The student in esotericism has often encountered this expression, the Threshold Keeper, or more simply the Guardian, without being sure of what it really means. Rudolf Steiner gives us the view of occultism.
First, who is this gentleman? “Rudolf Steiner, 1861-1925, Austrian philosopher and occultist, founded anthroposophy, an esoteric doctrine which he calls “path of knowledge to restore the link between human and spiritual worlds. To his followers, he is a spiritual guide. His doctrine is behind projects as diverse as the Waldorf schools, biodynamic agriculture, medicines and cosmetics Weleda, the Camphill Movement and the Christians Community.” (Source)wikipedia
The meetings with the Threshold Keeper are experiments of great importance that accompany entry into the higher worlds. Here is how your Keeper reveals you the meaning of his being:
“Until now you have been guided by invisible forces that have rewarded you for your good deeds and punished you for your misdeeds.
They have decided your fate, they have prevailed upon you as the universal law of karma. They will now give up a part of their domination and their work will be delivered to your care.
Heavy blows of fate have sometimes struck you so far and you did not know why. It was after one of your harmful actions in a previous existence. Sometimes you have found happiness and joy, it was also an effect of your ancient acts.
Now all good and bad sides of all your previous incarnations will show to you.
These causes were hitherto woven into your own nature; they were inside you and you could not see them, as with your eyes you can not see your brain.
Now all this past stands of yourself and it takes an independent form that you can look like trees and stones from the outside world. And myself, I am the being who has fashioned a body with all what in you is noble or vile.
Until now, you’ve worn me in yourself without seeing me. This blindness was happy for you, for the wisdom of a destiny that was hiding to you was able to work at my improvement. Now that I went out of you, this hidden wisdom also has abandoned you. Now it will no longer care about you.
Now, your own wisdom must be large enough to take on her this new task. Once you will have crossed the threshold that I keep, you’ll see me constantly by your side. Our destinies are forever linked.
When you act wrong, you will pay immediately the price for my look will get ugly in a way terrible, demonic. When you have fixed all your past mistakes, when you shall be sufficiently purified, the evil will become impossible to you; so my being will coat with a radiant beauty; we will form then only one being.
But my threshold is cemented by the fears and apprehensions that you still feel before the full burden of yourself, the full responsibility for your behavior, your thoughts. As you dread having to manage yourself your destiny, you must stay ahead of the threshold, or collide it, you shall not pass.
Do not try to cross it before being completely free from fear and ready to charge yourself with the ultimate responsibility.
Once you have crossed my threshold, you will enter the spheres people know only after death.
You will enter them in full consciousness, and while you will continue to evolve on Earth, you will now move into the realm of death, the realm of eternal life. For I am the angel of death at the same time I am the herald of a higher life, inexhaustible. Thanks to me, you will pass through death to be reborn to a life that nothing will ever annihilate. You will find happiness, you will meet suprasensible beings. And your first encounter in this new world is myself, your creature. Previously, I lived in your own life, you got me awake, I stand before you, judge of your future actions, constant criticism, sting of every moment.
You could create myself, but remember that at the same time you have taken upon yourself the task of transforming me into a perfect being.” (Source)Rudolf Steiner, The Initiation
The author hastens to add that this story is not a symbol, but a very real experience. Right. But times have changed in a hundred years: now the description sounds too dramatic, too sanctimonious.
Lack of love, lack of sinlessness. But the essence of the Guardian of the Threshold is correct: the Guardian is a product of our karma is our karmic double. Double that, as a chrysalis, we have created in us by our actions, our words, our thoughts, our emotions.
An alter ego that we feed in energy, and who sometimes plays tricks on us. Unlike the guardian angel watching over us without our knowledge while we were still asleep, the threshold keeper does not protect us. On the contrary, it is our duty to watch over him, because our weaknesses disfigure him, and can kill him. If he lives, he embellishes, he shines, we are saved, concludes Steiner. Not quite saved, but on the way to. Such a high quest takes a high rank of efforts. At least we have crossed the threshold. It is an irreversible step, very important, but a step is not the finish.
The prince charming must slay the dragon, or put him to flight. This approximation generates many misinterpretations in the warrior’s spirit. Fairy tales do not tell us who is this dragon. It is cut into the fabric of our being, it is made of the sum of our past actions.
The dragon has become our karmic assessment, and this is our way forward on the inside that gave it life.
No way to kill it or put it to flight! Now the warrior is a tightrope walker working without a net. On the other hand, he has a control screen : the subtle appearance of his karmic double.
The repulsive ugliness of his double reflects that he can no longer hide within himself. “And his sorrows, curses and grieves Go naked in the street he lives.” To embellish his double becomes his vital law.
Continuing its path of balance on the tightrope of the other world -this world of eternal life populated with supersensible entities– the warrior is cut in two, then knighted, then unified, then, finally calm, he has not finished making meetings.
The universe is full of magic and waits patiently that our intelligence is refined.
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