The Dweller Has Appeared

Apr 26, 2025 by Don MacGregor

What is going on in the world right now? So many changes, so much upheaval. How can we interpret it? One way of looking at it comes from way back in the mists of time. It’s called the Perennial Wisdom teachings, a philosophical system which underlies all of the emerging changes in our society. In that teaching, there is the concept of the “Dweller on the Threshold”. The Dweller is what appears when there is a shift in consciousness beginning to happen. This concept can be applied at an individual level, but also at society level.

At an individual level, the Dweller appears at a critical moment of spiritual advancement, in the form of an emergence all the attitudes and prejudices in our personality that we would rather were not there. It is not an external being but rather the shadow self—the sum total of all negative thoughts, emotions, and past deeds. It represents the unresolved aspects of the lower self that block our spiritual progress, and has to be confronted and transcended in order to progress.

At a societal level, the energies of the Dweller can be seen as well. The enormous challenges that the world society faces at the moment is a sign that the Dweller has emerged into the open. All those submerged currents of antagonism, grievances and hurts come up to the surface. Do we still want to harbour those, or are they blocking our progress as a human race? We can see this in the international tensions at present. The USA is going through huge upheaval, affecting Europe and the rest of the world. But it’s not just those tensions which represent the Dweller. There are many more:

• Migration due to climate change, wars and conflicts, persecution and escape from totalitarian regimes presents a huge challenge. We are not coping very well with this. ‘Nimby’ attitudes and the idea that someone else can pick up the tab for this are resulting in the issues not being faced effectively.

• Wars in other places, droughts, and disasters need combined humanitarian responses.

• Lack of cooperation between nations results in failure to distribute food and aid equitably.

• Old grudges and enmities between nations are resurfacing.

• Racism, Anti-Semitism, misogyny, thoughtless judgments and criticism and the rise of the far-right are increasingly common worldwide.

We are being faced up with the Dweller on the Threshold. To counter the energies of the Dweller and transmute these negative attitudes and prejudices, the highest humanitarian values need to be brought into play. Values such as goodwill, compassion, patience, perseverance, unity in diversity, forgiveness, collaboration and cooperation. This happens at individual levels, which then affects society, and eventually percolates to the whole of humanity. But it is a long slow process.

What is a threshold? It is a strip of wood or stone forming the bottom of a doorway and is crossed in entering a house or room. It marks the transition into a new physical area, and in humanity’s case, a new era. The Dweller on the Threshold is everything which holds us back, the barrier to our development. The Dweller is here now, so that we can see it, and know that it has to be transmuted through the adoption higher humanitarian values across the world. It is up to both the world’s leaders and the grassroots groundswell of calls for change to bring this about, bit by bit, persevering with determination to make this world a better place.