Crossing The Sword Bridge
You Cannot Hesitate.
Hi friends. Welcome to the YouTopian Journey. Today’s issue discusses why you must be prepared to cross the Sword Bridge.
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THE RAGING RIVER
“Nobody can build the bridge for you to walk across the river of life, no one but you yourself alone. There are, to be sure, countless paths and bridges and demi-gods which would carry you across this river; but only at the cost of yourself; you would pawn yourself and lose. There is in the world only one way, on which nobody can go, except you: where does it lead?”-Nietzsche
We all face it.
The raging river.
The moment when we have to leave the familiar behind and enter into the unknown.
This is what separates the authentic from the frauds. You can’t talk your way to the other side. You can’t fake it and make it.
There is only you and you alone. Your desire, your intelligence, your dreams, and your actions.
You will need them all to cross the Sword Bridge.
The Sword Bridge is from Arthurian myth. The hero, Lancelot, encounters it and has no choice but to cross. This is explained beautifully by Joseph Campbell.
This is a bridge spanning a roaring torrent that is made of a sword, and he has to go across with bare hands and feet on the sharp edge of the blade. You may know Somerset Maugham’s novel The Razor’s Edge. The title is a motif from the Katha Upaniṣad: any trip along your own path is a razor’s edge. It really is; nobody’s done it before. And it’s so easy, particularly if what you’re following is your bliss, your own path, to tip over and fall into a torrent of passion that sweeps you away. This is a real lesson. - Joseph Campell, Romance of the Grail: The Magic & Mystery of Arthurian Myth.
We all encounter the Sword Bridge but not everyone has the ability or courage to cross it.
Why?
Because it’s painful. It hurts.
The pain is the result of the unknown, of leaving behind the normal world and the opinions of those who call you foolish, who don’t believe, and who say it can’t be done.
It’s dangerous. One misstep, one false move, and you fall into the raging river below.
You are swept away, drowned by your passions, never able to return to the path you were forging.
The Sword Bridge is only for the heroic.
Is it for you?
Because you cannot hope to achieve anything without the presence of danger.
Without the ability to act.
To bear the burden of the pain.
Failure to do so and you will remain on the shore.
Safe, yes. Comfortable, maybe.
But beneath yourself and what you could accomplish.
“There is a time when it is necessary to abandon the used clothes, which already have the shape of our body and to forget our paths, which takes us always to the same places. This is the time to cross the river: and if we don’t dare to do it, we will have stayed, forever beneath ourselves.”-Fernando Pessoa
MAKE THE JOURNEY
“Whatever there be a progress in life comes not through adaptation but through daring.”-Henry Miller
There is no other way.
No other alternative.
No easy way out.
And this is terribly frightening.
We have our own personas, identities we have established and cling to. We see this in our socials. We are professionals who have already achieved so much and have proven ourselves.
However, to cross the Sword Bridge, to make the journey, all of that means nothing.
That is difficult for the multitude to understand.
In the office, you have power. You have a track record. You have a reputation.
But when you are on the journey, you have none of that.
You aren’t an executive or a teacher or a professional in any capacity.
All you have is the journey. All you are is the journey.
And embarking on the journey is a mandatory metamorphosis for creating the future that you desire.
But it will be difficult. It will be dangerous. It will be damaging.
You need resources. You need a guide. You need the group.
You need help.
Nonsense.
“You say you need help. Help for what? You have everything needed for the extravagant journey that is your life.”-Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan
The internet provides everything you could ever need. Every author, general, scientist, poet, philosopher and scholar is just a click away. Resources are there, provided you know how to rely on your own resourcefulness.
All that matters is that you take the very first step. And if you are already on your journey, keep moving forward.
No matter how slow you go, you keep moving forward.
The alternative is unacceptable.
Begin now.
“This is precisely the risk modern man runs: he may wake up one day to find that he has missed half his life.” -Carl Jung, Practice of Psychotherapy
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Shaun
Always invigorating to read Shaun. Keep moving forward!