what does it mean to "cross the threshold?"

Everything in which we have learned through the earthly senses must be left behind in order for us to pass through the threshold of death, into the spiritual world.

–– Douglas Gabriel (Enlightenment Basics from the Akasha)

I’ve been meaning to write an article like this for quite some time.

A part of me admittedly is making this because I want people to understand this strange and difficult spiritual experience of mine.

But also because I feel it is rare for people, at least in our modern world, to touch upon such a challenging topic like this one. At least concretely and thoroughly.

It is unfortunate because I believe that there are so many people who are having similar spiritual experiences, but either cannot find the answers to them, or cannot find other people who are sharing in that same difficult experience.

I am talking about what spiritual schools like Theosophy, Anthroposophy, and many other traditions point to, and that is “the Mysteries of the Threshold.”

In Christianity, this is also called “The Dark Night of the Soul,” which is widely spoken of in this ‘New Age.’ But even then, our modern conception of this is misunderstood and often lacks weight.

That is why I am compelled, even as a new student of spiritual science, to extensively share my thoughts and research about this very real occult phenomena. Which I am going through, along with many others.

Even if what is discussed here doesn’t directly relate to many of us yet, since we are already devoted to the path of spirit, these experiences may slowly appear in your life.

Every waking-human after all will eventually have to come face-to-face with what will be explored today.

This is my attempt to be at least somewhat helpful to those who may encounter that.

But before I begin, I am sharing my own thoughts here not to preach what people should experience, to sound like I have definitive answers, or that these are somehow “my ideas.” No, I do not! Everything here is still a work-in-progress, and I am still in the middle of own strange journey!

My intention is to write about the nuances of this mysterious experience, the potential symptoms that come with them, and the transformations that can be attained by them. And if you don’t fully trust my words here, then please visit the “related resources” at the bottom and explore this topic for yourself.

The material itself may be heavy for some.

But I believe these topics will be of help for you in your spiritual journey and research.

As long as you feel comfortable, let’s continue together.

What is the “threshold?”

This is a very difficult question that I can only roughly answer at the moment.

However from my study brief study of anthroposophy, along with my own experience and intuition, we can look at what this ‘threshold is’ in two ways.

For one, what we call the ‘threshold’ is really a type of realm that separates the physical world from the spiritual world. This is the realm of death that we must pass through with full consciousness, if we are willing to understand the true spiritual nature of ourselves and the world.

Whenever Anthroposophists mention the word “death” next to this name, this is not exactly a metaphor.

The threshold is one of the realms that the deceased must pass through within the death process, into astral realm of kama loka. This is to fully digest the deeds of their previous life, along with the “dross” accumulated from the physical world, so they can enter into the spiritual world in free conditions. This is formally known as heaven in the west, or devachan in the east.

Within these higher realms Rudolf Steiner calls this “life between death and new birth;” the place where the souls rest, and where the angelic beings live. This is the very place we can find ourselves in beyond the threshold. This is home!

We can also describe the crossing of this threshold to be “The Dark Night of The Soul” in Christian thought, the “River Styx” or “Hades” in Greek mythology, “The Abyss,” “The Desert,” “The Unconscious,” “Hell,” etc. You’ll find plenty of names from many schools, cultures, or traditions that point to this same “underworld” and same phenomenon.

Another angle we can look at this realm is that the threshold is actually an experience, or a condition that we can find ourselves in. This condition can be seen within our lives where our consciousness is being pulled apart. Here we will encounter our own Doppelgänger (shadow) and the Guardian of the Threshold.

Through these two figures, which we’ll explore later, we become increasingly aware of our lower thoughts, feelings, and actions that are unredeemed within us, along with what we doubt, what we fear, and what we hate. If we are already aware of them, then they will become amplified.

This threshold experience can also be seen when we are enduring spiritually relevant challenges in our own lives, especially related to our own wounds, our own patterns, or our own life themes that is archetypal and karmic in nature. Again, amplified.

We will talk more about these experiences later, but looking at the threshold through this angle points to the very same thing!

The threshold is not some faraway place that is reserved only for a few select people.

Every person is crossing their own threshold, whether they are conscious of it or not.

For those of us who are not yet conscious of the threshold, that is perfectly okay since we are not fully ready to understand “what that really entails.”

