Refusing The Call. . .

The Fates

"The fates lead him who will; him who won't they drag." ~ old Roman proverb.

Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you followed your dreams?

Have you ever considered the cost you will pay by not pursuing them? If so, perhaps you already have an inkling.

Our ancestors understood there were consequences to avoiding the call of inspiration and the desire of our hearts. Mythos from the ages prepare us, using the allegoric anchor of the Hero's Journey stories, to face the psychological repercussions associated with refusing this call.

The Call of the Gods . . .

You may be familiar with the bible story of Jonah and the whale. . . ? 

Jonah's failed escape . . .

Jonah1:1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.

Well, Jonah --the hero of the myth, doesn't want to answer the call to adventure. In the beginning of this bible story, he refuses to follow the quest given him by his god, Jehovah. The people of Nineveh are the enemies of Jonah's people. He would rather they were destroyed. Instead of accepting the task laid out by his god, trusting that there is some greater purpose at hand, he high-tails-it in the other direction, hopping a ship in Joppa headed for Tarshish. Not the most well thought out of plans. In Jonah's story, running the other direction only succeeds in pissing his patron god off. Jehovah basically sends a hurricane to sink the ship Jonah gets on.

Joseph Campbell

According to Joseph Campbell's research of world mythology, when a hero refuses the call to adventure or denies the ability to move beyond the status quo, something, usually some type of magical intervention, is then needed to plunge the hero into the unknown. Where the reluctant hero requires supernatural forces to urge him on, the willing adventurer gathers amulets, power tokens or magical items, and advice from a protector or spirit guide as aid for the journey.

A modern example of a hero refusing the call to adventure/change can be found in the movie STAR WARS.

The Call in STAR WARS

When Luke Skywalker first finds the droid R2-D2, and discovers the message from Princess Leia, he has no intention of investigating the mystery. He is more concerned with the work he has to finish for the coming morning and even mentions wiping R2's hard drive in preparation for re-purposing.
R2 runs away and while Luke is willing to come after him, meeting the Jedi Obiwan in the process, it takes returning home to find the storm troupers have wiped his home and only known family off the planet to send him on his quest.

In mundane life when we refuse the call of inspiration we don't always experience a dramatic or magical event to push us out of the stasis we are in. Sometimes what we experience is an intense feeling or realization that something is wrong in our world, a lingering dissatisfaction with the way things are. The urge to follow our inner calling and visions intensifies, and life events seem to push us to make changes. If we remain unmoved and continue to ignore these feelings, asserting an effort to maintain the status quo, at the expense of our dreams, Life quite often will shift the circumstances around us in ways that force us to grow in new directions. If we continue to ignore the deeper guidance of Source, which is trying to move us towards our highest good and potential, we become blocked energetically and create disease in our lives. Dis-ease can manifest as physical illnesses or chronic poverty, accidents, debt thinking, depression, emotional turmoil, traumatic events, or simply a deep abiding dissatisfaction with life. Our personal hero story becomes one of tragedy, loss, and pain.

It is only through embracing The Call of Life, the inspiration of Source, and engaging in the adventure of living fully that we fulfill the potential of our Be-ing.

The Tarot and the Hero's Journey

The Fool is of the tarot represents Joseph Campbell's monomythic hero at the beginning of his journey cycle. The Fool is given the number placement 0, the number of unlimited potential, which does not actually have a specific place in the sequence of the Tarot cards. The Fool can come either at the beginning of the Major Arcana or at the end, as the hero must return to the society or place of origin to complete his journey of enlightenment. The Major Arcana is often considered as the Fool’s journey through life and as such, he is ever present and therefore needs no number.

