Ever since I took Ra's Quarter by Quarter on the 16 Faces of the Godhead, I've been intrigued about the way in which we can find the themes of the mechanics woven throughout our human mythologies.
You can find the course on Jovian Archive here:
https://www.jovianarchive.com/Audios/40/The_Sixteen_Faces_of_the_Godhead
In the 16 Faces of the Godhead, Ra covers each quarter of a Quarter in the Human Design Rave Mandala Wheel. Each one of those quarters of a Quarter is comprised of 4 Gates, which together form a Face of the Godhead. He gave each Face a name based on a particular divinity he felt most closely resembled the essence of the programming that came out of those four Gates as a quantum - a whole greater than the sum of the parts.
Each one of those Faces represents a Personality crystal bundle, out of which each of our Personality crystals as individuals incarnated. The 16 crystal bundles together exist as a sheath around the Earth and filter the neutrino stream, as the planets move through the Rave Mandala Wheel. The themes of these 16 Faces create a global conditioning programming of our Personalities, following their archetypes.
In this course, Ra opened up the door to contemplate how and why human beings have been inspired throughout history to create particular gods and mythologies that are relatively consistent or similar across cultures, how certain archetypes emerge to the surface of human consciousness in relation to the higher forces that human beings have always perceived to govern the unfolding drama on the planet.
In this article, I'd like to take a look at the Tengu, a mythological figure from Japanese folklore and animistic religion and its potential connection to Gate 26, and the Channel of Surrender (44/26) A Design of a Transmitter, as well as its relation to particular Faces of the Godhead.
"Tengu 天狗 are mountain and forest goblins with both Shinto and Buddhist attributes. Their supernatural powers include shape-shifting into human or animal forms, the ability to speak to humans without moving their mouth, the magic of moving instantly from place to place without using their wings, and the sorcery to appear uninvited in the dreams of the living.
The patron of martial arts, the bird-like Tengu is a skilled warrior and mischief maker, especially prone to playing tricks on arrogant and vainglorious Buddhist priests, and to punishing those who willfully misuse knowledge and authority to gain fame or position. In bygone days, they also inflicted their punishments on vain and arrogant samurai warriors. They dislike braggarts, and those who corrupt the Dharma (Buddhist Law)." (https://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/tengu.shtml)
On the website above they are referred to as the 'Slayer of Vanity'. They are a breed of tricksters that come in two basic variations: the 'Yamabushi' or 'Mountain Monk' Tengu with humanoid face and long nose, and the 'Karasu' or 'Crow' Tengu with bird's beak and head. The Japanese government still made appeasement notifications and requests to local Tengu living in certain areas until the second half of the 19th century.
Adding a fun-fact here: the (44/26) Channel of Surrender is also our cross-specie bridge to the Design of birds, as well as part of the Stream of Instinct, corresponding to our sense of Smell (re: long nose and bird features).
So the first connection points we can already see here is the notion of pride, arrogance, boastful vainglory and trickster qualities that are also associated with the 26th Gate: The Taming Power of the Great - The Gate of the Egoist. This Gate sits within the Tribal Ego Circuit and as such it relates to hierarchy. It is the Gate of the braggart, the Gate of 'being the best', of exaggerating, and more importantly - manipulating memory.
"The maximization of the power of memory applied to the nurturing of continuity"
(Definitive Book, p. 245)
We can take a look at the Line Companion to understand the nature of this 26th Gate a bit better:
"The tribe expects to be exaggerated to. It is very important for the tribe. It likes that. This is the best refrigerator, the best car, the best country. Exaggeration is part of the way of getting the tribe to feel good. The 26: the strength or lack of strength to apply memory.