Directly confronting the threshold can only be a distraction to what we need to fulfill first in our demanding lives. And just because we are not directly facing the threshold doesn’t mean we won’t have hard times in our lives. So, we must live.

But if we have devotion to the path, nonetheless we will be given new threshold experiences, for as we develop further, the experience of the threshold will concentrate within our own lives. This is because we are demonstrating proper readiness for such trials. The only way we can legitimately grow as humans-becoming-spirit is through the threshold.

However for those who are becoming conscious of the threshold, they will be frequently exposed to their lower nature and difficult themes in their life.

This can be very terrifying, very confusing, but very powerful if we can endure. For if we can build this type of spiritual endurance, we will eventually find ourselves across this spiritual veil, into new spiritual life. Freed from our lower nature. Purer minds and hearts attained.

And finally, there are those who do not need to cross the threshold whatsoever. Perhaps they were developed individuals, students, or initiates in bygone lives whom carried out great deeds, or overcame great struggle. Lots of these people can just be your ordinary Joe who, being born into our time, is still directly anchored to the spiritual world. However even then, they will have their own specific scheme of development, which perhaps is more specific or even demanding compared to ours. So I wouldn’t compare.

No matter which group we find ourselves in, we will have to cross our own thresholds, and overcome our own struggles.

Through attaining the virtues of faith, hope and love, along with the specific virtues that we need to understand for ourselves, then we’ll be able to purify and redeem our own fallen nature. Slowly and steadily, we’ll be able to freely enter into the spiritual life, and the spiritual world without the fear of our own true nature.

Entering the threshold truly is the beginning of initiation.

An initiation into our own human story.

The more we invite this threshold experience, the more we can experience the story that we have, and the story that we all have.

I hope for us that we will come to understand such story.

He whose soul thirsts for reality, he who, in accordance with abstract science, seeks to solve the riddles and wonders of the world, will, in the end, have to face this void, with his ideas completely dissolved as in a spiritual mist; the soul will then have to experience infinite terror in the presence of this void.

The soul must pass through such trials if it desires to experience the meaning and the spirit of our age.

–– Rudolf Steiner (GA 129)

Into the threshold: facing the “doppelgänger”

Up until this point I’ve been talking about ‘what’ the threshold is, but haven’t shared too much about the real spiritual experiences that we may have in these realms. Especially for those who are more directly affected by this phenomena.

When becoming conscious of the threshold for the very first time, we will encounter what is called in Anthroposophy, the ‘doppelgänger,’ or the ‘double’ in German. In other systems like depth or Jungian psychology, we can call this the shadow, or the unconscious. This figure can be seen everywhere in different stories, dramas, and mythologies.

This ‘black specter’ that follows us wherever we go can be seen as shadowy part of our astral, emotional, or soul bodies. This part contains our negative thinking, feeling, and willing, along with our doubts, hatreds, and fears that have yet to be redeemed.

Even though these untransformed parts of our personality can be traced to the astral body, they are at the same time contained equally within our three bodies: the physical body, the etheric body, and of course, the astral body.

These can also correspond to the wounds (astral), patterns (etheric), and themes (physical) that we have been born with, and must carry out in our lives. These are both karmic and archetypal in nature, and are very distinct to us.

To put it simply, the doppelgänger is the three-headed beast that we have yet to spiritualize through our virtues of faith, love, and hope, along with our work to purify and moralize them.

Now, how can we encounter this doppelgänger?

It is pretty simple: just recall a time your lower thinking, feeling, and willing has been agitated by something or somebody else, within or without you. That right there is the activation of the doppelgänger.

Or, using the word “agitation” again, whenever you have felt any agitation of any sort that didn’t come from love or freedom, that there again is the doppelgänger.

You can even recall a time where others felt this “agitation”, and imposed this agitation towards you, only for it to perhaps agitate you. That right there too is the doppelgänger seen clearly within the other person.

It can indeed make us act in certain ways that we do not want to act. Been there, done that, and still doing that.

Whenever this lower nature is activated: a provocation, a stimulation, or an arising of what is still not free within us, that is where we can find the doppelgänger.

And wherever we can find the doppelgänger, we will also find the threshold. For that is the threshold experience!

I hope this paints a picture to what this mysterious cloaked figure is.

Side-note: if you’re curious and feel comfortable, perceiving the doppelgänger can be done through contemplation where we observe our negative thinking and feeling to understand the context behind them. Or through imagination where you can perceive this specter for yourself, albeit only a subjective image of its true form.

