Part 1: The Call, Descent, and Struggle
We love stories about heroes. From Star Wars to The Lord of the Rings, from Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat to everyday people rebuilding after loss, these stories resonate because they mirror something deep in us.
They mirror our journey.
Beneath every great story is a pattern often called the Hero’s Journey or the mono-myth: a cycle of calling, descent, struggle, transformation, and return. It’s not just a literary device, it’s a psychological and spiritual map of how humans grow.
This first part unfolds the early stages of that journey and shows how they apply directly to your own life.
1. The Calling: When Trouble Knocks on Your Door
The hero’s journey rarely begins with comfort. It almost always starts with trouble.
- A divorce
- A financial setback
- An illness
- A natural disaster, political upheaval, or economic crisis
On the surface, these feel like bad news, and they are painful. But at a deeper level, they function as a calling. Trouble pulls us out of our comfort zone and forces us to see the world differently. Without disruption, there’s often no reason to learn, grow, or change.
Sometimes the call is subtle:
- A nagging feeling that you’re meant for something more
- A recurring dream
- The same idea or mission showing up over and over in your life
At some point, we have to recognize: we’re being called.
The call isn’t just to do something different. It’s to become something different, to develop into what we might be. We leave behind the “maternal” sense of divine oneness and safety we knew as children, whether that was family, community, church, or some other structure that held us. Something is lost, but in surviving, we gain access to new powers and new mysteries.
2. The Call That Changes History
Some people answer their calling in ways that reshape the world:
- Florence Nightingale
- Rosa Parks
- Marie Curie
They each heard something, an inner voice, a moral imperative, a vision of what could be, and brought it into being.
Answering the call requires:
- Courage
- Willingness to fight our inner demons
- Freedom from old ways of thinking
- The ability to stand up to criticism and doubt, both from others and from ourselves
This is where we adopt a warrior’s stance:
“I must go. I must find what needs to be learned.”
And yet, almost always, there is reluctance.
Hesitation isn’t failure; it’s part of the process. It’s a kind of dress rehearsal. We’re attached to innocence, to the simpler version of ourselves before the journey. We cling to the old story because the new one is still unknown.
Psychologically, this is the moment where we’re asked to bridge opposites, like the proverbial angel on one shoulder and devil on the other. Our task is to get all our energies cooperating rather than fighting each other.
3. Threshold Moments: Standing at the Edge of the Unknown
Every hero reaches a threshold, a line between the known and the unknown.
At this edge, we encounter:
- Monsters of fear and doubt telling us: “Turn back.”
- Internal battles in the mind, and sometimes external ones in the world.
We may want to retreat into our innermost cave, to isolate when facing the unfamiliar. But growth at this stage is rarely solitary. Historically, shifts, like the move from matriarchal to patriarchal cultures, happen in groups. So do our personal transformations.
We need:
- Teamwork
- Allies and mentors
- The humility to be a good member of a larger whole
At the threshold, one of the biggest challenges is letting go:
- Letting go of old ideas
- Letting go of control
- Trusting that new ways can emerge, just as we’ve seen with massive shifts like the rise of the virtual world
There is always something better available, but it requires us to release what we already know how to do.
4. The Belly of the Beast: Facing Our Demons
Many myths speak of the hero being swallowed:
- Jonah in the belly of the whale
- Little Red Riding Hood in the belly of the wolf
The “belly of the beast” represents being devoured by change; overwhelmed by fear, grief, or uncertainty. It can look like:
- Depression
- Burnout
- Deep confusion
- A sense that life as you know is over
And yet, this space contains the potential for rebirth.
In the darkness, we realize:
- Old belief systems are dying
- Old tactics no longer work
- Something new needs space to be born
As painful as it is, this dying is not the end. It’s a clearing.
We are, slowly and unevenly, moving toward greater equality and new ways of being, personally and collectively. Progress rarely moves in a straight line. It’s often one step forward, two steps backward.
5. Empowerment: Discovering the Sword
Every hero eventually finds a “sword,” a symbol of empowerment.
In real life, the sword may be:
- A new skill
- A new body of knowledge
- A new technology
- A degree, training, or mentorship
This is the core of the journey: we gain capacity to build what is called for or needed.
Think of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings. When he “dies,” the companions must go on without their original teacher. But he later returns transformed, and in the meantime, they have grown. We too must often go on without our previous leaders, teachers, or support systems.
If we survive this stage, we should be wiser for our trouble.
To be continued… Read part 2 here.
Allow me to help you on your journey – kim@hummingbirdhaven.org – Transitional Life Coaching
