The past few years have seen a slow emotional and mental evolution within myself that sort of makes having spasmodic freak outs and the subsequent knee-jerk publishing of blog posts related to such, sort of unnecessary.
This is such a fine, fine thing.
I can't tell you how amazing it feels to actually be able to inwardly note, with precise and solid indicators (like marking a child's height on the wall), how much I've grown in regards to the management of my own mind, my thoughts, and especially my emotions.
This is a personal process, something perhaps only I am aware of or can speak of, that has every reason to be called "heroic" ... if only in a Jungian/Joseph Campbell regard.
Read some Carl Yung if you need more clarification (even better Joseph Campbell, cause he makes it almost easy to understand) as I will surely not be able to explain that bit of reference to psychological mythos ... personal trials, challenges, victories .. and finally bringing the fruits of those victories back to share with others who might benefit from them.
I know it might be a bit vague, but I mean some thing *very* specific with that last bit...
So here is a distilled version:
If you suffer hardship and hard lessons and harder trials in this life of yours and if you choose to then sputter out and die? By your own hand or the hand of others? (both are constantly, very real possibilities, I know) ... If you are actually killed, made to go crazy or otherwise expire, by your own hand or that of others? Then there is no shame inherent in either case, and you should lose no sleep in the contemplation of either. Said plainly? "It's all good! You'll be planning a come back before you know it!" ...
Alternately...
If you suffer hardship and lessons and trials and then come to understand the nature of such? If you then, against ridiculous odds, choose to study it over many years and come to at least *some* degree of understanding of it? Should you chose to own it? And if you then bring that knowledge back to those who were present at the beginning of your hardship, or even humanity in general? With the full intent of sharing it? Then that is what Joseph Campbell would call the successful realization of a "hero's quest" ...
(from the video below) : "He/she has to come back ... or his quest isn't really finished at all"
Ironically .. as so much of my recent years seem to be .. here is a little video/song I wrote/made around 1996 or so ... a *long* time ago .. talking specifically about this idea ... the Jungian idea of the archetypal heroes quest ... I even reference Joseph Campbell (a popular "town shouter" in support of some of Jung's ideas) ... except, I call him "JC" ...
...
...
Regarding the psychology of a Jungian hero mythos?
The hero must always return to share some wisdom of his or her travails with the rest of the world; otherwise, the quest isn't really finished at all and the one thing said "hero" had quested for would be lost forever.
Think about it like this: if, in your travels and various difficulties, your myriad challenges and fights? If among such victories and failures you should find some life altering, some humanity altering discovery? And if you chose to not share it with the world in a way that impacts the life of another human being? Then what good is that discovery? I mean, other than a purely selfish and personal gain? Then what good is it? Cause then you would be jumping from Jung to Nietzsche and nobody really wants to do that now do they? LMAO ...
It's not even something I can describe adequately ... even with my formidable arsenal of metaphors and ghetto book knowledge!! ...
All that said..
The fact that my past 20 years have played out almost as a mirror to the idea expressed in the above video is quite funny.
I've had the choice of expiring or not expiring and I've always chosen to *not* expire (and on some occasions, I had no choice in such matters as it really was at the hands of others and at least on one particularly horrific occasion, I genuinely did expire but I came back ... true story) ...
I've been through hardship and hard lessons and harder trials ... and I decided to persevere (though there were moments of real trauma and doubt and there always will be) ... and I have decided to bring something back to share with others. Though I will be selfishly selective who I chose to share those things with ... cause I'm picky like that.
;-)
...
An Unofficial analysis of The Hero's Journey
I wanted to post something that I found online which is just fucking *uncanny* when considering the course of my own life over the past 15 years .. not that I think I'm special or that I feel superior ... but more so because I've been through really horrible, really violent things and have come out the other side, having learned invaluable truths along the way and because of said things; I am not saying this is how everyone might come to understand higher things ... but more so, that it's the way that I discovered such ... and I am grateful for such training ... regardless of the trauma, and quite literal "near death experiences" perpetuated by the various assaults against my person along the way. All is forgiven ... (though I still don't trust you who have been involved, or any one associated with you, at *ALL* ... and I will avoid all of you if at all possible; mark me.).
