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Archive for the ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ Category

Tending the Garden of Your Heart

“Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.” (Psalm 24:7)

As we leave 2019, our world is in turmoil. Our government is under siege from within by its political parties battling over the impeachment of the president. Our Beloved America is on the precipice of the implosion of its grossly indebted and unbalanced economy. This civilization is in the throes of an existential crisis.  Wildfires burn in Australia, as they do every year in California. Let’s face the truth and the facts: the world we have created on this planet is not in harmony with the Earth.

While we are busy with our isolated personal lives, striving to make ends meet, or even survive, and to safeguard our health and our sanity, the health of our natural resources deteriorates from a lack of stewardship and sheer exhaustion from an overpopulated planet—not to mention the state of our hearts and collective consciousness, the real garden we were given to tend and keep. The garden of our hearts here in America is in a state of anxiety, chronic stress and eroding fear.

Wars continue to be waged in the Middle East and could escalate into a U.S. involvement in yet another war with Iran in the wake of the killing of Iran’s chief military commander, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, under President Trump’s direction.  Endless wars have devastated that part of the world; desperation and fear fill the hearts of millions who are starving for a lack of food and/or driven from their homes and homelands living in tents while seeking refuge in countries, some of whose borders are closed to them, while we are building a wall to keep them out.  This is the sad state of affairs in which we leave our world at the end of the second decade of the 21st Century, and launch into an election year of 2020. 

“The gates of hell shall not prevail. . . .”

The title of my last post in the series on the Thymus Gland is “The Windows of Heaven.” Looking at the current global outpouring of hate, fear and anger from out of the heart and psyche of humanity, I am drawn back to the series to take another look at the heart, this time as a trapdoor to hell—a trapdoor that was sprung open once again in our world’s history during the 2016 Presidential campaigns here in America, the historical moment when one individual stepped up onto the Republican platform and announced his candidacy for the elected office of President of the United States.

The tone this one man sounded, and continues to sound, has summoned up legions of demons from out of the collective unconscious, a reservoir where vibrational patterns of unholy attitudes and dark patterns of violence have been lurking and working behind the scenes of human behavior and activity throughout the warring history of mankind, now released into the collective consciousness full-force, nothing hidden in the secret places of the heart. 

This narcissistic leader has gathered resonant substance around him that has formed a “base” comprised of individuals who feel their voices and concerns have not been heard and met, and whose minds and hearts are open to his revolting and insulting rhetoric while they applaud and egg him on—much like the masses in Germany did to Adolf Hitler in the 1940’s.

This is collective insanity. Our nation is not sane, not whole. We are divided along partisan lines, by racial prejudice, by discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender equality and LGBTQ rights issues, and by religious beliefs and socioeconomic class distinctions. Divided, we are falling apart.

The nauseous brew in the collective unconscious has erupted and is spilling over into the sea of the collective consciousness, polluting these hallowed waters and engulfing the sinking ship of humanity in waves after waves of hate, fear and anger. The undoing of the human condition, created by the human mind out from under Divine governance, is underway—and it’s creator is lashing out in wrathful anger because it knows that it has but a short time remaining on this Earth—this “little blue dot” of a planet adrift in a ray of sunshine, as Carl Sagan graphically portrays our tiny but sacred home among the stars. The human condition is being transformed by fire and transmuted by Spirit even as the old earth is giving way to the emergence of the New Earth.

A phrase from the Book of Revelation in the Bible comes to mind:

Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and those that dwell in them. But woe unto the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea. (Rev. 12:2)

OF DEMONS AND SHADOWS

As I turn eighty this new year, what elder wisdom may be mine to offer is becoming more available to me, as experience tends to afford us elders.  In my lifetime, I have wrestled with demons and prayed my way through shadows and dark nights of the soul—not unlike many in the upcoming generation who now have support groups for processing their issues and coming clear of their demons and shadows.  We didn’t have that kind of group processing when we left our father’s house to make a life in the world.  Only later did we begin to have workshops in self-realization available. Even then, I found little encouragement in the wise counsel of the day to “Just Keep moving.” 

