Gate 36 · Crisis

What it is like

You step into new things fully and feel them strongly, sometimes like a storm. Out of times like these grow maturity and understanding for others. Sometimes the emotion pushes you to jump before the wave has had time to settle.

When someone close has it

This person often goes through intense periods that look like a whirlwind from the outside. It helps when someone stays close then, without rushing them and without asking for decisions at the peak of emotion.

A question for today

What new thing am I stepping into now, and am I giving the emotion time to settle?

The six lines of gate 36

1. Line 1 · Lowered Wings

   This line enters a crisis early and takes it low, like a bird flying with lowered wings. From the inside it is a need to understand first what is happening, and a readiness to give up comforts for a while until the ground settles. When others do not understand this, it is easy to hear criticism from them, and then it is worth remembering that you are going through this in your own way, not for their judgement.

2. Line 2 · Swift Rescue

   This line, even when wounded by a crisis, reaches without a second thought for whatever gets it and others out. You do it naturally, without a plan, and in hard moments people turn to you, because they see you have something like a strong horse close at hand. It can happen that rescuing others draws you away from your own wound, which then waits longer than it should.

3. Line 3 · The Southern Hunt

   This line learns about crisis by heading straight for its source and trying to seize it. In life this looks like a series of attempts in which you sometimes hit the heart of the matter and sometimes crash into what cannot be fixed in one move. When you want to put everything in order at once, it is easy to destroy what has already worked, and change needs time before it settles.

4. Line 4 · Insight From Within

   This line reaches the very centre of a crisis and understands it from the inside, because it knows the people who make it. Through close relationships you quickly see where the heart of the problem lies, and you know when it is time to walk calmly out through the gate. It can happen that this knowledge weighs on you, because what was seen from the inside is hard to keep quiet about, or to tell without hurting those who were close.

5. Line 5 · Hidden Light

   This line goes through a crisis by concealing what is bright in it, so as to last where openness would cost too much. Others often see you as someone who will wait out a hard time wisely, and they come for a hint on how to keep themselves intact amid the turmoil. When the concealing lasts too long, it is easy to forget what there was to hide, and others' expectations can then cloud your own light.

6. Line 6 · After the Dark

   This line looks at a crisis from afar and sees its whole arc: how something first rises high and then falls. Over the years you stop fearing dark periods, because you know from experience that each of them ends, and this certainty teaches others more than advice does. It can happen that this distance looks from outside like indifference to other people's struggle, when it is the fruit of having gone through your own.

The centre of this gate

• Solar Plexus

Channels through gate 36

• 35–36 · Transitoriness