| PROGRAMMING PARTNER: 11TH GENE KEY | PHYSIOLOGY: THYROID |
| CODON RING: THE RING OF SECRETS | AMINO ACID: NONE |
| (THE RING OF TRIALS – 12, 33, 56) | (TERMINATOR CODON) |
The 12th Gene Key, along with its Shadow and Siddhi, is one of the more extraordinary and far-reaching archetypes in the human genetic matrix. In the relationship between this knowledge and genetics, each of the 64 Gene Keys has a corresponding chemical family known as a codon in the genetic code. In order to decipher the genetic code, scientists have to find chemical marker points in the mass of coded information that lies in DNA and these marker points are know as start codons and stop codons. Such chemical punctuation marks have an unusual place of importance within the totality of the genetic code itself. This 12th Gene Key, along with the 56th and the 33rd, is related to what science terms the stop or terminator codons. On a purely archetypal level, the three stop codons — known collectively as the Ring of Trials — can be seen as three great mythic trials that test human beings on their road to self realisation. The 12th Shadow of Vanity marks the inner core of the Ring of Trials, which means to say that this shadow state represents the third and final aspect in this trilogy of human tests.
The 12th Gene Key is special. Within the mystery of the 21 Codon Rings, this 12th Gene Key forms a ring of its own within the Ring of Trials known as the Ring of Secrets. However, its secrets remain firmly locked away until you activate its highest frequency in the 12th Siddhi.
Vanity, like pride (the 26th Shadow), follows us to the mountain peaks of consciousness. It is an uncomfortable word for most of us, and in our vanity we do not usually like to associate ourselves with it at all. Unlike pride, which thrives before an audience, vanity is a far more internal Shadow. Vanity is like the lichens that cling to the rocks of the highest of mountain ranges. No matter how far your awareness advances, vanity will cling subtly to you even at the highest of vibrations. In one sense, vanity is the very first human vice, and it is also the last Shadow to let go of you.
The 12th Shadow is the love of your own uniqueness. It is about learning to love yourself, which is the true definition of vanity. However, vanity only stops being vanity when you realise that to love yourself is actually to love everyone else, a revelation demanding a quantum leap out of your self altogether. This 12th Shadow is therefore deeply involved with issues of personal power as well as the human yearning to express the purest qualities latent within your soul. It allows you to progress to great intelligence and artistry, but at the same time prevents you from stepping into your wider heart. Vanity is afraid that if you come from your heart you will lose your power.
Because it involves the expression of the soul or heart, this Gene Key is deeply involved with your ability to connect with the power of your own breath and your emotions. It is connected to the thyroid and parathyroid glands and in particular with the human larynx — the prime organ of speech. It is humanity’s vertical larynx that sets us apart from the animals. In esoteric lore, it is said that the animals with horizontal larynges operate under a group spirit, whereas the development of our upright larynx allowed the introduction of the ego. Indeed, it is this 12th Gene Key that allows your thoughts to be translated into language and vibration, giving you the illusion that your words have independent power. Out of this concept of independence were born two powerful human attributes — vanity and ego. In the ancient yoga systems there is a profound connection between the larynx, represented by the throat chakra, and the gonads, representing the sex centre. This is also reflected by the rapid growth of the larynx during puberty. The ancients say that long ago these two centres were in fact one but that over time they separated and the larynx slowly closed. In Dutch, the word for the larynx is called schildklier, which means shield gland, suggesting that the larynx is a protective mechanism concealing a great secret. Interestingly, the word thyroid derives from the Greek word for shield.
The great secret of the 12th Shadow is language. It is said that in the Garden of Eden, Adam swallowed the apple, which became stuck in his throat and remains there to this day as the Adam’s apple in all men. The Adam’s apple represents the masculine principle of the mind that becomes identified with your words, thoughts and actions and the larynx gives you the illusion of power through language. The 12th Shadow is about loving the sound of your own voice, and as such it is the root of language. However, as we will see at the highest levels of frequency, it is not what you say that matters, but the frequency that lies behind your voice. Vanity can choose the most beautiful of words, but it can never hide the frequency of its tone.