In my experience, detoxifying the human psyche can become an obsession, as well as an endless task of dredging up demons out of a bottomless pit. One will never get to the place in Plato’s “cave,” where there are no more demons shadow-dancing on one’s walls, as our “personal” issues and shadows are connected vibrationally by resonance with those in the collective unconscious.  Sometimes one really cannot tell what demons are one’s own to face and what demons come out of the collective. I may get rid of one demon only to have two more move in to fill the void.     

Some say we must face our demons and embrace the darkness. The question I pose is “Who is it that is doing the facing and embracing? The ‘mere human’ or the authentic Self?” My inner wisdom tells me that if the spirit of this world comes and finds something in me, then I have work to do. If not, then I need to let it pass on through . . . and keep moving.  “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” 

YOU ARE THE LIGHT

There is only one way to  come out of the cave and into the light of day. We must open the Seventh Seal at the highest level of awareness and let the Light of our own angelic and immortal being flood our souls with love, and then step into this Light in the center of our turning worlds and assume our true identity as rays of sunshine, sons and a daughters of God. In this center of Light and Love there are no shadows, and you can see things in your world clearly, no longer through a “glass darkly” but for what they truly are: things, just things that cast shadows on the ground behind them.

Things are nothing more nor less than distortions of the One Light of Love. And by “distortions” I mean lower and denser vibrations of the One Light of Love of which all things in the “material” world are made. You are the pure, differentiated Light that shines on things that, due to their density, cast shadows behind them.  Be the Light of your world, and stop the futile effort of getting rid of the shadows in your life.  They are nothing, have no substance, no reality.  The “things” casting the shadows are the disturbances in the heart, the “wounds” that only love can heal.  Let your light shine, your love radiate through your disturbed and wounded heart, and you discover your Self in the process. Expression is the only way that allows the release of your light.

Sometimes that expression of light needs to be a laser beam of rebuke: “Get thee hence! Begone!” The man Jesus faced his demons in this manner. When vocalized, rebuke is a sonic purifier of dark energy.

Shadows are nothing but the absence of light. If you’re dwelling in the darkness of the shadow, you can’t see the Light. There is “this thing” standing in the way blocking your view: this wound, that issue, that person or those people. We blame the wound and the perpetrators for our unhappiness and depression.  How about simply getting around and over the things casting shadows on our path in life and come into the Light where there are no shadows?  The simple acts of forgiveness and unconditional acceptance could get you there.  The word “empathy” is used in many talk shows and television interviews lately.  

I remember from my early years of awakening a parable my mentor used frequently in his seminars. No doubt you’ve all heard it repeated in various talks and articles yourself.  In the parable a man in an insane asylum is sweeping the floor of his room all night long until the sun rises in the morning, when he would stop sweeping and sit down to rest in blissful satisfaction that he had finally swept all the darkness out of his room. Wrestling with shadows can be nothing more than trying to sweep darkness out of one’s heart and psyche. Just turn on your light and let it shine away the darkness.

Switching metaphors for a moment, this little poem has provided wisdom and guidance for me. It’s called “The River.”

I am the River

The River flows. The River flows.

The River flows up to an obstacle.

The River does not stop at the obstacle.

The River goes around the obstacle.

The River flows. The River flows.

I am the River.

The River is Life, and Life is unconquerable.  If you can be overcome by some obstacle in your path, then you are not identified with Life. Your are in ego identity, and ego identity is an obstacle in itself.  Let go of the obstacles and move on with the River, as the River.  Say “I Am the River and I’m going to keep on flowing.” Perhaps this could be a good New Year’s resolution: to stay identified with the River of Life.

The heart lifted upward lets the light of Heaven in . . . and the blessing you are out; cast downward, it opens to the dark shadows in the collective unconscious.  Let your heart be lifted up in thankfulness for Life and for Light as we begin the New Year and decade in 2020.

I leave you to enjoy two excerpts from Handel’s Messiah sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to kick-start the New Year.  

“Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.” (Psalm 24:9)

 

Blessings for a happy, healthy and new life experience in 2020!

