The labyrinth is thoroughly known

I think it's time for my annual posting of my favorite Joseph Campbell quote. It's a good follow-on from yesterday's post.

Yesterday I was touching on spirituality as any experience that takes us out of our ego. I want to add that there's nothing wrong with the ego, with the self. But traveling outside of ourselves ultimately bring us to the deepest parts of ourselves. If we're committed to traveling outward, to empathy, to kindness, to love, to vulnerability, then we can simultaneously help others heal, and heal ourselves.

Furthermore, we have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; and where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world. (The Hero With a Thousand Faces)

(You can hear Campbell quote this at the start of this video.)