THE HERO/INE'S JOURNEY

INCORPORATION #6

"I dont' know what your destiny will be, but the one thing I know; the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve." A. Schweitzer

“Hold to your vision - be true to your myth.“  

J. Campbell

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Proverbs

Incorporation

"The priviledge of a life time is to become who you truly are." C. Jung

Now is the time to settle in and not take any serious risks until the experience

is reintegrated back into one’s life. Eventually it may lead to giving up a

partner, one’s job or selling one’s house but the supply lines for security must be taken

into account, If you are in survival mode you will be propelled out of actualizing

any meaningful change. Keep your day job and pursue your quest in your free time if needed.

Many of us have to learn to live in two worlds; the one that pays the rent

and the other that is our mission. One may have to carry out one's true purpose

for its own sake even without consideration for pay back.

That is perfectly ok as well as good karma.

It is important to take time out and look at one's life after the journey.

It's worthwhile having a skillful, trusted witness/es who can listen to your story, embellish, and expand it to help you find your archetype. Inner practice and group synergism or just one other person can be supportive. 

Indigenous peoples had a council of elders for this. 

Finding one's core strength and helping others can make one not only feel happier but also more powerful.

“Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes

you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people

who have come alive.” H. Thurman

After the journey and the sense of knowing or the aha, walk the talk do not talk the walk. Do not put your experiences on the mantle piece for those who do not understand

to invalidate.

If it's necessary, be polite, talk to them about context rather than content,

in words they can understand rather than challenge. 

These insights may be very subtle but vital. They usually are not like neon lights blazing

in the dark. Its all well and good if they are epic but its wise to be careful of these,

they can delude you and arise out of grandiosity.

If you cannot change what you do, maybe change how you do it. 

Beware the “fall” out of the grace you have received with all the hard work you have done. Many will lose the way and submit to the demands of life and the hypnosis of materialism.

Release yourself from what you are not accountable !

KISS - Keep it Simple, Stupid.

Attend to needs not wants and ask yourself what is it that I really need?

Maintaining a regular spiritual practice is essential. You have to find the one made for you. Just because some enlightened guru or person tells you this is the meditation for you, it does not mean that it is.

"Continuing with a spiritual practice that no longer works for you is like

carrying a raft on your back after you have crossed the river." The Buddha

For those more spiritually inclined:

One may find that there are recognizable inner experiences that confirm

you are opening up to the spirit world - such as;

synchronicity, coherence and "super-fluidity."

For some there may be nuances of remote viewing, telepathy, precognition and

clairvoyance, ... audience or ... sentience.

One's dream life may become more meaningful.

Downloads from ones guides or the "Field" can occur both in the awake or the dream state.

There can even be kundalini-like vibrations occurring during sleep or other

awakening experiences during your meditations. Validate, savor and honor them rather

than rationalize or trivialize them away. Oneness experiences when the Knower, the Known, and the Process of Knowing all fuse into one tell you your energy body, mind and soul are in sync with the cosmos at that moment but may not tell you what to do about it.

Remember that the messages that you h ave - no-one has all of these - will be the one or the ones that your guides or the Great Spirit know to be those most accessible to their guidance. Do not feel invalidated because others on the path have more splendid and spectacular insights.

It is wasteful of your time and to practice and try to master those that are not meant for you.

Seek congruence – who is the real you?

Be yourself. The spirit world does not endorse a copy cat destiny.

If you do not be uniquely you, who then, will ever be?

 

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” Goethe

The hero/ine's journey is ultimately about finding meaning in one's life.

 

“Once what you are living and what you are doing has for you meaning

it is irrelevant whether you are happy or unhappy. You are content,

you are not alone in your spirit, you belong.”    

L. Van der Post

There are four basic archetypes each with many diverse aspects.

Healer

Teacher

Warrior or Leader

Visionary

The Visionary stage can arise from a Hero's journey which in turn can help us find

our destiny.

