MICRODOSING THE HERO'S JOURNEY
The Hero's Journey, per brilliant archetypal mythologist, Joseph Campbell, is comprised of 3 distinct segments:
1. Separation
2. Initiation
3. Return
The Masculine aspects of *both* men and women cycle through the Hero's Journey in both minor(ish) and *massive* life-destroying / life-creating ways. (The Feminine version is, appropriately, The Heroine's Journey, and is both different and quite parallel, with a more internal 'descent' as its primary archetypal feature.)
In Robert Kandell's most recent piece for The Good Men Project, he openly + courageously (like whoa) + vulnerably illuminates his experience with a prolonged period of celibacy....inside an um, "intentional sexual research community".
What I appreciate the most about Robert's essay is how deeply it illuminates the anatomy of the Hero's Journey in a very real life (IRL....as far as sex communes go, I suppose), "microdosed" and non-egoic way.
Here is a high-level drive-by of the components:
1. SEPARATION: He found himself at the mythic crossroads...his relationship had ended and he was not clear in his direction.
2. INITIATION: He was challenged BY THE FEMININE
(a classic but not necessary aspect of the Hero's Journey) to enter into the 'Dark Forest' and BEAR THE PAIN of meeting the archetypal dragon (aka: inner demons -- in this case, the need for external Feminine validation -- in Rob's potent words: "I saw the conniving and untruthful aspects of my psyche.")
3. THE RETURN: The man returns *precisely* to the same place he began...but he himself is now DIFFERENT:
he has been *INITIATED*.
He has been initiated and forged-through-pain into a deeper and more mature dimension of who he is.
Per Robert: "This five-month experiment drastically changed my entire life. I had a new deep reservoir of self-love and the skills to self-validate..."
This is a man who has *unhooked himself* from his own addiction and is able to source in his own integrity + sovereignty.
In other words, this is now a man who is capable of SERVING THE FEMININE instead of vampirically feeding off her for his own egoic appetite.
(ps: THIS IS AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT INITIATION FOR ALL MEN -- and one that our distorted culture actually obfuscates, which is perpetuating the lethal crisis of numb men in the Collective. In my lens, *nothing* is a more dangerous threat to our world nor more heartbreaking than The Numb Man.)
THIS is the path our world needs men (and women) to step more deeply into: one of courageous soul-baring, a willingness to BEAR THE DISCOMFORT of their own pain for a greater good, and a return to the very same world they left behind with a deepened sense of their own self-authorization and capacity to SERVE THE WORLD from a place of profound integrity.
I am deeply present to the horror of our world....and....
I do indeed realize that this is a story about 5 months of celibacy -- hardly a life or death situation.
However, I am *also* deeply present to what lies inside the heart of EACH OF US to allow ourselves to be deeply initiated and "hammered into love" by-- and through-- Life...however radical or petite these "forgings" may be.
Amidst all the darkness, its important we pause to recognize our *own* Hero(ine)'s Journeys: the hardship and unsung triumphs, our return to the very same place we once left, now more free, more whole, more alive than ever before.
We are EACH being forged: shaped by beauty, Eros, darkness, heartbreak, magic, love, and grief....
the Gods + Goddesses at once gently beckoning and brutally pounding us into new form and expression.
These are the days that our very Best Selves have been made for, my Loves.
The original post on facebook can be found here