It is important to remember here that none of the 64 Shadows are inherently bad. If you declare something as bad or evil, you will miss the gift that lies hidden within it. Vanity is simply the lower frequency of the 12th Gene Key and, after all, vanity is the foundation of the Siddhi of Purity.
Vanity also goes beyond words and can hide in silence. Sometimes your vanity is hidden in what you do not say. It hides itself away in your thoughts and your feelings. Wherever there is self-identification, there is vanity. The reason that vanity is such a great trial for human beings is because it lies outside the scope of your ego. So you may well be thinking, what can I do about it? How do I transform this shadow state? Well, because this shadow is so elusive, it is better not to think about it at all. Even the very thought that you might be overcoming your own vanity leads to more vanity! All you need to know is that as long as you experience yourself as separate from life — as long as you feel the strength and wonder of your individuality — vanity will still be there, quietly keeping pace with you. It is only late in your evolution, as you approach the highest frequencies of the Siddhis that vanity will finally and suddenly release its hold on you.
Vanity does however have an arch-enemy — which is love. Vanity keeps you from truly loving another because it keeps you isolated. You may be beautiful, intelligent and virtuous, but still with vanity you will remain defended against others. The more evolved your consciousness becomes, the subtler and therefore more powerful your vanity becomes. Vanity is a shield that, along with its programming partner the 11th Shadow of Obscurity, hides the truth from you. For the kind of people who are drawn to reading this material, vanity is one of your great challenges. As you refine your frequency, you naturally fall into the illusion that you are somehow different from others and are becoming purer than the rest of the world. You begin to identify more with your Higher Self, which your lower self takes great delight in! This is a most tricky time in your spiritual evolution because it is so easy for you to remain here, at a relatively high frequency. You feel powerful, individuated, wise and well meaning. However, you have yet to make the greatest leap there is — the leap into true purity — the leap into your own death.
There are essentially two different types of vanity — coarse vanity and refined vanity. The repressive nature of the 12th Shadow is the refined version, which emerges in certain characters as elitism. Elitism is vanity working undercover. These characters may agree with you outwardly but inwardly feel very differently from what they say. Often they refrain from making any comment at all, preferring to remain detached. This is the domain of the spiritually evolved — those few who have done a lot of work on themselves. These people inwardly feel that they are clearer than most others around them. They can take great pride in being different, or in being beyond any creed or system. Such vanity ensures that such a person cannot make the leap that their inner being most longs for — the leap into permanent higher consciousness. This only begins when the awareness of our own vanity finally dawns.
Malice stems from anger, which in turn stems from fear. The reactive nature of vanity can use the gift of this Gene Key, the Gift of Discrimination, as a means of hurting others. Whereas the elitist withdraws into silence out of fear of being seen as weak, these people openly use their substantial vocal gifts to inflict pain on others. Like all classic victim patterns, such people usually feel put upon in some way and react maliciously without thinking about the damage their words or actions might do. The 12th Gene Key has beneath it real emotional power — and it has a god-given talent for language and communication. These people really know how to push other people’s buttons through the power of their voice. They can hurt people like no one else can. Their malice may not be premeditated, but it is usually brutal and ends in disaster for them.
Discrimination may not sound like much of a gift, but when you truly understand the 12th Gene Key, you will see that it has a great power. To discriminate is to know inherently what and who is healthy for you in life. The energy of vanity is simply self-destructive unless it can be put to good use. Discrimination is exactly that. You take your vanity — the urge to be better or somehow purer than others — and you turn it into art. The 12th Gift is deeply associated with the arts — with music, with language, with dance, with drama and above all, with Love. The love within the 12th Gift is not universal love (as in the 25th Gene Key) — it is all about falling in love. This is human love with all its attendant drama, obsession, beauty and danger. Vanity is about loving only yourself, whereas discrimination is ultimately about loving the things and people outside yourself that make you feel good.
