2.

1 Intuition

The first line always gives you the basis. It is called ‘Intuition’ here. It says as an overview, Sensitivity
to disharmony and atrophy. This is very important. Venus exalted. The importance of aesthetics,
whether inborn or acquired. What is direction? One of the things that pleased me the most about
human design was that it was pretty. It has to do with aesthetics. It sounds poetic but it is true that
our direction is about trying to find the most beautiful way. It really is our direction. What we are
trying to avoid is ugliness and disharmony. We are trying to find a way to avoid ugliness and
disharmony. So the importance of aesthetics, whether inborn or acquired.

Of the Mars in detriment, The assertion of Ego in spite of wisdom. Look, this is a first line. It tries to
figure out what the direction is. What is the direction and how does that direction work? In the white
book Higher knowing through aesthetics. The thing to recognize about our direction is: what we are
trying to find, what everybody is looking for, what people call paradise, happiness, bliss, is a direction
that brings us pleasure in this life. That brings us beauty and harmony in this life. Not such a bad
thing to know that humanity, at its foundation in terms of the direction it is moving towards, is looking
for beauty and harmony. It does not mean that it is going to get it. However, it is a very nice place
to go. The other thing is: Ego, willpower is not what direction is all about. It is not about the Ego that
dictates whether you go this way or that way. Direction is not something we control. Direction is a
mutative force. So in the detriment here is, The urge for action that will ignore the wisdom of the
higher Self. The wisdom of the higher Self says: the direction is already there. Do not impose will on
this. People who have the first line in detriment will try many times in their life to alter direction by
willpower, only to discover that that is disastrous for them. So the first thing to think about - this is
the Sphinx after all - part of the great mystery of what the Sphinx is: our direction is towards beauty
and harmony. Not bad, lets keep working at it. It is my North Node.

You will notice that in three of the six lines the word ‘Ego’ is mentioned. In the other three lines,
where Ego is not mentioned, it is implied. This is the great dilemma of the Self which is that Ego is
a motor and it always claims direction, i.e. in this gate. The Ego wants to be able to say “I am in
charge of the direction”, rather than seeing that the driver simply drives and the passenger sits in
the back seat. Whenever you see the Ego applied here, understand that this is the basic conflict
that always exists between G center gates and Heart gates. The Ego wants to make claims on the
Self.