Volunteer's Blog

Some(one) is calling…

“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path.” 

Joseph Campbell

This project has been a quest for self-transformation, for creative rebirth. We go out and seek, so that we can discover that the seeker is itself the mystery which the seeker seeks to know.

There are three major phases to great stories in mythology, based on Joseph Campbell’s work and documented in The Hero with a Thousand Faces. These phases are Separation, Initiation and Return. The separation part is something shakes up our ordinary world. Divorce. Illness. Moving to another country. The feeling of being ostracized by everyone that surrounds you or the death of a relative . In my case all of them of the past 6 months. But for those of us that answer the call, our life will not be the same.

At this point, the universe offers some help. We meet mentors who help to guide us. We have the right conversation  or a dream inspires us. Our higher self is supporting us, and the universe will protect us as we become willing to take the leap into the unknown.

We cross the threshold into unfamiliar territory, and there is no looking back.

Our ego and our fear have loosened its grip upon us enough so that we are already leaving behind who we were and opening up to what awaits.

When Initiation starts more allies join us. Or we acquire skills or develop aspects of ourselves previously ignored. With these allies, skills, and newfound parts of ourselves, we face the monsters. We are tested. This is a dark night of the soul. We must acknowledge our worst fears and use all of our skills and wisdom to overcome the challenge. Sometimes we are victorious. Sometimes we are not.  Now we are aware of the mysterious dangers, but they no longer possess us as they once did. There is a willingness to change, to follow our heart and acknowledge the danger as a matter of fact that we have no control upon.

When we feel the flow of the universe, when we enjoy what we are doing and love who we are being, we are connecting to our consciousness and our true selves. That is the true result of following our hero’s journey.

The final stage is the Return, on closure of the quest, the hero generally sets off for home to bring the knowledge of his adventure to others. In some cases, the hero does not wish to come back, he may hold a belief that those still in the former world cannot comprehend what the hero has learned.  But we are still in the middle of the journey here in Bali. Let’s wait for the next chapters…

In our modern world, where news is instantaneous, language is of minor limitation, and technology allows us to go where no one has gone before – boundaries take on a new nature. Where do our human limitations end? As alluded to above, all humanity faces limitations in time and ability to release from ego. Our hope and salvation is in surpassing those limitations in our individual journey. A new mythology for our times is evolving.

Can you see it?