Carrying on...
The following is just uncanny to me because I can map certain events from my life over the past 15 years to each and every "waypoint" along the way of this "syllabus" ... in remarkably accurate consecutive order ... and no, I will not explain.
But things get fuzzy and unsure around point #9 ... which is relieving in a certain regard because, just as long as we are believing in voodoo? At least I'm way more than half way through all this fucked up shit ...
LMOA.
So here is the list I was talking about (it's Jungian, look the dude up if your curious, or better yet, read Joseph Campbell; I don't have the time to pontificate. Shit man, I read all this dude's shit when I was 20; now that I'm 48? I'm not about to stop and explain. But this here bit is a great introduction to his idea of the Hero mythos:
...
The Hero's Journey Outline
(copied from this page right here: http://www.thewritersjourney.com/hero's_journey.htm)
The Hero’s Journey is a pattern of narrative identified by the American scholar Joseph Campbell that appears in drama, storytelling, myth, religious ritual, and psychological development. It describes the typical adventure of the archetype known as The Hero, the person who goes out and achieves great deeds on behalf of the group, tribe, or civilization.
Its stages are:
1. THE ORDINARY WORLD. The hero, uneasy, uncomfortable or unaware, is introduced sympathetically so the audience can identify with the situation or dilemma. The hero is shown against a background of environment, heredity, and personal history. Some kind of polarity in the hero’s life is pulling in different directions and causing stress.
2. THE CALL TO ADVENTURE. Something shakes up the situation, either from external pressures or from something rising up from deep within, so the hero must face the beginnings of change.
3. REFUSAL OF THE CALL. The hero feels the fear of the unknown and tries to turn away from the adventure, however briefly. Alternately, another character may express the uncertainty and danger ahead.
4. MEETING WITH THE MENTOR. The hero comes across a seasoned traveler of the worlds who gives him or her training, equipment, or advice that will help on the journey. Or the hero reaches within to a source of courage and wisdom.
5. CROSSING THE THRESHOLD. At the end of Act One, the hero commits to leaving the Ordinary World and entering a new region or condition with unfamiliar rules and values.
6. TESTS, ALLIES AND ENEMIES. The hero is tested and sorts out allegiances in the Special World.
7. APPROACH. The hero and newfound allies prepare for the major challenge in the Special world.
8. THE ORDEAL. Near the middle of the story, the hero enters a central space in the Special World and confronts death or faces his or her greatest fear. Out of the moment of death comes a new life.
9. THE REWARD. The hero takes possession of the treasure won by facing death. There may be celebration, but there is also danger of losing the treasure again.
10. THE ROAD BACK. About three-fourths of the way through the story, the hero is driven to complete the adventure, leaving the Special World to be sure the treasure is brought home. Often a chase scene signals the urgency and danger of the mission.
11. THE RESURRECTION. At the climax, the hero is severely tested once more on the threshold of home. He or she is purified by a last sacrifice, another moment of death and rebirth, but on a higher and more complete level. By the hero’s action, the polarities that were in conflict at the beginning are finally resolved.
12. RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR. The hero returns home or continues the journey, bearing some element of the treasure that has the power to transform the world as the hero has been transformed.
..
(That's some fucking fucked up fucking shit right there, man.)
...
-------------------------------------------------------
this post is intended to be supplemental to the facts made public in my main website, http://www.jbhfile.com/; it probably will not make much sense to you if you have not already made yourself aware of the legal and personal efforts discussed in that site. please see http://www.jbhfile.com/ for a necessary introduction into why this blog exists. or, if you just like reading weird stuff, then don't. and, enjoy.
-------------------------------------------------------
jbh.
