Opération Quest: Untapped Potential

Joseph Campbell wrote that we're all born with great potential, and even if we don't realize that potential, it still remains, waiting for us:

"All the ogres and secret helpers of our nursery are there, all the magic of childhood. And more important, all the life-potentialities that we never managed to bring to adult realization, those other portions of ourself, are there; for such golden seeds do not die." (Hero With a Thousand Faces)

Doesn't that remind you of the ending of The Wizard Of Oz, where Dorothy is told that the power to return home was with her all along?

There's also a children's book, based on Hindu mythology, that perfectly illustrates this idea. It's about Hanuman the monkey whose childhood powers got him into trouble, so the elders asked that he be made to forget them. As an adult he goes on a dangerous adventure to help Prince Rama, and saves the day because he's reminded that he can jump super far, grow to the size of a giant, and fly.

I wonder what "golden seeds" we might still have in us, that only a dangerous adventure will reveal? Hmm.

 

ADDED READING

LONGER SUMMARY OF HANUMAN BY ERIK JENDRESEN AND JOSHUA M GREENE

Like all children, Hanuman the monkey had great powers. But he was also very curious and always getting into trouble, and one day when he jumped as high as the sun he was struck down by a god and broke his chin. The elders prayed for him to forget his powers. He grew up to be the Commander of the monkey army, but with no memory of his real potential.

One day Prince Rama's wife Sita was kidnapped by the baddie Ravana--or He Who Made the Universe Scream--so Rama turned to Hanuman to help him. As the search parties spread out, Rama told Hanuman: You can do more than you know.

Hanuman's party came to Ravana's island, but it was far away over an ocean--monkeys can't jump quite that far, so Hanuman wasn't sure what to do. But his friend Jambavan reminded him of what Rama said, and that he'd broken his chin jumping to the sun. And Hanuman remembered. And he jumped.

Hanuman saw Sita in captivity, and learned that she had two months before Ravana would force her to be his wife. He jumped back and found Rama, and their armies built a stone river across to the island. A horrible battle ensued, led not by Ravana but by his giant brother. Again they appeared,defeated, but Jambavan told Hanuman he could grow to the size of a giant. Hanuman grew, and defeated the brother.

But Ravana's son unleashed a weapon that killed everyone else including Rama. The dying Jambavan told Hanuman: You must use your power to fly to the mountain Himavan and bring back the herb that restores life. So Hanuman flew away and, not knowing which was the right herb, flew back with the mountain.

With everyone restored to life, Rama's brother killed Ravana's son, and finally Ravana himself emerged. Ravana had once forced the gods to make him immune to all gods and demons, but didn't think of monkeys and humans. Rama let fly an arrow towards him, and Ravana looked into Rama's eyes, and perhaps overcome by the goodness he saw there, didn't defend himself. The arrow pierced his heart. Sita and Ravana's slaves were free.

Hanuman thanked Rama for helping him. Rama said: "All of these gifts you were given long ago. You have followed your heart and found these gifts inside of you. All that I can do is make you the keeper of our story. Tell the world what a monkey who follows his heart can do." Hanuman asked for a reminder, so Rama said he'd give him a daily reminder and made the sun rise. And Hanuman realized this was Vishnu, come to earth in human form.

Then he returned home to tell his story.

 

Opération Quest: Here we go!

"With the personification of his destiny to guide and aid him, the hero goes forward in his adventure until he comes to the threshold guardian .... Beyond them is darkness, the unknown, and danger." Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces

So I've been getting ready to leave. Emotionally, I mean.

1 THE MEDITATION

While catsitting I was regularly overwhelmed by the grief of leaving my fambly--my husband and Haley and Minion. So I practiced meditating until the sick feeling in my stomach would subside. Mostly just calmly breathing and telling myself over and over: This moment is perfect, this is how my life is supposed to be rit now, in this second. This moment is perfect. (It really worked. Took about 10 minutes each time.)

2 THE BIG CRY

When my beloved childhood cat had to be put down, I waited until I was alone ti have my big cry. I put on a song from The Rescuers that embodied my love for him* and had the Big Ugly Cry.

So I did this yesterday with my Leaving. When I was in Nanaimo and packing to leave my dad kept jollily singing "Leaving in a Jet Plane" and getting it in my head, and making my monkey crazy! Cause the song is so sad! He sang it so many times I've been regularly getting it in my head. So I gave in, put on the song, andhad the Big Ugly Cry.

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go
I'm standin' here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin', it's early morn
The taxi's waitin', he's blowin' his horn
Already I'm so lonesome I could cry

 

3 THE SHNOOGLES

Haley's been very attentive and cuddly, and Minion's been almost constantly attached to my finger.

4 THE FUTURE

As I talked about yesterday, I did the vision board.

