Gate 1: The impulse to express your unique self
I love the idea that our human journey is propelled by a personal quest for Beauty, and that it is our very creative, authentic expression that keeps us evolving into ever more complex beings.
To better understand this idea, let’s consider the mechanics of Individual creativity, which is found in the frequency of Gate 1, the Gate of Self Expression. If you have this definition in your bodygraph, you have a deep drive to externalize or express your individuality. You want to be seen and recognized for all the little things that make you unique.
Individuals march to the beat of their own drum. They attract our attention and often surprise or shock us with their innovative, odd, or quirky ways. It’s in how they dress, speak, relate, and create. They can’t help it – so innate is their desire to put out in the world what only they have inside.
We move toward what we love.
Unsurprisingly, this quintessential seed of Individual creative potential is found in the G Center, our hub of identity, direction, and love. The Creative is not aware; rather it is rooted in the direction of the Individual, moving naturally through time and space according to the divine GPS of our Magnetic Monopole (our vehicle’s tireless driver).
In the Bodygraph
Gate 1 points up to Gate 8 in the Throat, forming the channel of Inspiration.
Gate 1 is associated with the artist archetype, while Gate 8 is the agent. This makes sense because the Throat is our center of manifestation.
This is pure, raw, limitless creative potential. Notice that the I Ching hexagram is the only one of the sixty-four composed solely of yang (unbroken) lines. Yang energy is masculine, active, externalizing and initiating.
The Importance of Recognition
And yet even went hooked up to Gate 8, the Inspiration needs to be resourced, because it’s removed from the Sacral Center. When properly recognized, the creative impulse is given permission to flow into the Collective.
And once it’s let loose, it can do what all Individual circuitry is meant to do: empower us all to embody our uniqueness. This is the essence of mutation, and the impetus for all evolution.
Between the pulses of Inspiration is Melancholy.
Remember that Individual energy operates on a pulse – it’s either on or off. When it is on, this is when the magic of transformation can be felt, lived, and shared. But when it is off, there will be a certain melancholy, perhaps a sense of futility or lack of purpose.
Look at your bodygraph. Even if you have only one Individual channel, you know this feeling.
The Role Gates
Another important aspect of the Gate of Self-Expression is that it’s one of eight Role Gates, important points that we all carry regardless of our own gate activations.
What this means is that the Personality side of your Profile (the 1 if you’re a 1/3, for example) will shape your overall role in life – both as an Individual and within the Tribe and Collective.
The Role Gates are split into those concerned with Internalization, and those with Externalization. Gate 10, the Behavior of Self (also an Individual gate in the G Center) is inwardly focused. The keynotes of Gate 10 are so central to our Role that they are used as the names for Profile (Investigator, Hermit, Martyr, Heretic, and Role Model).
Externalizing Individuality Line by Line
Gate 1 The Creative, however, is about Externalization. It determines our creative output – what we serve up to the world as our authentic selves. Below are the expressions of the six lines of Gate 1. Again, use your Personality Profile line (number) to see which archetype characterizes you personally.
Line 1: Timing
Creativity is independent of will.
The Investigator must accept that the time to share out what they have learned in their research will operate on a pulse – the pulse of divine timing.
Line 2: Beauty
Love is light.
You are a Hermit because of your beautiful, natural talent. People are always calling you out because of it, yet you just want to be left alone to do what you love. Because you know natural beauty, when you do share out, you attune us to this beauty. You say, “Look at that!” so we can see it in your light.
Line 3: Price
The energy to sustain creative work.
The Martyr’s trial and error approach comes with a price – a material consequence. However, when you externalize your findings, sharing them with the Tribe or Collective, you become a sort of salesman for them. This often results in material gain.
Line 4: Tension
Aloneness as the medium of creating.
We Opportunists might feel very externalizing, but we are alone within our networks and our process is inward and personal. Between the pulses of mutative networking, we might be tempted to give it all up. It is from this tension between our aloneness and our groups that we actually create something to share out.
Line 5: Stamina
The energy to attract society
The General/Heretic is an internalizing phenomenon, and in the times between their bursts of heresy they display great stamina to work on what matters to them. It is a quiet yet powerful output that attracts others to them and allows them to be seen as Saviors.
Line 6: Perspective
Objectivity
The Role Model externalizes their objective, detached perspective and touches one person (one aura) at a time. Their authentic, creative self transforms, empowers and mutates by its presence.
If you have Gate 1 defined in your Bodygraph, notice the line activation – you will likely exhibit a blend of the expressions between it and your Profile line above. But no matter what, remember that it is your precious, unique self – your form here on Earth, that is the conduit for creation. And the divine nature of the Individual pulse moves us naturally towards its beauty.
