“If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”

What is important to realise is you are only partially in control of this process. Worse still: you are almost entirely in control of preventing it from happening. What he is talking about -what gnostic Jesus may well have been talking about- is exploring and also getting out of the way of the unconscious experiencing itself/you/the universe. And it may well destroy you if you do not.

You are free to gloss ‘the unconscious’ with whatever term you like: the spirit world, the gods, God, whatever. But I like the (jailbroken Jungian) use of ‘the unconscious’ here because it carries very little predestination. It is not ‘destiny’ as a fiat declaration of some god prior to your birth, but a plant growing: toward light, around obstacles, deeper into the soil, up balustrades. The outcome is not certain and may well be an emergent goal along the course of your lifetime. You may not ‘fulfil your fate’. I like it even more because it requires engagement. It requires exploring one’s dreams. It requires observing and participating in the patently exogenous meaning in the world. You don’t just get whisked along to your fate by some god or another.

via Saint Augustine and the Parrot – Rune Soup