The whole thing to understand about the ego is that it is built on manipulation, and please do not think of this as a bad word. It is simply the ability to manipulate things. There are very few gates that are called 'taming gates': The Taming Power of the Small (the 9th Gate), to be able to take the broad spectrum of energy and to focus, tame it, to tame the root and its pressure by focusing it; and, here the capacity of the ego to manipulate instinctive memory." - Ra Uru Hu
(Line Companion, p. 165)
In the Line Companion Ra continues to explore the various Lines of this Gate. He explains that this manipulating ego conveys that they are the best by making sure that they are remembered in a certain way - using all tricks at their disposal, such as lies and exaggerations. Paraphrasing Ra: it's the sales person who is on the golf course smooching the client, rather than actively doing the sales in the way the 1/8 Channel of Inspiration would do. Telling the boss over the phone that the deal has been made when it may not even be true yet.
These things are a function of the Willpower of the Heart as a Motor energy that is expected to get things done, but is weaker compared to the Sacral. These tricks are a way of handling that pressure and expectation of the Tribe that is dependent on it, with a Motor than cannot actually work consistently and needs to be able to recuperate frequently in the midst of all of that.
"Sometimes, too, the Tengu would abduct human beings, only to release them later, but the "lucky" survivor would return home in a state of dementia (called 'Tengu Kakushi', meaning 'hidden by a Tengu').
(https://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/tengu.shtml)
As trickster goblins the reputation of the Tengu transformed gradually from evil to protectors, however dangerous still. As time went on, they were being culturally remembered differently. Once feared for a certain attribute, they were eventually beseeched for protection against the exact same thing:
"The character of tengu gradually changed over the centuries. For instance, tengu were long thought to abduct children, but by the Edo period they often were enlisted to aid in the search for missing children."
In the 16 Faces of the Godhead, the 26th Gate is located in the Face of Prometheus: the Greek trickster Titan who stole the original fire from the Gods and gave its power to humankind as a benefactor. Prometheus is comprised of Gates 9, 5, 26 and 11.
9. Taming Power of the Small - Energy for Detail
5. Waiting - Fixed Patterns
26. The Taming Power of the Great - The Egoist
11. Peace - Ideas
Within the context of Prometheus, the 26th Gate acquires additional archetypic characteristics that we may also see reflected in the Tengu - especially in constellation with the 44th Gate of Alertness in the Face of Minerva, as part of the (44/26) Channel of Surrender.
Here's a blog post by Laveena from 2017 that goes into the 16 Faces of the Godhead and what kind of conditioning forces they represent Quarter by Quarter:
Prometheus is located in the Quarter of Mutation, where purpose is fulfilled through transformation, which carries an underlying thematic of embracing death with the potential for rebirth. The movement through the Quarter of Mutation is a programming for accepting that the glory is behind us, that we are now preparing to leave life behind and move on. And yet as we scan over the Gates that are in this Yang/Yang Quarter we can see that all of them are fundamental to the creative spectacle of life. All the varieties of juice that are at the source of what makes life interesting, as it is expressed through the other Gates, Channels and Circuits.
It's funny that whenever I consider this I always think about the stereotypical 'accomplished' male who has just realized they are past their prime. They've 'peaked' and there won't be a next level for them to take it to. Their performance is on the way down, and they are on the way out. And the Quarter of Mutation represents everything they may be clinging to in this crisis, everything they may seek to reinvigorate, keep alive, immortalize or be remembered for. And I imagine how this stereotype acts out in their fear of dying, the denial and overcompensation that emerges - the pretence that they're still as vital and potent as ever. This is not an uncommon sight in homogenized society. It is this suggested or displayed vitality and potency around which their lives have been built. What has made them desirable and needed. It's their life's currency, and in this Quarter of Mutation - it's fading.
When we think about the 26th Gate, its ego and the way in which it manipulates how we remember things in order to establish control, we can connect some dots to the overcompensating masculine principle which clings to its own glory.
"The long nose relates to the Tengu’s hatred of arrogance and prejudice. Priests with no true knowledge, prideful individuals, those attached to fame, and those who willfully mislead or misuse the Buddhist cannons are turned into the long-nosed Yamabushi Tengu (or sent to Tengudo, the realm of the Tengu) after their deaths."
