Meeting the Protector

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”— Carl JungJung is pointing at something most of us would rather avoid. The path doesn’t run through the light we imagine — it runs through the dark we won’t look at. And the darkness rarely announces itself as darkness. It shows up as a reaction that’s far bigger than the moment that caused it.I’ve been sitting with my own triggers lately, and instead of managing them or explaining them away, I got curious and followed one all the way down. What I found waiting there wasn’t a flaw or a defect — it was a guard. Something that had been standing watch over an old wound for a very long time, doing exactly the job it was built to do. It even had a name, once I was willing to give it one.Then I did something that initially felt really uncomfortable but it turned out to be one of the most intimate things I’ve done: I introduced it to Jacqueline. So in this episode the two of us go into this together. What is a trigger actually pointing at — and why is the reaction always bigger than the moment? Who are these protectors that show up for us, and what exactly are they guarding? Is a protector an enemy to be defeated, or something to be met, named, and thanked? And what happens to a relationship when you introduce yours to the person you love?All of this and more in the next hour.