"Okay," Zac said. "We've covered the call to adventure, the journey into the unknown, the wise mentor, the obstacles. What's next on the hero's journey?"
"Slaying the dragon," I replied. "That's the final step."
"What does the dragon represent?"
"The dragon is your biggest fear. It is the most forgotten and rejected part of yourself. It is the shadow monster hiding in your psyche, dragging you down into the darkness, away from the light."
"Do you have a dragon?" he asked.
"Yeah," I chuckled. "She's the culmination of everything I've been taught to hate and hide about myself. That's why I'm terrified of being seen. The world has trained me to believe that my wild, untamed authentic self is shameful and wrong because I don't fit some cookie-cutter mold that I'm apparently supposed to fit into as a young woman. I'm not who people expect me to be, so I mute myself to minimize their surprise, not mine. Who I Really Am can make people uncomfortable, and I value harmony in my life. Therefore, being ashamed and terrified of myself is just an adaptive trait. I'm like a fucking warble, growing spikes to resist entropy, smoothly adapting to my environment. I'm a gazelle who doesn't want to draw attention to herself, lest she be preyed upon."
"So your dragon is… yourself?"
"Yes. It would seem so. Everything I desire stands on the other side of my dragon."
"So, everything you desire stands on the other side of yourself?"
"Now you're getting it," I smiled. "Once I slay my dragon, I'll claim my prize."
"And your prize is self-realization?"
"Yes. But returning to my authentic self will inevitably lead to changes in my external reality. That's just how this mathematical process works. More financial freedom, more love, more health, and the relationship I've always dreamed of, are standing over there, on the other side of my deepest fears."
"So you do want the pot of gold and the handsome prince!" Zac playfully punched me in the arm.
"They're just symbols that will inevitably manifest when I change Who I Am. If I express a belief that Who I Really Am is just fine, reality will produce all the props and events and circumstances that allow me to experience my new concept of Self. If I express a belief that I am worthy and abundant and free, and my neural network associates money with worthiness and abundance and freedom, then more money will find a way into my life. Money is just a symbol, or prop, that allows me to experience my own self-concept of being worthy, abundant, and free. It's like I'm writing the story with my consciousness, and the outer world is translating the story into symbols I can physically interact with. Thus, my soul can know itself experientially, not just conceptually. Do you see what I mean?"
"Yeah, I think so," Zac replied. "What about the handsome prince?"
"It's the same principle. If I express a belief that I am worthy, seen, fun, adventurous, independent, secure, sexy, and just authentically myself — then I'll meet a man who assists me in experiencing myself as all of those things. That's why I don't want to meet my life partner right now. He'll be a match to a lesser version of myself, and I don't want a man to help me figure out who I am. I want to figure out who I am, and then meet a man who assists me in experiencing that grandest version of myself."
"So," Zac said, "if you want to meet your handsome prince, you have to save yourself?"
"Exactly."
"Wow. The fairy tales really fucked up that message for women," he grinned.
"Tell me about it. Men are always cast as the heroes in stories passed down from generation to generation. Meanwhile, fairytales have been lying to women for centuries."