However, if you are not ready to be exposed, or constantly be exposed to such an affective figure, or content, then don’t do it. Don’t force yourself to encounter this doppelgänger yet. Allow the spiritual world to facilitate this experience for you!

Another side-note: you probably already know, but it’s okay to carry this flawed doppelgänger.

This ‘double’ is us after all; a fallen part of us that seriously seeks to be arisen by our own love and actions, and will do everything it can to do so (even much to our dismay).

Having this ‘double’ also means that you are deeply human.

We are given these specific archetypal qualities and impulses at birth–– both the good and bad––that we are meant to refine, so we are able to come closer to our true eternal nature: the ‘I’, ‘I am’, or spirit-self. These spiritual individualities can be found as we inch closer across the threshold.

Once we can come closer to this real individuality of ours, within and without ourselves, the more we will recognize the deeper role behind our present lives.

Seek in the heart the source of evil and expunge it.

It lives fruitfully in the heart of the devoted disciple as well as in the heart of the man of desire. Only the strong can kill it out. 

He who will enter upon the path of power must tear this thing out of his heart. And then the heart will bleed, and the whole life of the man seem to be utterly dissolved. This ordeal must be endured; it may come at the first step of the perilous ladder which leads to the path of life: it may not come until the last. But, O disciple, remember that it has to be endured: and fasten the energies of your soul upon the task. 

Light on the Path — Mabel Collins

Going further: encountering the “Guardian of The Threshold”

As we enter into the threshold of death, we will also have an encounter with a being called “The Guardian of the Threshold,” or more precisely, the “Lesser Guardian of the Threshold.” This is opposed to the “Greater Guardian” that protects the spiritual realms beyond the threshold.

Today, we’ll be exploring this “Lesser Guardian”.

To start, this guardian being can be seen as our very own doppelgänger, however this being can also be seen as the keeper of the threshold who holds the keys to hell and death.

He is just like Anubis, who weighs our hearts against an ostrich feather. Or like Jesus Christ, who judges us for our moral or immoral deeds.

This guardian spirit prevents those from accessing the spiritual world and the realms of the threshold without the proper moral readiness to experience it. Even more relatable, he prevents us from attaining premature knowledge of the remaining evil (thinking, feeling, willing) that is still within us.

This figure serves an important role of holding us back from attaining knowledge that we cannot handle, about ourselves and the world. If we attempt to learn more than we are ready for, then we can only be destroyed by it. Not the good kind. And if we are not destroyed, then we can be deceived, especially by the beings of Lucifer who take any opportunity to lure those who are lost.

Only by attaining the proper moral development through, patiently, working out many of the themes, patterns, and wounds that we have––which the spiritual world will provide us automatically––we will be able progress through the gates of the threshold safely.

The more gates we can safely pass, the more we will be exposed to our fears, hatreds, and doubts, but also the more we will be showered with new threshold wisdom.

This threshold wisdom is provided by this very guardian, along with the other beings who are facilitating this tough initiation.

Through each hardship, and through each moral deed, our hearts become slowly as light as a feather, and we will be judged to receive new wisdom.

As brutal as this guard is, he is also a very loving being, and he, along with the many spiritual beings on his side, will guide us subtly along every moral step that we take. And he is happy for each of the moral steps that we take!

From an Esoteric Christian understanding, this Lesser Guardian is seen as Jesus Christ himself, watching us in our darkest times, and in our most victorious. However, he will also be there to welcome us into the Kingdom, as the Greater Guardian.

Personally, I do not know this guardian much.

But I would like to get to know Him more.

As we cross deeper into our own threshold, hopefully we shall get to see Him for his glory.

I must become a perfect and glorious being, or fall a prey to corruption; and should this occur, I would drag thee also down with me into a dark and corrupt world.

If thou wouldst avoid this, then thine own wisdom must become great enough to undertake the task of that other, concealed wisdom, which has departed from thee.

–– Rudolf Steiner (GA 10)

Opening the threshold, now

As we have explored before, the threshold is not some distant place where only “special spiritual people” can access.

It is an experience, and the experience of this realm is what we can have now, whether we are attempting to cross the threshold fully, or have yet to do so.

As long as unredeemed thoughts, emotions, and actions exist within us, the guardian of the threshold will always be there to arise these impulses for us.

