Hitchhiking on the Hero’s Journey

I’ve always enjoyed quest stories, stories in which the somewhat innocent naive protagonist through undertaking a series of adventures reaches a defined goal (returning home, finding his/her fortune, destroying the one ring etc) and comes out enlightened in some manner. Perhaps reading these stories becomes in some sense a form of religious ritual for me. I imagine myself in the shoes of the hero or heroine. I become Jack going up the beanstalk and escaping from the giant. I find myself, stuck to the tar baby like Br’er Rabbit begging Br’er Fox not to throw me into the briar patch. I can see myself as Aladdin, trapped in the cave rubbing the lamp to get it lit, Alice down the rabbit hole and Luke Skywalker taking that last desperate shot to destroy the Death Star. Their journeys too I have undertaken within my imagination. It doesn’t appear to be restricted to words on paper. Movies and TV shows can also spark my imagination tho somehow it doesn’t feel as effective.

I go into Chapel Perilous, seeking the grail only to find I must encounter the darkness inside myself. I sit down with the Mad Hatter and the Dormouse to find that their word puzzles and inverted logic reshapes my mind into new insights. I take peyote with Carlos Castaneda and jump across the abyss. I fight their demons, both inner and outer (assuming for a moment that there exists a difference). If in facing their demons and perhaps by doing so discover and confront my down, can I claim a piece of the enlightenment at the end.
I don’t know.

Books That I’m Reading or have recently finished

I still find myself shifting between multiple books. Call it Add, Call it a more kaleidoscopic experience. Heck call it Ishmael.

Living in the Heart by Drunvalo Melchizadek– After finishing his Serpent of Light-Beyond 2012 book, I found myself wanting to read everything that Melchizadek has written. His message about where this planet is heading and how to develop spiritually with the planet is that important. Plus Melchizadek writes so vividly about the ceremonies that he has taken part in that the reader is swept along usually in a rather transformational way. Living in the Heart could be one of the most important books that I have read. The guided meditation on the CD is definitely powerful.

Emails From the Universe by Robert Anton Wilson I have been immersing myself in RAW’s lectures and books lately and find the experience enlightening, inspiring, mystifying and downright funny. I find myself alternately laughing, blown away with insight or throughly puzzled in a thought-provoking way. This book is probably the last one published before Wilson left the party in 2007. It is a collection of essays, articles and interviews with and by RAW published over the last 30 years. Wilson intimates at the beginning that reading this book will infect the reader with certain subversive memes. 😉

Turn Coat by Jim Butcher – The One fictional book in the bunch here. The latest in the series of novels by Butcher starring professional wizard, Harry Dresden. The blurbs describe this series as a combination of Buffy and Philip Marlow and that has some truth. My favorite literary guilty pleasure.

Virus of the Mind-The New Science of the Meme by Richard Brodie This book has brought me a lot of enjoyment. A meme , according to Brodie and several others is “a unit of information whose existence influences events such that more copies of itself get created in other minds” . In other words, the way i understand it a thought construct such as a slogan, a piece of music or an idea that once it gets in your head, you start humming it or passing it along. Could be anything from the first notes of Beethoven’s Fifth (DA DA DA DUH) to “Bush is a moron” to “Everything is One” It occurs to me that i definitely need a greater awareness of which memes are running loose in my brain.

A Garden of Pomegranates by Israel Regardie (Edited and Annotated with New Material by Chic & Sabdra Tabatha Cicero A new edition of an old classic. I am intrigued.

Tomorrow-the Hanged Man Reading and hopefully will get the video from Hurricane Ridge finished.

Awake?

What does it mean to wake up? “I was asleep but I’m awake now” “Wake up! You’ll be late for / will miss/ are missing something.

Lately after what seems a far too long period of sleepwalking through my life, ignoring half of the things i know, keeping things as surface as possible, lost in the mundane, possibly working on my root stuff, i feel like I have awaken. There is definitely a new balance in the air. I am becoming aware of things that i have known but forgotten and perhaps things that I have never realized before. It is quite a trip.

Who am I? Whoever the voice in your head says that I am. It might surprise both of us.

Books being read: Tarot for Writers by Kenner; In the Earth Abides the Flame by Russell Kirkpatrick

I seek to go where i haven’t before–to gain new stories to amuse myself and others. I wish to reflect and be reflected–to learn to teach–to exist-to entertain and to grow in love and the capacity to love but things happen when they are ready and i will not force the issue. 🙂 Walk with me, visit and we’ll share.

Video of the day — Nina Simone-Feelings (Montreux Jazz Festival)

This is intense but rather amazing.