Let’s discuss the Threshold Guardian archetype and its significance in our personal lives. This archetype appears in many stories and myths from across the ages and in a variety of cultures.
I like to view the Threshold Guardian as a metaphor for any block that we encounter when we’re endeavouring to grow in some way, whether it’s skillbuilding, spirituality, starting a business, or any other challenging path that requires years of effort and perseverance to succeed.
Knowing about the Threshold Guardian archetype will enable you to:
- expect it to appear multiple times on your journey,
- prepare in advance,
- retain clarity of mind and action when it does,
- not get sidetracked or discouraged,
- and ultimately, continue to hammer away until you break through to the next level.
What is the Threshold Guardian?
The Threshold Guardian is actually a mythological archetype that Joseph Campbell discovered while studying the deep structure of tales and stories. It’s one of the eight archetypes that appear in the Hero’s Journey, the framework that he proposed.
The Hero usually faces several Threshold Guardians, each more formidable than the last, until he’s able to complete his journey and seize the Holy Grail.
Think of a Threshold Guardian as an obstacle that the Hero will face, after which he either quits or advances to the next level. It’s like the boss at the end of each Mario level, the gatekeeper, the guardian of the land beyond.
In fact, you might say that the Threshold Guardian appears in so many myths and tales precisely because it captures a fundamental feature of human life. Not only can it present itself as a character, but as a particular challenge the protagonist is attempting to overcome.
And not only is it applicable to fiction: I’ve found it’s remarkably relevant to my own projects and endeavours. Let’s talk about how it appears in our lives.
The Threshold Guardian in Your Life
In terms of your personal life, the Threshold Guardian archetype is a metaphor for any make-or-break challenge that you must overcome if you want to continue towards your ultimate goal.
One way of viewing any process of growth or change is that it’s about overcoming a series of obstacles. See it from this point of view, and you realise that Threshold Guardians form the backbone of your journey. Overcome them, and you’ll succeed.
You’ll face Threshold Guardians in areas as diverse as:
- Learning: There are several major phases and rites of passage inherent to any learning journey, formal or otherwise. They test your will, mentality and persistence. See them not as a reflection of your incompetence, but as challenges. Will you continue putting the work in to master the new skill, or will you be overcome by impatience and self-doubt?
- Relationships: In any relationship, platonic or otherwise, there will be make-or-break moments. The relationship is put under strain, and it either gets stronger and succeeds, or crumbles under the pressure. Overcome the challenge, and all the learning will inform the future of the relationship.
- Career: You’ll meet many Threshold Guardians in your career. Promotions, role changes and career crises are all part of the journey, and they’ll test your resolve and dedication to your work.
You can also find the Threshold Guardian in business, family life, event planning, and any other area you can think of. Where do you face challenge that determine will you succeed or fail? That’s a Threshold Guardian.
How It Appears in Popular Culture
Let’s look at two ultra-popular pieces of pop culture and see how the Threshold Guardian figure repeatedly appears in each.
Super Mario
If you’re looking for examples of the Threshold Guardian, look no further. The bosses you face at the end of each Mario level are a perfect representation of the Threshold Guardian figure.
The classic version of Super Mario is fundamentally structured around them: in each level, you face a series of challenges. To progress, you must dodge and kill enemies, jump over obstacles and collect coins on the way.
Once you overcome a set of challenges, you eventually proceed to do battle with the Boss of that level. This is the toughest enemy you face in each level, and he tests everything you’ve learned so far. Overcome him, and you’ll move to the next level. Get defeated, and you must work through the level again.
Each Boss gets progressively more difficult until you reach the most difficult of them all, over whom victory will enable you to save the princess and complete the game.
The makers of Super Mario were clearly tapping into the Hero’s Journey structure, whether they knew it or not. Watch out for the bosses and level jumps in your pursuits and you’ll be much more likely to prevail.
Harry Potter
In many ways, the Harry Potter series mimics the structure of Super Mario. There are seven stories spread over eight books, each with their own theme. Harry faces a series of trials in each, until coming to face a huge obstacle near the end of the novel, each of which you can consider a Threshold Guardian.
In The Philosopher’s Stone, he must save the Philosopher’s Stone from Professor Flitwick, narrowly escaping death. In The Chamber of Secrets, he, Ron and Hermione work together to kill the basilisk and destroy Tom Riddle’s diary.
In the subsequent novels, he then goes on to save his uncle from imprisonment and obliterate dozens of dementors with the Patronus Charm, win the Triwizard Tournament, narrowly escape death at the hands of Voldemort after discovering he is the Chosen One, go through a huge ordeal to seize a fake Horcrux and witness Dumbledore’s murder, before overcoming an even more daunting series of challenges in the finale, The Deathly Hallows.
Notice that in each novel there is a clearly defined Threshold Guardian, and the more Harry overcomes, the stronger he gets. Whether or not Rowling knew of this archetype, it’s woven deep into our psyche, and we simply can’t help but structure stories and myths around it.
The Threshold Guardian in My Life
When I learned about the Threshold Guardian archetype, my life became clearer. I’ve been through many pursuits and endeavours, yet had never been taught about the Hero’s Journey or its core archetypes.
