Recently, I've been advocating for a new spin on the Hero's Journey. I, like many others, once saw it as one individual going out into the cruel, cold world. Battling demons and killing monsters. Then coming home to be celebrated and rightfully embraced. Joseph Campbell pointed out that sometimes the hero even brought medicine for the village. I now see that with our coming to an understanding about the outer world, the real focus needs to be on the inner world so we can eventually be sane enough to travel the outer limits and/or have residents of the outer limits announce their visits to the planet.
We are supporting the idea and practice of mental health, more recently. We are bucking systems that don't work and building a platform for future ones that will. Healing is being taken on, deep emotional healing which is altering family DNA, and the realization has become that no one can do your healing for you; and claiming affiliation with a deity does not grant you sanity. These such statements mean . . . I better have a solution to toss in the ring. I do. I believe that the showing of how to stay in one's lane and be a hero falls on the shoulders of mythologist. Not the comparative mythologist. Not the armchair evaluator mythologist. Not even someone who is still putting the new style mythology creator's pedal to the metal while learning the road, like me, mythologist. I am talking about some of today's embraced writers of fine storytelling which could one day be considered true mythology. Ursula Le Guinn was a mythologist. But even she went to school under the old methodology. She was a practitioner of Joseph Campbell's external mastery hero's journey- not always but a lot of the time. The new stories need not be brooding. The collective needs new light, engaging, and encouraging stories so we can move forward. Meaning if we writers just get out the way during the first, second, even third draft, then the final product will be new and innovated. Yes, that means we won't be able to pop out books like we're machines, but we aren't. I've always believed that storytellers and myth makers have a special role in any civilization's societies. Maybe others don't, but I feel it's an honor to even been given the chance to attempt to write stories and mythologies. I'm certain with a new style we'll get new smiles. Healthy ones which change the reader/listener to their core. All the while, everyone is in their lane. That's the future I see for novelist and the one I personally strive for. Hell, I've been working on Hour of Change for 2 years now and by today's prolific standards and my previous habits that's a long time. But I keep increasing my personal standards and with that comes changes in ideas and dialogue for my manuscript. I do know that the only perfection is imperfection so 2020 will be the birthing of The Chronicles of Mow Yen: Hour of Change. We can only change the social momentum one idea, one story, one myth at a time and that means being social, engaging, with our products; and we got to start somewhere. Because, the medicine comes not from the outside but from within and novelist, again, have to help the communities which are directing people in that internal direction. Thanks for Listening! Sabrina Louise Andielle Crow Crew
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"In the beginning, there was nothing but the Great Self, Brahman. That is to say, nothing but Brahman existed." This is one of the kick ass pillar God's. One of the Gods that is the substance which the other gods are made of. A Yahweh, sorta speaking. Well, Brahman got so lonely that he also became fearful. These emotions caused him to create the Creator- a Creator that's not important to this post , but had to be mentioned.
Anyway, I got to thinking about how Brahman could be important to myth makers and storytellers like myself. Truth be told, when we are on the verge of coming into the public and start hocking our wares, we are so nervous that we become afraid. There is nothing which will produce fear and statis greater than thinking that something that you've put your heart and soul into will be publicly rejected or worst, deemed valueless. Lack of support from community, family, and friends will put such fear in your heart and can lead to the development of a mental illness or breakdown. During this time of the year, being lonely enough to create a being to share time and space with can happen to anyone- especially us fellow creative types. So what's a writer to do, besides write? Communicate, express yourself, get that creative energy moving, that's what. Now is not the time for things to get stuck without having some sort of support system for your voice in place. Now, with the public service announcement shared, let's look at what a healthy writer can look forward to when they are lonely and fearful. Creativity. Creative energy like never before. Energy which we can and should ride. That is unless you've bypassed such energetic motivational need. In that case, let the fear go and learn to create out of joy. They joy of creating will block the loneliness and fearful thoughts. When we're first coming out there is so much nervousness and it comes from a lack of confidence. We're moving like rabbits with their fearful zigs and zags defensive movements. But after a while the fear of the unknown has to be let go of. That's what it all comes down to, because the mind is a beautiful servant to a focused master. Select to be in joy and do your joy thing so well that it attract others, both in and supportive of the field of creativity that you're in. Even Brahman did it- let go of the loneliness enough to create everything we see on this earth. Which is why I have belief that we can and will do it also. Until later fellow myth makers, storytellers, and lovers of all things story. Thanks for listening! Sabrina Louise Andielle When I first started writing Lady Agape's story back in August, it was the result of an idea that came to me in April. See, Agape and Connor were enemy warlords. Agape even had assassins! There were eight women on Agape's council and Connor was going to die from one of Agape's assassin's bullet after he wiped out nearly everything Agape, including Agape. But that, like a lot of other storylines didn't feed me. As I created beyond the initial thrill, I became drained.
