The Hero’s Journey?

Image by Ken Barthelmay

WHY WE NEED NEW STORIES, the astrology of now

As the God of War, meets the Lord of the Underworld on March 2nd, we have a massive opportunity to upgrade our collective mythology.

On March 6th, Venus & Mars will meet at the 00° point of Aquarius, indicating that with awareness, that is where we are headed.

We are all familiar with the mono-myth, AKA the Hero’s Journey. And for good reason. It’s largely the story of us. And the hero, the main character of this story? Is Mars. The hot, red, warrior planet.

So this piece, is dedicated to Mars. As an exploration of how we all, to some degree or another, embody Him.

And why now might be the right time to upgrade this narrative. As it is so often co-opted by the collective to keep us warring with ourselves and each other.

In all my years of dancing in the realm of mythos the mono-myth has been a story arch that has utterly captivated me. It is the story of heroic initiation, and our society agrees that this is empowering.

So like Perseus, I took each invitation from the universe on like a dragon slayer. Hoping to dominate on my conquest.

However, in the last decade, I’ve begun a fuller, more nuanced inquiry into some of the not-so-nice dynamics this myth perpetuated in my life.

And what I’ve discovered, yet again, is another place that myself, and the collective could benefit from a wider menu of stories. Especially as we look over the horizon of a new war.

WHAT IS THE MONO MYTH?

“The monomyth, is the common template of stories that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed or transformed.”-Wikipedia

In this case, our Hero is transformed by the action of conquering.

Not by meeting the Underworld with presence, engaging deeply with it, allowing it to penetrate him. Emerging having transmuted the experience. In other words, there is no true alchemy.

Rather he engages by slaying. An indication that the mono myth sprung from dominator paradigm. (It did)

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The myth often separates the characters into camps of good and evil. And to be clear this projected polarization of good and evil is often hijacked to justify violence.

We are watching that happen right now on the world stage. Accusations of genocide being used to paint one party as evil. While the “hero” takes the position of “good guy”, and uses this story to excuse the action of conquering.

But it doesn’t just happen in overt ways. It also happens in nuanced ways, as it’s quite literally slipped into our cultural jargon.

Take our approach to the last two years, and the verbiage we’ve use.

We need to “fight against”, “Triumph over”. As if our bodies and our health is being “attacked by an silent invader”. I remember that last line being spoken at rally at one point.

And even more specifically, It’s a metaphor we apply to our inner life.

In the self help, human empowerment world we talk about going on a spiritual quest to fight our demons.

Stress, addictions, trauma, anger, self-criticism, our patterns, can all easily be seen as inner dragons in need of being slayed.

As Jaime Lee spoke about in our summit interview, the need to find new ways to navigate these “underworld” experiences.

Ways that involve a type of spiritual aikido, that results in transmutation, not energetically coming against a perceived opponent.

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This is idea if “coming against” rather than deeply engaging, is illustrated inside of the Myth of the Twelve Labors.

Wherein to absolve himself of the murders of his children, Hercules is given twelve tasks. One of the twelve tasks involved a trek to Lake Lerna to slay the Nine Headed Hydra.

Upon finding the Hydra’s Lair, Hercules and his Nephew, Iolaus, begin to shoot it with flaming arrows. Not initially making a difference, they begin to cut off the Hydra’s many heads.

To Hercules dismay, each time he cuts off one of the heads it grows back. Eventually, through ingenuity, they manage to overtake the Hydra until one head is left, an immortal one. Even when Hercules severs the Hydra’s mortal neck, the Immortal head continues to hiss and growl at Hercules. So Hercules buries the head considering it vanquished.

But it begs the questions, Did Hercules actually triumph when he buried the Hydra head? Is burying, sidestepping, or applying bandaid like measures an actual victory over “evil”?

Or does it merely just embed the problems ever more deeply? Keep them in a state of perpetuation? And is that the point?

Is the use of the complicated, “many headed” monster used as an excuse to keep us locked in a cycle of war?

As Caroline Elliot says in her book, “Existential Kink”, a revelatory Jungian exploration of our relationship to the shadow, “Having is evidence of wanting.”

In other words, the fact that we haven’t transformed it, is evidence that on some level we want it.

THE ASTROLOGY

As Venus and Mars travel through Capricorn, the sign of his exaltation, they will meet Pluto, the planet of transformation, in a matter of days.

Mars has drawn our attention. We’ve been captivated again by this story. Let this be a time of deep introspection around how we can engage differently with ourselves and each other.

Let this be a time of illumination, around how this archetypal story arch is co-opted to have us consent or act against our best interests.

Let this be a time of mythic transformation.

*Disclaimer. There are absolutely times this story arch is empowering. When it is married to alchemy.