“A vision without a task is a dream
A task without a vision is drudgery
But a vision with a task can change the world.”
Black Elk

Many have talents in all four archetypes so it may be difficult to know

which to choose. There is usually only one core or signature strength

where your potential and power reside. The others must serve the one.

If you have doubts head in the direction of the one or ones you want to explore

and rule them out by a process of elimination to find the one that most fits.

In time you will know if this is it or not.

There is no loss - you have gained knowledge and skills from the experience.

The more tools you have in your tool box the more they can serve

the power of the one meant for you. If you are unclear which to choose its best to focus

on spiritual practice and obtaining knowledge for transformation.

With all your strength get knowledge that enlightens.

Knowledge, wisdom and inner practice are the wings that will help fly

you to your true purpose. Alternatively you may pursue the spiritual life

and the realization of Self through any one of the four yogas; Karma (service,)

Bhakti (devotion,) Jnana (spiritual knowledge) and Raja yoga (control of the mind.)

"May the hero awaken from forget-fullness and transcend all anxiety and sorrow."

Upanishads

  

 

THE HERO/INE’S JOURNEY # 5

(Again apologies for how Google reformats the text.)

“Be willing to give up who you are - the old familiar

- for who you might become to reach that which is beyond you.” Rev Nachman 

THRESHOLD

“Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.” Kahlil Gibran

The Hero/ine now enters the Sacred Space of the Threshold.

Nature offers many open doors and windows to spirit.

 

“The meeting of oneself is, at first, the meeting of one's Shadow.” C.J. Jung

 

In Threshold we usually will encounter the dark night of the soul where we have to confront our inner fears.

The 'grail' is given by grace or less dramatically one comes back with an

enlightened idea or an aha as how to better proceed with one’s life.

For this reason, there are many hero’s journeys, some profound and some more subtle

as we slowly fine tune our paths.

Find your own means of access, the sacred space that will work for you. 

Set an inner intention but let go of specific goals - allow what comes to arise on its own.

 Do it all for its own sake, not for reason of outcome other than to allow change to happen. 

Keep it simple; do not let “stuff” like a camera, books or paraphernalia

get in the way of the experience. Keep a journal to record even the most subtle of events.

Attend to needs not wants. Provide the basic necessities only.

Allow for alone time or even go alone. 

Avoid Hard Skills. Tune in to the “Soft Fascinations;” the sun and moonsets and their risings, the scenes, the scents and aromas, the sounds or mantra of the bush, the daily

and even the monthly cycles. Connect with the Magic of the Ordinary with nature that is all around us and with the Magic of the Extraordinary if you are in wilderness.

Use any form of inner practice to support and balance you.

Inner techniques can include drumming, journaling any peak event or

dream so as to retain the details of any 'aha.' 

Avoid performance behavior and time restraints (if possible.) Five days is ideal. Stay inward not outward.

Avoid the “Need to Know” the cognitive things in order to allow the inner experience

to emerge.

REENTRY

 

"We do not go into the desert to escape people but to learn how to find them:

we do not leave them in order to have nothing more to do with them

but to find out the way to do them the most good.” Thomas Merton

The breath that created us is the same breath that created the worm and the stone

and thus we share a oneness.

Human interdependence is absolute - now more than ever.

"We are all in the same boat in a stormy sea

and we owe each other a terrible and tragic loyalty." Chesterton

The return can be jarring.

“We return to our places these kingdoms, no longer at ease here in

the same dispensation, with an alien people clutching their gods.” Journey of the Magi

As one emerges out of sacred space one may have a reentry depression

which can last a few weeks. This state is a testament to the power of the journey

as well as the insights both profound and subtle that have occurred.

It may be aggravated by the fact that one now has to return to the frustrations

of ordinary life and a place which is not ideal for reentry. Often the harder the home and work circumstances, the greater the depression. Paradoxically this depression occurs in the face of a demonstrable restorative effect. The re-entry depression seems to be a result of having been in an altered state of consciousness and upon the return there is a dramatic shift as one is propelled back into a normal state of awareness.

The alfa relaxed vibration one has been in on the journey often gives way to

sensory overload on return.  Intensifying one's spiritual practice will help

manage these fluxes. The depression is temporary and 'normal,' lasting

about three weeks.