Anthony

Email: tpal70@gmail.com

    

Category:

2020, Christmas, Christmas Music, Collective Mind, Consciousness, Dark Night of the Soul, Divine identity, Donald Trump, Energy anatomy, Energy Healing, Healing Tones Blog, Holistic Healing, Light, Love, Love heals, Purifying your heart, Shadow work, The Heart and love, The New Year, Thymus Gland, True Identity

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Wheels Within Wheels: Breaking the Cycles of War, part 3

The  zodiac “wheel” cycle of 1,260 years is subdivided into smaller cycles: 630, 315, 260, 52 and as small as 13 years. In his controversial book The Synchronicity Key, lecturer and author David Wilcock studies repetitive events that fall within the zodiac cycle measured by the Mayan Great Year of 1,260 years connecting the Roman Empire in the Age of Aries with the modern world in the Age of Pisces. This zodiac cycle is accented by periods of war that mirror the many and various wars that took place during the reign of the Roman Empire. His purpose for studying this cycle and documenting his findings is to show how in our day, on this side of the zodiac cycle, the pattern of repeating wars has been broken and the pall of nuclear war that’s been hanging over our heads for decades is no longer a threat.

My purpose in blogging about Wilcock’s investigation is to bring his finding into the light of day for our more current awareness so that we can put to rest the background fears of nuclear annihilation that have kept us from moving forward with a revitalized sense of assurance that all is indeed well.

But this is not the only nor primary reason why all is well. The primary reason why all is well is because we are being watched over by “guardian angels” — in the form of “Watchers,” according to David Wilcock’s cosmology. But more about that in a future  post.

In the previous post, we looked at two incidents where the imminent threat of nuclear war was defused. In this post I will present another war that mirrored a war in the Roman Empire on the far side of the zodiac cycle. I will again let David Wilcock tell the story from his investigative journalism in an excerpt from The Synchronicity Key. 

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VIETNAM, WATERGATE, AND THE FALL OF THE IRON CURTAIN 

Rome went to war against Antiochus III in 192 B.C. Antiochus III was a king who ruled over Greater Syria and western Asia. Antiochus III invaded Greece with a ten-thousand-man army, triggering the Roman-Syrian War, which raged from 192 to 188 B.C.

When we advance this same time period ahead by 2,160 years, we have 1968 to 1972. This precisely corresponds to the key turning points of the Vietnam War—which also was a war in Asia.

The United States first began covert operations in North Vietnam in 1964. On August 2, 1964, three North Vietnamese PT boats fired on the USS Maddox. This led to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, in which Lyndon Baines Johnson, Kennedy’s former vice president, gained permission to wage war against North Vietnam without a congressional declaration. The United States began bombing North Vietnam in 1965 while troop levels topped two hundred thousand. In 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara said the bombing raids were not effective enough to solve the problem and more needed to be done.

Then, in January 1968 — 2,160 years after the Asian king Antiochus III invaded Greece with ten thousand men, plunging him into an all-out war with the Roman Empire — North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces swept into South Vietnam. The Asian enemy attacked several cities, in­cluding the capital — similar to Antiochus’ attack on Greece in the Age of Aries. This bold and daring military maneuver was called the Tet Offensive. Though this attack was repelled, it was a political and psychological victory, causing great questions about whether the United States was involved enough in the war. General William Westmoreland requested a doubling of the troop presence in February, calling for an additional 206,000 men. The idea of ordinary young men being drafted into military service suddenly became a very real and very terrifying prospect.

Then, on March 16, 1968, American soldiers massacred hundreds of innocent people in the village of My Lai. In 1969, when the incident be­came public knowledge, it caused shockwaves through the American po­litical and military establishment as well as the general public. The American people had an opportunity to demand the end of the war right there, but the political will was not yet strong enough.

These three events­—the Tet Offensive, the proposed doubling of the troop presence, and the My Lai massacre—dramatically increased the emotional impact of the war. The number of young men being drafted suddenly skyrocketed.

Again, these events all occurred in 1968–precisely 2,160 years after Rome went into full-scale war against the Asian king Antiochus III in 192 B.C.

A BITTER TASTE OF TREASON — Served on a Fifty-Two-Year-Old Platter

Furthermore, on March 17, 2013, it was revealed that presidential candi­date Richard M. Nixon had deliberately sabotaged peace talks with Viet­nam that same year, 1968. I happened to find this article through synchronicity, while looking for other information on Nixon to help flesh out this part of the book. This incredibly treasonous story was cov­ered by Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, as well as in other media outlets, but I wouldn’t have found it if I hadn’t already been looking for links to Nixon and 1968. We now know that Nixon bribed the Vietnamese with promises that they would get a much better peace deal if they held off until he became president. This shocking betrayal of the American people guaranteed that the deadly Vietnam War would grow much, much larger-and far more profitable for the military-industrial complex.

