Post #148 – Women’s Memoirs, Writing Prompt – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
Day 5, The Final Phase of a Memoir Author’s Mythic Journey
Congratulations. We have arrived at the end of the journey as explained by Joseph Campbell and exemplified by Gail Straub. For the past four days, I’ve described phases of Campbell’s journey of the hero that he developed after extensive study of myths across time and cultures. I’ve pursued (with today) five specific stages — ones that match the phases articulated by author Gail Straub in her 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 fifth and final phase in her journey — The Ascent. If you haven’t read it, here’s the link. You’ll learn the importance of this final phase and what is required of you to fulfill it.
Although Joseph Campbell doesn’t have a phase of the hero’s journey that he called The Ascent, he does have a step he names Crossing of the Return Threshold, which has many of the same elements that Gail describes such as not losing sight of wisdom that has been gained, the integration of the changed perspective into one’s daily life, and sharing the new insights.
Want to know more about Campbell’s Crossing of the Return Threshold?
Joseph Campbell describes Crossing of the Return Threshold this way:
The returning hero, to complete his adventure, must survive the impact of the world. Many failures attest to the difficulties of this life-affirmative threshold. The first problem of the returning hero is to accept as real, after an experience of the soul-satisfying vision of fulfillment, the passing joys and sorrows, banalities and noisy obscenities of life. Why re-enter such a world? Why attempt to make plausible, or even interesting, to men and women consumed with passion, the experience of transcendental bliss? As dreams that were momentous by night may seem simply silly in the light of day, so the poet and the prophet can discover themselves playing the idiot before a jury of sober eyes. The easy thing is to commit the whole community to the devil and retire again into the heavenly rock dwelling, close the door, and make it fast. But if some spiritual obstetrician has drawn the shimenawa across the retreat, then the work of representing eternity in time, and perceiving in time eternity, cannot be avoided.
Campbell’s influence has been spread across many fields from music (Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, Jerry Garcia all note Campbell’s influence on their work), to literature (Time Magazine lists The Hero with a Thousand Faces as one of the 100 best and most influential books), to movies (George Lucas went to Joseph Campbell to better understand how to develop Star Wars).
Below is the last of the videos I’m posting about Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. As you have noticed, I’ve pulled relevant videos from a single source. However, you will find many interviews with Campbell and they will add to your understanding of all 17 of his phases.
I hope this discussion of Campbell helps influence your writing journey in a positive way.
Crossing of the Return Threshold
Memoir Writing Prompts
1. If you are still on your writing journey, then it is impossible for you to describe how you are sharing the knowledge you have gained or how you will integrate the rewards of your journey with others. At the same time, I urge you to consider what you are currently learning. What more do you know now that you did a year or two years ago. Perhaps you are already finding ways to share. Do you belong to a critique group where you assist other writers? Do you give talks at your library? Do you make comments on blog posts that share what you have learned or are still learning?
Write about what you are already doing to share.
2. Maybe getting enough time to write is all you can hope for right now. You’re just trying to stay on your journey. You may not imagine that you could ever have a window of time to share with others. But that is exactly what I’d like you to do — imagine. Write about what you would like to share — what you would do to share the knowledge about writing that you are gaining on your current journey. By focusing on this element of the journey you may find there are opportunities to help others along in their own journeys.
Write for ten minutes.
Thanks for joining Women’s Memoirs over the past five days as we’ve taken a brief look at the mythic journey as it applies to writers. At some point in the future, we’ll make a more in depth examination of what Campbell offers us.
If you missed Gail Straub’s mythic memoir journey that we published on SheWrites, here are the links:
Tip Number 1: How to Understand Your Writing Journey
Tip Number 2: How to Understand Your Writing Journey
Tip Number 3: How to Understand Your Writing Journey
Tip Number 4: How to Understand Your Writing Journey
Tip Number 5: How to Understand Your Writing Journey
If you missed the previous blogs on this site that paralleled Gail’s journey and Joseph Campbell’s description of the hero’s journey, here are the links:
Memoir Writing Prompts: Joseph Campbell and The Call
Memoir Writing Prompts: Joseph Campbell, Supernatural Aid, and the Road of Trials
Memoir Writing Prompts: Joseph Campbell and Atonement with the Father
Memoir Writing Prompts: Joseph Campbell and Apotheosis
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
