“Once you have crossed the threshold, if it really is your adventure – it is a journey that is appropriate to your deep spiritual need or readiness – helpers will come along the way to provide magical aid. this may be some little wood sprite or wise man or fairy godmother or animal that comes to you as a companion or as an adviser, letting you know what the dangers  are along the  way and how to overcome them…It’s narrow path, the sword bridge, and if  you fall off that, you are in a helpless condition because you don’t know what to do and there’s nobody around to help you.

 After you have received the magical aid, you will have a series of increasingly threatening tests or trials to pass The deeper you get into this gauntlet, the heavier the resistance. You are coming into areas of the unconscious that have been repressed; the shadow, the rest of the unintegrated self; it is that repression system that you have to pass through. This, of course, is where the magical aid is most required.

 These tests, then, symbolize self-realization, a process of initiation into the mysteries of life…”

Joseph Campbell, Pathways To Bliss.

Audio: Me,  reading from “Pathways To Bliss”