potential spontaneous knowing of what is worth fighting for and what is not. Driven by the fear of the transience of life (the Fear of Death), these people are ready to take any risk in order to feel alive. Yet as long as they listen to their intuition and follow their strategy, nothing is too risky for them.

This gate is bound up with the need to find life's purpose. Without the 38th, such people may simply drift from one thing to another in search of meaning. When the 38th gate is activated, there is the possibility of letting many other things go and finding meaning in one particular undertaking.

This is the energy of the struggle for the meaning of life, the struggle to find your connection to the divine. Through struggle you gain wisdom about life. The shadow side of this gate is the fear that life has no meaning.

Awareness of whether or not it is worth struggling at this moment. The refuge of our deepest fear of death. Where life itself is the challenge, the battle and the game. Risks and consequences are individual processes that ultimately lead to "knowing in the now". This knowing informs the collective about its current mutation and can draw the collective into that mutation, if they buy into it.

This energy moves you to say "Yes". It can lead to over-commitment, but it also carries the persistence to keep going where others give up.

The energy of this gate makes it possible to recognise the sensations and feelings that push towards change. Once recognised, the emotion of impermanence turns into an action that will free you from pain or depression and bring about real change.

Freedom recognised as an illusion, and limitation accepted as inevitable fate. The emotional equivalent of mental comprehension. Recognised feelings lead to the conceptual potential for change. A potential wakefulness able to identify a feeling and leave the outcome to fate.

This is the voice of the leader. Leadership is truly successful only when it is backed by the opposing 7th gate.

Stability through movement. Continuity through the joining of short actions. The transformation of the abstract into language. Not a factual but an experiential expression. An idea that is not a solution but is part of the seeker's path. An abstract projection reflected back from the past.

This instinctive gate gives the energy to adapt to change and to keep acting. A drive to follow social behaviour. Over time the behaviour of society changes, and you have the ability to adapt quickly.

The one thing that survives change. The potential for awareness in adapting to the present moment and sustaining it over time. The place in the body where instinctive imprints are anchored. A potential awareness of what can be transformed and what cannot. The fear of failure, which sustains the agony in decisions that involve risk. Constantly under pressure to be driven by transformation.

Active withdrawal, turning a weak position into a strong one. The prodigal son. The need for privacy and retreat in order to integrate experience and share the wisdom of that experience. The holding and sharing of cultural memory, which supports the expansion of human potential. The storytellers and historians of humanity.

This is the gate of pure vital power, which naturally shows itself as a response to outer stimuli and outer demands. It is the gate of self-empowerment through intuition (when connected to the 57th), through behaviour (when connected to the 10th), and through activity (when connected to the 20th).

This gate needs to demonstrate how one person differs from another. It drives the survival of the individual, and it is the only asexual gate coming out of the Sacral. Unlike the other sacral gates, it is the only one that is unavailable. That can show up like this: the person is unavailable because they are busy (when connected to the 20th gate), unavailable because they are following their own convictions (when connected to the 10th gate), or unavailable to listen to anything (when connected to the 57th gate). Without the 57th, the 34th holds a force that is not conscious of itself and can therefore be potentially dangerous both to the person and to others.

The most alive energy in the bodygraph. The design of multitasking. It carries an enormous amount of energy, but that energy is available only in response. It falls into agony if it finds no use for itself. Pure unconditional power, ready to be displayed and available to be used. The fuel of individuation. The power to be independent and the energy of self-assurance. A continuous energy resource that is unaware of itself.

The sense that change is needed. The feeling that it is time to change something. The next step does not seem logical, but there is a sense that it is the right direction. Like moving along a spiral — the next turn is needed for everything to continue.

The recognition of feelings that lead to change. An experiential path on which changes in feeling are natural and have to be integrated and recognised through wakefulness.

People born to grow through deep emotional experience.

This is the gate of emotional turbulence, or of the frenzy that arises as soon as the desire in the 30th gate is expressed. These people are here to learn to handle emotional experience and to arrive at clarity by passing through every emotional challenge — the highs and the lows alike. People with the 36th gate are born to go through cycles in which their inexperience turns into experience. They learn through constant change, which can be both very exciting and deeply overwhelming and destabilising.