This treasonous secret deal with the enemy provided fuel for much greater military power in Nixon’s presidency. President Eisenhower had warned America about the growing, potentially “disastrous” menace of the military-industrial complex in his closing address on January 17, 196I. Eisenhower was another mentor figure who gave America a magic gift in this speech, which could ultimately be used to defeat the nemesis: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military­ industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists-and will persist.”

The president at the time, Lyndon Baines Johnson, was aware of Nix­on’s treasonous deal but said nothing. Nixon thereby sentenced hundreds of thousands of additional young men into the military draft, and tens of thousands more American soldiers into their deaths—when it was all entirely preventable. The audiotapes that proved Nixon did this were declassified by the LBJ Presidential Library in 2013. The story was pub­lished literally the day before this chapter of the book was being revisited for its final publication for the first time since 2010.

It is interesting that fifty-two years elapsed between Eisenhower’s pro­phetic warning in January 1961 and the final exposure of Nixon’s treason in 2013. The Maya strongly believed that history moved in fifty-two-year cycles, which were made up of four smaller cycles of thirteen years. Peo­ple throughout Mesoamerica celebrated this “Sacred Round” cycle as “the Binding of the Years” and used it to help them understand past and future events.”  For example, the Spanish conqueror Hernan Cortes be­gan destroying the Aztecs shortly after his initial, peaceful visit in No­vember 1519 — causing the Aztec prophecy of “nine hells” of fifty-two years to begin. Five “Sacred Round” cycles of fifty-two years add up to the tzolkin cycle of 260 years, which was widely revered throughout Mesoamerica. Australian professor Robert Peden discovered that the 260-year tzolkin cycle is a perfect “common denominator” for all the orbits of the planets in our inner solar system. The period of 260 years is a sub cycle that divides perfectly into the exact length of every orbit within the inner solar system. It is quite astonishing that the “primitive” cultures of Mesoamerica were somehow able to discover this number.

They also constructed an estimated three hundred to five hundred pyra­mids out of huge stone blocks-which again suggests they may have had
access to advanced technology.

THE END OF THE ROMAN-SYRIAN WAR AND THE END OF VIETNAM 

According to Helmer and Masson, Rome went to war with the Syrian king Antiochus III in 192 B.C.; 2,160 years later, in 1968, the Vietnam War dramatically expanded. (Remember that we now have absolute proof that Nixon bribed the Vietnamese government to extend the war.) The Roman-Syrian War lasted five years, finally ending in 188 B.C. If we ad­vance 188 B.C. forward by 2,160 years, we arrive at 1972, which is the exact year that a cease-fire was negotiated by Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho.

John Lennon’s song “Imagine,” released in September 1971, now seems oddly prophetic as a foretelling of the defeat of the Cabal. In ar­chetypal terms, “Imagine” was a harbinger of the Elixir of Immortality that would soon be seized — the promise of peace — once the dragon of the Cabal, and its military draft of ordinary young men, had been slain.

“I hope someday you’ll join us; and the world will live as One.”

The final peace treaty was signed with Vietnam and went into effect on January 27,1973. This led to the formal announcement of the end of the draft and the withdrawal of the last American troops from Vietnam.

[On April 30,1975, the North Vietnam Army tanks rolled through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon headquarters, effectively ending the war, winning the war for Communist Russia — a huge loss for the USA, the nemesis defeating the hero in our Nation’s “Hero’s Journey.“]

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FURTHER BREAKS IN THE ZODIAC CYCLES OF WAR

There are a few other more recent breaks in the cycles of war as the United States in this age of Aquarius pulls away from the Roman wars that occupied the Age of Aries. These more recent incidences are the anti-terrorists wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, occasioned by the “9/11” attacks and destruction of the World Trade Center in New York, and the nuclear arms crisis of Iran, a crisis still unsettled now that President Trump has canceled the Iranian Nuclear Treaty.  With the US pulling out of the INF treaty with the USSR yesterday, the nuclear arms race is likely to start up again. What insanity on the part of our leaders. I will present these events in my next two posts of this series.  As always, I welcome your thoughts in the Comment section. Until my next post, fear not.  