Now that I do, I expect Threshold Guardians to be there, and I’m able to lean into them more, knowing that if I overcome them, I’ll move to the next level. I shouldn’t avoid them, but embrace them. Without the Threshold Guardians, there is no progress. You might say that a pursuit without Threshold Guardians isn’t deep enough to be worthy of time or effort.
Let’s look at areas where I’ve recently met with the Threshold Guardian.
Language Learning
Prior to 2018, I’d never seriously learned a foreign language before. Sure, I had dabbled in French and German in school under the obligation of the bureaucratic school system, but I wasn’t interested and didn’t develop any lasting skills.
It wasn’t until I met a Spanish girl that my true foray into foreign languages began. I soon took up Spanish, and just over a year later I started learning Chinese too. Though I did very well in school in subjects I took seriously, I knew nothing about the Threshold Guardian archetype.
When I started digging into languages, I faced many challenges and encountered a slew of limiting beliefs, and I’m sure that knowing about the Hero’s Journey helped me along the way. It helped me realise that my obstacles were temporary, while the overall path was permanent and predictable, so long as I kept walking.
Some of the major Threshold Guardians I’ve faced in my language journeys are:
- learning the basics of Spanish and Chinese to gain some familiarity and competence,
- learning to write Chinese characters, then remembering 1000 and 2000 characters,
- being able to read and construct sentences rather than individual words,
- meeting my girlfriend’s family and operating in Spanish only,
- independently travelling while only using Spanish,
- speaking without having to consciously formulate sentences,
- being able to listen to Chinese while doing other things,
- reading my first Chinese novel (pending),
- passing the Spanish C2 exam.
Each of these have been fundamental milestones on my journey towards competence in the two languages. Like with all Threshold Guardians, they once seemed insurmountable, but eventually they became effortless. Looking back, many of them seem like trivial achievements, even though it felt like I’d scaled Everest.
Guitar Playing
I began learning the guitar in 2016 with no musical background. Again, I faced many limiting beliefs as I took up the instrument. Forget the professionals, my mates who could play a few chords looked like geniuses to me.
My first Threshold Guardian was playing my first song, Three Little Birds. Three chords, slow tempo, with simple strumming. I’m not lying, it took me about three months for me to play that to a reasonable level. To get there, I had to learn A, D and E, learn how to switch between them, learn how to strum and keep rhythm, and so on. I really struggled.
The next big obstacle was learning to play more complex songs involving G, C, cheat F chords and the minor chords, but I noticed I progressed a lot more in the next three months than in the previous three.
Everything seemed to be going swimmingly, until around four months into the journey, when I met with a huge Threshold Guardian: the F barre chord. At this point, I wondered what I’d signed up for. To begin with, I could barely get one string to sound properly. It seemed like my fingers would never go in the right place or be strong enough to press down on all the strings.
But, lo and behold, after a few weeks of practice I did learn to play it. I required many more months to play it naturally and with ease, but it came eventually. Now, I can play almost any barre chord, Major, minor, 7 or otherwise, with minimal effort. I vaguely felt I could reach this level, but never really believed it.
I’ve been through many other Threshold Guardians on my guitar journey, but I’ll choose just one, and that is transcribing. This means learning to play a song by ear, rather than reading the chords, notes and rhythm from tablature or sheet music.
To begin with, I could barely hear the notes in a song. I once spent one hour trying to figure out how to play the riff from Day Tripper, and the only note I could guess was the first. Not encouraging for someone who was indoctrinated with the idea that they weren’t from a musical family and lacked a musical ear.
But I was extremely diligent, and slowly my skills improved. Fast forward a few years, and now my default way of learning a new song is to figure it out by ear, and sometimes it only takes me 10 minutes to learn the basic guitar parts. It turns out you don’t need a musical ear: you can grow one at home.
My point? My guitar journey clearly showed me that the Threshold Guardian is an opportunity to grow, not a showstopper. And the more of them you overcome, the easier it becomes.
Building a Website
I did say that the Threshold Guardian appears in any journey in which you’re trying to improve or grow in some way, and it certainly comes up in career too. Unsurprisingly, I faced many of them in my journey of building and growing this website.
At the beginning, my Threshold Guardian was getting a click on Google. I knew that appearing in the search engines was a big deal, but I was afraid of it, I lacked knowledge, and my site was so new that it hardly had enough traction to appear. In the first month, I appeared 11 times in Google and obtained just one click. Those numbers look wildly different now: now the site gets tens of thousands of clicks every month.
I bust through my next major Threshold Guardian nearly one year later, which was to make a sale. I sold one copy of my Integral Theory ebook for $10 and felt like I’d conquered the world. I obviously hadn’t, but I had understood the power of vision and persistence.
Fast forward two years, and my Threshold Guardians are much, much larger. Funnily, those that await me now seem as daunting as those that I’ve already passed and that in retrospect look tiny to me. And I know that the same will happen to those that currently loom large, because as I grow, so do my Threshold Guardians.
In conclusion: Threshold Guardians are fundamental challenges that appear in any pursuit we undertake. See your own pursuits in this way, and you’ll be much better equipped to overcome the obstacles that appear and reach your ultimate goal.
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