"Because it felt like the dragon had a message for me, I cautiously tried a little active imagination. I remember thinking of the dragon and wishing if only I had some of the dragon's power and strength, and almost immediately, something shifted within me and the imaginal dragon answered: You have me. I am inside you." I really liked this passage, especially the part about " cautiously tried a little active imagination", which seems like a really great approach to the problem.
What a coincidence that I too dreamt about a dragon recently! Hah. Love these poignant lines, Priya: "I realized the dream dragon felt protective and intimidating, both a wall and a ceiling. I couldn't see what lay beyond the dragon. So, it was also a threshold."
Hi Priya, as you know, I love your writing, and I'm so enjoying how deep you're digging into Joseph Campbell's work. However, I'm still not convinced that the Hero's Journey is helpful for women. I have a sense that it's part of the old patriarchal hierarchies that are crumbling around us as we ease into this new era of Conscious Balancing of the divine feminine and sacred masculine energies within us all.
When Campbell talks about the father being "the initiating priest through whom the young being passes on into the larger world," I can see how this is applicable to the *father-son* relationship - as with Luke in Star Wars. And as you have probably read too, George Lucas was apparently good friends with Joseph Campbell.
But don't you think the *father-daughter* relationship is different? I often wonder if perhaps with the father-daughter relationship, behind the idealized image of a personal father stands the divine father... which also makes me wonder how the Rising of the Divine Feminine plays into the Hero's Journey...
Great points. I think elsewhere Priya has written about the critiques of Campbell’s attempt / life-work to cram all of human culture into one “monomyth.” There’s also Maureen Murdock’s work on the heroine’s journey. Still, that dragon is a powerful archetype.
I love that Substack facilitates this kind of conversation🥰 and yes, Sharon Blackie dives into Maureen Murdock's work in addition to Maria Tatar's 2021 book The Heroine with 1001 Faces, and I love this that she offers too:
‘Eco-Heroine’s Journey’
... a path to understanding how deeply enmeshed we are in the web of life on this planet.
In many ways, it is an antidote to the swashbuckling action-adventure that is the Hero’s Journey, with its rather grandiose focus on saving the world. …
This path forces us first to examine ourselves and the world we live in, to face up to all that is broken and dysfunctional in it and in our own lives.
Then it calls us to change – first ourselves, and then the world around us.
It leads us back to our own sense of grounded belonging to this Earth, and asks us what we have to offer to the places and communities in which we live.
Finally, it requires us to step into our own power and take back our ancient, native role as its guardians and protectors. To rise up rooted, like trees.
From time to time, a stack mention of an author impels me to buy the book. Now for the first time, I get four from one stack. Thankyou and Peace, Maurice
“This path forces us first to examine ourselves and the world we live in, to face up to all that is broken and dysfunctional in it and in our own lives. “ - I totally agree, and to an extent I think this is what all journeys are about.
Hello Camilla, I agree that the hero’s journey can be seen as a legacy of patriarchal societies. However, when I read Murdock’s heroine’s journey, I couldn’t resonate with the first half. I’m not an expert but in my life experience, there are broad (and specific) cultural differences that speak to more than one kind of heroine’s journey and post-heroic journeys. I want to offer that different stages of the so-called monomyths may coexist within one life journey. I have definitely seen micro hero’s and some of the latter stages of the heroine’s journeys fit within the larger background of my life.
I have read some of Sharon Blackie’s work and I will check out the link. Thank you, Camilla, for reading and commenting.
The story of your dream and the dragon and what it represented for you in the real world tied in so well to Campbell’s idea about transcending the shadow of our father/father-figure.
It really got me thinking about my experiences with my dad in my 20s and how we butted up against each other in a less than healthy way sometimes and how I both sought his approval and also wanted to do my own thing. It’s powerful to have concepts like this to help make sense of these experiences.
