IV. Will
She Who Descended Through Seven Gates
The Mythic Crossing
The Goddess Who Descended went willingly into the underworld, and at each gate a garment was taken from her — crown at the first, necklace at the second, breastplate at the third, girdle at the fourth, bracelet at the fifth, ring at the sixth, robe at the seventh — until she stood before the throne of the dead stripped of every ornament, every defense, every marker of rank and power and identity.
What remained was neither glorious nor diminished. It was simply exposed. The unconcealment was not symbolic. Each gate removed a specific layer, and the layers were not decorations but structures, and the removal was architectural. The self that emerged at the seventh gate was the self that had always been there beneath the building.
The Traveler’s Record
I felt the first garment taken at the first gate — not physically removed but dissolved, as though the fabric had been made of a substance that could not survive the threshold’s atmosphere. It was the garment of title, the name I used in public, the designation that preceded my given name on letters and documents, and when it dissolved I felt lighter but also more exposed, as though a thin armour had been peeled from my chest.
At the second gate, accomplishment was taken. At the third, confidence. At the fourth, the mask of composure. At the fifth, the habit of competence. At the sixth, the story I told myself about who I was.
At the seventh gate I stood in the dark wearing nothing, carrying nothing, preceded by nothing. I expected to feel destroyed. I felt, instead, the strange and terrible relief of having nothing left to protect.
— A History of the Great Wheel and the Ten Gates
For the psychological mechanics and traps of this gate, see IV. Will in A Wanderer’s Guide to the Gates →