IMAGINATION
The Dweller on the Threshold
The 'Dweller on the Threshold' is a personal, mystical confrontation with the personified sum of one's own imaginal creations – both the monstrous embodiment…
Related ideas
Dweller on the ThresholdImaginationCompassionMisspent EnergySelf-creationRedemptionImaginal ActsMystical Experience
The Dweller On The Threshold
I will share with you this night an experience of mine – it happened years ago – to show you the only thing that had no right to live – the only thing that had no right to exist, and must be brought to an end. Suddenly I found myself confronted with these two creatures: one, the most monstrous thing you could ever conceive, and the other, the most angelic being that you could think of. The one that was the monster – a hairy, monstrous being – I would almost be unfair to the monkey world to call him a gorilla or a baboon, but that is the picture, only he was far more than that. And he spoke gutturally. He looked at this angelic being, and called her “Mother.” It annoyed me, and I began to pommel him, and he gloated. He loved violence. Every blow made him stronger. He was the embodiment of every evil thought and act that I had ever entertained or expressed. I was totally unaware of this creation of my own until that moment in time when I was strong enough to confront it, and I can’t tell anyone the emotion that permeated me when I saw what I had done. I created that that had no right to exist, and it must be brought to an end. I created that which had no right to live, and it must die. Blows could not kill it. It lived on blows; it lived on violence. As I looked at it, an emotion permeated my being that I had never felt prior to that that I remember: one of compassion – infinite compassion, that if it took me Eternity to redeem this, I would do it. I pledged myself – there was no one I could swear to; there was no witness. Something within me pledged itself to redeem this monster if it took me Eternity. It didn’t take me more than a split second! From the moment of the decision when I decided that I would redeem it because it had no right to exist – at that moment the whole thing withered before me. It got smaller and smaller; it only took a matter of seconds really. And that thing that was a monster thing one moment before now completely withered before me, but it was all energy – misspent energy. It returned to me. I have never felt stronger than I did at that moment when all that energy that went to build and create this thing that had no right to exist returned to me, and here I am as powerful as, I’d say the Universe. And this wonderful creature that was the personification of every noble, lovely thought that I ever entertained, either expressed or unexpressed, – she glowed like the sun. She had a right to exist. She was the personification of my use – my wise and loving use – of God’s gift to me; and; this monstrous thing was the personification of my mis-use of the same gift! That is what, one day, you will confront. That is your “dweller on the threshold.”
The 'Dweller on the Threshold' is a personal, mystical confrontation with the personified sum of one's own imaginal creations – both the monstrous embodiment of misspent energy (evil thoughts/acts) and the angelic embodiment of wisely used energy (noble thoughts/acts). The monster, having no right to exist, is redeemed and dissolved by an act of infinite compassion, returning its energy to the individual.