Post #147 – Women’s Memoirs, Writing Prompt – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
Day 4 of a Memoir Author’s Mythic Journey
We’re almost to the end of the journey — just today and tomorrow and we’ll be through. I hope you have been with me all week (I got a jump start by beginning on Sunday) as I have explored the links between Joseph Campbell’s phases of the hero’s journey in myth and memoir author Gail Straub’s five step mythic journey in writing and publishing Returning To My Mother’s House: Taking Back the Wisdom of the Feminine
Today on SheWrites, I published Gail’s description of the fourth phase in her journey — The Epiphany. If you haven’t read it, here’s the link.
In many ways, Gail’s Epiphany is most similar to Campbell’s 10th phase, The Apotheosis.
Want to know more about Campbell’s Apotheosis?
Since we’re thinking about the stages of the journey in terms of the writer’s journey, we don’t need to be literal with the meaning of Apothesis, in which the hero becomes divine or god-like. However, we can see that by putting aside the limitations in the previous Atonement phase, we begin to reach our potential. And, I suppose for a writer that might indeed be a kind of spiritual life or transformation. This phase can be a time to recognize the treasure of what we have discovered during the process of writing, a phase we need before we can return home. Of course, by the time we return home we have been changed by the experience, by the journey. The Apotheosis phase give us what we need to go beyond where we were before with our writing.
In the video below, we again see the male perspective. But, I think you will see how to translate that into a female perspective.
Apotheosis
Memoir Writing Prompt
1. When we put aside that which holds us back (the previous Atonement phase), we are freed to dig deep into our stories, to know our own truth, to reach our potential, to write the best that we possibly can. If you have ever had those enlightened times of writing, then you know what I mean. Think about the way you write when you can feel the spirituality of the moment. Write about that experience.
2. Write about what you think helps you to reach your potential as a writer. Strive toward more of that time.
Write for ten minutes. See what you learn about your journey.
Please come back tomorrow when we conclude with a final stage from Joseph Campbell that matches Gail Straub’s last phase of her mythic memoir 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
