Gate 56: The Gate of Stimulation

How much substance is there in brief ventures and in ideas spoken aloud? Practical value stands against trivial things meant only to impress. In its exalted expression, even fleeting things should be worthwhile, and what gets said consists of useful, practical ideas. In its weakened expression, the wish to impress steers energy toward side issues, and even the most trivial notions get voiced.

Does a gift for expression find a foothold through recognition? Either the talent matures over time and gets recognized, or shallowness falls apart once it draws attention. In its exalted expression, a brilliant gift for inspiring others, one that stands alone at the start, first needs time to mature and people who recognize it. Then recognition can carry it over the long run. In its weakened expression, a gift for communicating that lacks enough depth has a hard time holding up under attention and tends to move on.

Determined self-sufficiency can isolate you. That is what this line is about. In its exalted expression, great vitality carries a will that puts itself at the center and wants to steer the expression. To others, this can feel overwhelming. In its weakened expression, your taste runs against that of others, and the wish to control the expression can smother the stimulation.

Acting in an expedient way protects you. It is a role that carries you when needed, but you may pay for it with constant tension. In its exalted expression, a flawless surface can hide your true feelings when it really counts, and stimulating others becomes a protective role. In its weakened expression, expedient behavior comes at a price: constant tension and the fear of losing what you have gained. The role becomes second nature, and rest or being found out seems threatening.

How do you win attention? With unusual ideas, or by standing out in a way that works against you? In its exalted expression, the stimulation seeks notice through what is unusual, new, and at times brilliant. In its weakened expression, you often draw attention in a way that harms you, as the stimulation provokes and disrupts.

You have found your place, and this line asks what comes next: Do you carefully honor the new commitments you have taken on, or do you keep wandering restlessly and run into rejection? In its exalted expression, carefully following through on your new commitments keeps you connected, and your expression stays sincere and true to your word. In its weakened expression, without your noticing it, the longing to be accepted releases exactly the energy that invites rejection. Without self-knowledge, you jump from one form of expression to the next without finding any stimulation that truly carries you.

What the variants of this cross have in common is that they bring forth laws, rules, commandments and guiding principles. Each of its gates can establish rules and order, and lawmaking is seen as a kind of art. As a child, you may have expected and needed rules, and without them great uncertainty could arise.

With the Sun in Gate 56, the world is seen through the lens of ideas and ideals. The mind is strongly dominant and reaches for concepts whose ideals give rise to rules and laws. Idealism lifts these people up, and they try to lift others up with it. The voice of this cross speaks of faith, hope or despair. Sorting facts logically suits it less; it tells stories and parables drawn from experience and can hold listeners spellbound with them.

In this view, people with this variant are called sellers of dreams: they spark enthusiasm for an ideal and leave the specifics open, and a law that was dreamed up can turn into a nightmare in the details. The rules of this variant spring from idealism and promises rather than from a response to social change.

A Right Angle Cross shows a personal theme: your path belongs to you, and the people you meet color it without redirecting it. Rather than a claim or a fate, it is something you live when you follow your Strategy and Authority.

People with this cross are hooked on stimulation. This cross belongs to someone who wants to be entertained and, if it comes to that, will put their own life on the line to find something exciting.

Their story has to come out and stimulate others; if there is no one to hear it, they suffer deeply. It lands with special force when they speak from their own experience and the story becomes a personal parable. Making a sober, logical argument does not come naturally to them.

Because grounding is hard here, their hunger for stimulation sometimes leads them into extreme risks. Even as children, they often feel driven to talk a lot just to release the stimulation.

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 rails. In this view, someone who stays with you over a longer time can ride along for part of the way. This is not a prediction; the meaning reveals itself over the course of your life.

This Left Angle Cross interrupts. In the middle of a meaningful conversation it pulls attention away, and no one finds out what the other person was going to say. Yet it can also have a magical effect, as when everyone at a party suddenly ends up listening to a single conversation; it is called a siren song.

These people draw attention to themselves, for better and for worse, and sometimes at an inconvenient moment. They pull others away from what they are doing and draw them into their own stimulation. Where this isn't tolerated, pulling attention away can lead to anger. It is one of the least focused crosses, because whoever distracts others is distracted as well.

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