Gate 48: The Gate of Depth

This line separates what matters from what is beside the point. Where do your attention and energy flow? In its exalted expression, attention turns instinctively toward what is of practical use and worth noticing. In its weakened expression, the ego spends its energy on trivial things, and taste stays stuck on the banal.

A new form has quality. Is it defended against weakening influences, or given up for their sake? In its exalted expression, you trust your own perception enough to resist weakening influences. Otherwise the new form decays, because its best qualities are sacrificed. In its weakened expression, a misunderstood wish for harmony lures you into settling for something lesser. When trust in your own perception is missing, disruption and decay find their way in.

In this phase, your own depth is out of reach for others. You carry it with confidence or with unease. In its exalted expression, the very provisional nature of this phase gives you something to hold on to: as on a new moon night, the light is already there but not yet visible, and taste and depth ripen in quiet. In its weakened expression, a deep unease hangs over the long road of ripening, because great understanding goes unseen.

When little is possible, it is a good time to restructure. The restructuring is either tackled early or put off. In its exalted expression, you use a period of limited options to take stock and rebuild with later goals in mind. For the time being, your taste turns toward short-term projects. In its weakened expression, you shy away from restructuring in advance until it can no longer be avoided, and if you lean toward long-term plans, you then get annoyed by the limits.

From depth into doing: this line asks whether you dare to take the step or play it safe and put it off. In its exalted expression, there is a natural urge to turn energy into deeds, and acting brings joy. In its weakened expression, an excessive need for security gets caught up in the details of planning, especially when society is renewing itself. Doubts about your own depth can paralyze your ability to act.

This line stands for fulfillment drawn from a source that hardly ever runs dry. In its exalted expression, you receive even as you give, and that is why you can keep passing things on for a long time. As a respected focal point, you put your depth and talent at the service of others. In its weakened expression, you give generously, but only on the surface. What is missing is the inspiring force that turns a gift into something shared by all, and the lack of depth diminishes the talent.

Every variant of this cross carries the tension of natural leadership: part of the theme is staying alert and keeping hold of the reins so you can maintain your position. That tension gets passed on to others through provocation. This often feels uncomfortable, yet it is considered necessary for leadership to last within a community.

With the Sun in Gate 48, the tension reaches its greatest depth. Its root lies in the frustration of having a solution and not being able to bring it out into the world and put it into practice. Gate 48 stands for the well of depth that talent springs from; whether a solution holds up only becomes clear through skill and implementation, which run through Gate 16. The insights of Gate 18 into what needs correcting collect in the well drop by drop until a possible solution takes shape.

Because people feel drawn to what they are not, those with this variant often pick up one skill after another while still feeling inadequate. The way out is to trust your own depth and let others fill in the skills you lack; this is where the tension can ease. Without that trust, bitterness can grow.

A Right Angle Cross points to a personal theme: your path belongs to you, and the people you meet color it without changing its direction. Rather than a demand or a destiny, it is something you live out when you follow your Strategy and Authority.

With the Juxtaposition Cross, the source of the tension falls away. Instead, the Design side adds the wish for a new beginning (Gate 53) and ambition (Gate 54).

This turns depth into an advantage: people with this cross want to be noticed for their depth, and part of the theme is that their influence grows the farther their circle reaches. They do run the risk of losing themselves in their own depth and becoming narrow in how they deal with others. They are fixed on this theme.

Juxtaposition Crosses are rare. Your path here is fixed and your own, a bridge between a personal and a transpersonal theme, much like a train on its tracks. In this view, anyone who stays with you over a longer stretch can ride along for part of the way. This is no prediction. The meaning shows itself over the course of your life.

In this Left Angle Cross, depth turns into an urge to do something with it. That urge is fueled by the frustration of seeing a solution to the world's problems and not being heard.

The name says nothing about whether the undertaking succeeds. What it points to is the effort itself, driven by the wish to keep the matter in your own hands.

Rather than hoping for the right support, people with this cross are frustrated enough to grab whatever means will move things forward and get started on their own. The cross does not replace Strategy and Authority: frustration by itself is no signal to begin. It is considered the ideal cross for bringing your own work out into the world yourself.

A Left Angle Cross is a transpersonal theme that is fulfilled only through your connection with others. This path needs people who fit with it and help carry it. This is not fate; the meaning of the cross reveals itself over the course of your life.