The Guardian of the Threshold
All discussions have to start somewhere, and Wikipedia is usually a pretty good starting point for any discussion. This is a good starting point. In short then, the Guardian of the Threshold is an entity that must be confronted at one point or another along the path of spiritual growth, and it represents one's darker sides as well as the darker sides of humanity as a whole. Let us then explore some clues as to how this can be done. In the most esoteric of the schools of psychology, the Jungian one, the Guardian is represented by the archetype of the Shadow . The parallels are rather plain to see; the Shadow is one's repressed evil, in both its personal and its collective aspects, and by confronting the Shadow and integrating it into one's being one gains a deeper understanding of oneself and a better integrated personality, even going so far as to tap positive Shadow potential that had been buried and disowned along with everything else pertaining to the Shadow. In the...