The following is a string of emails triggered by Ed's Book Club:
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Here's a piece out of Arnold Patent's "The Journey," that I hadn't come across in any of Robert's work. I had a visual aha moment when I read it. I like seeing the Protector as a guardian. Just wanted to share with my Buddies.
Hiding Our Power
With the support and guidance of our Soul Self (ES), we hide our power in places we tell ourselves to avoid - situations, beliefs and feelings that we find uncomfortable and distasteful, such as failure, illness, fear and shame. Our Expanded Self then helps us to keep the power hidden by installing a gatekeeper that we can call the Protector. The mission given this part of us is to do whatever it takes to keep us away from our power.
The Protector is diligent and resourceful. Every time we get close to our power, this guardian of the hiding places finds a way to send us elsewhere. From many years of experience, the Protector knows the most effective ways to misdirect us. Memory lapses, self-doubt and avoidance of discomfort are just some of the patterns that the Protector relies on to carry out the mission assigned to It.
And this is out of the next chapter in Phase Two:
Finding Our Power
Our Expanded Self is always aware of who we really are. The challenge we face is accepting that truth and having it become real for us. We are looking to bring the Soul's awareness into our human awareness.
As we build our acknowledgment and appreciation for what it takes to hide our power and keep it hidden, we are verifying for ourselves that our intention to proceed is real. We are also demonstrating to the Protector that we have truly changed our intention from one of hiding our power to that of finding it. As soon as that intention reaches 100%, the Protector becomes our ally in showing us where the power is hidden, and supports us in reclaiming it.
Love,
Bobbie
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This reminds me of Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey metaphor--one I've been studying (and teaching) for years now. This is so cool that this connection between these two metaphors is being made for me. Campbell would call Patent's Protector, a Threshold Guardian. Or a guardian. Basically Campbell's "Hero's Journey is an illustration/explanation of our collective personal mythologies - stories if you will. His premise is that we all follow a pattern of growth if we embark on the journey. A pattern of comfort, challenges, death, rebirth, atonement and return. Then the pattern starts over again. We never have to embark. And we don't have to complete the cycle, but if we don't, we're stuck in eternal adolescence--repeating the same troubles over and over again - like in the movie Groundhog Day.
In the Hero's Journey cycle, the Hero (you, me, characters in stories), embarks on a journey. But before doing so (before stepping over the threshold), must defeat the threshold guardian. The guardian archetype often appears evil or nasty or at least scary and foreboding, but then after being defeated often turns into a helper for us along the rest of our journey. Of course, there are often other challenges and guardians along the way that must be defeated until we reach the Abyss - where the childlike self dies (or whatever part of us that needs to go in order for the new smarter/stronger/more mature self can emerge)
Chris
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Yes, I can see how the attitude towards the Guardian could be a more childlike “I can’t go on” and transform with maturity and “readiness” to “Bring it on!”
That’s how I feel with this new book project. Absolutely no reason to do it, except that it is mine to do. My Quest has revealed itself.
And with that, there are hundreds of obstacles to doing it, and for the first time, “I can see all obstacles in my way” (as the song says), and those obstacles don’t psych me out entirely (that was my Guardian—the first hint of trouble and I was outta there, thinking that it was the Universe saying NO).
Now, I’m just saying “bring it on—let me at ‘em”, and feeling good about just taking it one step at a time, knowing that nothing is going to stop me, and that all the Guardians I may encounter can be Helpers when I deal with them correctly.
The game is dealing with them, and dealing with my thoughts as I go along (and my avoidances, and my doubts, and my procrastinations, and my “oh I forgot’s”, and my “what might they think of me’s” and my “he hasn’t called me back so I couldn’t possibly call him again’s”.) The list is endless it seems.
But ultimately...long list or short list...so what? It’s attention to the BEING part that will change everything, right?
Kristelle
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I had to sleep on this. There was something bugging me, wasn't quite ready to respond. But when Ed came out this morning and said, "Thanks for sending that Protector thing..." I added my "yeah buts..." And we talked. And he asked me to write down my thoughts.
What has always, always been the missing piece with this Protector/Guardian/ theme in Campbell's work and even in The Course of Miracles ("Our only fear is our fear of our magnificence.") is the HOW. When he/Campbell says, "must defeat the threshold guardian" he does not say HOW. To "fight" the negative, is giving no direction. We used to say, "express your feelings." So I tortured myself with hours of screaming and beating the pillow with a tennis racket in hopes of transforming all that self-loathing crap of anger and powerlessness. To no avail except the physical fatigue of surrender.
So then tapping comes along. Tap on points while focusing on a problem and stating an affirmation of self acceptance. It did seem to "work" and make "progress" for some years. Certainly, it was on the right track. But confidentially, I was still making up the part about "...and I completely love and accept myself." From decades of Ten-Stepping, I knew about "fake it 'till you make it."
So then we add the brilliance of recognizing the internal feeling of "negative discomfort" as a hidden gift of spiritual power. And add to that the possibility of reclaiming that power back into a Self that's more infinite than we can possibly imagine. ! NOW you've got my attention! Finally, a how-to book that really says HOW TO.
Even my sweetest mentor, Eckhart Tolle, says to simply observe the Pain Body. He really never said there's power to be reclaimed in all that energy.
None of this is news to you guys, I just wanted to write it. I'm just so intrigued by how close to the mark all the masters and guides and gurus have been. I'm reminded of what I'd heard back in the est days: "Understanding is the booby prize." Having all that wonderful knowledge didn't change a thing. The "Why?" was very interesting, but so what? Next we learned we had to feel it. And that didn't really do a whole lot but bring more awareness to the body...which is a good thing. So we get to the awareness part and now recognize we can reclaim power from that. NOW we're cookin'.
OK. I'm done. Thanks for listening.
Today I get to listen to Robert talk about the Relationships Game on the phone with Q & A.
Bobbie
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After I sent that last response, I got really, really uncomfortable. I mentioned that to Ed. He said, "Of course. That's your Protector." Yikes. Tears came. I had to run do TP...via vacuuming. While vigorously sweeping and claiming, sweeping and claiming, I smiled when I was given the recollection that I had called Twelve Steps "Ten Steps!" How funny. So of course I had to go look up 11 and 12:
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Now how cool is THAT!
Hugs, Bobbie
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