That is why we cannot legitimately work upon these lower impulses through our willpower, at least alone.

It is actually impossible since either the ego personality will do everything it can to disassociate from what it fears, or the guardian of the threshold will keep it from attaining deeper knowledge on what it still fears. It is akin to trying to catch something desperately, just for it to slip passed your hands.

Or with an extremer example, it is akin to pandoras box. If you directly try to open this box yourself when you are not prepared, you will be destroyed by the release of spiritual forces within it.

Instead, we will be given many outward opportunities to learn about, and redeem our fallen thoughts, feelings, and actions, through human experiences. Whether that is through ourselves, or through other people. And many of these uncomfortable threshold experiences you may have are with other people, since you both are opening up a threshold to the spiritual world through each conversation.

One thing that can also be helpful is to observe the archetypal quality behind these threshold experiences. This can help you understand certain mysteries about yourself, and your life. By studying how the stars and spheres influence you in your birth-chart, or through studying any form of divination, it can help you uncover specific stories and dramas.

Overall, through the experiences given to us by threshold spirits––and the spiritual hierarchy––we will always be given the chance to understand where we are not free in our hearts.

Indeed, it will be painful. And for some of us potentially, these painful experiences will always be a given at every moment of our lives, and we may have no choice but to see to it till the very end.

Thus we must learn to develop real faith and devotion towards the spiritual world (or any names/images you are comfortable with). After all, they are the beings who are subtly facilitating this initiation.

Do not force yourself to digest more than you need to.

Trust that they will provide right growth.

And ask politely to provide more if seriously compelled.

The guardians will always be there, ready to give new threshold wisdom.

Threshold effects: a list of common occult symptoms (and phenomena)

If we are to explore the idea of crossing the threshold thoroughly, we must unfortunately discuss the common physiological and psychological effects that come with encountering the doppelgänger, and the guardian of the threshold.

Reading some of the symptoms here can be jarring, and even stir some fear.

However this isn’t this scare anyone.

This is to serve as a useful tool for when we find ourselves crossing the threshold as we grow when we start to see these effects little by little. Even if this may not apply to you right now, this will prevent you from being surprised when this happens. It could even be beneficial to save this portion of the article. From my experience with studying spiritual science (albeit very shortly), it is difficult to find a good list of potential symptoms that may arise from this experience. So I hope this one really helps.

Now before we begin, if you are experiencing real or dangerous health or medical issues, even if you are in the threshold, it is advised to consult a doctor.

I am not here trying to make definitive health diagnoses through conveying the effects of the threshold. However it is clear that there are real occult patterns that cannot be described by our current medical understanding when somebody is undergoing the demands of spiritualization. What can be experienced in our journey are not illusory-health beliefs. This goes beyond “belief,” and this becomes something that we must endure in the real world.

So to begin, here are 15 extensive descriptions to the effects or symptoms of crossing the threshold that you may experience. Some of this list may be skewed more to my subjective experience, while others are more objective. Just keep that in mind, and use this as only a tool for your own journey.

To begin, the effects and symptoms of the threshold may include:

