As things in the world continue to ramp up, and as you fight through your own inner battles, remind yourself often that you are a warrior. Envision your warrior self in whatever fashion suits you. Arm that warrior self with whatever weapon is necessary so that you may force your way forward on your journey. A jungle warrior needs a machete to fight through the tangled jungle vines. A plains warrior needs a mighty steed to ride across the great expanses of open land. A city warrior needs something to navigate the crowds, perhaps a unicycle! Choose your metaphorical weapon. Make it work for you in whatever world you live in. Use it wisely to support you on your journey, just as you use your new words to support and nurture you on your journey as well.
Mystical traditions appropriated from fiction the term, Dweller on the Threshold, to describe an inner psychological character who serves the role of initiator to deeper spiritual realization.
The Dweller is a psychological complex that is an amalgam of all of one’s fears and unresolved inner darkness at a personal level of present life, as well as the spiritual debts, or karma, one has accumulated from the soul’s journey through infinity.
The Dweller is a universal character that might appear as a powerful archetypal demon in a dream encounter. However, the Dweller is also quite uniquely fashioned to reflect that which is suppressed, repressed or unknown within the darkness of one’s personal unconscious, what Jung termed The Shadow. Nonetheless, the human race, as a single organism, bears its collective Shadow with its own guardian Dweller on the Threshold.
In order to grow, we must know thyself. In order to know thyself we must ultimately subdue the Dweller who tempts, taunts and exposes us to our darkest deeds, desires, habits, thoughts and primal impulses. To subdue the Dweller we must shine the light upon and accept the full truth of all we have hidden from, or all that has been hidden from us, behind the door to the Shadow.
The Dweller might appear to be an evil entity, and in our encounters with it we might be tempted to act out our hidden compulsions, but full responsibility for all one’s actions resides within one’s conscious personality, named the ego. The Dweller is not responsible for the ego’s failure to grow. The Dweller indeed leads one into temptation, but one no longer faces temptation who has reconciled with the wholeness of who they are through inner shadow work.
Ultimately, the Dweller is entitled to deep gratitude and love for the service it performs in helping one to reach the maturity needed to open the door to higher spiritual enlightenment. Failure to love the Dweller is an attachment to hatred that bars entry to higher consciousness.
Though the Dweller often appears in dreams, it is most often met in the projections that unknowingly issue forth from our Shadow and take on mental and emotional life, as reflected in our daily interactions and relationships. Anyone or anything in waking life that gets us emotionally charged, for better or for worse, is a strong candidate for a potential showing of a character within ourselves.
Those we admire might reflect our unknown innate potential. To own that potential and develop it, rather than living it vicariously through another, is the shadow work of broadening one’s personality. To shine the light on one’s inner darkness rather than blame and hate its outer reflection, in the person of another, is the shadow work of accepting the unacceptable within the self. We are challenged to love, with equanimity, the best and worst of ourselves.
Self-knowledge, self-acceptance and self-love are the key technologies required to effectively open the door to higher consciousness. As regards our projections, we are equally charged to love thy enemy as thyself. My enemy is indeed acting from the same venomous impulses buried in my own heart. I must own and love these impulses, and accept that the law of karma applies to all actions. With awareness, I can pay my dues and make my amends as I become able to somewhat look through the window of higher consciousness.
Behind the door of initiation to higher consciousness is our access to psychic powers, and the astral world with its greater access to the divine powers of the subconscious mind. As we, as individuals, must pass the tests of the Dweller to realize our soul’s potential, so the human race too is facing its own developmental challenge.
There are several Dwellers on the Threshold in positions of power throughout the world, currently, who are challenging the organism of humanity as a Whole Being to face the truth about itself. We are on the threshold of a major leap in human evolution, however, we are too weighed down by the burdens of our disowned Shadow to advance.
Our greatest challenge at present is to accept that we are in an accelerated period of major transition. The antics of the Dwellers mark this speed of transition.
Face the truth and have gratitude for all the Dwellers. They insist that we do our preparation by truly admitting the depths of our narcissism and by learning to love all beings, as necessary parts of our one human family. To love the Dweller is to love the self in its entirety, the ticket to higher consciousness.
Every now and then a stumble is expected, but when you stumble you don’t stay on the ground, do you? No, you get up and take another step, this time with a more stable approach, with a more determined outlook. Remind yourself of all that you are attempting to do. Remind yourself of your goals and your desires, of your heart-centered intentions, and take another step in the direction of all of that. Challenges will come, so be okay with them. Stumbles will occur, so be okay with them. Backsliding will happen, so be okay with that too. But always keep your eye on the prize.
Each new week arrives with its calendar of events, of duties, of must-doings. Take a look at what you have to do this coming week and remind yourself that you are no longer doing things in the old way. You have made a commitment to change and you know exactly what you need to do to continue along that path of change. Changing your mind is well under way, so keep up the good work!
As mentioned at the beginning of this week, the first step in gaining the balance and the space you need to do your inner work is to take back your mind, your subconscious mind, by feeding it nurturing words, words of substance and balance, words of value and kindness, words of compassion and love. Fill your mind with mantras of words that have meaning for you, words that you can anchor in when the old words try to reenter your sphere. Speak them away with your new words of hope, love and healing.
