Gate 53: The Gate of Beginnings

How does what came before carry over into a new beginning? You build on the parts of the old that were kept, or you pull back under the criticism that came with the old. In its exalted expression, the new beginning rests on the old. Its shell falls apart, yet what is valuable is carried along and given a new form. In its weakened expression, criticism of the past weighs heavily on each new start, and you would rather withdraw than learn something from it.

Success breeds success and gets a process moving. That is the theme of this line. In its exalted expression, early successes are looked after and serve as a stepping stone for the next beginning. In its weakened expression, first successes make you impatient. You want the next thing right away and act hastily, without thinking it through.

How do you handle conflicts that put a development at risk? You can avoid them deliberately or, without noticing, stir them up. In its exalted expression, your attention goes to keeping disputes from arising in the first place, so the development can carry on undisturbed. In its weakened expression, you stir up quarrels without realizing it, and in doing so you put the security and progress of the development at risk.

Tangled, delicate beginnings call on you to hold to your own way of being. This line sits between standing firm and embarrassment you bring on yourself. In its exalted expression, your own way holds its ground right in the middle of messy, uncomfortable beginnings, and that gives you footing and lets things keep developing. In its weakened expression, your own urge to start things lands you again and again in embarrassing or awkward situations, where your usual emotional reactions tend to do more harm than good.

This line is about standing up for the direction of your own development in the face of resistance. That can succeed through a strength that wins over even opponents, or it can tip into its opposite through too much pressure. In its exalted expression, your direction stays steady even in lonely times, carried by a deep, often intuitive sense of what the development is worth. This strength can even turn people who fundamentally oppose you into allies. In its weakened expression, too much insistence strengthens the opposing forces, so that a beginning stirs up the very forces that can bring it down.

This line is about moving from one completed stage to the next: does success become visible and gather support, or does it stay hidden out of fear of losing that support? In its exalted expression, the visible success of one stage becomes a calling card and builds backing for the next beginning. In its weakened expression, you tend to hide successes and new beginnings, worried that success could stir up inflated expectations or drive away the people who supported you before.

In all its variations, this Right Angle Cross aims to penetrate others, whether through shock, through intuition, by standing out, or by opening up something new. It is mutative, yet as a Right Angle, its effect on others is not intended.

When the Sun is in Gate 53, the pressure to start something new takes the place of shock. There is a strong, stress-driven pull toward beginnings. Staying with things is hard for these people, in relationships too: even in a love relationship, the appeal of the new can stir the feeling that the current one is not enough.

That is exactly why they are among the strong initiators who set new cycles in motion and move society and culture forward. As soon as one building is finished, they are already planning the next. The Personality Earth in Gate 54 brings great ambition: they want to be recognized by those above them, and they expect more success from something new than from what already exists. Beneath this lies the gift of penetrating, and with it they pull others into the movement of their energy.

As a Right Angle Cross, it stands for a purpose that concerns your own path. Other people enrich it but do not fundamentally redirect it. You grow into it by following your Strategy and Authority; it is not fate.

This cross supplies the momentum for new beginnings and transformation. People who carry it are often in demand, because through them things can get rolling.

The question here is what an undertaking will cost and which people are worth the effort of winning over for it. It is about acknowledging the worth of people and their work in material terms as well. Read spiritually, their ambition reaches for recognition from higher powers, whether secular or religious; the line of the Personality Earth is among the most mystical.

At its core is continuity. Someone who keeps beginning and completing can build something that truly lasts, and a break in this chain is considered especially harmful.

The Juxtaposition Cross is rare, and it is a fixed path of your own, like a train on its tracks. People who spend a long time with you can get drawn into this path along with you. You grow into it; it is neither fate nor entitlement.

Read spiritually, this Left Angle Cross leads to the insight that life is made of cycles you pass through one after another, each with a beginning, a middle and an end. This ties in with the idea of eternal return and with the notion that change is the only thing that lasts.

Transformation feeds the building of industry and material society, so that it can endure rather than fail. The deepest primal fear is the fear of the species disappearing, and moving through cycles protects against it.

A completed cycle opens a new opportunity with growing support behind it. Like other Left Angle Crosses, it pulls people into its mechanism. This is a materialism that rises from below: it is about climbing the hierarchy through recognition, and each step, for example from deputy to leader, counts as a fresh start.

As a Left Angle Cross, it finds fulfillment through being with others, whose influence can noticeably change your path. You grow into it; it is not a prediction.