Cross of Experience

Full breakdown

Gates: 22 Openness, 47 Realizing, 35 Change, 5 Fixed Rhythms. Gate numbers: 35/22, 5/47.

This process shows itself in full color in this Juxtaposition. Gate 35 carries an insatiable hunger for progress, which gradually fades — the great driving force behind it. And progress itself, notice, slows down over time. Science fiction from the 1950s and 60s imagined what the year 2000 would look like, assuming boundless progress; in reality, progress is quite limited. What we mostly get is more information — much more information. Walk through a modern city, then imagine walking through Rome two thousand years ago, and you won't find that much has really changed, apart from the smell.

Progress's nature is a restless drive that says: 'we have to keep building, keep growing, keep doing, keep manifesting through speech and action. If there's another valley, we have to reach it. If there's another mountain, we have to climb it. If there's another sea, we have to cross it.' The Sun in Gate 35 governs all of that — and naturally, every doubt and question we've ever had comes out of it too.

Moving into Juxtaposition and the 4th line brings the Cross of Experience. These people are great solo experimenters — they might say, 'I need to find out for myself what it's like to walk across Europe,' and simply go do it. They're intensely focused on their own specialized experience.

The flow from Gate 41 into 35 is a heavy burden for all of us, because it's the path of humanity itself — chaotic, full of everything that has to be discovered and lived through. All of that experience is only potential; what pulls us toward it is the carrot of expectation that Gate 35 dangles: 'if I do this, I'll get that. If I climb up here, I'll see that.' And naturally, expectation brings real disappointment — 'I tried it this way and nothing happened.' But we're built to try every way there is.

If your child has this Cross, or Gate 35, teaching them their Type and Authority early on is what will let them get the right experience for themselves — and, in a real sense, for all of us. Without that, they'll suffer for it needlessly.