I have also been remembering a line from Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming”

“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”

One of the many reasons I like Yeats’ line is the image of something unformed making its way to Bethlehem. It’s an image that contrasts with the traditional There Kings dressed in their finery, looking thoroughly self assured. Yeats’ rough beast is very uncertain what it will find at Bethlehem. A birth or a death. In this case, its’ own. But it will make its pilgrimage nonetheless.

Most of my patients come slouching to me. Hoping to find their Bethlehem where they can be born. And most of my patients discover that it is a hard journey that takes them to unexpected places. Places that they had marked on their maps “Here be dragons.” Places  associated with demons, the undead, and all manner of things malevolent. A common image is of locked rooms which are never opened or visited for fear of what lives there. Or is buried there, unmourned.

For the counsellor, too, the road is hard. We have to be willing to walk through dragon infested lands. We are not always entirely certain what the journey will cost us. (And there are times when it does cost us to do this work.) But we carry on – our patients and us- slouching towards Bethlehem hoping to be born.