1. Some/heavy dissociation and dullness: Our thinking (astral), feeling (etheric), and willing (physical) can become much weaker than before. This may affect how we function in our regular day-to-day lives. As the bodies enter more into unconscious waters, the senses become more unconscious as the bodies are being pulled apart. This can even feel like you are being devoured. Whatever the experience is, this can be seen as you giving up your vehicles to the spiritual world, while you enter into a more passive condition in your life.
2. A lack of willpower, or a feeling of restricted will: This especially applies to old or current projects, aspirations, or desires. Sensual related pursuits, or spiritual related pursuits, they can all come to a halt, no matter how much we fight against this. What people may call “inconsistency,” “laziness,” or “lack of discipline” is characteristic to those who are slowly becoming conscious of the threshold, and are being slowly initiated into these higher realms and higher work. Do not guilt yourselves, and do not fall for distraction. Your role is to cross the threshold and face the demands of it.
3. The emptying of thought or language: if our thoughts and language cannot directly reflect a real spiritual nature, which is beyond thought and language, then we will simply lose touch with it. We cannot carry the sensually-bound into the spiritual world. And even if we possess such pure thoughts or language, we will be forced to abandon what we have learned and even abandon our studies altogether. Of course, only to return to them again, with new context. This new context is what leads us to the truer nature of knowledge and intellect.
4. Increased amplification of doubt, hatred, and fear, sometimes almost uncontrollable. This also comes with intense shame and guilt. This is characteristic to the experiences with the doppelgänger and the guardian of the threshold. If we can endure this shame and guilt, we can build real judgement and real conscience (Christ), which goes beyond consciousness (Lucifer). If we can navigate this doubt, hatred, and fear with courage, we can come to new virtues of hope, faith, and love.
5. Increased amplification of our lower nature: Our thoughts, feelings, and actions, which may relate to our specific negative patterns, will be released into our own lives without our conscious control. This seems as a total regression to the work that we’ve done up to this point. You may, at times, even have endless repetitions of these patterns that last for days or weeks. As easy it is to say than do, please forgive yourself for each of these misdeeds. Remember that there are real spiritual beings who are releasing these impulses from your bodies, and who are helping strengthen your bodies. While these impulses are you now, they are not actually you.
6. Overstimulation of the pleasure centres, or sexual organs. Hedonism of all kinds: food, entertainment, spending, sex, pornography, or any type of pleasure specific to us and our own patterns. When this lower nature arises within the threshold, they are actually not self-destructive or destructive to other people. They are recoverable. Endure and let it pass, until it passes away into new strength.
7. Overstimulation of the 7 deadly sins: pride, greed, gluttony, lust––or what is most specific to the patterns that we carry––will be brought out through physical experience and our willpower to confront for ourselves. Similar to what we covered above.
8. Weak physical body, or spontaneous injuries or irregularities in the body or limbs. If you love working out intensely, unfortunately there’s a chance you won’t be able to do so since your bodies, faculties, and senses are being reconstructed. Light exercise is good. However if you cannot, then don’t force yourself. At least from my experience, you will not gain a single pound, nor lose much muscle or connection with the body during these inactive times.
9. Irregular sleep patterns, or sleep deprivation. We will begin to notice that the night provides better nourishment for you than the day. In the day, you die. At night, you come alive. Sometimes expect good imaginations, inspirations, or intuitions from this hour.
10. Feelings of confusion, or even deception. We can feel like we are stranded in the middle of a desert. We don’t know where we are going, we don’t know what is right or wrong, and we don’t know what will or won’t happen. Only God knows. This also can be a good chance for Lucifer to tempt us with sensual or spiritual deception. The being of Lucifer is the very being who we are individually and culturally tasked to overcome and redeem. Do not fall for false spiritual ideas. Do not fall for distraction. Instead, stay falling, and you will be caught by spirit, while Lucifer can only chase.
11. Stomach or digestive problems, usually from literally digesting challenging themes, patterns, and wounds within our astral bodies, or stomach area. Sometimes we will have lower appetite than usual, no appetite, or extreme appetite. Either way, we can observe that there is real activity within the astral body.
12. Terrible cognition, or even sometimes headaches; due to either a depletion in our etheric body (which leads to a depletion of thoughts), or due to us receiving new head forces from the etheric. This is mental reconstruction.
13. Isolation or loneliness. It will feel like there is hardly a single soul out there who will understand our situation. We may be misunderstood, we may doubt ourselves, and be doubted. This is painful if you enjoy company. However perhaps there is no better space to develop spiritual faith and devotion than to be alone. This aloneness is what teaches us to remain steady within ourselves, and our own egos, as we travel deeper into the threshold and become more human. No matter where we are, we will never be truly alone.
14. Dread: ego-consciousness will expand as if it is in space, slowly and slowly, in all six directions. The more our consciousness stretches, the more we must sustain it, and thus, we can see our ego expand. However, there is this terror to expansion, for the more we expand, the more we will see our lower nature. This can be terrible, but great.
15. Agonizing or traumatic activations or experiences from themes, patterns, and wounds that are karmic or archetypal in nature (study your birth-chart to understand these more). Usually these activations, or new gates of the threshold, can be opened by somebody else or by situations, from something big or small. At times in these moments of activation, the world quite literally has crushed us into smithereens, and we can be given affective responses that will make us feel utterly mad, or sad. But after this great wailing of ours, whether it lasts for 3 hours, 3 weeks, or 3 years, there is this sense of catharsis afterwards. There is no danger, because “they” know we are strong enough to endure. Live, live, just live, and see to it the subtle or absolute transformations attained by being set abruptly on fire.

