“Wherever the hero may wander, whatever he may do, he is ever in the presence of his own essence — for he has the perfected eye to see. There is no separateness. Thus, just as the way of social participation may lead in the end to a realization of the All in the individual, so that of exile brings the hero to the Self in all.”
~ Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949)
I miss being here, writing down the bones of place. While my connection to wildness certainly has not lessoned, my emergence in it has. But that is not all there is. There is more to this passion for fur and feather, leaf and bloom, wind and stone. There is also a passion for connecting people to land. Today I begin to broaden my horizon and expand my reach with this blog. Instead of reaching in I reach out to you, dear reader.
In the cycle of the Hero’s Journey, made cogent for our didactic persuasion by Joseph Campbell, the process of returning is of particular importance. It’s all well and good to journey out into wilderness, overcome trial and tribulation, win the prize, but what do you do with the prize? The “prize” of the deep work is not for the hero(ine), but for the community. The work must be integrated back into the whole. I now understand that I have been missing a crucial step. It is now time to close the circle, to come full-circle, to return to my tribe with my bag of goodies: ecology, holistic science, traditional ecological knowledge, biognosis, and a few more tricks and treats.
From dialogue to communion . . .