5 THE FIGHT

My husband and I had a fight that led to me getting some fears out of my head. Feeling some relief now.

6 THE POST FIGHT CHAPPELLE

And then we cuddled and watched Chappelle Show, until he went to bed.

7 THE OPRAH

And as I wrote this I watched the latest Oprah's Life Class (excellent, I so recommend, especially the previous Deepak episode, watch here) and did a Tony Robinson exercise that made me cry again.

READY

So. ...I'm ready! I actually have to finish packing. Before going catsitting I threw at my suitcases all the things I was considering bringing. Now I have to go lay it all out and pack up the bags, see what fits. Then Fernando's up at 6 AM so I'll see him one last time. Probably cryyy cryyy cryyy again. Get a little sleep. Then go to the airport in the afternoon.

But first I'll write up tomorrow's post in advance. The long awaited episode on interpreting dreams, it's vair nice, vair cool. See you back on the coast!

 

Apparently I'm on a mystical quest

Today I realized...

* It was exactly one year ago that I made a conscious decision to explore my Inner New Agey. To try being more mystical.

* In July 2011 that I read the first book that really helped me turn a corner (Hold Me Tight). The first time, after nonstop reliance on my oracle cards, after much internet perusing and reading forums and sites that were less than helpful--it was the first time I read something that 100% spoke to me, that gave me new ideas, and gave me a serious paradigm shift towards the world. A book I added to my Core Values Library.

* In August 2011 I read another piece of the puzzle: Dr Jill Bolte-Taylor's book (My Stroke of Insight) about what the right side of our brains do for us. It was the science side of the mystical stuff. I had taken a leap of faith into mysticism, and as in the fourth Indiana Jones movie, a platform was right there for me to step on.

* In March 2011 I read another holy-crap book (Mindsight). It was another plank under the mysticism, and another book that gave me a concrete understanding of my situation and how it can change.

* And finally this month I was cataloging my books and cleaning up, and came across a book I bought a couple years ago but hadn't read (Steering by Starlight). Sitting on my bed I randomly opened it up to the last chapter and read it, and decided I had to read it right now. When I started my Mystic Quest, it wasn't for the purpose of aiding my personal issues. But it's where the solutions lie. Like I was already taking the prescription, before I'd even experienced all the symptoms, and before I'd been diagnosed with the disease.

So it's exactly one year since I decided to broaden this part of me, and I feel like I have all the basic building blocks to do it. It's like what the Storywonk people would call the Discovery and Magic stages of writing a novel--gathering ideas, research, images, ideas, and inspiration. And now it's time to write the book.

I'm going to look for the blog posts this past year that deal with My Quest for My Inner New Ageo, and put up a link to them or something. And I'm going to try to keep sharing. We'll see what comes of it all.

Coming up: Martha Beck's method for dream interpretation. It's rather cool.

In the meantime, here's her book if you're interested. (No ebook yet available.)

Steering by Starlight from abebooks: $1 before shipping

...bargain book from Indigo: hard cover for $8

...used audio book: $12

...downloadable audio: $24
   

Your Journey is Always in Draft Form

[This posting talks about Betties. See the Betties tab to understand the reference if needed.]

The Original Betty who started the Bettying--that is to say Lucy March who decided to blog for 500+ days until her 40th birthday--describes what she went through, her last marriage, as being towered. The term comes from the tarot...

I love the added insult of God's hand reaching out with a mallet to give the tower a thwack and the "not again" look on the Fool's face.

"There’s a card in the tarot called The Tower. Although tarot decks vary, The Tower is one of the illustrations that offers the least variation. Almost always, you have a tower, the top of which has suffered some horrible calamity, causing it to break off, and as the Tower tumbles, you see people jumping off, trying desperately to get to safety. Typically… it doesn’t look good for them."

 "...Despite the apparent tragedy of the card – and let’s make no mistake, there’s loads of tragedy in a good Towering – I have to say that, in hindsight, I look at all the times I’ve been Towered in my life and I think, “Thank God.”... every Tower that has fallen has taught me something about how they are built."   [To read her full post go here.]

Now she's found some peace and the blog is being turned into a community, but it's leaving in mourning many of the blog readers whose lives didn't undergo the same transformation that hers' did over the last 500 days. There's a reasonable sense of abandonment, that was poignantly addressed in a recent entry.

But still... a new journey can begin any day, for anyone. Many journeys have already begun, it's just that they're still at the scary-bottom-of-the-hill-looking-up-at-the-steep-incline stage. Or the brave-explorer-lost-in-the-frozen-ice-fields stage. Brr.

As I walked home from the library today Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten" came on my mp3 player, and instead of thinking of Pantene, I thought of Betty Angel.


I am unwritten, can't read my mind, I'm undefined
I'm just beginning, the pen's in my hand, ending unplanned