(I am sure I have missed many more. If you are in a comfortable and free place, I invite you in the comment sections, or my DMs, to briefly share your own threshold symptoms or even anything related to it. It’s good for us to contribute and put the pieces together).

Every person will experience these effects differently, little or lots. It depends on what archetypal themes they carry, where they are in their development, or how concentrated the influence of the threshold has on their lives.

Overall, we will see these physiological and psychological effects within us as our three bodies are increasingly releasing themselves from these lower forces that keep us in the past, and away from the future. These effects can also be seen when our etheric bodies slowly become loosened from the constraints of the physical body, as ego-consciousness gets pulled apart and expands into deep space.

When this happens, our senses may begin to become dissociated, dulled, or devoured, since we are making the literal attempt to cross the land of the dead, while we are alive.

Those who cross are usually unconscious, either through sleep, or through the death process. But we are trying to cross consciously.

Now one last thing to mention before ending this section.

When these symptoms appear in our lives when moving into new threshold territory, we will usually be unable to figure out the rhyme or reason behind these effects. Whether they are new or recurring.

No matter how many spiritual scientific experiences you’ve had, or reasons you can find, most of the time we’ll have no clue why these effects are appearing. Only in retrospect we can understand. As this happens, we must become familiar with the appearance of these effects and give up control.

True occult transformation will always come with these side-effects.

And some of us will be prone to this more than others.

If so, we must hold firm and steady, especially from the pressures of the outer world which may cast doubt onto us, or stimulate self-doubt in us. No matter our current age, our situations, or our occupations, we must understand where we are now.

Yes, we may not be total functioning humans at the moment.

But we must recognize the specific role that has been given to us by the Guardian of the Threshold Himself.

He believes that we have the strength worthy to cross the underworld and defeat the dragon within us.

Despite the terrible, unexplainable, and endless difficulties that lie ahead of us, perhaps one day we will come to understand that this is a privilege.

This is what it means to be truly human.

As soon as anyone pledges himself as a Probationer, certain occult effects ensue. Of these the first is the throwing outward of everything latent in the nature of the man: his faults, habits, qualities, or subdued desires, whether good, bad, or indifferent.

They will come to the front irrepressibly, and he will have to fight a hundred times harder than before, until he kills all such tendencies in himself (which had required dozens of incarnations before, on average).

On the other hand, if he is good, generous, chaste, and abstemious, or has any virtue hitherto latent and concealed in him, it will work it’s way out as irrepressibly as the rest.

H.P. Blavatsky (Volume XII of the _H.P. Blavatsky Collected Writings)

Concrete results

Within each threshold experience we are being reconstructed, from head to limbs, from the forces of the future in which lie deepest within our hearts.

These spiritual forces, albeit very demanding, stressing, and taxing on our current bodies, provide real healing and real transformation.

Very notably, within our astral bodies.

This can lead to new emotional and intellectual developments characteristic of our current age, and of our next upcoming age (Holy Spirit or Manas).

Along with this, we can build a legitimate relationship to our own human ego, which has the capacity to direct the forces of our three lower bodies through the acquired virtues of faith, love, hope, and many others. In turn, completing our four-fold human nature, the re-spirited ego personality that has mastered these three realms.

More practically, expect our temperaments, relating to our actions, feelings, and thoughts to become more pure and moral.

This change can happen only slowly. But over months and many years, this change can be dramatic. I’m only slowly coming to these changes, and I recognize this takes real patience. Even despite the regressions of mine, I can clearly see that my temperaments are being refined.

Lastly, as we enter into these pre-birth realms, we can expect to slowly understand the spiritual context behind our present birth life.

Over time we will be able to understand the mysteries behind our present life, our past life, and our future life. This is the mystery of time, or one of the mysteries of the manasic age that we are moving towards (death, birth, rebirth). Along with this, we can understand the crucial role behind these challenging themes, patterns, and wounds, and the specific qualities and impulses that we carry. This corresponds to our family, culture, or race, and the potential work that we have relating to them.

This is not a fantastical idea of growth.

This can be legitimately understood as we grow, and even now subtly.

Any types of results we want, we can find it in the threshold.

Any types of questions we want answered, about the world or ourselves, we can find it in the threshold.

All the answers we seek for shall lie within the threshold.

And even if these results and answers may seem intangible––sometimes rotating between tangible and intangible––our new moral accomplishments from overcoming our lower nature will always be recorded in our hearts.

