I had a wonderful insight during the marvelous Bee Priestess class. The teacher, Jennifer Posada http://www.jenniferposada.com/ mentioned Joseph Campbell's insight into Guardians at the Gate. He describes the Hero's journey in his classic work and he states that the hero, once she steps into her journey (after resisting at first) encounters guardians at the gate, like gargoyles protecting the inner sanctum of the church.
These guardians are testing you.
They are making sure you have what it takes for the next phase of the journey.
They are making sure you are ready to enter that next space.
So, when things go wrong or things get in my way (like a child home sick, a thwarted plan, a task taking 20 times longer than I thought it would) it doesn't mean that I should stop and give up.
It is an opportunity to really look and ask myself.
"Do I really want to take the next step?"
or
"Am I doing this just because I think I should."
This gives me chance to take a breath, make a choice and start again; feeling renewed.
As opposed to what I used to do, which was wonder
"Why is this so difficult? Is this not meant to be?"
Now I think, "Oh this is just a guardian at the gate. Keep going."
No comments:
Post a Comment