The Hero’s Journey is more than personal. It is bigger than the hero.
The spiritual wisdom of Tibet was contained as if in a diamond goblet. When the Chinese army smashed Tibet they smashed the goblet, and through the survivors, the wisdom therein contained flowed out like water on a parched, materialistic world. Forced from the womb of their homeland into a journey of survival, the Tibetan people, following a beloved leader, were able to maintain their cohesion – their identity – as they navigate the larger world. The gifts of their culture enrich the larger world.
So unlike this and on a much vaster scale, Africa’s libeled children, ancestors of us all – dragged through the monstrous waters of sadism and captivity, with their soulfulness, their patience, their compassion, their humor intact – have been shipwrecked and scattered across an uncomprehending world.
And here also is the hero’s journey: that the wounded shall remember who they are, rise from the poverty and degradation crushed upon them by their younger brothers, reclaim their spirits and move on to the fruition of their inherent gifts; to their own redemption.
It is happening now.
In this way perhaps they can begin to lift humankind from the outworn patriarchal cul-de-sac of exploitation and violence beloved by their younger brothers; begin the return to reverence for life, from reverence for force.
Because the hero’s journey is not foremost for the hero; it is for the redemption of the world.