This 12th Gift is about feelings. If this Gift is a powerful aspect of your hologenetic profile, you will be strongly motivated and moved by feelings and emotions throughout your life. Your Gift is to communicate these feelings to others, and you may do this in a myriad of ways. If you are strongly influenced by this Gift you will recognise the beauty of true expression, which means that you will also recognise when something or someone is not expressing true soul. This can make you one of the best critics of others. However, this Gift is not about criticising flaws and details in others (which is a lower expression of the 18th Gene Key) — it is designed to spotlight that which is not authentic. Discrimination is about being attuned to a higher frequency, which means that it can metaphorically see through walls. Whenever a person is faking or has a concealed agenda, one with the Gift of Discrimination will immediately feel it as a deep discomfort. If they do not fall in love with something, they distrust it, and the same goes for the people in their lives. To such a person, authenticity is everything.
People with the 12th Gift cannot be taken in by the enchanters or idealists in the world. They have a deep respect for purity, and it is rooted in a natural prudence. The programming partner of this 12th Gift is the 11th Gift of Idealism, which means that they too are idealists, but they understand that idealism requires the balance of pragmatism and discrimination; otherwise it is nothing more than a pipe dream. The Gift of Discrimination does set you apart from the crowd — it has no choice in doing so because it is naturally seeking a higher frequency. It represents an aspect of your DNA that is constantly striving for something higher and purer, which means that it directly challenges anything or anyone that is influenced by compromise. Discrimination gives humanity a taste of a higher order operating behind the scenes of life. This is why it so often manifests through true art. They are true art lovers. The 12th Gift does not shy away from anything that is authentic — no matter how messy it may be. These people are the great food discriminators, music discriminators, and language discriminators. They can become the great artists, virtuosos, poets, actors and educators of humanity. Their Gift is to enter unafraid into the drama of life, allowing it to flow through their veins and be expressed through their feelings.
Because of the depth of feeling that this Gift entails, it tells us something profound about the direction of the human species. We are here to learn to express the deepest yearnings and feelings within our souls. This is why we have to master language and the arts — because they are the transformational field through which we can transcend emotion and touch the higher planes. Out of this 12th Gift come humanity’s great educators — those rare people who can allow art to touch their hearts and at the same time transmit that essence to others through their language and expression. Wherever you see true passion moving into the world, there you are seeing the influence of this 12th Gift. It is both sweeping and consuming yet at the same time highly refined. Ultimately these people are driven by the myth of true love — that is what they are yearning for deep within their souls, and it is why their acts and words, at their highest, are a reflection of the beauty and anguish of this human yearning.
Because of its connection with the thyroid system, the 12th Gift contains the great teachings of transformation and death. All high art contains the same codes that come through this 12th Gift — that life is about transformation, and death is the symbolic movement from one stage of consciousness to another. These truths have always been encoded in the great tragedies and comedies down the ages, and it is through your emotional nature that such truths are imbibed and passed on. It is the thyroid system that controls your metabolism and has such great influence on your general energy, mood and breathing patterns. When you laugh or cry you enter the sacred realm of transformation. It is through your laughter and your tears that the transcendent enters your body in order to alter your chemistry and the pattern of your breathing. Of all the Gene Keys, this 12th Gift represents the mythic passage from one state to a higher state in which the stop codon kills your identification with your past, allowing you to be transformed into something permanently and radically different.
The human yearning for true love is in reality a lower frequency of a permanent state existing at a higher level of consciousness. This state, called many names by many cultures, is essentially your pure nature, untarnished by human desire and beyond the dualistic mechanism of the mind. Only the higher mind, which is another expression for our heart, can begin to understand true Purity, the 12th Siddhi.
Vanity and purity are mirrors at the two ends of the spectrum of human consciousness. With vanity your lower self falls in love with itself, and with purity the Higher Self falls in love with itself. You might say that purity is when the Divine falls in love with You. This can only happen when you come within the sphere of Divine love. Your behaviour, your thoughts, your feelings, the very air you breathe must resonate to one purpose — what the Sufis call falling in love with the Beloved. The Beloved is not something out there — it is the essence of your true nature, and you do fall into it because it resides deep within you.