The Fool is shown at the beginning of his journey with unlimited potential. The sun rising up behind him represents the beginning of his journey. He is facing north-west, the direction of the unknown. He is looking upwards, toward the sky, or Spirit. He is about to step off a cliff into the material world but is he prepared? He has all the tools and resources he needs in the bag on his staff but he has not opened the bag yet. The white rose in his left hand represents purity and innocence. He has a guardian in the little white dog who will protect him throughout his journey but who will also push him to learn the lessons the Fool came here to learn. The mountains behind the Fool represent the realms of Spirit that he has just left and will spend his life trying to regain.

Archetypes of the Hero's Journey

When embarking on a spiritual journey understanding symbols and archetypes becomes essential.

Exploring Symbols and Archetypes: 

Symbols are sign posts guiding the hero down paths of the unknown. . .

Archetypes are models or patterns of energy. . . knowledge of which informs the hero about what type of challenge she/he may be working with or facing, friend or foe. . .

For those of us on healing and creative soul journeys, symbols offer clues to direct our path. Archetypal characters represent people we meet and face in our ordinary world expanded to mythic proportions.  The wolf in Little Red Riding Hood represents an archetype the dangerous stranger, the rapist, or serial killer, who could victimize us if we are unable to recognize them on the street. The wisdom of our ancestors passed down to us through myth/story.  Our recognition of the archetype assists us in interpreting our experiences and recognizing friend and foe.

What symbols and archetypes do you recognize? 

How powerful an impact symbols and archetypes may have on your psyche would depend on your knowledge and experience of their use. The more symbols and archetypes you recognize the better prepared you will be for the road ahead.

The danger for us comes through losing conscious connection/understanding with the knowledge of the past; when we have forgotten the meaning of a symbol and are only affected by a vague sense of shared resonance.

Over time, misuse or misunderstanding of a symbol can create new associations and fearful responses. We might recognize that a symbol holds importance but not know how to interpret it or use it in our lives. 

Growing our recognition of archetypes and symbols is useful to our personal development and lends richness to our life journey.

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Joseph Campbell's book, Hero With a Thousand Faces, examines the archetypal characters found across cultures, in our stories and myths. How many of these archetypes do you recognize?  Can you associate any of them with people who already appear in your ordinary life.

Seven Archetypes:

1. Hero: “The Hero is the protagonist or central character, whose primary purpose is to separate from the ordinary world and sacrifice himself for the service of the Journey at hand - to answer the challenge, complete the quest and restore the Ordinary World’s balance. We experience the Journey through the eyes of the Hero.”

2. Mentor: “The Mentor provides motivation, insights and training to help the Hero.”

The Threshold Guardian

3. Threshold Guardian/Demon: “Threshold Guardians protect the Special World and its secrets from the Hero, and provide essential tests to prove a Hero’s commitment and worth.”

4. Herald: “Herald characters issue challenges and announce the coming of significant change. They can make their appearance anytime during a Journey, but often appear at the beginning of the Journey to announce a Call to Adventure. A character may wear the Herald’s mask to make an announcement or judgment, report a news flash, or simply deliver a message.”

5. Shapeshifter: “The Shapeshifter’s mask misleads the Hero by hiding a character’s intentions and loyalties.”

6. Shadow: “The Shadow can represent our darkest desires, our untapped resources, or even rejected qualities. It can also symbolize our greatest fears and phobias. Shadows may not be all bad, and may reveal admirable, even redeeming qualities. The Hero’s enemies and villains often wear the Shadow mask. This physical force is determined to destroy the Hero and his cause.”

7. Trickster: “Tricksters relish the disruption of the status quo, turning the Ordinary World into chaos with their quick turns of phrase and physical antics. Although they may not change during the course of their Journeys, their world and its inhabitants are transformed by their antics. The Trickster uses laughter [and ridicule] to make characters see the absurdity of the situation, and perhaps force a change.”


Think about the people in your life. Think about the role(s) they have played and their influence on you. Where would you be on your journey through life without them? How have they helped or hindered you?