These are people with an unpoured depth of feeling — an extraordinary depth of feeling — and they are always waiting for someone to touch them.

A friendly, communal energy that creates, supports and preserves communities. The achieving of loyalty in the making of a bargain. Touch is the receptor of awareness. The foundation of communities.

People who need to be recognised by their family and their close community.

These are the very people who hold families and communities together. Through their friendly nature they keep harmony alive in communities and families. They are natural nurturers.

People with this gate always need their friendship to be built on a bargain of some kind. Bargains come in many forms, but they can also be very simple arrangements — one person works while the other stays with the children, for instance. Since these people always move on an emotional wave, they also need to keep renegotiating the terms of the bargain between themselves and others. As long as that dynamic is maintained, they can be very loyal people.

These are people who love a good scrap, and they are always ready to stand up for their independence. It is the pressure to fight against difficulty in order to gain a sense of value and of purpose in life. In life they need to experience a sense of lightness, and as a result these people can fall into depression if they are not doing something that gives them the sense that their life has real value.

The 38th is one of the three gates of Deafness. These people can be very stubborn, because they are not designed to be easily influenced. That deafness is in fact a protection against compromising between their own sense of purpose and outer pressure or influence. Without the 28th, these people need to be careful not to be drawn into a war over the wrong things or the wrong people, because that can only end in wasted time, energy and health. The 28th brings the awareness of what is genuinely worth fighting for.

Opposition, the fuel for war or for struggle. An essential energy needed for survival and for confronting the fear of death. The struggle to find the meaning of life and its value. The pressure to challenge. A tenacity that outlasts disagreement. Struggle as a way of "Knowing".

People with this gate are here to provoke the emotions of others in order to see the quality of their spirit. And the provocations here are of every kind — you can provoke someone even by doing nothing at all (the 39th and 55th gates are the gates of vacillation and indecision). In fact, this is also the gate of flirtation. If these people get a negative reaction to their provocation, it means the other person's spirit is not in resonance with theirs, and they have to learn not to take it personally.

People with this gate need to learn to provoke delight rather than pain, and joy rather than sorrow (though actors with this channel use it to good effect). Their success in eliciting the desired reaction in someone else depends directly on the disposition of their spirit — on their mood. In other words, if they are in a bad mood they may provoke suffering in another person without suspecting it and without meaning to.

This energy provokes action. An energetic burst that creates change in periods of emotional stagnation or depression.

This energy is part of the channel of Community — its solitary side. The energy of being set apart from the group or the family.

The point of transition between struggle and deliverance. Social alertness, aloneness and our need for community. Emotional support drives the will, and the way loyalty serves the community.

The energy of acting or of drawing back — of sending out or reclaiming your resources. The emotional energy of regrouping before the next action.

A limitation of resources that intensifies the development of potential. The single initiating codon; it fills potential through the recognition of feelings conditioned by the present moment. The process of understanding over time. Patience as the virtue in decisions made on an emotional wave.

An increase of resources that maximises the development of full potential. Bringing things to the state where the following steps can be taken. The potential of growth is the power to ripen by completing each cycle.

This gate transforms the rational truths of the 24th into unique perspectives that can be translated into the codes of speech in the 23rd. These are people with a unique inner voice, continually going through the process of structuring their own knowing. To be heard, they have to learn to wait until they themselves understand exactly what they want to say. This is a mind that knows only what interests it, and it is not necessarily interested in what others know. It is fairly hard to teach such people anything, since they want to know only what they want to know.

On top of that, the 43rd gate is called the gate of Deafness, meaning that it is designed to simply block out knowledge brought in from outside until these people come to know it their own way. And since it is part of the individual circuit, the insights that come through this gate arrive as a pulse: knowing / not knowing. Without the 23rd, the problem here is how to translate that knowing into human language.

