Quotes from Carol S. Pearson

we first develop the Ego, then encounter the Soul, and finally give birth to a unique sense of Self.

No matter how much people want to feel loved, appreciated, and a part of things, they will be lonely until they make a commitment to themselves, a commitment that is so total that they will give up community and love, if necessary, to be fully who they are.

Each journey is unique, and each seeker charts a new path. But it is infinitely easier to do so having at least some knowledge about the experiences of those who have gone before. When we learn about the many different heroic paths available to us, we understand that there is room for all of us to be heroic in our own unique ways.

The way to free ourselves of shadow possession is to awaken our heroic potential.

The Ego is the "container" for our life. The Ego creates a boundary between us and everything else and mediates our relationship with the world.

Some women tend naturally to be Warriors and Seekers, and some men to be Caregivers and Lovers in spite of their cultural conditioning. The point is for both to take their journeys in such a way as to find their own way to be male or female, and eventually to achieve a positive kind of androgyny, which is not at all about unisex, neutered behavior, but is about gaining the gifts both gender energies and experiences have to offer us.

The hero's journey requires us to find our uniqueness. We simply cannot do that without enough solitude to find out who we are. Most of us need some time alone every day just to stay clear.

The natural way to activate inner potential is to shine the light of consciousness upon it.

The hero's achievement, in short, is to affirm life.

The language of the Soul is right-brain, metaphorical, narrative, and paradoxical, very unlike the left-brain, logical, discursive, dualistic language of the Ego.

Until we are willing to give ourselves over to life, we always will be possessed by death.

Our capacity to give away speaks to the universe of our willingness to receive.

Abandonment actually is quite facilitative at this stage. When Wanderers do not let another in, whether it is parent, lover, therapist, analyst, or teacher, it is important for that helper to pull away so that Wanderers can experience fully the aloneness they have created for their own growth. Otherwise, they will be diverted from recognizing their loneliness by fighting off the assaults of others against their walls.

No life, no matter how successful and exciting it might be, will make you happy if it is not really your life. And no life will make you miserable if it is genuinely your own.

The hero's journey requires us to find our uniqueness. We simply cannot do that without enough solitude to find out who we are.

We need to ponder such events, ask to have their meaning revealed to us, and allow ourselves to recognize that we have been touched by the transpersonal world.

Those who are hiding out in cowardice want company!

Of course, life does not always follow our scripts. We get feedback from what really happens; this sharpens our reality principle so that we can think things through more intelligently the next time. The point is, we live out some options and we imagine our way through others. In either case, we learn what we want, what we believe in, what our values are. We will never know who we are and what we want if we just stay in our old ruts. This is why we must wander a bit to grow.

Evidenced in a capacity for denial so that you do not let yourself know what is really going on. You may be hurting yourself and others, but you will not acknowledge it. You may also be hurt, but you will repress that knowledge as well. Or, you believe what others say even when their perspective is directly counter to your own inner knowing.

Virtue often is used to camouflage cowardice.

Much of the appeal of dogma in religion is that it gives its followers rules to follow that rescue them from having to find out who they are and what they really think.

If you are not aware of the story pattern you are living, the story plays you.