“Joseph Campbell, the enormously influential author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, brilliantly illuminated the archetypal hero’s journey, which to one degree or another we are all on.
The hero sets out from his homeland to slay the dragon, to save the kingdom and win the princess. Campbell’s point, extrapolating from Jungian psychology, is that we all need to confront and, in one sense or another, slay our dragons, conquer the cave of darkness inside us where our fears and delusions live, before we can return home with hard-won insight, wisdom, and self-knowledge and take our rightful place. Only after this kind of painful and perilous confrontation will we truly have something to offer, to contribute to the world. That is what’s most significant. Not just that you know yourself by confronting your dragons, but that through doing so you are able to help others, to make a difference.
This is not a once-and-for-all process. It is something that never stops. Imagine yourself as a phoenix, rising from the ashes of the dragon that has blasted you with fiery breath. You don’t rise from the ashes complete and fully realized, your phoenix plumage all shimmering and aglow. No. You have to keep evolving. Part of being unlocked is that it’s not a onetime deal. It never really ends.”
Prerequisite to this Journey is to have let go of the Little Ego which makes it all about you, and to realise that it is all about others. The boon is not for you, it is to be shared with others. And as we all interconnected, the Rising Tide Will Lift All Ships.
And it really is never ending, not a destination to be arrived at, but a guiding star to provide a direction of travel for the zig-zag journey of an entire lifetime.
The Phoenix analogy is beautiful, and something to hold on to during the shitty times of life. This too shall pass, and you shall rise. And the shit won’t stick!
Photo by Elias Maurer on Unsplash
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