While the hero's journey, first elaborated upon by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, may seem esoteric, that is, intended for the select few who have special knowledge in archetypal symbolism, it actually belongs to all of us. That makes it exoteric, intended for the general public. (Greek exoterikos--inclined outward.) Campbell mentored George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, who used Joseph Campbell's writings in his creation of the series, especially his motif of adventure and personal transformation. Is there anyone who doesn't remember Luke Skywalker and his decision to answer the call to his own hero's journey? Ah, yes, the rest is film history.
In our school years, we learned about Greek and Roman heroes and classic ones like St. George who slew the dragon and saved a village, making its lesser known name, the Monomyth, even more applicable to us--the one great myth that describes the difficult, often life challenging times in all of our lives.
So, what could be more helpful during an unexpected pandemic than a classic but simple explanation of what is happening to us right now and how our story could possibly turn out in the end?
Sometimes understanding the situation can remove enough agonizing uncertainty to enable us to cope more effectively with whatever is thrown at us.
One of my favorite Jungian analysts James Hollis wrote that tolerance for uncertainty is the key to happiness, but that seems to be a tad simplistic these days. So here goes--an attempt to explain the cycle of the hero's journey as it applies to the people of 2020 Covid-19.
The journey begins with the call, and it's a call to leave the normal world and descend to the unknown one. We can accept it or refuse it, but if we do refuse this call, the journey stops right here, end of story. If, however, we decide to take up the gauntlet, we then arm ourselves with the unique courage of advancing toward uncertainty with the facts we have in order to conquer the unknown and face our fears. Pretty daunting, right? Well, off we go.
Making the decision to answer the call simply means following the guidelines--wearing a mask, socially distancing, avoiding crowds, quarantining, and listening to the advice of doctors and scientists before crossing the threshold into the unknown territory of thriving amidst Covid.
Now that we're squarely into unknown territory, we must remember we are not traveling down this road alone. Helpers appear to join us on the journey. Friends, family, businesses, government, and now schools are taking advantage of technology as never before. ZOOM meetings, videos, Schoology, Face Time, and a myriad other online media have held our communication needs in their safety net. Families and friends who live together have often been a much needed source of not only social interaction but solace as well. In the classic hero journey stories of old, a spiritual helper appears to help the traveler on his or her way. Our houses of worship have made great strides in offering online services and prayer time--some daily, as well as other forms of help needed, and not just the spiritual kind.
Here's where the more difficult leg of the journey begins. Throughout this trek through the unknown, tests and trials are inevitable: job loss, sickness, isolation and altered daily routine, leading to mild or serious depression. Both human and spiritual helpers often show up to pick us up from our misery and help us to move onward.
Every hero's journey of old relates a belly-of-the-whale ordeal, also sometimes referred to as the inmost cave life-and-death episode in the realm of the unknown. This part of the course is most difficult because it is here that we encounter Covid sickness and death, perhaps even our own. We listen to daily reports as the numbers infected and dead keep rising, and we rejoice when the graph levels off and gives us hope for leaving that cave and continuing to the journey's end.
Isolation can make us feel as if we are indeed trapped in a cave, even when we know there are victims of the virus isolated from friends and family in hospitals, sometimes intubated, unable to receive the physical comfort of their friends and family. Yet depression from isolation and altered routine, job and income loss can also throw us into that inmost cave of despair. Reopening of the economy, despite the caution to continue self-protection, has not been successful as cases rise and businesses and schools close again. Teachers and parents are fearful, and with good reason. They're not buying herd immunity or the confidence that all will be well with brick-and-mortar openings, and so we continue to struggle in the realm of the unknown. Add a politically divided nation and brutal racial unrest to the worst economic status since the Great Depression alongside a raging coronavirus pandemic, and, yes, it may seem as if the whale has swallowed us.
One day we will prepare for the return to the upper world of the "normal" when a vaccine is available, the percentage of cases has dropped significantly, and our leaders see that the time is right for opening up the economy and schools again. The hero, that would be all of us who traversed this path, will leave behind the transcendental powers and re-emerge from the kingdom of dread. The boon that we bring with us will restore the world.
Wait. What boon?
The heroes who have been infected with the virus or have been working with or around Covid patients return home with a new perspective about life. Those of us who have not been directly touched by Covid have had the opportunity to learn important truths about ourselves and the people around us. Coping with loss is a tragic way to learn lessons, but many of us have also had the boon of time--more time to pause and think about what matters most to us, more quality time with family even during rough periods. Churches have even announced an increase in attendance because of online services.
When our hero's journey actually comes to an end, we will bring home with us the elixir, the "Golden Fleece" of treasures. What treasure, you ask, could possibly come out of a pandemic? Well, how about a sense of awareness about our own fragility, our vulnerability, but also our strength? And what a boon for us to finally comprehend the destructibility of a life we thought was invincible, and finally the much needed consciousness of the supreme value of human life over quick but illusory fixes.
We will have persevered and stayed the course on our own hero's journey, but remember the real prize is this: Unless you answered the call, crossed the threshold into the unknown world, suffered the tests and trials, you will not return home with the priceless knowledge that you are indeed not the same person who began the journey. The knower and the known have become one, friends, and what greater prize than that.
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