There comes a time in life when a man's ego doesn't have the answers. He doesn't know enough; he doesn't have the resources needed to resolve an impossible situation. Wherever Tristan searched, no one in Cornwall could heal his sickness. At such times a man must relinquish control. He needs to remember Tristan's words: "I would like to try the sea that brings all chances.... To what land no matter, so that it heal me of my wound." He needs to give himself over to the unconscious and drift with its tides until he finds an island of new consciousness for that era of his life.
One of the great strengths of the inner feminine is the ability to let go, to give up ego control, to stop trying to control the people and the situation, to turn the situation over to fate and wait on the natural flow of the universe. To give up the oar and sail means to drop personal control and give oneself over to the will of God. To leave the sword means to stop trying to understand by intellect or logic, to stop trying to force things. To take up the harp means to wait patiently, listening to a soft voice within, for the wisdom that comes not from logic or action but from feeling, intuition, the irrational and the lyrical.