"The "Rite of Passage" is very much like the allusion to the gargoyle. the gargoyle was a kind of symbol of protection and defiance toward external evil forces. In many ways the meaning of the "Rite of Passage" is a kind of ritual which tests the individual as to his right to walk over the threshold without being prepared for the next problem in this psychic development. This is a symbol of guards at that threshold to see that one does not make that step unless one works through."

[Theodore Roszak Interview by James Elliott, 1956, p. 24]