Be love. Be loved.

Anthony

 

Category:

Dark Night of the Soul, David Wilcock, Dr. Palombo's blog, Edgar Cayce Reincarnated, Ending Wars, History Repeats itself, Mayan Calendar, Reincarnation, The Cabal, The Hero's Journey, The Nemesis, The Synchronicity Key, Zodiac Cycles & Wars

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The Hero’s Journey, part 2 : The Quest, page 2, The Rainbow Body

My Chorale PicI just received copies of the third edition of Sacred Anatomy from the publisher and it looks and feels great in soft cover. This also allows me to reduce the price from $35 to $25.  I did add a description of the “Rainbow Body” to the last chapter of the book “Patterns of Ascension Established” as a way of updating with more current research on the topic of transformation and transmutation of the physical body. I will use this post to share that additional piece with my readers, especially those of you who have earlier editions of my book.  

This excerpt fits perfectly with the current series theme of “The Hero’s Journey” and the Quest for the Elixir of Immortality.  After all, what we all long for is a life without the pains and sufferings of the present human state — joy and life eternal. It appears that the design for such a life is gradually coming back into place as cosmic factors line up around the dawning design of the “New Heaven and New Earth.”  We are moving through a fourth dimensional shift with our planet. More on this in my next post. For now, consider this excerpt as providing a clue for what we’re all in for over the next relatively brief period of time as we know it. Even time and our experience of time will change drastically as we return to a “time when time was not”– a topic recently aired in an LPB television program “How We Got to Now.”  

Here’s the excerpt from Sacred Anatomy.

The “Rainbow Body”

“Tibetan Buddhists practice the “Rainbow Body,” the apparent dematerialization and transmutation of the physical body. The practice may be spread out over many years of meditation until the actual transfiguration is achieved — although more as a gift of spirit than an achievement of mental effort.  A Biblical passage tells of a “tranfiguration” of Jesus wherein he appeared in a glorious form with Moses and Elijah in the presence of three of his disciples, and another of his glorified body being resurrected from the grave.  What follows here may give up some inkling of the potential inherent in our own sacred anatomy.

The Sufi call it “the most sacred body” and the “supracelestial body.”  Taoists call it “the diamond body,” and those who have attained it are called “the immortals” and “the cloud walkers.”   In various other traditions it is called by such descriptive names as “the divine body” (Trantric yoga), “the body of bliss” (Kriya yoga), “the superconductive body” (Zoroastrian Vendanta), “the luminous body or being” (ancient Egypt), “the radiant body” (Gnosticism), “the perfect body” (Mithraic liturgy), “the immortal body” (Hermetic Corpus), and “the Golden Body” (Emerald Tablets of the alchemical tradition).

Here is a description of the process taken from Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural Light by Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche and reprinted in David Wilcock’s book, The Source Field Investigations.

This is one of many depictions of the Rainbow Body from Tibet:

Body of Light: Tibetan, ja-lus.  Also known as the “rainbow body.”  Certain realized beings . . . achieve the transformation of their ordinary bodies into a Body of Light. . . . In this process the physical body dissolves into its natural state, which is that of Clear Light.  As the elements of the body are purified, they transform from their gross manifestation (body, flesh, bones, etc.) into their pure essence as the five colors: blue, green, white, red and golden yellow.  As the body dissolves into these five colors a rainbow is formed, and all that remains of the physical body are fingernails and hair. . . .

Over 160,000 documented cases of the Rainbow Body have occurred in Tibet and China alone.  David Wilcock cites a most extraordinary event that took place in Kham, a small village in Tibet, in 1998, when a Gelugpa monk, Khenpo A-chos, died leaving nothing of his earthly form behind.  He was described as having . . .

. . . a warm, spiritual nature that touched everyone he met. . . . he often spoke of the importance of cultivating compassion. He had the ability to teach even the roughest and toughest of types how to be a little gentler, a little more mindful. . . . The witnesses reported a rainbow appearing over Khenpo A-chos’s hut a few days before he died, and that “dozens of rainbows appeared in the sky afterward.  He was not sick and nothing appeared to be wrong with him — he simply chanted a mantra.