Acoustic knowing, perceived by the individual. Hearing is the key to knowing. A filter that selects what is allowed in from the outside influences that penetrate and compromise individual knowing. The inner ear, listening to its own inner voice. The turning of a rationalised inner truth into a unique perspective. Individual mental knowing that is not based on fact and may be delusion. Inner knowing that demands tenacity, strength and courage. The final shaping of awareness before manifestation through access to the Throat Center.

A capitalist design, an entrepreneurial one. Instinct and memory, meant to be handed to the ego of the tribe. Instinctive memory in the present, prompted by patterns of experience. A sharp, instinctive memory. The offer of individual loyalty and of access to the resources of memory in exchange for the power of the ego. The gate of Fear of the past.

This energy has control over things and lets others use them at a certain price. Physical, emotional or mental — this energy looks for a reward in return for giving others access to what it owns.

The natural, advantageous attraction of friendly forces. The key to harmony within a community. Authority and education for the tribe.

This gate expresses love of the physical body, or love of the flesh. It shows itself in the desire to be touched, in keeping the body able to work, and in the pleasure of living on the physical plane.

The uncomfortable process of realization. The pressure of mental stress and anxiety. Patience, waiting and pushing on through information until the "a-ha". An abstract process that requires experience, not facts.

These people always have the potential for a new solution. While the 58th gate carries the pure joy of challenging something, and the 18th gate has the ability to aim that challenge precisely through criticism, it takes the 48th gate to offer a real solution to any problem. People with the 48th sit on a spring of natural wisdom and wait for the right moment to share it. Without the 16th gate, the 48th has no clear way of expressing its depth, and therefore no way to apply that depth in the world. That is why it is the gate of inadequacy.

The fear in this gate is doubled: the fear that their wisdom will never come out when it is needed, and that they may never master the skills required to express that depth in the best way. As in all projected channels, if these people wait for initiation from outside and for others to recognise their depth, they will express it clearly and correctly.

With this gate you have a tendency to analyse things with great depth. You look at their size and scope in enormous detail. At times you may struggle with the feeling that your work is not adequate, given how deep the process wants to go.

Depth that is defined by the format of focus and by concentration on patterns. Recognising which patterns are vital enough to focus and concentrate on. The foundation for talent. A depth that has to be shared, whether it is trivial or essential.

This is the energy of principles and of revolution. If an activity or a behaviour does not fit within the principles as they are perceived, this energy will insist on changing it by revolution until it does fit within those principles. Principles: a potential awareness of the need for someone or something to support or restructure the community. Part of the instinctive, revolutionary stream, fuelled by the emotional frequency of hope and pain.

The gate of values and of rules. It controls, or dictates, the rules for the tribe. Those rules are entirely about caring and about making sure the tribe stays whole. The rules are often bound up with food and provisions.

Traditional values that enrich and serve the present and the future. The gate of tribal law, which regulates taste, intuition and instinct. A key gate for the process of wellbeing. Personal immunity and our capacity to evaluate and to defend. The rules of caring as a fundamental ingredient of survival. Here lies the fear of responsibility.

This is the gate of individual initiative. It is the only Ego gate that is not part of the tribal circuit. These people carry a competitive energy that can show up as risk-taking or fearlessness. They like to shock people by going where even a beast has not looked. They are always looking for the 25th gate — the sense of spirit, the sense of going beyond their own limits.

These people bring a sense of unpredictability and excitement into life, and they have a particular gift for empowering others. By shocking people, they push them out of their own narrow world towards a wider vision.

The ability to react to disturbance and shock through recognition and adaptation. Individual initiative. The power to compete. It empowers the direction of love, the love of life itself, and these are constant challenges to our survival. The gate of wounding.

This gate fuels the whole Circuit of Understanding with the frequency of focus and concentration. It is the gate of passive tension. These people feel a kind of enclosed pressure to stay in one place without moving. Sometimes that can be mistaken for being unsociable or withdrawn. If the 9th gate is present, their energy can be released into a single focused stream. Without the 9th, the potential to focus is there, but without knowing what to focus that energy on.