Vanity, as we have seen, pursues you right to the end of your journey. Even when you are living from the higher frequency of your Gift, vanity is still there. Only when you have attained the highest peak of consciousness does the mystical event occur — you give up everything you have attained. You have to court annihilation. This is the final of the three great trials in The Ring of Trials. An opening from above and below then occurs simultaneously and you enter the hallowed sanctuary of the innermost of the Codon Rings — the Ring of Secrets. But for this miracle to occur, your vessel must be absolutely pure and flawless. Purity is a much misunderstood term. In human language it can be applied as an adjective to almost anything, but at its highest frequency it can only be applied to one word — the heart. When your heart finally remembers its own original purity, only then will you finally and willingly give up your existence.
Everything in the universe has at its core the same original purity — we are all shards of a Divine crystal, and as our forms go through their processes of polishing, so consciousness begins to remember itself through us. Even the most evil of beings has at its core a shining pure heart, which means that in truth, there is no evil. There are only progressive levels of density. This is the great secret you come to embody here in the Ring of Secrets. In the ancient alchemical systems, the throat centre was seen as the greatest of all initiations. In the Indian chakra system, the throat chakra known as vishuddha is the clearing house for the higher consciousness. All the lower chakras including the heart are synthesised and purified in the throat. In this respect it represents the boundary of the known and the unknown. Likewise in the Jewish Kabbalah, the throat is symbolised by an invisible sphere known as daath, the abyss. This abyss must be crossed in order for higher consciousness to dawn, and the crossing of death is a symbolic letting go of all your hard-earned knowledge. It is the ultimate purification in which you meet your own death and are reborn in a higher sphere.
The being who has passed through this abyss and entered the sphere of the 12th Siddhi becomes once again like a child. Through their heart, they can perceive the Divine — beyond longing, beyond concepts yet still deeply human and with a voice beyond words. Others feel such people truly do not belong in this world, even though they are the most natural expression of what it means to be human. In this state, nothing can contaminate their purity. Their bodies can be decrepit, even ugly, but their hearts can do nothing but sing out with the Truth of their true nature. Those who manifest this Siddhi often live the humblest of lives, unseen by the world at large. They often pass quietly through the world, living simply, yet reminding everyone who meets them that purity really can exist in a human form.
If you wish to play with the frequency of the 12th Siddhi, you need only keep reminding yourself of your own heart. Beneath the layers of karma, ancestral fear and inevitable childhood conditioning beats an aspect of the great universal Heart — and its purity can be remembered. Its colour is the white beyond white for it is the eternal child within you. It is the You that you cannot help but fall in love with. To look at the world from the 12th Siddhi is to see everyone through this crystalline vessel — it is all you can see in everyone you meet. However the very moment you view anything in a negative way, this presence within you will instantly vanish.
In language purity becomes poetry. In thought, purity becomes essence. When we combine language and thought, we have the master codes for ascending beyond the mental plane. The actual words for each of the 64 Siddhis are not really words in the normal sense — they are doorways to realms of higher frequency. The word Purity has an essence that is onomatopoeic at the level of vibration. In other words, if you sound the word Purity within your heart and mind over and over, you will actually feel its quality residing within your own heart. This is not about affirmation. You cannot simply do a technique and feel it. You have to be ready in your own heart — you have to love the word and all it stands for in order to feel this miracle. Words used poetically and vibrated within the chambers of the heart have the power to pierce through the layers of fear that envelop the hearts of others.
Purified thought has an even more powerful effect. Spoken language uses sound which restricts its impact to our solar system (sound waves eventually dissipate), but language cloaked in thought travels at an almost inconceivable speed and literally rebounds off the walls of our universe (only pure love can rupture the walls of a universe — see the 25th Gene Key). Therefore a pure thought will affect all levels of creation and all beings within creation almost instantaneously. A pure thought is like a sugar lump dropped into a teacup. Within a very short time, it permeates everything. At a certain level, purity of thinking will take you to the edge of hyperspace. The more you allow your thoughts to be imbued with the essence of divinity, the more your whole being reaches a kind of escape velocity. At a certain level of frequency, you simply dissolve into the great teacup! You transcend the mind by becoming one with mind. The paradox here is that in becoming mind, mind ceases to exist. This is the true symbolism of the genetic stop codon — it brings an end to your own individual existence, revealing vanity for what it truly is — the illusion that you are separate. You are so pure that it is not possible for you to exist as anything other than existence itself. In crossing the great cosmic throat centre, you are swallowed by life itself.