According to the eyewitnesses, after his breath stopped his flesh became kind of pinkish. One person said it turned brilliant white. All said it started to shine. Lama A-chos suggested wrapping his friend’s body in a yellow robe, the type all Gelug monks wear. As the days passed, they maintained they could see, through the robe, that his bones and his body were shrinking. They also heard beautiful, mysterious music coming from the sky, and they smelled perfume. After seven days, they removed the yellow cloth, and no body remained. Lama Norta and a few other individuals claimed that after his death Khenpo A-chos appeared to them in visions and dreams … Lama A-chos told Tiso that it takes sixty years of intensive practice to achieve the rainbow body. “Whether it always takes that long, I don’t know,” acknowledges Tiso, “but we would like to be able to incorporate, in a respectful way, some of these practices into our own Western philosophical and religious traditions.” … To our knowledge, says Tiso, the bodies of most Christian saints did not disappear or shrink after their deaths …. However, he adds, bodily ascensions are mentioned in the Bible and other traditional texts for Enoch, Mary, Elijah, and possibly Moses. And there are numerous stories of saints materializing after their death, similar to the widespread phenomenon known as the “light- body. 

As I say, time was when we could “fly beyond the rainbow.”  There was a design in place for such spirit and soul travel. That design was lost, along with the Garden State, and had not been present on earth for many thousands of years when the Lord of Love incarnated on Earth. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it was human consciousness that got lost. The design did not go anywhere but was taken away for a season until such time that the Sons and Daughters of God would again emerge on Earth through the sons and daughters of Man.  That time came with the incarnation of the Lord of Love.” (Sacred Anatomy)

The Quest for the Elixir of Immortality has not been without hurdles and challenges to overcome. Immortality itself has been withheld from human experience as some kind of “reward” in the “hereafter” for being “good” and compliant with religious dogma and moral behavior. Religion itself has been the nemesis hiding the Elixir of Immortality from naive and slumbering mortals.   The promise of eternal life has been used to establish and maintain the biggest and most profitable business of modern times — second only perhaps to the medical and insurance industries.  Notice how all three are founded on the concept that we are merely human — mortals that need costly crutches to help us through this “vale of tears” to the other side of the “valley of the shadow of death.” The letter of the law has killed believers’ hopes  for and dreams of a return of Paradise here and now. You have to die to get there, according to the beliefs and doctrines of all the major religions. Tibetan Buddhism may be the only exception.  

In spite of those beliefs and doctrines, a “Golden Age” is scheduled to return on time in accordance with the “cosmic clock” that ticks away the ever recurring cycles of evolution and natural ascension. All things created rise to return to their Creator and origins. Even sound returns to the Silence that gave it utterance.  We will continue along this line in my next post. Until then, 

Be love. Be loved.

Anthony

Read my Health Light Newsletter online at LiftingTones.com.  The current issue features “Don’t Trade Perfect Love for Ebola Fear.” 

Category:

Apocalypse of Light, Archetypes, Ascension, Cosmic events, Dark Night of the Soul, Divine identity, Energy anatomy, Evolution, Fourth Density, Frequency Shifting, Global Events, Golden Age, Mythology, Sacred Anatomy, The Body Electric, The Hero's Journey, The Nemesis, The Quest, Transformation, Transmutation

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The “Hero’s Journey,” part 1: The Story

My Chorale Pic

“THE HERO AND HIS STORY”

I am into my second reading of David Wilcock’s timely book, “THE SYNCHRONICITY KEY – The Hidden Intelligence Guiding the Universe and You.” Chapter nine has captivated my curiosity about how novels and scripts for movies are written. So I thought it would be fun, even insightful, to blog on the topic, which is actually quite fascinating.  I’ll just jump right into the middle of the chapter. But first a little background might be helpful.