A lack of focus in these people can lead to tension, restlessness, fidgeting and depression. This is the so-called "Buddha" gate — the ability to bring the physical body and the feelings to rest and to use energy in a concentrated way.

Stillness is the calm and immobility created in order to see the whole picture and to reach concentration. Sometimes we have to step back in order to truly concentrate.

A temporary and self-imposed inaction in favour of assessment. The energy of focus and direction supports steady forward movement. The economical distribution of resources and energy through restraint. Where a deficit of attention leads to tension, active energy leads to withdrawal. And where withdrawal leads to the benefits of concentration.

The energy of maximising potential and then bringing it into realisation. Closing and realising potential are necessary in order to take the next step.

The gate of great ambition. You like doing things in a grand and sweeping way. Perhaps you will reach beyond your grasp?

The climb up the ladder of success. The gate of drive. The ambition to rise above material distraction into mystical realms and perspectives. A drive that transforms memory. The place where the fluids of the body carry genetic memory with them.

This gate measures the emotional highs and lows, and people with it activated are always looking for the ideal emotional state, whether that is peace, love or ecstasy. The 55th quite literally needs to be provoked (by the 39th) in order to know what it feels. When their emotional wave is high, they feel at home with themselves; when it is low, there is melancholy. The cup is always either half full or half empty.

These people need to let go of trying to rationalise and control their mood. Beyond that, it is worth learning not to look for reasons behind their emotional chemistry. If they wait out the emotional wave (their own or someone else's), they will always have a clearer picture of the situation.

The Gate of Spirit is an emotional energy looking for the chance to bring in abundance. Bound to spirit, it may express itself as spiritual abundance, though abundance can come in many forms. At times the energy can feel stuck.

Where abundance is strictly a matter of Spirit. Where emotional limits are tested. The frequency of the emotional wave from hope to pain. Moods are the manifestations of that frequency.

Stability through movement. Continuity through the joining of small stretches of activity. The transformation of the abstract into language. An experiential expression rather than a factual one. An idea that is not a solution but is part of the path of seeking. An abstract projection reflected back from the past.

This is the gate of the right ear and of the ability to hear in the present moment, in the "now". This gate is the source of awareness in all mammals; it is our deepest intuition, which guides us here and now towards survival and wellbeing. If you have the 57th as part of your definition, you have a very sharp attunement to both sound and vibration. This gate quite literally represents the place from which we listen out of our immune system.

It is also the gate of fear of the unknown (of the future). It needs the animal, response-sensitive power of the 34th in order to have any guarantee of safety, because awareness on its own cannot do anything yet. Without the presence of the 34th, the body has no power to react. As individuals, these people are not built to be influenced by others — hence their very selective hearing. If they concentrate closely on the present moment, they can always be free of the fear of the future and the unknown that is natural to them.

Sometimes called psychic, this is the gate of knowing in the present moment. It gives a constant energy for the experience of intuition and of knowing beyond physical reality. It opens access to the ability to recognise reality directly.

An extraordinary power of clarity. Intuitive insight with the capacity to penetrate to the very heart of the "now". It transforms the lessons learned by trial and error. A fear of the future that can be dissolved by listening to the instincts in the moment.

These people have a thirst for life that shows itself in the wish to improve everything in the world around them. This gate represents the vital energy of challenging conditioning, and it is rooted in dissatisfaction with the present. This is the channel of Insatiability, and this gate is the source of that energy. Without the 18th gate, the love of life in these people leaves them desperate to be of use in some larger sense. They feel the pressure of needing to commit their energy to a process, but on their own they have no access to a clear awareness of how — or which — improvements can be made. If they follow their strategy, they will naturally attract the 18th gate to them.

This energy gives life its flavour and brings delight. An irrepressible urge to make life better and, if need be, to fight the norms that are built in and look for better ways.

Dissatisfaction in the present, insatiability. A critical and restless energy with the potential for stimulation and for direct vitality. The seeker of a better life. The vitality to challenge what could be improved.

The ability to break through barriers in order to achieve union. The possibility of connection and intimacy. A deep need to bond with others, leading to fertility and not limited to procreation. A sexual energy that can lead to conflict and confusion.

