Notes

StoryBox University - Hero with a Thousand Faces
Week 1 - The Monomyth

-Myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into the human cultural manifestation.
-When we are born, we are born with some innate feelings towards mothers, towards fathers. These are hardwired in at a very young age. The father figure is the first radical intrusion of another order of reality for the newborn. The father is an enemy because he stands in the way of the mother and the child. We are thrust into this world with conflict knocking on our door.
-The Oedipus Complex is the idea that we are born with natural tendencies toward our mother and father, based on primal needs and wants.
-Freud writes, "All neurotics are either Oedipus or Hamlet". Which is to say, either hate the mother love the father, or vice versa.
-The unconscious sends all sorts of vapors, odd beings, terrors, and deluding images up into the mind. The example is give of Aladdin's Cave. We all have a treasure trove of deep emotions within us, but at the same time, we also have deep demons, fears, and terrors lurking within our souls.
-The role of the Wise Man is to work with us on our deep seeded emotions, to help us through the transitions between worlds.
-The rite of passage is there to help conduct people across those difficult thresholds of transformation. The rites help make the transition easier for us. I thought about how these rites are crumbling in our society. Blurred are the lines of transitory estates within our life. This has led to a cacophony of confusion within our world as far as roles, gender-identity, and families are perceived.
-Example: The rite of passage of circumcision helped a young boy transition into adulthood, there were no blurred lines. you became a man, took on additional duties, and prepared to take care of your family.
-Rites of passage were not only for the individual, but the society as a whole. They could grow, be reminded of the symbolism, and progress within their sphere of knowledge because of these rites.
-***It has always been the prime function of mythology and rite to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward, in counteraction to those constant human fantasies that tend to tie it back. Unfortunately, we remain fixated to the unexercised images of our infancy, and hence disinclined to the necessary passages of our adulthood. The goal is not to grow old, but to remain young.
-Our current society is focused on staying young, not growing old. We see it in the youth of the church. Many are foregoing the transitory rites that reflect a purposeful movement to a new sphere within their life. They are delaying things...to have fun, to stay young, to have less responsibility.
-One way or another these deep seeded emotions will come forward. Either through rites of passage, or by exposing themselves to a psychoanalyst. They cannot lay dormant forever. You must come to terms with your inner self and demons, or you will be destroyed. In the past, society had helped in this process, but now, we are left to our own devices.
-Great example of Minos the king, and his folly with the gods. He wanted glory, and was given it. They also sent him a beautiful bull to sacrifice to them as thanks. This was the rite, this was what he should have done to take on his deep emotions, but he ignored it, he didn't want to sacrifice it. Then, his wife got a hold of it and bare a son, a minotaur, a monster, all because of the king's sin. Then, Minos spent the rest of his life trying to hide his sin by building a labyrinth. And the story goes even farther with Theseus and Daedulus. Minus skipped the rite, and it revealed itself later on in his life.
-The king began to transform into a monster, delving into egocentric self-aggrandizement. He looked without to satisfy his desires, no longer looking within to better himself. He ran from his demons from his seeded emotions, rather than taking them on one by one.
-***By the sacrilege of the refusal of the rite, however, the individual cut himself as a unit off from the larger unit of the whole community: and so the One was broken into the many, and these then battled each other - each out for himself - and could be governed only by force.
-The monster is born out of these selfish traits. He is greedy and focused on his own benefit. He is self terrorized, fear haunted and cries for the redeeming hero, the carrier of the shining blade, whose blow, whose touch, whose existence, will liberate the land.
-The hero is born out of this tyrant. Because of the hardships, the struggles, and the fight that the tyrant created, a hero can emerge. Christ, born into the world. The hero can olnly enter the world through birth, must become something new.
-We must have a continuance of rebirth. Change must come from within our own walls. Theseus was born without the walls, and entered in. But, change can occur from within the walls as well.
-If only a portion of that lost totality could be dredged up into the light of day, we should experience a marvelous expansion of our powers, a vivid renewal of life. We should tower in stature.
-Viveka is an ancient term for discrimination. But it means to discriminate in what we learn, to learn truth through discriminating through lies.
-Archetypes are patterns of structural symbolism found within all cultures.
-Our world is full of symbolism, it is how we learn, how we transfer knowledge, how we progress as a people and society.
-Dream is the personalized myth, myth the depersonalized dream, both myth and dream are symbolic in the same general way of the dynamics of the psyche. But in the dream the forms are quirked by the peculiar troubles of the dreamer, whereas in myth the problems and solutions shown are directly valid for all mankind.
-A hero must change, must be reborn, then they must return to society and bring a gift, the knowledge that they have attained.
-Theseus followed a thread to get through the labyrinth. A simple thread led him out. This has many meanings, especially simplicity. It reminds me of Lehi's Dream and the iron rod. Hold to the rod, find the path, continue on and you will gain salvation.
-The internal journey of the hero is a microcosm of the outward journey they are taking on.
-The monomyth consists of separation - initiation - return. It reminds of the preexistance, earth, and heaven discussions we would give in the mission...very similar in methodology.
-Several Buddhist examples shared are so very similar to Christ and his journey.
-Fariy Tales are domestic, microcosmic triumphs. Myths are macrocosmic, world-historical triumphs.
-The hero must return to the world and make it a better place for all. They must unlock the flow of life into the body of the world, solve the eternal problem that was fixated. THis again draws on the gospel and the eternal truths of Christ's divine mission.

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Final thoughts...wow! great things to ponder in this reading. I thought a lot about our society as a whole and what we are doing. The rites of passage are interesting to think about. I think our culture is failing in this regard. I can see now, the importance of rites, symbolism, of myth. It is there to carry truths, guidelines, and values throughout history. i can see this eroding today. Satan is using this to blur the lines between truth and lie. I am excited to push forward in this book, and look forward to the first chapter.