Priya, the timing of this is amazing. At the beginning, reading your dream-image, I thought (Jungian that I am), that dragon is *you*! I love that active imagination showed you that. What a visitation! I also thought of the dreams I’ve been having of a powerful, influential mentor I had recently whose rejection I’m still healing from. For me, that dragon is that mentor, so your words hit home. “I was terrified of disappointing them even as I knew it was time for me to emerge from their shadow and try something new.” It takes courage and imagination to transform a flawed human with power over me (power that I gave them) into an evolved inner resource to fuel what’s next for me. Thank you for this reminder.
Julie, thank you for reading and sharing. I love how the dragon is such an universally potent symbol and yet its meaning is dependent on the context of your individual experience. Such a beautiful paradox.
Hallo Priya. Two paragraphs stand out for me. "The Dragon is within", and "At-One-Ment". Like most kids, I was familiar with the portrayal of Dragons. Then our local Policeman introduced the Concept of them being real, which kinda stuck with me. are they perhaps demons or saviours, and in which reality anyway ? That they populate the writings of all nations raises curiosity, perhaps as metaphors or legends. Eventually I created a huge sculpture of a Dragon for the UK Olympic Torch Route. That in turn led to a bunch of writers submitting stories to me. Real or not, Dragons are within us, and have meaning for us. N'est ce pas ? Peace, Maurice
Maurice, thank you for reading and sharing! I would love to see a picture of the dragon sculpture- it sounds so cool! It’s fantastic that mythical creatures hold such sway over us.
"Because it felt like the dragon had a message for me, I cautiously tried a little active imagination. I remember thinking of the dragon and wishing if only I had some of the dragon's power and strength, and almost immediately, something shifted within me and the imaginal dragon answered: You have me. I am inside you." I really liked this passage, especially the part about " cautiously tried a little active imagination", which seems like a really great approach to the problem.
Ha Jeffrey, it ain't a problem as such, until imagination runs wild !! Lol. Peace, Maurice
Thank you for reading and for your comment, Jeffrey! I am very interested in active imagination and Maurice is right, it can run wild!
What a coincidence that I too dreamt about a dragon recently! Hah. Love these poignant lines, Priya: "I realized the dream dragon felt protective and intimidating, both a wall and a ceiling. I couldn't see what lay beyond the dragon. So, it was also a threshold."
My Dragon tells me that your Dragon dreamt of you. So Yes, a threshold...... Peace, Maurice
Hahah. Awesome!
Thank you Nadia, much appreciate your reading and commenting!
Hi Priya, as you know, I love your writing, and I'm so enjoying how deep you're digging into Joseph Campbell's work. However, I'm still not convinced that the Hero's Journey is helpful for women. I have a sense that it's part of the old patriarchal hierarchies that are crumbling around us as we ease into this new era of Conscious Balancing of the divine feminine and sacred masculine energies within us all.
When Campbell talks about the father being "the initiating priest through whom the young being passes on into the larger world," I can see how this is applicable to the *father-son* relationship - as with Luke in Star Wars. And as you have probably read too, George Lucas was apparently good friends with Joseph Campbell.
But don't you think the *father-daughter* relationship is different? I often wonder if perhaps with the father-daughter relationship, behind the idealized image of a personal father stands the divine father... which also makes me wonder how the Rising of the Divine Feminine plays into the Hero's Journey...
Do you know of Sharon Blackie's work? You may find this interesting too: The Post-Heroic Journey, An antidote to the all-conquering Hero https://sharonblackie.substack.com/p/the-post-heroic-journey
Great points. I think elsewhere Priya has written about the critiques of Campbell’s attempt / life-work to cram all of human culture into one “monomyth.” There’s also Maureen Murdock’s work on the heroine’s journey. Still, that dragon is a powerful archetype.
I love that Substack facilitates this kind of conversation🥰 and yes, Sharon Blackie dives into Maureen Murdock's work in addition to Maria Tatar's 2021 book The Heroine with 1001 Faces, and I love this that she offers too:
‘Eco-Heroine’s Journey’
... a path to understanding how deeply enmeshed we are in the web of life on this planet.
