THE HERO'S JOURNEY OF CONTEMPORARY ELDERS

THE HERO'S JOURNEY OF CONTEMPORARY ELDERS

Our model and methods to meet this challenge align with Joseph Campbell's seminal work. Joseph Campbell was a renowned American mythologist, writer, and speaker who explored mythology's significance and relevance in human culture and experience. Campbell was one of my most influential teachers in the late 70s and early 80s.

He researched extensively and wrote several seminal books, "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" and The Power of Myth." In addition, he joined Bill Moyers in a remarkable PBS series that explored what enduring myths can tell us about ourselves. [Links below.]

Each PBS six episodes focused on a character or theme in all cultural and religious mythologies. Stories told and retold over millennia. Narratives burned into our DNA.

Campbell maintained these timeless archetypes influenced our choices and how we live today. An archetype is an original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies, a prototype. The archetype of Campbell's work was the hero's journey.

The hero's journey involves a hero who embarks on an adventure, faces various challenges and tests, undergoes a personal transformation, and ultimately returns home with newfound wisdom about themselves and the world to share with others.

The hero's journey is a chronicle enshrined in nearly all ancient, tribal, and modern legends and myths. Moses to Mandela, Buddha to Bezos, and Chaplin to Cruise all feature the hero's journey.

According to Campbell, the hero's journey follows a specific sequence of events and stages that a hero undergoes during their quest.

We have found these same stages in becoming a contemporary elder.

The hero starts in their ordinary, everyday life. Unaware of the journey that awaits them. The ordinary life for a contemporary elder is often the ending of a successful professional career and the correlated "empty-nest" situation.

The hero has lived a productive and positively charged life in the last three to four decades. But now they intuitively sense that who they have been in their ordinary life will not serve them in their later life.

Once this predicament manifests in the hero's mind, the hero receives a call or invitation to embark on a quest, an invitation that disrupts their ordinary life.

The Contemporary Elder Institute offers such a dislocating invitation.

Considering this invitation has the hero experiencing an existential shiver. Deciding whether to accept the invitation comes with apprehension, self-doubt, and fear. A choice, if accepted, the hero understands he can no longer live this ordinary life.

A choice, if taken, would have them shed their prior identities, accrued professional merits, and established credentials - who they know themselves to be and go on an adventure into the unknown.

For Contemporary Elders, their adventures are bravely going into the unknown wilds of growing old. Unknown territory. Full of elements that can harm or even kill you.

As the hero begins their journey, they encounter a wise figure and mentor who provides guidance, advice, and training—a mentor who equips them for the journey ahead.

The Contemporary Elder Institute’s purpose and design is to be that mentorship.

The next step on the hero's journey is the hero's commitment to this adventure, a commitment to leave their ordinary life and enter a new realm with its unfamiliar territory. To jump off the edge of who they know themselves to be.

The contemporary elder retreat takes them to that edge.

Before the hero lands from their jump, they face a series of tests, meet allies, and encounter adversaries. These encounters empower the hero's character and uncover their higher selves.

Our contemporary elder retreats provide these experiences – physical and mental tests, connection with allies, and confronting their inner adversaries.

The hero now approaches the most dangerous and critical point on their journey, most often represented by an innermost cave or symbolic place of fear. This is the stage where the hero prepares for their ultimate ordeal.

For our contemporary elders, at the retreat and in our follow-up interactions, having them confront their impermanence, coming face-to-face with their mortality, and preparing them for the ultimate ordeal of death is their innermost cave.

After surviving the ordeal, the hero reaps the reward of insight, knowledge, and personal transformation. Now they have gained strength, wisdom, and power. Finally, they are ready to return to the ordinary world, the last stage of the hero's journey.

The hero's journey is the perfect metaphor for becoming a contemporary elder. It allows for self-discovery, courage and sacrifice, and pursuing a higher purpose.

A contemporary elder not only belongs to the current time and culture but embodies the qualities associated with a traditional elder - wisdom, broad life experience, peace, tranquility, self-understanding, and respect for others and life itself.

A contemporary elder can now offer insights, counsel, and guidance to others while continuing to adapt and understand the modern world.

https://billmoyers.com/series/joseph-campbell-and-the-power-of-myth-1988/

HEADS UP

In June, I will focus entirely on completing my book, THE ELDER ESSAYS. There will not be a weekly post as I fully concentrate on getting as much done for the book and keeping my word with my editor and my publisher. We will return to our weekly posts in July.

INVITATIONS

The next Open Sangha call is on June 28th. If you like to be a guest, Click Here.

Also, the Sangha is now producing Special Events. Our next Special Event is with Buck Blodgett of the Live>death Project. The title of the event is "Forgiving the Unforgivable."

The event will be a remarkable examination of forgiveness that doesn't absolve other people of their accountability but allows release from the tentacle of revenge, hate, and payback. Stay tuned; dates are being finalized for July.

https://www.theloveisgreaterthanhateproject.com/