The Heroine's Journey

I just returned from a beautiful Saturday at Camp Christian where I helped Wendy with a Retreat we called "The Heroine's Journey."

After a wonderful opening prayer from Ellen which involved both chanting and dancing, we were ready to look at the stages that we go through on this spiritual journey of saying YES to God's invitation to growth.  Much of this is based on the work of Joseph Campbell plus the book The Heroine's Journey.  I gave a little talk - or more like a conversation - about a subject that we could have spent a week praying and reflecting on.  I want to share the handout from today with some annotations from my talk and the  reflection questions.

What I believe is that everyone of us is called to our own journey - we are the heroine and the our God is continually inviting us to growth and to becoming our true authentic selves.  The question is always where or not we say yes.  Or stay with it.

                                  The Heroine’s Journey

1.  1.   The Call – When have you experienced it?

           Is there an invitation right now?

The real work of our lives is to become aware.  And awakened.  To answer the call.”  Oprah Winfrey

2.  2.   Leaving Home

            Leaving Mother

            How have you left mother?

            How have you identified with father?

          Letting go of security “dropping your nets”

3.  3.   Initiation – Training

      Describe the ways in which have learned and become initiated?

      What I realize is how important books have been to me on my own journey and at the same time that having a supportive community has been really important. 

      Who have been your Mentors

4. 4.     Recognition of Demons     -“ The ultimate key words are fear, guilt, shame, grief, lies, illusion, attachment”

What demons have you identified and extinguished?

What demons are you struggling with?

5. 5.   Facing the Monsters - the journey with God will lead us into a realization of the evil that is part of life on earth.  (Like racism, sexism, greed, homophobia, xenophobia)

T"there comes a time when we grow up that we start to see “the underbelly” which may not affect us – but others.  Maturity means that even though we love our country – there are problems to address

Even though we love our church – there are issues that have to be dealt with"

What are the monsters that you face because you are on this journey?

6.6.    Facing the Abyss – When have you experienced this?

          What does the “Abyss” look like for you?

“It is my going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life.  Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.”  Joseph Campbell

7. 7.    Healing and Integration

 Healing the wounds from childhood  

Experiencing the Grace of God

What needs to be healed now?

8.8.     Returning Home -

How are you different than you used to be?

What has changed

“Everything changes when you start to emit your own frequency rather than absorbing the frequencies around you, when you start imprinting your intent on the universe rather than receiving an imprint from existence.” ~ Barbara Marciniak

 This is just an outline of an paradigm that reminds us that our life can be an adventure - as we take risks - say YES to the Invitations -  that are offered to us - to grow, to go, to learn, to serve, to become. 

It reminds us that it is not easy all the time - we face ourselves(our best and worst selves), and some of the ugliness of the world, and we have to have the courage to grieve and mourn the losses that are part of life.  But what I believe is that if God invites us to step out in faith - God WILL show up when we need God.

And I can only say that the more you look for God, listen for God, trust God – the more peace you will have in all the transitions of life.  The growth – potentially  -  never stops. 

The fruit of the faithful journeying is the realization that life is an eternal adventure, and that we are explorers, always changing, always learning, always breaking open into new vistas of clarity and peace.