In many ways, it is an antidote to the swashbuckling action-adventure that is the Hero’s Journey, with its rather grandiose focus on saving the world. …
This path forces us first to examine ourselves and the world we live in, to face up to all that is broken and dysfunctional in it and in our own lives.
Then it calls us to change – first ourselves, and then the world around us.
It leads us back to our own sense of grounded belonging to this Earth, and asks us what we have to offer to the places and communities in which we live.
Finally, it requires us to step into our own power and take back our ancient, native role as its guardians and protectors. To rise up rooted, like trees.
Brilliant. Thanks for the reminder about Tatar’s book. It’s top of my list.
From time to time, a stack mention of an author impels me to buy the book. Now for the first time, I get four from one stack. Thankyou and Peace, Maurice
The Comments section is the best part of writing on Substack! Thanks, Maurice!
but without your beautiful writing to inspire comments, Priya, there would be no conversation✨🌟💖🙏🕊️
“This path forces us first to examine ourselves and the world we live in, to face up to all that is broken and dysfunctional in it and in our own lives. “ - I totally agree, and to an extent I think this is what all journeys are about.
Hello Camilla, I agree that the hero’s journey can be seen as a legacy of patriarchal societies. However, when I read Murdock’s heroine’s journey, I couldn’t resonate with the first half. I’m not an expert but in my life experience, there are broad (and specific) cultural differences that speak to more than one kind of heroine’s journey and post-heroic journeys. I want to offer that different stages of the so-called monomyths may coexist within one life journey. I have definitely seen micro hero’s and some of the latter stages of the heroine’s journeys fit within the larger background of my life.
I have read some of Sharon Blackie’s work and I will check out the link. Thank you, Camilla, for reading and commenting.
Thanks Priya for your response, and for your very thoughtful and insightful writing✨🌟💖🙏🕊️
Priya, this was so interesting!
The story of your dream and the dragon and what it represented for you in the real world tied in so well to Campbell’s idea about transcending the shadow of our father/father-figure.
It really got me thinking about my experiences with my dad in my 20s and how we butted up against each other in a less than healthy way sometimes and how I both sought his approval and also wanted to do my own thing. It’s powerful to have concepts like this to help make sense of these experiences.
Thanks for sharing :)
Thank you Michael, as always for your generous words. It is much appreciated!
Priya, the timing of this is amazing. At the beginning, reading your dream-image, I thought (Jungian that I am), that dragon is *you*! I love that active imagination showed you that. What a visitation! I also thought of the dreams I’ve been having of a powerful, influential mentor I had recently whose rejection I’m still healing from. For me, that dragon is that mentor, so your words hit home. “I was terrified of disappointing them even as I knew it was time for me to emerge from their shadow and try something new.” It takes courage and imagination to transform a flawed human with power over me (power that I gave them) into an evolved inner resource to fuel what’s next for me. Thank you for this reminder.
Julie, thank you for reading and sharing. I love how the dragon is such an universally potent symbol and yet its meaning is dependent on the context of your individual experience. Such a beautiful paradox.
Hallo Priya. Two paragraphs stand out for me. "The Dragon is within", and "At-One-Ment". Like most kids, I was familiar with the portrayal of Dragons. Then our local Policeman introduced the Concept of them being real, which kinda stuck with me. are they perhaps demons or saviours, and in which reality anyway ? That they populate the writings of all nations raises curiosity, perhaps as metaphors or legends. Eventually I created a huge sculpture of a Dragon for the UK Olympic Torch Route. That in turn led to a bunch of writers submitting stories to me. Real or not, Dragons are within us, and have meaning for us. N'est ce pas ? Peace, Maurice
Maurice, thank you for reading and sharing! I would love to see a picture of the dragon sculpture- it sounds so cool! It’s fantastic that mythical creatures hold such sway over us.
You can see two images on my post today, more to come 🤣 Maurice
Btw Priya, don't ever use th word myth..... Dragons do not take it kindly, it can be a dangerous mythstake.......