The phrase “The Hero’s Journey” was coined by Joseph Campbell in his comparative mythology study, which he published in 1949 in the form of his world classic scholarly work The Hero with a Thousand Faces. In it Campbell explores and analyses myths from all over the world, in all different time periods, and finds that they have remarkable similarities to one another. He calls the overall story “The Hero’s Journey.” Wilcock describes the journey:

It’s how we work through our fears, our weaknesses, our limitations—each and every day. It is ultimately the blueprint of our evolution—and the path to a Golden Age. Anyone who writes an engaging, believable screenplay is tapping into the Hero’s Journey story structure, whether they realize it or not. Those who are aware of it have a much better chance of success. . . . Campbell drew heavily on the legendary work of Dr. Carl Jung, who found that these various ancient myths keep repeating in our dreams with certain ongoing themes he called archetypes. 

And that’s a whole other topic which I may explore at a latter date.  But for now . . .

ON TO THE MOVIES

Every successful Hollywood movie story line follows what is well known by all play-wrights – who want their stories to find favor with their intended audiences – as “the structure.” The structure unravels the story between three acts: beginning, middle and ending. The basic “structure” was first spelled out by Aristotle.  The theme of the structure is the telling and retelling of the story of “The Hero’s Journey,” and it is divided into four parts: 1) The hero’s quest, 2) The hero’s initiation in the quest, 3) Facing and defeating the nemesis, which typically leads to the “dark night of the soul” when all is lost, and 4) The final showdown and triumph over the nemesis, and the seizing of the “Elixir of Immortality,” the prize and goal sought in the hero’s quest.

At least this is how movies with happy endings usually go.  There are some “dark” movies where the hero is defeated by the nemesis and often dies. An outstanding example is the bloody comedy “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”— which we watched last night as a live performance by the New York Philharmonic from Lincoln Center of Stephen Sondheim’s musical masterpiece staring Emma Thompson and Bryn Terfel. The movie version features Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter in the leading roles.  

The setting is 1831 London and the story is about a skilled barber and alleged serial killer named Benjamin Barker who is falsely charged and sentenced to penal transportation from London by the corrupt Judge Turpin.  Judge Turpin seizes Barker’s wife Lucy  for himself and rapes her.  Lucy, who is said to have poisoned herself, shows up in the drama as an old beggar woman. Judge Turpin takes their daughter, Johanna, as his ward and raises her as his own.  

Fifteen years later, Barker returns to London under the alias Sweeney Todd, sets up a barber shop above a meat-pie shop on Fleet Street owned and operated by Mrs. Nellie Lovett. The two concoct a sordid business in which Sweeney Todd murders his customers in a twisted mission to rid the world of useless human beings and drops their corpses down into Mrs. Lovett’s shop, who then processes them into meat pies. His primary quest focuses on avenging himself against Judge Turpin by luring him into his shop for a “shave.” His second goal is to get his daughter back.  

As the complex plot unravels and thickens, Sweeney Todd does finally have his opportunity to avenge himself by slitting Judge Turpin’s throat in a bloody scene in his barber shop upon his fancy new barber’s chair.  So, our hero does achieve his quest. However, the story takes a dark twist and turn when Sweeney Todd realizes he has also slain his “beautiful” Lucy, after the old beggar woman (Lucy) recognizes his familiar face.  Fearing she might blow his cover and announce his return to the village, Sweeney Todd slits her throat as well not knowing it is his Lucy he has slain.  Studying her face more closely and realizing his horrible mistaken deed, he presents his own throat to Nellie Lovett’s meat pie shop-boy, who has by now discovered the dastardly business at which he has been employed. 

In the grand and gory finale, the boy takes Sweeney’s silver razor in hand and ends the demon barber’s ill-intended quest and miserable life.  The hero is defeated by his own nemesis and, of course, fails to achieve the “elixir of immortality.”

(Although the story itself — which may have some basis in legend*– is now immortalized by Stephen Sondheim. Just as a side note, I am intrigued by, and somewhat concerned about, what archetypes in my own heredity makeup find this movie entertaining. And that goes for all movies and novels I seem to enjoy. Hmm.) 

THE NEMESIS OFTEN MIRRORS THE HERO

The lighter movies typically have a sweet ending where the hero triumphs and wins the prize at the end, usually in the form of riding off into the sunset with the beautiful woman, for whom he had to slay a dragon–usually the nemesis of the shadow of his own character flaw, often reflected back to him in the “bad guy” who stands in the way of achieving his quest.  The hero’s nemesis is often mirrored by the villain in movies and novels. 

