In Western esotericism, there’s a concept known as the “Guardian of the Threshold.” It’s the counterpart to what ceremonial magicians call the “Holy Guardian Angel.” While the Holy Guardian Angel represents our highest potential, the Guardian of the Threshold represents everything within ourselves that prevents us from realizing that potential. It’s the selfishness, jealousy, dishonesty, insecurity, and need for approval that we spend our lives refusing to acknowledge. Most people begin a spiritual practice imagining they’ll become wiser, happier, or more enlightened. What they don’t anticipate is that genuine practice will first force them to confront everything they don’t like about themselves. We begin to recognize that our compassion sometimes comes from a desire to be admired, that our humility is sometimes disguised arrogance, and that even our spiritual practice can become another way of making ourselves feel superior to others. These things were always there…. practice just eventually makes them impossible to ignore. This is why the Guardian stands at the threshold. We cannot move beyond the limitations of the self while continuing to deny what that self actually contains. And the work isn’t to hate ourselves for what we discover, or to spend years wallowing in guilt. It’s to accept responsibility and begin changing how we live. If we discover that we’re selfish, we practice generosity. If we discover that we’re dishonest, we begin telling the truth. We cannot change what we refuse to acknowledge, and we cannot overcome our nature by pretending it doesn’t exist. The Guardian of the Threshold isn’t an enemy standing in our way. It’s function is to show us exactly what needs to be transformed. The Holy Guardian Angel shows us what we have the potential to become. The Guardian of the Threshold shows us what we actually are. And until we’re willing to see both, we’re not really doing the work.