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.

Something is Wrong in My World . . .

The Journey begins with a feeling of unease, the sense that there is something out of alignment or wrong in one's world.

At the root of unease is the dawning recognition that something --in our world view, our society, and/or the circumstances reflective of our beliefs, has become out of sync with our expanding experience. It may be that our inner and outer experiences are in conflict. We might have noticed that the material circumstances around us are in opposition to our inner desires or aspirations.

Socrates

Each of us has our own set of experiences, our own defining belief patterns, all tools with which to build our reality, to create using. And so, there are many things that could be triggering a feeling of discontent with the status quo. The Hero's Journey always starts from that realization point. "Something is wrong in my world. . ." It is from this seed that the path of discovery unfolds.
If you are ill-at-ease in your life, it pays to take time out from doing, for reflection and self examination.

Questioning one's beliefs and expectations is a sign of growing awareness. 

Left unexamined feelings of unease multiply, allowing confusion and discontent to grow. Soon those feelings will color and influence the totality of our experience, until we are forced to take action and make different choices. Our feelings, acting as a compass, show us how far in or out of alignment our choices and actions may be taking us from our higher purpose and joy. The worse we are feeling, the further we are from receiving our true desires, and from alignment with Source.

Through self examination awareness is discovered, and the Call of Life is heard.

Listen for that call. It will lead you toward action and down the path to enlightenment. Avoiding the call life gives is as productive as holding our breath. We simply die.  It is honoring that call which leads us forward into a life more fully and freely lived.

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.