Gates and Gatekeepers

We have already discussed more than once that one of the basic properties of manifested existence is its discontinuity. Unlike the potential state, the Medium or the Interval, which is completely homogeneous, the actual state is always fragmented: only certain energies, properties, possibilities are active in it, which are separated by oceans of unmanifested potentials.

At the same time, consciousness “masks” or “overcomes” this fragmentation in two ways: first, it perceives the world not from the point of view of objects, but of interactions, for which the “potential chasms” between actual manifestations do not matter; and, second, it “thinks up” reality, extrapolates it, filling the gaps in experience with “fictions.”

Indeed, even at a superficial level of understanding the nature of reality it is not difficult to notice that, although most of space is occupied by “physical vacuum,” a person lives in a world of solid objects which, in fact, are only interactions, fields, and energies described in spatial terms. And “thinking up” reality, its automatically filling in as a general property of description, is widely used in computer simulations and technical tools.

However, for a Magus who strives for a full and accurate description of the levels of reality available to them, simply “ignoring” this discontinuity is impossible.

We have discussed repeatedly, viewing any process from this perspective, one can single out an alternation of two stages in it: gradual and leaping; that is, as long as the process relies on manifested resources or possibilities, it moves smoothly and regularly, but periodically it needs to overcome “potential chasms,” and then it makes a leap, reestablishing its causal structure on the “other shore.”

Thus arises one of the cornerstone images for the magical description of the world: Gates as a fundamental structure of the universe.

We have discussed repeatedly that any process, any phenomenon in its unfolding necessarily includes “passing through the Gates,” that is, a stage of destabilization, contact with the Interval, without which movement would be limited only to a narrow area of the manifested, the “known,” and would have no particular prospects for continuation.

That is precisely why the image of the Guardian of the Threshold has always been of such great importance for Magic — a two-faced deity ensuring the flow of contacts between yav and nav — and its retinue: numerous hierarchies of beings and entities that carry out “Interval-mediated” exchanges of matter, energy, and information.

Any person, any process passes repeatedly through various Gates even within short time spans, and therefore frequently interacts, often without noticing the energies, beings, and entities that are part of their structure.

We have already said repeatedly that any such act of “overcoming a potential barrier,” that is, passing through the Gates, can be described as an interaction with four types of energy, often personified as special beings or entities: the Gates themselves, their Gatekeeper, the Guard, and the Herald.

Gates as an object is a description of the very act of contact of the manifested with the intermediate; therefore they are usually personified by a certain “deity of the Gates” (since most often we are talking about the interaction of the medium of manifestation with the medium of potencies, it is described as a goddess, the immanent face of the force that maintains order).

Gatekeeper is the energy of interaction of a process (or a being) with the Gates, with the point of instability. This energy, as we have already said, can be “neutral” (such a Gatekeeper is traditionally called a “consiliarius”), that is, interaction as such; or “helping” (that is, “pushing” through the Gates; such a Gatekeeper is called an ostiarius) depending on the prior history of the process. If a process or a being comes into contact with the Gates at its “basic” level, that is, in the general course of its dynamics, then the contact will most likely occur in the form of a consiliarius; but if a being or a process has acquired an “additional impulse” to overcome the Gates, for example, in the course of an Initiation or another “push,” then there is a high probability of an “active collision” with the Gates, which may manifest as an ostiarius. For example, if we consider the reading of this post as the Gates, which can open a path to new understandings, then this reading can be “just reading,” a superficial running of the eyes over the text, and then there will be an interaction with the energy of the consiliarius type; but if there is an inner readiness or a recommendation (coming either from outside or from within the reader), then this post can become an ostiarius, advancing the mind toward new thoughts and conclusions.

Guard of any gates is the energy of resistance to passing through them, a manifestation of the “strength of the Boundary,” a force of inertia trying to keep the process from making a leap through the Interval. It is clear that this can be both a positive and a negative phenomenon, also depending on the prior history of the process.

The most difficult figure for unprepared understanding turns out to be the figure of the “Herald” of the Gates. This is the energy of informational exchange between the Gates and the flow (mind, process) passing through them. Since any passage through the Gates includes a moment of immersion in the Interval (even if imperceptible and not remembered), it also includes a moment of disintegration of the passing system, with its re-creation on the other side of the Gates. In other words, any passage of a “potential barrier” is a miniature “death and rebirth” of a being or a system, occurring repeatedly and often. In ordinary reality, such re-creation of the system is ensured by the Herald as the “Force of transmitting the Name,” that is, the informational basis. One can say that the system immerses in the Interval and then is reborn from it precisely according to the “template” or “scheme” transmitted by the Herald of the Gates. Upon entering the Gates, the Herald “takes measurements” of the passer-through, and on the other side he restores it according to these measurements.

However, if in the Manifested state this “re-creation” occurs to a significant extent “automatically” and usually does not require any special conditions, then in a long journey through the Interval (for example, in the Afterlife), the being must itself take care of its Name; it itself turns out to be the bearer of information about itself and its Path, and therefore the “calling of the Herald” becomes a particularly important action. A being that has “forgotten” its Name, that is, is not aware of its essence, of its logos, or does not know how to “call the Herald,” that is, to activate the energies of the Gates, risks losing its system-forming traits, “dissolving” in the Gates, losing its evolutionary impulse, and being thrown into a new birth without favorable ballast.

That is, when Egyptian papyri list for a long time and in detail the names of Gatekeepers and other Deities of the Gates, they are not trying to “bamboozle the brain” with unnecessary information; on the contrary, they provide keys that help to preserve as much as possible the properties of the flow of mind on its path through the Interval.

Thus, the idea of Gates as a description of the contact of beings or processes with potential reality is not simply a convenient scheme that shows the stages and activities of this contact; it is also a methodologically important guide to developing effective strategies for leaps across chasms, which are an integral part of any movement.