(https://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/tengu.shtml)
Whenever I look at any Face of the Godhead in the Wheel, I study them within the context of the Wheel and Bodygraph as a whole. (My PTL1 classmates know this from the Mad Labs I was hosting in which I introduced some of it.) It's way beyond the scope of this article to go that deep, but for anyone interested I would just like to mention that as a rich journey you could undertake.
When it comes to Prometheus as a particular programming agency, the main archetypic expression of that I see expressed in society today is the technocracy. This Face embeds the 26th Gate into focused and concentrated Logical Patterning in pursuit of an Abstract Collective Idea. On the other side of the Wheel, as programming partner to Prometheus, we find Lakshmi who carries our notions of Progress and glamour. And so what comes out of this is the vain and arrogant idea of technological progress that is supposedly the pinnacle of evolution, that is our conquering crusade across the face of the Earth and into the far reaches of space - which has also led to the termination and extinction of so many as a sacrifice. We think metropolitan cities are a magnificent erection - look at the luxurious size of that thing! Until suddenly the supply chain collapses.
Prometheus as an archetype is a force you'll encounter in the psyche of everyone who is actively participating in that flow. The promising scientist, scholar, CEO or philanthropist who wants to be remembered for their greatness. The debunker who persuades you to forget about the quacks you've been following and would love to teach you real science instead. Benefactors who bestow their gift, their particular kind of fire, onto humanity in their benevolence. Rallying the soldiers and the masses behind them in their cause - blind to what's on the other side.
"Corrupt Buddhist monks and corrupt Buddhist monestaries were in fact a major concern throughout Japan’s middle ages. Tengu are thus seen as protectors of the Dharma (Buddhist law), and punish those who mislead the people. Over time, the folklore of tengu and yamabushi become intertwined, and even the crow tengu (karasu tengu) begin wearing the robes and caps of priests."
(https://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/tengu.shtml)
Back in the middle ages the clergy were supposed to be the vanguard of the future, stewarding the afterlife as the mediators between the divine and the people. Today that's supposed to be the scientific institutions that guide governmental policy. The Tengu wear the clothes associated with these particular roles that carry the promise of protection, which can suddenly turn into misleading at any given moment. The security and resources that are there to be found in positions of authority and power within the Tribal hierarchy may corrupt. In particular when we move from the lower trigram into the fourth line. Those with influence may start to use it for their own advantage rather than their duty.
I mentioned earlier the termination and extinction that exists on the other side of the 26th Gate. This is something we find in the 44th Gate of Alertness - Coming to Meet, it carries the fear of the Past and the fear of extinction. The 26th Gate is biologically correlated to the T-Cells that are part of our immune system, who protect our wellbeing by eradicating threat. What comes out of that at the level of human to human interaction is soldiers of many kinds - as well as censorship and elimination of certain lineages of information. The 44th Gate carries ancestral and cellular memory that goes way back into our evolutionary past.
In my slice of life over these last few years, I've seen the dynamic between the 26th Gate's censorship and the 44th Gate's ancestral memory play out between the many indigenous communities who are fighting to keep their lineage of vital knowledge alive, protecting the ecosystems they are embedded in, while industrial technocratic forces are coming in violently to exterminate them and take hold of the natural resources. Co-opting the narrative along the way. Indigenous ways of knowing and seeing are labelled as 'primitive' or 'savage', while modern intellectual ways of knowing under the banner of science are 'superior', 'civilized' or 'sane'. A story is spun to give military troops an excuse to invade and kill people who do not comply and who stand for a different way of living in the natural world. And this is then called 'development' and sold to the citizens who consume vast quantities of beef and soy grown on these lands, after the forests and communities have been destroyed.
