Stepping Stones

Guides and Threshold Guardians - Week One

The hero myths remind us that we will always have help when we enter onto our spiritual path. We must remember to ask for help, however, and we must recognize the helpers as they appear. Too often, we think of spiritual guides that appear like Glinda – gentle, kind and compassionate with magical powers to move us along. But sometimes the guides come in more fearsome forms – perhaps a challenger or an adversary who pushes us to a new place in our lives or calls up inner strengths we didn’t know we had. Sometimes a guide might be a fleeting moment of awareness triggered by an experience in the outside world: a stranger who notices or affirms some talent or power we possess; a nudge by a friend toward something we missed; an intuition that causes us to turn or act at just the right time; the uncanny coincidences and synchronicities that direct us to just the right place at just the right time with just the right people. Startlingly, the more we listen and the more we pay attention, the more help we seem to receive. Whether ghoulish or gracious, long lasting or fleeting, as we move along the path we somehow begin to trust that there will always be help. As Campbell describes, when we follow our hero’s journey and open more and more deeply to ourselves, doors and opportunities begin to open in front of us that would not have opened for anyone else. This is the magic of the path. When we are truly on our own adventure, life begins to open up before us and we find ourselves in a synchronistic flow of guidance and support.

Weekly Stepping Stones

How is guidance appearing in your life? Who are the helpers you have encountered along your path? Can you name both friends and foes who have helped you grow or learn more about yourself? How do you know when guidance is operating? How does your intuition communicate with you to give you guidance?