Take 1
“The coach tells him how to bring his own energies into play. A good coach doesn’t tell a runner exactly how to hold his arms or anything like that. He watches him run, then helps him to correct his own natural mode. A good teacher is there to watch the young person and recognize what the possibilities are; then to give advice, not commands.
– by Joseph Campbell, Author of ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’
Chris Vogler, author of ‘The Writer’s Journey’ writes, “The Ordeal in myths signifies the death of the ego. The Hero is now fully part of the cosmos, dead to the old limited vision of things and reborn into a new consciousness of connections. The old boundaries of the Self have been transcended or annihilated.”
Great storytellers and screenplay writers use a structure that builds as the plot ticks along. The Ordeal usually comes during the end of the second act. Once the central character survives this death, he is reborn or revitalized and continues on his journey to the climax of the story. Ordeals happen at the deepest part of the emotional quest. But these intense feelings react like a basketball being held under water: when you release the ball it pops up and out of the water with great thrust. A person’s feelings might respond equally and at a higher rate than ever before.
Campbell said, “If you have someone who can help you, that’s fine. But, ultimately, the last deed has to be done by oneself. Psychologically, the dragon is one’s own binding of oneself to one’s ego. We’re captured in our own dragon cage. The problem of the psychiatrist is to disintegrate that dragon, break him up, so that you may expand to a larger field of relationships. The ultimate dragon is within you, it is your ego clamping you down.”
I believe it took me months and months of therapy and self-work before I experienced the thrust into a new consciousness. Looking back, I know I didn’t feel fully part of any new cosmos until perhaps two years later. I remember this transition well. It came when I met my Mentor.
The word Mentor comes to us from The Odyssey. A character named Mentor guides the young Hero, Telemachus, on his Hero’s Journey. In fact, it’s the goddess Athena who helps Telemachus by assuming the form of Mentor.
At least in mythology, mentors often speak in the voice of God or are inspired by divine wisdom. A good mentor or teacher is always enthused with your success. I remember the best teacher I ever had. He was always so focused and enthused about the material and about us learning. ‘Enthusiasm’ is from the Greek ‘en theos,’ meaning God-inspired, having a God in you, or being in the presence of God. This God-inspired teacher wanted us to learn as much as possible about the given subject, which was filmmaking. He went to great lengths to help us understand every little element of the English language, communication, and the processes of telling stories with pictures and sound. He was incredible. Eventually he moved on to becoming a principle and won the National Award for Principle of the Year. But in this story he is not the Mentor of which I speak.
Stay tuned for the revelations to creating your heroic life in my upcoming book, ‘The Boom Operator’ – A Journey of Heroic Proportions! There’s an endless amount of great stuff within my book’s covers to launch a career, relationship, and perhaps a rocket. Stay tuned for more excerpts.
Robert K Maxfield 