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The Boundary of our Underdstanding

by Reg Harris

The Guardians at the Gate

In The Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2100 BCE), King Gilgamesh is devastated by the death of his friend Enkidu. Gilgamesh realizes that he, too, will die. Unable to accept his mortality, Gilgamesh sets out on a quest for eternal life. However, to reach the kingdom of the sun, where he hopes to find his elixir, he must pass under the mountains of Mashu. Entry to that passage is protected by two Scorpion Men, Threshold Guardians on Gilgamesh’s adventure.

So at length Gilgamesh came to Mashu, the great mountains about which he had heard many things, which guard the rising and the setting sun. Its twin peaks are as high as the wall of heaven and its paps reach down to the underworld. At its gate the Scorpions stand guard, half man and half dragon; their glory is terrifying, their stare strikes death into men, their shimmering halo sweeps the mountains that guard the rising sun.

In life as in myth, Threshold Guardians are the first major challenge we encounter when we begin our journeys. In myth, Guardians may appear as fearsome creatures, physical trials, puzzles, dangerous thresholds or other tests that challenge the hero’s readiness for the quest.

In life, Guardians represent threshold resistance, forces or conditions that obstruct our entry to the quest. They can be external, internal or both. External guardians might be cultural norms, family expectations or limited resources. Internally, they tend to be projections of our own repressed fears and limitations: fear of failure or of success, fear of rejection, fear of being alone. They could arise from a fragile self-image that we developed in childhood and which is now smothering our future. According to mythologist Joseph Campbell, Threshold Guardians represent the boundary of our understanding or the limit of our horizons, knowledge and comprehension.

Polar Potentialities

Guardians, like all archetypes, have polar potentials or aspects: benevolent or malevolent. The benevolent aspect will protect and guide us. The malevolent aspect will reject or consume us. The aspect we will evoke depends on our readiness for the journey and our state of mind when we encounter them. Openness and respect evoke the guardian’s benevolent aspect. Hubris and arrogance evoke its malevolent aspect.

To visualize this concept is to think of a child whose father tells her not to cross the street. If the child is open and respectful, she will evoke her father’s compassionate, benevolent aspect. If she is contentious and resistant, she will evoke her father’s malevolent aspect. Her attitude determines the aspect she evokes. In addition, if she enters the journey (crossing the street) without being ready, the journey could consume her. If she honors her guardian father’s warnings and waits until she is old enough to cross, she will enter the journey safely.

Similarly, if we are unready for the journey, but receptive to advice, we will meet the Guardian’s benevolent aspect, which will advise us or send us back until we are better prepared. If we are unready, but are cocky, arrogant and belligerent, we will evoke the Guardian’s malevolent aspect, which—if we do not listen—will “consume” us.

A Mirror into our Subconscious

Guardians can help us define both our journey and our goals. They do this by mirroring back at us the weaknesses that are pushing us into the journey. Remember that Threshold Guardians emerge from our own consciousness and its fears and limitations. They represent what Gestalt psychologist Paul Rebillot called “the self-sabotaging forces within our personality” (1993, p. 15).

Because they represent our fears and limitations, Guardians offer insight into our character. They act as mirrors by which we can see into ourselves, revealing fears and emotions that we have been repressing. When we encounter Guardians, we must ask why they stand before us. What fear or need do they evoke in us? Why do we feel resistance? If we listen to what they can tell us, Guardians will cease to appear as demons and become gods that will show us the purpose of our quest.

If we resist the Guardian, however, or ignore its message, we will evoke its malevolent aspect, and it will deny us direct passage into the adventure. Then, Campbell writes, having failed the task of “conquering or conciliating the power of the Threshold, [we will be] swallowed into the unknown” (1949, p. 90), symbolized by the Belly of the Whale.

According to Campbell the whale archetype signifies that “the passage of the threshold is a form of self-annihilation. Instead of passing outward, beyond the confines of the visible world, the hero goes inward, to be born again” (1949, p. 91). In the “whale,” we must release our current world and surrender to the threshold forces so that we can be reborn back into the journey. Failure to do this usually results in death—physically in myth or psychologically in life.

Parents as Threshold Guardians

Early in life, our parents are our Threshold Guardians. They protect us from activities and challenges that could cause us harm. While this may seem a simple task, our parents’ job becomes extremely difficult in late childhood. They must still guard our thresholds, but without smothering our growth or spirit. They must handle the tricky job of being both guardians and mentors, offering protection and help when needed, but standing aside when it is not. While we may resent their “rules” and “repression,” our parents keep us safe until we are ready for the real journeys in our lives.

Unfortunately, the warnings and restrictions placed on us by parents and other adults often do not disappear when we have outgrown their need. They embed themselves in our psyche, inhibiting our lives as adults. Paul Rebillot writes, “Our internal controls imitate the way we are taught to control ourselves by our parents, teachers and other supervisors… As the cycle continues, the pattern intensifies, turning poisonous, almost murderous. We become victims of our own controls” (1993, p. 108). These internal echoes of childhood fears can become malevolent threshold guardians when we are adults.

Threshold Guardians in Adulthood

Adult Threshold Guardians can be internal, external, or—more often—a combination of the two. Internally, guardians are mental or emotional: our fears and doubts, the echoes of past guardians whose words we have not outgrown, the blindness caused by our egos, or the emotional defenses we construct to protect our a fragile self-image. In fact, we may experience the call to a journey because we need to transcend the voices of childhood guardians. Those warnings served us well at the time, but they are now constricting our lives as adults.

Our toughest Threshold Guardians may be fear or guilt. We fear failure, the loss of security, rejection, or even success, itself. On the other hand, we may be motivated to change, but feel guilty for thinking of our own needs, for leaving others, or for changing or abandoning old relationships. Sometimes our own ego creates internal resistance: “I can’t leave because they can’t get along without me.”

Other Threshold Guardians arise externally. They may appear as the voices of friends or family telling us, “Don’t give up your job to become a writer,” “Starting your own business is risky. Most of them fail in the first couple of years,” or “Why do you want to take that class? It’s a waste of time.” Personal limitations such as finances or physical ailments can also stand as Threshold Guardians.

External guardians might take the form of obligations, such as a mortgage, debts or job duties: we can’t pursue the adventure because people are counting on us. They also may appear as cultural restrictions, gender limitations or, simply, peer pressure.

Ironically, some guardians arise when, by pursuing our lives, we cause other people to question their lives. We force them to reflect on their own dissatisfaction and limitations―their own unanswered calls. Rather than explore their discomfort, they “attack the messenger” and discourage us from taking our journeys: “You’re settled now. Why are you taking the risk,” or “Why do you have to rock the boat? Why can’t you work with the rest of us?” or “What makes you so special?”

Our Attitude is Everything

Whatever their origin, Threshold Guardians can serve us well if we are receptive to their message and guidance. They compel us to look inward to the repressed elements of our character that are creating resistance. They can stop us from taking journeys for which we are unready and help us see what we need to do to prepare. We need only remember that to evoke the guardian’s benevolent aspect, we must stay open and receptive. Then the threshold forces will work in our favor and direct us into a journey of growth and wonder.

References

Campbell, J. (1949/1968). The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Rebillot, P. (1993). The Call to Adventure: Bringing the Hero’s Journey to Daily Life. New York: HarperCollins.