Inner Effects

Being or feeling more like one’s true Self. An appreciation of awe, oneness, wonder, transcendence - peak or oneness experience (unity consciousness.) 

Humility and a realization that any control one thinks one has over nature or life is an illusion. 

You cannot control results only your actions. You cannot predict outcomes only your choices.

Becoming more pleasant and affable with others. 

Feelings of connection and comfort in nature even if nature was not the catalyst. 

A sense of renewal, and aliveness, feeling less cluttered, more mindful and focused. 

An appreciation of alone time.

Experiencing major life style changes on returning. Release from unskillful habits and addictions of the past from minor to major. 

Previously there may have been a greater sense of duality and on the return this duality is lessened especially if spiritual practice is maintained.

"The fundamental delusion of humanity is to pretend that I am here and you are out there." Y. Roshi

THE HERO/INE’S JOURNEY #4

“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project,

all your thoughts break their bonds; your mind transcends limitations,

your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.” Patanjali

SEPARATION

A YEARNING FOR THE EXTRAORDINARY

“S/He who mounts a wild elephant goes where the wild elephant goes.”

R. Bournes

"A possibility is a hint from God - one must follow it."  Kierkegaard

  

S/He who would be what he ought to be must stop being what s/he is.” Meister Eckhart

“In order to possess what you do not possess you must go by the way of

dispossession. In order to arrive at what you are not you must go

through the way in which you are not.” T.S. Elliot

“…put out to sea! Save your boat’s journeying soul and your own pilgrim soul,

cost what it may.” Dom Helder Camara

To do this we need to leave our 'Safe Harbors' and take our fragile boat out into an unknown ocean of our fears - physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual. 

“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” Joseph Campbell

The Hero's journey can arise from a yearning for the extraordinary but resistances need

to be overcome. Inner resistances arise as do outer pressures from love ones' or peers

that are concerned for you or maybe envious that they 

do not have the courage to undertake what you are about to do. 

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." Anais Nin

Usually one is given an object of power. In days of old it might have been a sword to

kill the dragon or wolf that was marauding the village - today - a soldier willing to die for a cause.

Now it is more likely to be an inspirational lecture, workshop, book or person who has induced you to embark on your own journey.

Classically one would enter sacred space (the Threshold) in order to separate.

Nature, wild places and wilderness are preferred environments since they offer

the possibility of being more numinous and luminous.

“The sun shines not on us but in us. The river flows not past but through us.” J Muir

Whatever the space chosen it is good to go into nature in one way or another for more

or less time to experience the metaphors, signs, messages and power animals that may

assist. In South Africa game viewers talk about

the "Big Five" (lion, leopard, elephant, rhino, buffalo)

but the metaphors usually come out of observing the smaller Beings

of Nature including the rocks, plants, trees and tiny animals.

“Believe one who knows; you will find something greater in the woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from the masters.” St. Bernard de Clairvaux

 

“Ask of the wild animals and they shall teach you and the birds of the sky

shall tell it to you or speak to the earth for she shall guide you

and the fishes of the sea will declare it to you.” Job

 

If we immerse in nature we may experience the magic of the ordinary or even

"Wilderness Rapture" (equivalent to Maslow's Peak Experience) which can assist in the Threshold phase.

It is best to go on your own or be alone for the experience.

“You enter the forest at the darkest point, where there is no path.
Where there is a way or path, it is someone else's path.
You are not on your own path. If you follow someone else's way,
you are not going to realize your potential.”
Joseph Campbell

God wants you to be truly you!

Above is the classical hero's journey but we may just as well be forced on the path by some calamity. When this is the case its important to formulate the challenge into a these more formal three phases to better actualize and realize the power of the archetype.

If so, we are more likely to recognize the 'Grail' or 'Aha' that may come out of it.

For instance, a woman who embarks on a heroine's journey because of breast cancer and then, in Threshold, makes a promise that when she prevails she will assist other women going through the same.