The hero, of course, is sometimes a woman, as in “Gone With the Wind” — celebrating its 75th anniversary today. This movie is somewhat complex, however, having both failure and victory in the story line. Whereas Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) fails in his quest to tame Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) for himself, Scarlet emerges as the hero of the story who has to face her own nemesis: her self-centered, spoiled female ego. Her quest is to find her man, whom she singles out in Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard), who marries Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland), a generous and kind woman with a compassionate and understanding heart.  When that quest proves unobtainable, Scarlett turns her quest toward her beloved plantation home Tara.

Act I: In her futile struggle  with her nemesis, Scarlet  loses everything as Tara is pillaged by the Civil War and her father dies in a fall from his horse while pursuing a thieving renegade, leaving her with nothing but the land and in a pitiful state of having to scrounge for food and tax money to keep Kara from falling into the hands of the carpetbaggers.  Scarlet has her dark night of the soul, swearing to heaven above that she “will never be hungry again!”  (Intermission)

Act II: During her dark-night-of-the-soul experience, Scarlet remembers what her father had taught her about the land being the most valuable thing in life to possess and cherish. The land, then, on which Scarlet’s beloved Tara sits—restored  to its former elegance with wealth she acquired by marrying Mr. Kennedy right from under of her sister’s nose—becomes a substitute elixir of immortality our hero literally and selfishly seizes in the second act of the movie. The genuine elixir that would fulfill her soul’s quest is the freedom to be her real Self in the wake of the demise of her nemesis, her false human ego.

Act III: Scarlet and Rhett, deserving one another, finally tie the knot and bring a daughter, Bonnie, into their lives, whom her father spoils and treats like a princess, buying her a pony as a final measure of his love and devotion, much against her mother’s wishes.  In the end, Rhett is driven away from Scarlet after they lose Bonnie, who falls off her pony in the shadow of her grandfather’s fateful end, a tragedy Scarlet feared would happen and for which she severely blamed Rhett. This final blow led to their alienation and ultimate and dramatic separation from one another.  Rhett returns to Scarlett, as he frequently does throughout the movie, only to be finally convinced of her incorrigibility.

Grand Finale: Neither of our would-be heroes defeat their nemesis, however, which is mirrored back to them each by the other. This failure turns this world-classic into a modern-day tragedy with Rhett closing the front door of Tara in Scarlet’s face, not giving “a damn” what she does with her miserable life, and Scarlet remains unredeemed from and defeated by her nemesis. Rather than facing her dilemma with Rhett – whom she realizes she has come to truly love – and letting her self-centered ego take a back seat to what had become really important to her, she chooses the path of least resistance by putting off the would-be victory with the classic line “There’s always tomorrow,” a sad but realistic ending for a much loved movie – which in itself makes a statement about the human drama.

 All of it is the complex and sometimes frustrating story of the hero’s journey, a story we all apparently love and live to hear told over and over again in movies and novels, and for one reason only: it is the story of our very own lives.  Even larger than that, it is the story of a nation, a people, and the evolution of the human race itself – all of which we will explore in this series.  

The questions I would pose, then, and leave you to ponder, are: With whom do you most identify in the two stories I’ve cited? Do you see your own hero’s journey playing out?  And where are you in your journey? Let’s take each act and part of the hero’s journey and explore where we are in it, as individuals, as a nation, and as a collective body of humanity.

We’ll start with THE QUEST in my next post .  This will give you time to mull over these stories and reflect on your own hero’s journey.  Until then,

Be love. Be loved.

Anthony

Read my Health Light Newsletter on line at LiftingTones.com. The feature article is “Your Lab Numbers Do Not Measure Your Health.”  As always, your comments are most welcome. Thanks for reading and following my blogs.

* The original story of Sweeney Todd was quite possibly based on an older urban legend that found its way into Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers (1836–37).  Dickens tells how “the servant Sam Weller says that a pieman used cats ‘for beefsteak, veal and kidney, ‘cording to the deman’, and recommends that people should buy pies only ‘when you know the lady that made it, and is quite sure it ain’t kitten.’” (Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweeney_Todd )

 

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Archetypes, Dark Night of the Soul, David Wilcock, Mythology, The Hero's Journey, The Nemesis, The Quest, The Synchronicity Key

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