The acceptance of limitation as a step towards transcendence. The pulsing pressure of mutation. An individual expression of knowing that may or may not be of use to the Whole.

This is the pulsing pressure to mutate — that is, to bring something new into the world. This energy pulses, switching on and off from time to time, and mutation happens in those intervals. These people feel an enormous pressure inside them to innovate, but they cannot release it at will, and so the 60th gate is the gate of accepting limitation. The great challenge of the 60th gate is to learn to wait for the right moment without knowing when it will come, or even what it will bring. And while these people wait for the next shift of gear in their lives, they can become deeply melancholic.

As the gate of inner truth, this is the place where inspiration can potentially carry mutation. In other words, among the many thoughts and inspirations flowing out of this gate, some may have a decisive influence on the lives of those around. Such inspiration is often experienced as a light switching on in the brain, or as a sudden moment of "satori". All of it can be deeply inspiring to others, provided it is expressed clearly and at the right moment. The 61st gate presses on the 24th, where that pressure turns into a concept and can be expressed. Without the 24th, the 61st is a love of the riddle, of the mystery, with no need to solve it.

These people are great thinkers, inspirers and contemplators who love to explore the unknown, but who can never help themselves with it in their own lives. They need to accept that some things are simply unknowable. They have to learn to let go of trying to rationalise and manage their own thought process. As a source of potential mutation, their mind is beyond their own understanding, and if they do not follow the true authority in their design (which can never be the Mind), it is quite likely they will feel deep melancholy about their own life.

Reaching knowledge of the "unknowable". The energy of "why?" and "how?" everything happens in life. It can show up as a drive to get answers simply out of interest. The possibility of "knowing" as a matter of fact rather than through logic, and the attempt to know the Bigger Picture.

Awareness of universal, underlying principles. The pressure to resolve the individual mystery. A pressure and a possibility that may nourish unique inspiration or lead into delusion. The pressure to know the Absolute, the potential for Inner Truth to descend through and as silence.

This is the gate that gathers, organises and names details so that a formula can be expressed clearly. These people have the gift of seeing the very fine — and sometimes very vague, indeterminate — details in complex situations. The gift of people with the 62nd gate is to explain something intangible and make it generally comprehensible through clear factual expression. It is also the gate of naming. Without the 17th gate, these people may hold all the details of a situation and yet have no ability to structure them in context.

This is the energy of particulars, of small details. It puts into words what has no name. By naming something and assigning limits and parts to an object or a concept, it creates the basis for discussion.

This is the gate of asking questions, and equally of the mental pressure to get answers. These people can be very suspicious and mistrustful until they get some logical answer about a thing (logical to them, that is). It is precisely the insatiable pressure of doubt in this gate that drives all scientific thought. Such people can be the source of much that is useful to the world. Yet when that doubt is turned on the self, it can be deeply disturbing.

These people need to wait for the 4th to find a resolution to their doubt; they need to wait for the moment when the 4th comes along with an answer that will discharge the tension of the 63rd for a while. If you have the 63rd but not the 4th gate, you carry questions that you do not need to answer yourself. Your questions exist to inspire others, not to trouble you.

The energy of awakening and of knowing. Yet to communicate the insight you have gained correctly, you have to wait until you are recognised — until you are asked — before you speak. The voice of this gate is "I know".

The fuel of doubt, suspicion and mistrust. Projected out into the world or turned back on the self. Doubt as the inspiration for the whole logical system. The pressure of uncertainty demands proof. Doubt is the beginning of the process of understanding. The pressure of doubt feeds anxiety and the collective fears of the future. Fuel for questioning; the pressure is the need for an answer.

This energy is abstract. "I have all the pieces of the puzzle — how do I put them together?" You have the ability to identify all the parts, but fitting them together is hard. The sight of the scattered pieces can lead to confusion and vertigo.

Transition, like birth, demands a certain strength. Mental activity and a pressure that calls for filtering. Living through present experience in order to gather data and reflect on it once the experience is over. A stream of images rooted in past experience, demanding to be processed.