Finding the Heroine Within
Every human goes through change in life - that’s what life is all about. But sometimes, we go through such immense and intense change that it can be completely overwhelming. Certain circumstances can activate fear, worry, and grief from the body/mind while creating feelings of helplessness and hopelessness in our psyche. If one is destined to become a shamanic practitioner, one’s helping spirits begin shaking up and dissolving the life one must let go of in order to place the neophyte (shaman-to-be) on the shamanic path. This shamanic calling occurs in a series of deaths and rebirths in order for the shaman to “become the hollow bone” for the spirits to work through to impart healing for the community. However, the Universe can also place intense challenges at the feet of those who are not meant to walk the shamanic path. My helping spirits have shown me that no matter the person’s path, we all must go through cycles of life, death, and rebirth in various ways and for a variety of reasons. Sometimes this is because there is another life awaiting us on the other side of crisis that we would otherwise have never dreamed up.
In 1949, Joseph Campbell, a writer and professor of literature, authored The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Famous for coining the phrase, “Follow your bliss,” Campbell’s work has informed stories, movies, and even the psyche of the modern era about the stages of the hero. If you’re not familiar, the Hero's Journey is a common narrative archetype that involves a hero who goes on an adventure, moves through intense trials, challenges, and initiations, learns vital lessons, wins a victory with newfound knowledge, and then returns home transformed.
Years later, Maureen Murdock , who was a student of Campbell’s, developed a female-centric version of this concept, called the Heroine’s Journey to encompass the quest that a female protagonist must navigate through.
Whatever gender you identify as, changing your perception of yourself in your story as an individual of strength and power, while having the capacity to transmute and transform oneself despite incredibly challenging situations, is the key to unlocking agents of positive change. Despite the challenges that might lay before your feet, ask yourself what the Ultimate You would do? That You is the Hero or Heroine inside! Allow that part of you come out and shine!
