(King Arthur’s Magic Sword)

You have a wonderful psychophysical (or physical and mental) instrument
Realized through long experience in the passage of time.
You have forged a stable personality
By beating the anvil of shapeless metal through hard work.
This has served to create a certain degree of perfection.
The Fire of Experience has given the raw material—
Firmness and malleability, two aspects of the Path.
This is how Excalibur is made, the sword with a sharp blade on both sides,
One that cuts and separates,
The other to defend and protect.
Like a spade driven hard into a rock, you wait for a noble Knight
To free you from its terrible grip.
But it is the incorruptible virtues of your Soul that release the fire necessary for exfoliation,
And diffuse the matter that imprisons you.
Moral courage is implicit in the Spiritual Laws.
But an amoral purpose prevents the extraction of the Sword of Power
and its consequent emancipation by the Anima—
That part of the psyche directed inwards.
Only purity of intent will ignite the hard rock to the degree of fusion
And free the sparkling Sword forever.
Summon that Fire and let it act.
A blazoned incision on the blade recalls the Way.
On one side are these words: I cut the evil.
On the other we read: I defend the good;
Two aspects of the same power.
Soul shields the intention in the center of the heart.
May the Light of Soul generate such Fire
To grind into a thousand pieces the rock of captivity,
And challenge forever
The Power of Excalibur.