Cross of Confusion

Full breakdown

Gates: 26 the Egoist, 45 the Gatherer, 63 Doubt, 64 Confusion. Gate numbers: 64/45, 63/26.

Moving into Juxtaposition, Sun in 64 pushes into an extreme position — the geometry of the fixed 4th-line fate, with all its rigidity. This Cross has to work through the moral undertone of the word 'confusion': these are our great inspirers of history, storehouses of information who constantly pour the past back out, in enormous detail, because that's the focus of their process.

Gates 35 and 5 drop out here; awareness begins in this model instead. In the unconscious sit Gates 45 and 26. Gate 26, the Egoist, has a genetic capacity to manipulate memory — to exaggerate and embellish it, which can shade into outright lying. The duality of Gate 26 is that it can produce great truth-tellers just as easily as great liars, but it's always the gate of the Ego, deeply material — in business, the marketing manager, the part of the Ego that presents itself, and the tribe, through hyperbole and exaggeration.

Gate 45 governs rulership. This Cross always deals in the past — retelling it and reshaping it in hopes of material gain. Read into that what you will; some of it is genuinely unflattering, but it's Gate 26's territory: manipulating knowledge as the Ego's prerogative, in service of the tribe.