The Dweller on the Threshold

Mostly referred to in Theosophy, the dweller on the threshold is one of the first serious malevolent entities encountered. Until this point, an initiate will encounter their own thought-forms and some basic etheric entities, these can be uncomfortable, but nothing too bad. Do not confuse this with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn’s Guardian of Threshold

However, an entity seemed to show up in the work of Madame Blavatsky and her protogé and suffragette Annie Bessant which seemed significantly worse than anything contacted to date and it seemed to prevent the initiate from passing into the realms of the astral plane.

It would often try to appear as nothing but shards of former traumas, but as you began to move past them, it would become greater ones. It was almost as if it was an entity rather than memories, but it reflected at the initiate their own fears and prejudices.

This is what the Theosophists called the dweller on the Threashold. The name is taken from a 19th century book called Zanoni.

While in HOGD there is the guardian who takes the initiate into the mysteries while guarding them from the profane. The guardian is a role taken on by a fellow initiate, but in theosoph the guardian of the threshold is a reflection of the initiates fears and past karmic debt. It prevents access to the astral realm.

The dweller often takes on horrifying forms, but psychoanalyst suggest that it is related to the shadow and much of its appearance is a projection from the shadow. Therefore the dweller needs to be dissolved and the shadow needs to be integrated with the initiate before they can continue.