🌀🐇 #37 Beyond The Hero's Journey

​ ​ ​ ⚡️ Enlightening Bolts In this issue, we explore Beyond The Hero's Journey. Here are some of the key points and resources we'll explore: ☝️The Main Character Paradox: On Supporting Roles and Moving Beyond Center Stage 📚Like Stories of Old: The Fundamental Difference Between Stories and Reality. 🐲Future Thinkers: Archetypes and Stories Beyond The Hero's Journey. 👁 Finding Significance: 10 Timeless Reasons Why Your Life Matters Did someone forward you this email? Get this newsletter every week when you [sign up here.](​ 🎇 Image of The Week ​ At first glance, this photo looks like it's in color but it's actually black and white with colored gridlines. It demonstrates the "Color Assimilation Grid Illusion" that was discovered by digital media artist and software developer Øyvind Kolås. The colored grid layout causes the grayscale cells to be perceived as having color. This effect even works in video as you can [see here.](=)​ Beyond Heroic 🦸🏻‍♀️Last week we dove into the [Hero's Journey]( and its value as a lens from which to view the unfolding of our lives. This week we will look at some of its limitations as we explore beyond a hero-centric perspective on life. ​ 🎬It's useful to view yourself as the main character in a story to experience deep meaning. I describe this in my article on why your life matters (linked at the bottom of this email). But this is clearly not the only vantage point from which to view the multidimensional experience of life. Becoming overly attached to viewing yourself as the center of the show is a recipe for narcissistic preoccupation and self-absorption. 🤝Yes you ARE a main character but everyone else is too. Everyone is living out their own journeys. So just as they play a supporting role in your life, you do the same for them. And these roles are just as significant as the center of the story because without a supporting cast there is little room for movement and growth. Interactions advance the plot. Otherwise, there is no force sculpting the character into transformation. 🏛 So here is where we meet our first juncture in expanding beyond the hero's perspective. Viewed from inside the Hero's journey, you can investigate how you might serve the role of mentor for another budding hero. This can occur later in life as a wise sage or for someone who is treading similar territory where you have already traveled. You can use your experience from your own hero's journey to impart wisdom to someone else who is moving through an initiatory process. Here you serve as a catalyst and a step along the road. You may never know how their story ends and the significance of the role you played but that does not diminish the value of serving this role of stewardship. Seeds planted do not need to be seen as a mature tree by the one who sowed it to offer shade and sustenance to future generations. ☯️ And although Joseph Campbell called the hero's journey the monomyth, there are other structures that can offer us different roles that exist beyond the interactions of heroes, mentors, and villains. We'll explore this more in the coming weeks but you can start with this [insightful exchange](=) from Charles Eisenstein and The Future Thinkers. 🎞 It's important to highlight that no matter the lens from which you are viewing life, that it is just that: a lens. No story structure is vast enough to contain the complexity of being. The map is not the territory. Living life isn't the same as telling a story. This [3-part series]() from Like Stories of Old thoroughly explores this distinction. If you're chronically reflecting on your life to measure your level of heroism it can diminish your quality of life by ripping you out of the present due to your preoccupation with some yet unfinished story. 🧵The truth is we are all living through an amalgamation of different plots all unfolding in this interwoven tapestry called life. And they end when they are ready and sometimes they don't ever reach a satisfying conclusion. But that's okay. The value of stories isn't to form fit our lives into some predefined structure but to use their characters as inspiration to embody certain qualities during opportune moments. By allowing tales where heroes overcome adversity and defy impossible odds to become ingrained into our psyche, we can use their journeys as a template for behaviors and choices we wouldn't otherwise make. ⏳With that said, heroic moments are not all that makes up life. If you describe the heroic arcs from your own life you'll notice you must leave out an enormous amount of details. So much is left on the cutting room floor. You can live out the hero's journey step-by-step but every stage is interspersed with ordinary moments that would never make it into a feature film production. If we worship peak intensity and high drama at the expense of the moments that wouldn't make it in the script, we can start to disregard the mundane moments that fill so many of our days. These moments are not be discarded but cherished. Next week, we'll explore a mythic pattern that can help us marvel in the mundane and discover magic hiding in the forgotten pockets of everyday existence. 🌱 Stories Are Alive Christopher Vogler describes his feelings on the living nature of story: "I have always suspected that stories are alive. They seem to be conscious and purposeful. Like living beings, stories have an agenda, something on their minds. They want something from you. They want to wake you up, to make you more con­scious and more alive. They want to teach you a lesson disguised as entertainment. Under the guise of amusement, stories want to edify you, build up your character just a little by showing a moral situation, a struggle, and an outcome. They seek to change you in some small way, to make you just a bit more human by comparing your behavior to that of the characters." 🤓 Learn This Word Enantiodromia: is a Jungian term that he defined as “the emergence of the unconscious opposite in the course of time. This characteristic phenomenon practically always occurs when an extreme, one-sided tendency dominates conscious life; in time an equally powerful counterposition is built up which first inhibits the conscious performance and subsequently breaks through the conscious control.” This concept begs interesting questions about the hero's journey and the tendency to draw stark lines between forces of pure good and irredeemable evil. Life is much more ambiguous. As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn famously said “If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” ⏳ From The Archives A hand-picked classic HighExistence article ​[10 Timeless Reasons Why Your Life Matters](=)​ If the world has ever attempted to lasso your soul and pull you into a pit of nihilistic hopelessness, consider this a memo from the universe zapping you with an electrical current of meaning. There is an inextinguishable significance to your life. Yes, specifically YOUR life. This significance does not exist purely because you wish it into existence. It is not a matter of make-believe. It is real and there are timeless reasons for it. My hope is that reading this will plant the seeds to help you feel your significance in your bones. That it might burn so vividly that others can see it shining in your eyes. And, who knows, they might even catch a glimpse of their own significance reflected in your gaze. ​[Continue Reading](=)​ 🎬 Endnote We hope you enjoyed this issue of Down The Rabbit Hole. Feel free to reply and tell us what you think. Want to help us spread the word? We love sharing these gems of wisdom and wonder with you each week. If you love receiving them and want to help us spread the word, here is one quick way you can do that: Forward this email to one friend. That's it. It will take 5 seconds and will help us spread the good vibes and reach more people. We appreciate you. With Wonder, Mike Slavin & The HighExistence Team P.S. Did a friend forward you this email? Read previous issues and sign-up to receive future issues here: [(​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​[Unsubscribe]( | [Update your profile]( | 40 E. 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