Joseph Campbell's work A Hero's Journey has been the backbone to many popular films and stories of our time. The Wizard of Oz, Thelma and Louise, Harry Potter, The Matrix and Rocky to name a few. But perhaps the one that follows its journey most rigidly is Star Wars. Star Wars has influenced a generation of current filmmakers and creative story tellers.
A Hero's Journey is a call to adventure. A hero takes a journey from a common world, encounters trials and tribulations, victory is won and the hero comes back from this adventure and is about to bestow learning in the form of boons on his fellows. It is an outward journey.
This got me pondering on The Heroine's journey. When I think of masculinity and a form of energy, I feel it to be out going 'doing, fixing, sorting and achieving'. The feminine energy brings a softer presence 'passive, stillness, reserving and being'. The male is always the guest and the female always the host.
Masculine and feminine or male and female energy has little to do with being a man or a woman.
So if the hero's journey is a journey outwards, then the heroine's journey must be one that journeys inwards.
As a speaker for mind body and spirit events I always notice that the auditorium is full of women and on stage are predominately men. Maybe this path of inner refection comes more naturally to women and the outward expression from life experience, more naturally to men.
For writers the heroine's journey is a unique way of coming up with new ideas. The hero's journey would be to go out into the world and research, live, experience and write about it.
The heroine's journey would be to meditate, reflect and through the process of writing, manifest the consciousness from deep wisdom within us.
Many a writer will report that sometimes they read their own work back and can't believe it was they who wrote it. This is the art of reflective writing.
The heroine's journey allows us to plunge deeply into fantasy and personal reflective wisdom. Perhaps from this inner space new ideas can be created.
Albert Einstein once said: "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." Perhaps this is the shift of consciousness that will allow the boon brought home, to save the entire planet.
If you're looking for creative ideas to help you write a book, check this out!
There is also a free webinar on the subject of writing you might like to join.