Christ sees these records.

And through each accomplishment, He will raise us slowly from this hell in which we have been living in, and bring us to His Kingdom.

Eliminate the idea of “stages”

Now before i end this long article, I want to mention that there are no concrete “stages” to crossing the threshold, just as there are no “stages” to the Dark Night of the Soul.

This is the type of idea that you see proliferated within this ‘New Age,’ which gives people the wrong idea of how a person will progress through the Dark Night of the Soul.

I am not here to invalidate people’s journeys, or teaching modalities.

Though I am doubtful that some of these teachers have really come face-to-face with their own three-headed beast, nor have legitimately penetrated through this spiritual veil.

We cannot assume that progressing through the threshold, let alone the spiritual world, can be “systemized.” Even if we can clearly name spiritual markers of evolution, just as Rudolf Steiner and many spiritual scientists have (e.g. the consciousness soul), our scheme of development towards attaining these markers will always be specific, personal, and unpredictable! Everything is a work-in-progress towards understanding the real mysteries behind these markers ourselves. We all have a unique part in revealing this mystery.

Instead of relying on “spiritual roadmaps,” we must have the courage inside of us to face what we are still yet free of, and we must have the faith outside of us that the spiritual world will be there to work upon us. Rather than we work upon ourselves.

If we can endure these times with both faith, courage, and hope, we will be brought to love. This is the love that we were already familiar with before birth, which we have lost during birth. When we are finally brought to love, little by little, we will be able to attain the mystery behind these new markers of spiritual evolution, led by the forces of love.

I have barely tasted this love for my self.

Trying to understand this love is scary.

But I wish for all of us that we do taste it.

I am sure the Guardian of the Threshold wants us to.

Sink down, sink down, sink deeper and more deep to take the eternal and primordial leap.

Sink down, be still, awaken, and draw apart, Sink into the inner earth’s most secret heart.

Drink of the waters of Persephone, The secret well beside the sacred tree.

Waters of life and strength and inner light – Eternal joy drawn from the depths of night.

Then rise, made strong, with life and hope renewed, Reborn from darkness and from solitude…

–– Dion Fortune (The Sea Priestess)

Conclusion: enter the threshold

I hope what I’ve shared today about crossing the threshold, along with the spiritual nuances that come with this experience will be useful to you and your journey.

I believe that our research on the spiritual threshold will always be an ongoing mystery, so I definitely encourage those to share their own ideas, along with their own experiences. So each of us can bring more concrete spiritual research to life, as we slowly move away from spiritual superstitions, into real spiritual objectivity. Personally writing this article had deepened my own understanding and experience of the threshold. But I’ll revise this article again in a few years after I gain more experience.

Speaking of experiences, I will soon write about my direct experiences with the threshold over these three years, on my website. Free subscribers will get an email to this once I’m finished writing it. Though it’s been difficult to do so.

I am still trying to figure things out, just like we all are.

I believe as long as we make the attempts to have devotion to what is good, true, and beautiful, then we’ll be successful in overcoming the fallen-figure that is our lower nature, and in passing through the unknown trials of the spiritual world.

Despite the terribleness that may await us, I truly believe that we will emerge victorious.

To end appropriately:

the guardians,
they are waiting for us.

the guardians,
they call us home.

home is coming,
we will be home soon.

spirit-self,
is at home.

Anthony Ng*

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out of freedom: if you are willing to hear more about my own thoughts or journey as i grow, i invite you to subscribe to this small blog over here.

also i just created a Discord group for those who are early in their studies of anthroposophy or spiritual science (just like me) where we can share our experiences and ideas together. i believe it is crucial that we can find at least a few people we can share our own thoughts to, especially in our very isolated journeys.

if you would enjoy having these threshold conversations (and some fun), then i’m very excited for like-hearted people like you to join.

thank you for your time.

amen.

Related resources

My posts are open source. You can visit the resources on the threshold, and of spiritual initiation, which are aiding me in my journey and inspiring my thoughts:

1. “How to Know Higher Worlds - A Modern Path of Initiation” - Rudolf Steiner
2. The Lord of Karma – the Guardian of the Threshold (OurSpirit.com)
3. Light on the Path - Mabel Collins
4. Misleading thoughts 09: “Consciously Crossing the Threshold is a Pleasant and Easy Experience”
5. Doppelganger Akasha - Douglas Gabriel: