The Hero/Heroine's Journey: Reclaiming Our True Power and Heart Wisdom
To be human is to traverse a lifetime of micro and macro initiations. Each one of us is a hero or heroine on a mysterious journey of pleasure, love, and connection, as well as states of fear, anxiety, separation, darkness, loss and heartbreak.
Initiations are the path of evolution. They crack us open, break us down, leave us breathless and eventually, through their alchemy and transmutation, present us with gems of wisdom. They’re the pathway through which we retrieve our personal light and power.
To embrace life’s challenges as initiations will fill our inner cup of wisdom. These experiences can become the source of our personal power and medicine for the world.
From disempowerment to empowerment: The hero/heroine’s journey
What do epic films such as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter — or TV shows like Game of Thrones — have in common? And why do they resonate so profoundly across wide spectrums of audiences?
Well, they remind us of the mythical journey of human loss, suffering, death, rebirth, healing, integration, and evolution. Often, in that exact order.
Each story carries us through a journey of powerlessness that, over time, transforms into freedom and love. Each courageous act alchemizes fears and resistance into a re-wilding and embodiment of the character’s inner light and wisdom.
These stories depict the heroic journey of reclaiming one’s true power and heart-wisdom.
What is the hero/heroine’s journey?
George Lucas, co-writer and executive producer of Star Wars, has credited Joseph Campbell’s map of the hero’s journey as a primary influence in the structure of his films. These wouldn’t be great films or life stories if it were an easy pilgrimage!
Inevitably, the adventures of life involve darkness, disorientation, despair, and the deconstruction of false self-images in order to reclaim our true self. Joseph Campbell mapped the trajectory of a “hero’s journey” to describe the evolutionary process of embracing our inner power and wholeness.
It’s only through this process that we can actually awaken to our wholeness.
In each lifetime, we may undergo a thousand heroic journeys. Some are small and almost imperceptible, while others sweep wide and deep, resulting in a complete reorientation of our reality and sense of self.
Are we being punished or initiated?
Are life challenges random, forms of punishment, or initiations? As with most questions, the answer lies within the eye of the beholder and his or her belief system.
I used to believe that my challenging life experiences were a form of punishment. This belief intensified my feelings of powerlessness. Eventually, during an extended health challenge, my belief system shifted into a new way of orienting — not just from my mind, but throughout my whole being.
I realized that each heartbreak and loss had been an opportunity to reintegrate another piece of my power and wisdom.
Since this reorientation, I’ve developed the lion-hearted courage to consciously engage with the shadows that toss me into the well of grief, fear, self-doubt, and uncertainty. This doesn’t mean that I’ve entirely stopped panicking, kicking or screaming when change, loss or a lack of clarity initially arise. It means I find respite and faith in my capacity to embrace, learn, and grow through whatever is occurring, rather than frantically attempting to fix and control external conditions to minimize my anxiety and fear.
As a child, a loss or heartbreak translated into feelings of punishment and helplessness. I felt broken. Today I know — I’m not broken. You’re not broken. We’re heroes and heroines traveling the trials and tribulations of our unique and complex journey home into an undefended and all-inclusive heart.
Reclaiming exiled parts of myself bolstered my capacity to feel compassion for the complex nature of being human.
Is the concept of punishment or sin a collective control mechanism?
Personally, I feel that punishment is a patriarchal control mechanism. Subtle programming from structures of power-over fuel a subliminal belief that, if we suffer, we must have sinned and therefore, we somehow deserve the pain.
Paradoxically, the belief that we deserve suffering or punishment makes any struggle twice as painful and confusing. This is how patterns of shame, victimhood and powerlessness are fed and maintained.
Our belief systems have been embedded with shame and guilt which keep us small, diminished, paralyzed and confused. These are the kinds of beliefs that keep our psyche oriented towards fear and helplessness. It’s time for these shameful patterns to crumble and rewire.
Our human experiences of heartbreak, loss, violation, and internal imprisonment are not forms of punishment, nor are they pointing to our lack of worthiness.
Instead, they’re invitations to embrace the mystery and complexity of being human. Each initiation calls us to awaken, heal, master and empower ourselves through accessing the full depth of our wisdom and presence.
It may not always feel like we have a choice. Yet, even beyond the level of conscious awareness, our spirit is always guiding us.
Mining for gold: Stages of the hero/heroine’s journey
Before I walk you through the steps, notice that there are two distinct aspects of this journey. The hero/heroine’s journey map explores masculine and feminine energies as forces that live inside of us all, regardless of our sexual gender.
At the top is the known reality in which our masculine energy reigns. The bottom holds a mysterious space where we are tossed into the darkness of the unknown, which represents the feminine side of the journey
We can use this map to look at the entire arc of our lives, but it’s also applicable to specific phases of healing and development such as the heroic process of unwinding a specific trauma imprint in our psyche and body.
Let’s walk through the steps of the hero/heroine’s journey.
EXISTING IN THE ORDINARY WORLD:
A hero/heroine’s journey usually begins immersed in “ordinary reality” because it’s all they’ve ever known. They’re operating within the status quo, and the routine of what’s known. An example is when Luke Skywalker, in the first Star Wars film, is shown in the opening scene milling around his small village, adhering to a simple, domesticated life in the sand dunes. This is a ‘chop wood and carry water’ phase.
THE CALL TO ADVENTURE:
The hero is presented with problems, challenges, or an adventure that invites them out of the familiar. It can be an impulse to leave a job, go to school, end a relationship, sell a home and travel for a year, etc.
REFUSAL OF THE CALL:
Fear of the unknown makes the hero/heroine reluctant to move forward towards the call. She/he may refuse the call, even a number of times, until the call comes with a roar through a loss, death, violent act, health issues, etc.
MEETING WITH THE MENTOR:
The hero/heroine is introduced to an important mentor, which can take a multiplicity of forms: an elder, the natural world, school, a community, a spiritual being, etc.
CROSSING THE THRESHOLD:
The hero/heroine commits to the call, no more refusal or turning back. The forces of destiny take the lead and often require a big leap. Since the known is no longer an option, and the future is unpredictable, the ‘choice-less choice’ is a significant surrender into the unknown.
TEST, ALLIES, ENEMIES:
The hero/heroine is tested in a variety of ways that will direct them to the people, places, and internal discoveries that are essential fuel for the process of healing, seeing with more clarity and asking big questions. This is a time of reclaiming one’s superpowers and true authentic self.
CAVE:
This is the phase during which the hero/heroine endures a supreme ordeal, and often goes inward to grapple and inquire. They call upon inner resources that they have harvested through guidance given from allies and mentors. During this time, the hero/heroine goes continuously inward to find answers and build a spiritual container of wisdom and insight. This experience can feel like hitting rock bottom, and a deconstruction of ego and conditioned patterns or a death related to how the hero/heroine has thought himself/herself to be.
HERO/HEROINE SEIZES THE SWORD:
Something awakens inside of the hero/heroine, and he/she finds clarity in the heart. Cycles of suffering are revealed, and the hero/heroine consciously commits to interrupting outdated patterns and frees themselves from forces that previously controlled them. This is a phase of integrating what’s been fragmented. He/she finds the inner elixir, and courageously rises up from cave, marking the start of an intentional journey back into the world. This is where the core transmutation happens, transforming core wounds and suffering into medicine for themselves and the world.
THE ROAD BACK:
The travel back home will test the hero/heroine’s capacity to stay with the intention and purpose they found in the cave. He/she will be tested with the very same conditioned beliefs, thoughts, and concepts that are meant to be shed.
RESURRECTION:
The hero/heroine emerge from the depths of this intense journey, completely transformed by their experience, like a caterpillar’s metamorphosis into a butterfly. The chaos on the road back has calmed, and a power of using his/her sword to cut through the conditioned beliefs and heal trauma has taken root.
RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR:
The hero/heroine returns to their life with their medicine, teachings, and story to offer to others. He/she now sees through the illusions, and helps others to do the same. In essence, the hero/heroine has become an ally to others who are in earlier stages of a similar cycle around the hero/heroine map.
INTEGRATION AND UNIFICATION:
One of the results of these epic spirals through the hero/heroine journeys (and we often have many within a lifetime) is that with each cycle through, we arrive into a deeper level of embodiment. To recall these wounded and exiled parts of us home into the wholeness of our being is to integrate and unify back into our wholeness.
Our unique journey becomes our medicine for the world
Your personal life story has healing components for the whole of humanity — you matter.
This is a personal and collective journey. Our stories need to be told. They fuel our courage to keep going into the darkness to retrieve our gifts. They inspire others to embolden their own courage and take the leap with us.
A hero or heroine’s journey isn’t about arrival or completion. It’s filled with hardships, fears of the unknown, loss, and grief. But it’s also about rising again and again to live, love, and embody our fullest heart, wisdom, and destiny.
When we remember the essence of our being, we reclaim our life force, previously consumed by disempowering stories about ourselves. To reintegrate is to see, befriend, and call home that which has been banished. This process leads us to the gold — the reclamation of our innocence, power, love, wisdom, and personal medicine.
And although awakening to the truth of who we are is a deeply personal journey, it doesn’t happen in isolation.
There is a massive movement underway in which people across the world are aflame with a similar mission and purpose. Each time we find one another, we strengthen our reserves and plug our life into the larger electrical current of a tipping point of consciousness.
Our children, oceans, forests, and all the species that roam this planet need revolutionary leaders who are willing to take responsibility from the inside-out. Brave hearts who embrace disowned aspects of self, and own the impact that their adaptive strategies have on themselves and those they love!
Choosing to integrate exiled parts naturally opens more space to rest in our authenticity, our inherent worthiness (which is not measured by our productivity or accomplishments), and to surrender into the mystery of life.