After much formality and solemnity, the sheep to be sheared enter the Threshold Chamber in single file following the Herald. The Herald follows the Torchbearer with the Conductor that last in line. Inside, the Torchbearer takes care not to shed too much light on Colombe and Death while facing himself before the Holy Cross.

It is imperative that the Ritual moves forward without breaking the endearing but entranced state of the subjects. The Inner Guardian who is positioned next to the Torchbearer, behind the Neophytes, now fully complements the sheep on their sheen, praising the perfection of their praiseworthy positioning on the Path of the Pendulum which crosses the wide river that separates birth from death.

Then the Inner Guardian asks them to open their souls to the flood of warmth and light flowing into them from the Rosy Cross before them. Now they must be prepared to fully absorb the “seemingly strange and inexplicable phenomena” that occur at the key moments of life and death, an enigma shortly to be unraveled in this sacred ceremony.

The Herald now turns to the Inner Guardian and asks that the sheep enter more firmly into the shearing room, called the Temple, where they will be stripped of their ignorant meanderings and revealed the glorious mysteries of Life and Death.

And, as if they have not heard enough of this long and solemn prelude to the unraveling of these mysteries, the Inner Guardian tries to prepare them for the terror they must now unabashedly face. The Herald then embellishes a bit on the solemnity of the moment, driving the point home about the coming terror they will face at the threshold.

Soon they will be facing, Colombe, the voice of their conscience.