Post #146 – Women’s Memoirs, Writing Prompt – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
Day 3 of a Memoir Author’s Mythic Journey
If you have been following my posts this week, then you know this is the third day of looking at the stages of Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey that most closely match with Gail Straub’s stage that she uses when describing her mythic memoir journey as she wrote and published: Returning To My Mother’s House: Taking Back the Wisdom of the Feminine
Joseph Campbell, as you know researched myths and eventually described a 17 stage journey. Of course, not all myths follow the full 17 stages. Gail Straub, for example, uses just five phases to describe her journey. I’ve matched her third phase, Descent into Darkness, with Campbell’s ninth stage — Atonement With the Father.
Today’s post is half of the story. I am posting each of the five stages of Gail’s journey on SheWrites. Be sure to join us there.
Want to know more about Campbell’s Atonement With the Father?
Campbell considers Atonement With the Father to be the time in the journey when the person one has been has to die so that the new self, the transformed self, can emerge. Often the person has to recognize that whoever or whatever has held power over the person no longer will. Campbell believes this is the center point of the journey and indeed, Gail makes this the hinge, the middle point, of her five phase journey.
Many of the descriptions of this phase state that all previous events have led to this time and all that follows will come out of it. Gail has beautifully shown us how this played out in her own memoir journey and I urge you to read her statement.
As with the two previous posts, I have a video that describes Campbell’s Atonement With the Father. Unfortunately, I find it to be the weakest, the most literal of the videos. Much that you read about Campbell acknowledges that although the word Father is used, the concept is much broader. It might be a male or a female. It might be ourselves. So use your imagination when you see this video and think about a broader interpretation. One of the treats in the video is that about halfway through it, you get to see a clip of Campbell and hear him describe this phase. Campbell also is speaking to a narrow interpretation of the phase, but I remind myself that the literature he was drawing on was definitely biased toward the development and empowerment of the male.
So with that apology in hand, here’s the video.
Atonement With the Father
Memoir Writing Prompt
This is a crucial phase in our journey as writers. Is there an outside force that you have given power to? This could be family members who don’t think you should write a memoir. It could be a critique group that always sends you back to the drawing board. It could be an agent who can’t seem to place your memoir with a publisher. It could be yourself — your sense of who you are. Maybe you have to examine the ego that is holding you back from writing the story that needs to be told. Maybe you buckle to your timidity. There are so many ways that we are held back. Consider how changing the power relationship with what is holding you back will also alter everything else that might come.
1. Write about what you think is holding you back — what has power over you.
2. Write about two or three alternative solutions that will enable you to let that negative power die so that you can become who you are meant to be as a writer.
Write for ten minutes about your challenge. Embrace this descent into darkness. By letting go of the power that holds you back, you can forgive another person or yourself for letting someone or something hold you back.
Now you are ready to learn more about the fourth stage in Gail Straub’s mythic memoir journey. I’ll be back tomorrow with more information about Gail’s next stage and a video explaining Campbell’s comparable phase.
Did you miss my first two blogs about Joseph Campbell? Here are the links:
Memoir Writing Prompts: Joseph Campbell and The Call
Memoir Writing Prompts: Joseph Campbell, Supernatural Aid and the Road of Trials
We invite you to leave us a comment below. We’d like to know if thinking about Campbell’s stages of the journey helps you have a fresh look at your own journey.
Gail Straub is the co-author of the best selling Empowerment: The Art of Creating Your Life As You Want It, and the author of the critically acclaimed The Rhythm of Compassion as well as the award winning feminist memoir Returning to My Mother’s House. Considered a leading authority on empowerment, she co-directs the Empowerment Institute a school for transformative leadership. Over the past thirty years she has trained thousands of people worldwide in empowerment, engaged spirituality, and the wisdom of the feminine. She can be reached at www.empowermenttraining.com
