The Hero's and Heroine's Journeys

My daughter calls it my "power moves". Most other people call it "radical bravery" or "foolishness", depending on which side of the fence they're on. This is when I make seemingly sudden decisions that require big leaps of faith.

They only seem sudden to outsiders, because I do not talk about my private issues to just anyone, only to those who can help provide more information and light on them. There is actually a method to this seeming madness, and this method lies in the road maps of the Hero's and Heroine's Journeys.

Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey describes it as a breaking away from the ordinary, predictable, everyday, topside world and responding to a "call to adventure" (which involves initially refusing it, too!), then meeting mentors or guides (they could be people, books, or other inspirations) who just appear in one's life and who inspire one to take the "leap of faith", so to speak.

Then, the hero-in-progress crosses the threshold and goes into the underside, unpredictable, special world of the soul and Spirit, where the hero-in-progress meets tests and enemies, as well as allies, which then leads to their approaching and finally dying to their old self, and birthing a new, more soul-aligned self.

Then, the hero-in-progress now takes what he has learned about himself and the soul world as a sword of truth, as he comes up back to the topside world resurrected, and blesses the ordinary world with his elixir, his special soul gifts, to make it more special. The image below is from Lissa Rankin's site, where she discusses this journey in relation to responding to one's Calling, as well as how it compares with The Heroine's Journey.

The key here is in responding to a Soul Call. It's the Call that wakes you up at night, or speaks to you in quiet moments at random, while you're driving, while you're doing your everyday, ordinary, and predictable things, and always with the same consistent and insistent message. It's the Call that goes against all the current logic of your life, and would shock other people in the ordinary world, because it Calls only to you and not them, although soul-aligned mentors and guides understand it and would also randomly appear to encourage you on. Once you respond, there is the terrain already mapped out for you, and you can at least know what to expect.

This has always been my guide, as I found Joseph Campbell when I read his The Power of Myth in the midst of my very cold, toxic, and abusive sham of a marriage. Looking back now, I understand that at that time, his book acted as my Mentor, as I prepared to cross the threshold by finally deciding to leave my marriage on its 10th year, and which then took me to the underside and special world of the journey, battling tests and enemies and finding soul allies as well, as I descended into a death of my old self and rose up again, reborn in a new self. This Hero's Journey has become my guide and road map whenever I needed to make subsequent decisions in my life requiring big risks and leaps of faith, although they were not as big as my leaving my marriage in 2002. Long story short, it's my understanding of this Soul Thing that makes me "brave" and do "power moves."

However, this is only half of the story. Later on, around 8 years ago, I found myself enjoying outward success but inward ennui, like everything that everyone else got excited about wasn't resonating with me anymore. Looking back now, too, I understand now that I had come into The Heroine's Journey.

Although it possesses certain similar qualities with The Hero's Journey like in terms of leaving the ordinary, topside world to descend into the special, magical, underside world of the soul and Spirit, scholars like Maureen Murdock, Victoria Lynn Schmidt, and Anne Davin point out that there are distinctions in The Heroine's Journey specific only to women's inner world and concerns. Basically, Murdock, who pioneered the concept of The Heroine's Journey, says that women's journeys basically have to do with a rejection of one's essential femininity while born into and growing up in a masculine-imposed world and trying to adopt masculine values and ways in going about life (competitiveness, aggressiveness, forcing things, controlling things, etc.) which can result to temporary "success" but feeling empty and dying inside.

This, then, introduces women to meeting, rediscovering, and befriending their essential feminine natures and powers, connecting with their Goddess Self. As they reconnect with this Self, they come into wholeness reconciling with their feminine selves and healing their lower-level masculine selves (I wrote about these different levels of feminine and masculine consciousness energies in the previous post.)

Here is an illustration from Chris Winkle, who discusses it in terms of crafting story structure.

Schmidt takes it further with more detail, as expressed in the diagram below from The Heroine Journeys Project --

But, the essential point is: both the hero's and the heroine's journeys begin with a Soul Call, which then takes the hero-in-progress and the heroine-in-progress involved to an arc of Separation (from the ordinary world, the old self and life), Initiation (descending into the dark, mysterious, seemingly unpredictable world of soul challenges and achieving soul powers), and Return (going back to the ordinary world to bless it with their divine, soul powers and gifts). And this is where Diosa Ways comes in as my offering to the world -- especially in the phases of preparing to cross the threshold, to the descent and meeting with one's Goddess Self, and then in preparing to resurrect. From someone who has "been there and done that" journey over and over again, in a series of deaths and rebirths-- as guide and mentor in sisterly handholding, practical mystic style.

Stay tuned for what I will be unveiling for you on December 21, the day of The Great Conjunction! NOTE: Some links in this post are affiliate links.