Minerva is the last Face of the Quarter of Duality, where purpose is fulfilled through Bonding. She is associated with strategic arts and crafts, such as trade and war. She carries Gates 32, 50, 28 and 44. As a conditioning force in the Program, she represents what Ra called the School, the Rules, the Way and the Promise. Here's what you need to learn in order to survive, here's where you can learn it, follow these rules and apply yourself - and everything's going to be fine. Go to school, get the degree, get the job, get the money, get the house, get the family, get the pension - happy retirement. Oh and don't step out of line or it's all gone.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengu#Martial_art)
"During the 14th century, the tengu began to trouble the world outside of the Buddhist clergy, and like their ominous ancestors the tiāngǒu, the tengu became creatures associated with war. Legends eventually ascribed to them great knowledge in the art of skilled combat.
...
Two stories from the 19th century continue this theme: In the Sōzan Chomon Kishū, a boy is carried off by a tengu and spends three years with the creature. He comes home with a magic gun that never misses a shot. A story from Inaba Province, related by Inoue Enryō, tells of a girl with poor manual dexterity who is suddenly possessed by a tengu. The spirit wishes to rekindle the declining art of swordsmanship in the world. Soon a young samurai appears to whom the tengu has appeared in a dream, and the possessed girl instructs him as an expert swordsman. "
The (44/26) Channel of Surrender, A Design of a Transmitter, is the life force capable of handling Tribal ego and selling or transmitting to the Tribe what it needs for its continuity, safety and wellbeing. Whether this is a product, a service or a strategic art. This Channel has the ability to match-make potential. For example, connecting a talented young samurai to the art of swordsmanship and the right teacher that will bring out his gifts so that he becomes of value as a protector of the Tribe. This Channel has the potential to sniff out what you need before you're even aware of it, then massage you and set you up for the purchase. Telling you whatever it is you want to hear in order to allow it in.
I attract this Channel into my life very frequently, though most of the Transmitters I've come to know more closely are involved in some kind of creative enterprise. Some kind of arts and crafts related field in which they produce products and services that carry an essence of Tribal Support, care and learning. Products and services that reflect a particular set of values by which we are educated (and potentially indoctrinated) into a manifesto, mythos or ideology. The premise is that, by all appearances, they've got something we really need in order to live well, to thrive and continue thriving into the future.
What I also see in my particular environment is the Alertness in the 44th Gate about our enemies, the threats of the past that may still be lurking, or the conditions that gave rise to the creation of enemies and war in the first place. We have ongoing and continuous reminders of WWII in Europe all over the place so that we do not forget. At the same time, we grow our crops with toxic pesticides that were rebranded death chemicals from the concentration camps, thanks to the dextrous manipulation of the 26th Gate.
In the Channel of Surrender, where these Gates come together as a greater whole, we are held in the surrender to life as it sets us up to exchange value and resources. To participate in the flow of converting the living natural world into resources for sustaining our lifestyles. And we are trained and educated in schools to do so, we are taught the way and the rules by which we keep the whole thing going. Markets are grown and cultivated through education.
What is truly vital here is the recognition of life and hierarchy. Many indigenous people who live embedded in the natural world say something along the lines of "We live amidst relatives, not resources." And this is a perspective civil society has lost. It's an ancestral memory that has been censored and eliminated from our ideological pursuit of progress.
In the Not-Self, it's a small step to take in the 26th Gate from 'being the best' to 'being superior'. There is natural tribal and evolutionary hierarchy, and then there is the vanity of thinking we're 'better than'. The blindness of reducing what we see to a diminishing label that removes from view the fact that we're looking at a conscious living entity. As we do with trees, animals and the inanimate. As we do to each other in our racism and fanaticism. Something alive becomes potential resource to subjugate to our personal agenda. No permission needed.
I'll end this article with a short Tengu Zen story:
“One day a hunter was in the mountains when he happened to see a snake killing a bird. Suddenly a boar appeared and began to devour the snake. The hunter thought he should kill the boar, but changed his mind because he did not want to be a link in such a chain, and cause his own death by the next predator to come along. On his way home he heard a voice call to him from the top of a tree. It was the voice of a tengu. It told him how lucky he was, for had he killed the boar, the tengu would have killed him. The man subsequently moved into a cave and never killed another animal.”
Something to contemplate as a metaphor.
I hope you enjoyed this experimental article.
Take care,
Hagen
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