I think that by the time I first conceived Agape, I should have known that for my soul's caged bird to be free and sing I would need to stay in spiritual expression. But how would I, could I, feed the desire for and bliss of storytelling? I mean, the spiritual books that were successfully published and selling were a couple hundred pages long at most. I, on the other hand, have always had dreams of writing either a series or a collection of stand alone tomes of fantasy. Even though I knew that my area of natural knowledge and wisdom was with Spirit, I decided to follow my bliss and write Epic/High Fantasy. Well, I tried to write Epic/High Fantasy. The job of writing was so blocked. My attempts of sharing stories with themes of Laws of Spirit expressed by my elves, dwarfs, and daring human men and women following the Hero's Journey formula was a failure, major bust. I even gave up the idea that I could communicate my thoughts in a coherent manner. I stop writing and went deep into my depression. My friend told me that I should stick at it because it was my purpose and that writing would help me with my illness. Years passed without me doing anything and soon we were in 2017 and I made a promise to myself- I would just follow my joys , whatever they may be. Long story short; I discovered that I could still write the elements of good stories which were fantastical or/and totally fiction while staying true to the new truths of life within the illusion of reality. Plus there was an emerging genre that was being recognized as such: Visionary Fiction. Still, I haven't found anyone who is attacking this genre the way I do, it's okay. Just mean that I've in fact found my genius and my contribution to the collective consciousness. This means, I made it! I hung in there until a new island was found for me to explore. Now that I have a foundation's history and an audience's expectation for a spiritual story, a story with spiritual vision, a metaphysical vision, to guide me along the way. Patience and divine timing has paid off for me as I'm able to recognize the landmarks and translate the overview map titled: New Mythology for the New Spirituality. An ode to the Spiritual Journey that has been birthed out of the Hero's Journey of the past 2,000 years. Thanks for Listening -Sabrina Louise Holloway Andielle In the spring of 1968, Joseph Campbell learned that a mental disorder that affect more people than we would like was also an inward journey that could be closely associated with the hero journey as he so deemed the process. The illness I'm speaking on is Schizophrenia. I know a thing or two about this illness that affect the thinking as well as produces audio and visual hallucinations. It is a disease that can be related to the shaman's initiation and for some stricken with the dis-order it presents a chance to give something to the world, if it's just a well adjusted child or a friendly face that knows there is more to this world than what meets the eye.
In Lady Agape & The New Dimension, Agape has to deal with the illness on both sides of the spectrum. First her father is in the mental hospital due to schizophrenia and has been in and out of them since his wife died. Agape was just a child of 12 when this all started; so she know no stigma around the illness that affect her by handle. In the first chapter I have her visit the mental hospital where her father is dealing with visual hallucinations and I show how a loving family member interact with the dis-eased one. I wanted to show the family's side- even if just briefly. The rest of the story Agape has to deal with the antagonist, Nancy Stone, who is triggered by the illness after killing her entire family (as in parents, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews) and two voices arise to help her navigate through the mess she's created. My dealings with Nancy is more in depth with the illness as she is separated from her self and decide to continue walking with her illusions. I mean this was a strong young woman that had everything going for her until greed convinces her to murder. If coming too (as all with the dis-ease does from time to time) and realizing what you've done to that which you love and knowing that you must now deal with the consequences doesn't make her you separate from yourself again I don't know what will. That is, unless you're a natural born killer which Nancy is not. Afterwards she is initiated. Her initiation involves the conflict between her and the protagonist, Lady Agape, who is an unseen ancestor in this dimension- another voice, another shadow. Nancy makes it through on the other side, even with the voices and the sights. And like it or not she becomes Queen; which is her return. (But that's not the end of Nancy's Journey.) When I was brainstorming the story of Lady Agape, I knew that I wanted to deal with this mental illness and show at least two of the many sides of it. As the story continue to manifest from a private idea to a thing that can be shared, I see that even with a antagonist that has schizophrenia there is still much wiggle room left. But I can only put so much into one story. The thing I hope most is that I do the illness some honor and explain what it's like for some to the best of my ability. I see them as the brave ones who are called to take the journey of the hero by having a mind considered to need medicine in order to operate when in reality the medicine only present an obstacle at best and prevention of potential at worst. That is until the patient becomes stabilize and the medicine makes no difference because the journey has been taken, the lesson has been learned, and chemicals have been altered. For the shaman that means acceptance of who they are, that is the ultimate return that is the ultimate healing. You go shaman! In an era when all journeys are inward, maybe we all suffer from schizophrenia or at least the lucky ones. -Thanks for listening |
AuthorOne of those writer folk telling stories, reviewing the writer's adventure, and presenting the hero's journey. All wrapped in Spirit, the Kingdom of God, the Sanatana Dharma, the Tao, the Way, or the Absolute. Archives
February 2020
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