Banned! What THEY don't want you thinking about. . . The Science Delusion

Although this blog's themes may seem unconnected to the scientific research in which Rupert Sheldrake Ph. D. is engaged, his theories on Morphic Resonance do serve to provide a scientific foundation for understanding how the theories and research of others, namely psychologist Carl Jung and anthropologist Joseph Campbell, can be believed and applied as truth.

Scientific theories and research can now provide measurable proof-- for skeptics of the mystical, which can explain how knowledge of sacred symbols and archetypes may be passed along on a collective level with other evolutionary knowledge hardwired into our DNA. With scientific theories such as Morphic Resonance entering global consciousness, intuitive leaps made by free and creative thinkers in the past suddenly become more digestible and less likely to be relegated as dubious pseudo science.

There was a time when humanity collectively viewed the world as flat. This idea was held in place by the governing branches of the establishment, and even enforced by the ruling order of the Christian church through religious dogma. Today, Science has become a form of religion, and scientific dogma threatens to limit the expanding edge of evolution.

The following is the banned TEDx Talk,  entitled The Science Delusion at TEDxWhitechapel. given by Rupert Sheldrake Ph. D. on January 12th, 2013. The theme for the night was Visions for Transition: Challenging existing paradigms and redefining values (for a more beautiful world). In response to protests from two militant materialist bloggers in the US, the talk Rupert gave was later taken down by TED and placed in a special corner of their website. Before it was removed from their main website it had had about 35,000 views. Since it was "banned" it has been seen by at least half a million people.

I am sharing this talk with you because it raises some valid questions about how our society has erred in failing to apply scientific principles to our beliefs about Science itself. If we are going to value Science and scientific evidence as the measure of truth, ought we not be able to apply those same tools of measurement and achieve demonstrable proof that they hold up under their own weight? What delusions are in operation that could limit humanity's leap forward in evolution? Would correcting our understanding assist us in affecting changes and creating a better society, one more in harmony with the natural world?

As part of my personal development and Hero's Journey, I have come to recognize that all is not right in my society. Rupert is one of the teachers and guides I have discovered on my quest for knowledge, clarity, and purpose.



Rupert Sheldrake, a biologist and author, is best known for his hypothesis of morphic fields and morphic resonance, which leads to a vision of a living, developing universe with its own inherent memory. He worked in developmental biology at Cambridge University, where he was a Fellow of Clare College. He was then Principal Plant Physiologist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), in Hyderabad, India. From 2005 to 2010 he was Director of the Perrott-Warrick project, funded from Trinity College, Cambridge. [View Biography]

Seeking the Experience of Being Rapturously Alive

"People say that what we are all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive." - Joseph Campbell

STAR WARS' Luke as the Hero

The wisdom of the ages has been bequeathed to us by our ancestors in the form of myths, truth tellings, and because this wisdom is filtered through metaphor it provides guidance without the imposition of dogma. The Hero's Journey, the mono-myth illuminated by Joseph Campbell's work and writings, can be used as a template for living Life.

Viewing our personal stories laid against the backdrop of the Hero's Journey template can help us find clarity and meaning for the events and relationships within our life experience. Patterns of belief and disbelief emerge to be examined -demons to be overcome. We recognize our teachers and the gifts we have been given -tools needed for future battles. We begin to recognize where distractions have misdirected our steps -sirens luring us away from our intended destinations and goals.

More importantly, when we are able to recognize aspects of the mythic journey within our personal stories, we gain insights which allow us to direct our own path forward and which imbue deeper meaning and value to each step, each experience along the way.

Where will following the path of this epic journey lead us . . ? Some would say to empowerment . . . emancipation . . . to the experience of being fully, rapturously alive.

First, let us look for our hero self in the places where we live, the ordinary world, where all heroic journeys begin. . .

Spend time this week observing your life and taking stock of your world. Before you go anywhere you first have to know where you are starting from.

Later in our exploration of The Hero's Journey we will offer a guided meditation. . . Finding the Hero Within.