8 – The Inner Most Cave

The boldness in which the PUA met his challenges, and succeeded, has led him to becoming highly skilled and experienced. Along the way he has met those who were worthy to meet him on his journey and aid him where they could, as he did for them. Now the challenges of the new world are reaching a crescendo with a common theme that is personal to you alone.

You must face and end them once and for all.

To do so, you’ll have to take your Hero’s Journey into the source of your worst fears and difficulties. This is the second threshold you have to cross in your journey, and is much more fearful and difficult than the first. This is the journey into the dangerous Innermost Cave, the beginning of your deepest and darkest point.

This stage, as with the first threshold guardian, is characterised by commitment.

Your commitment is to man up and descend in to the pitch black and behold your worst fears.

Here, the journey is less about PUA now and more about you as a human being, a hero, facing his ultimate truth.

The face of these negative energies is usually called the Evil One in the Hero’s Journey, the main antagonist of your journey. It might be someone real, a circumstance you have to overcome, or an internal obstacle. This will be the overriding theme that has hid in all the challenges you have faced so far.


9 - The Supreme Ordeal

You’ve summoned the courage and commitment to pass the second threshold guardian to be deemed worthy to descend in to the Innermost Cave and confront your worst fears once and for all.

There is no turning back now. It’s make or break.

This is the final test to which your challenges and helpers have been preparing you for; this is the final stage of your initiation from the inexperienced, naive, inauthentic state you started out from into a true Hero.

You about to discover the definition of, “It’s always darkest just before dawn.”

You’ve journeyed into your Innermost Cave to face down the Evil One and everything seems bleak.

Suddenly you realize that he, she or it is stronger than you thought.

All hope seems lost, your confidence is sinking, and you’re afraid and trapped. There is no-where to run.

This is the deepest and darkest point in your Hero’s Journey.

The Change

And yet, there is something inside of you that won’t give in.

Whatever the case, you have no choice, for the greater good you know you cannot give up, you have to rise above your despair and go forward.
This is what begins to trigger The Change. Regardless of whatever dangers might befall you, you’re determined to move forward and end the Evil One’s hold over you, no matter the cost. And that commitment triggers a rush of positive resources that have been dwelling and growing within you from the moment you started out on your Hero’s Journey.

With this decision, you have proven that despite the very real danger of failure, and despite facing your worst demons and fears, you have chosen to see through your Hero’s Journey until the very end. In some stories, this part of the Hero’s Journey is also called The Sacrifice.

The Climax

You take up arms against the Evil One and begin the final assault.

Everything has built to this moment.

With the rush of new resources strengthening you, you rise up against despair and overwhelming odds; you face your biggest challenge, your most difficult test of all.

And, stretching yourself past your limits, calling every skill, strength and talent in you, you do what you once thought impossible: you triumph over the Evil One.

By defeating the Evil One, who represents the worst of negative energies, it means that you’ve become their master. These energies, once mastered, can transform.

You are the worthy Hero.


10 - Claiming Your Treasure / The Elixer

You’ve faced down your worst demon in his stronghold, and you’ve defeated him.

Your initiation by fire is complete and you are now a true Hero and it is time to claim your Treasure, the elixir, the goal of your Hero’s Journey.

The Elixer changes you forever. The hero's idea of reality is changed; the hero may find an ability to do new things or to see a larger point of view.

Incredibly, the elixer is not meant just for the hero. It must be brought back for the benefit of others in the ordinary world in order to complete the journey. Just as the AFC can refuse the call to adventure so can the hero refuse the call to Return. Failure to do so results in the hero being lost in bliss for eternity with no overall effect for the greater good. A selfish triumph for nothing. This threshold is the third and most subtle and easily overlooked, especially by the hero.


11 - The Journey Home

You’ve achieved your heart’s desire, and claimed your Treasure. And now you’re ready to make the journey back into the Ordinary World from where you came.

But when you return, you’re not longer the person you used to be. You’ve been strengthened by your Hero’s Journey. And no longer is the New World the place of uncertainty it used to be; now it’s a place you know intimately, with friends and allies you can count on. You have become the master of both worlds, free to perceive and journey in-between both.

You’ve returned with your Treasure. Now, how can you use it to help better the people living around you in the Ordinary World? Most have no idea what lies outside of it or what can be possible for them if they just step outside of their comfort zones and Cross the Threshold into the New World that lies beyond.

You’ve returned with stories and experiences they can only dream of, and perhaps you stir the awakenings within some, a desire to go into the New World, but your scars speak of the challenges you’ve faced.

Only you know, however, the only secret to your success was that you started, and figured out everything else along the way.

At this point, it is you who becomes the Wise Mentor for the Hero’s that follow the call.

...

It can be confusing making sense of a dream. As you look back at the delights and distractions and try to remember what went where and who meant what, sometimes it’s just better to go with that feeling that you get when you know what you’re doing may not be pleasant or maybe even comfortable, but it’s required. Therein, lays your bliss and your growth.

And it’s from Campbell’s bliss, and the discoveries that were distilled out of that, which are now the staple blueprint followed by the best writers today. The Matrix, Harry Potter and, most famously, the generational plot in Star Wars all follow the stages of the hero's journey. Campbell would say that this pattern is in you. You are the co-author of the story of your life and you feel it in your bones when you pass or fail at each stage of this journey. You just got the marauders map. +5 to skills.

Closer skilful inspection of the classics - Homer, Shakespeare (and/or) Bacon… also confirm the validity of this pattern of patterns, and perhaps, more interestingly, have greater expansion and focus on stories built around the consequences of when the hero fails, back when failure wasn’t “deferred success.” And yes, hero’s fail. There are no guarantees. Some guys will stay in their nightmare of starvation forever. It may be, and indeed is, just a story, on a stage, in a dream called life…but it’s all you have.

All kitchens are hot places, people get burned, but that’s the only place good pies are made. All your things, your doings, your skills, your beliefs, your values, all of you. Don’t mean shit unless you step up and go through the motions. That’s what they’re provided for. To be converted. Even with the best ingredients in the world - great looks, banks of cash, a cock with a knee joint – you may stumble through some success but still you weren’t delicious. Basic ingredients though, worked with and used to maximum effect, creates a pie superior to the some of its parts. Be all you can be. Be delicious.

Tonight is a treat. I worked lunch and before I hit the iron I got a text saying she’d cook me a meal for after if I wanted to come round. I wasn’t sure at first; creating exceedingly sticky pies requires discipline. I did though. It wasn’t till I got to the door and was greeted with a kiss and the smell of carbonara that I knew this was all just part of plan.




For your Intellectual Entertainment

The Hero with a Thousand Faces
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Her...Thousand_Faces

Hero’s Journey
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth

The Hero's Journey: The World of Joseph Campbell (1hr)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...04827183051029


The Power of Myth
(This series, conducted by Bill Moyers at George Lucas’ ranch shortly before Campbells death, is epic. However, if you don’t watch all of them, at least watch part 6 for a tight summation of the themes involved.)

1 – Hero’s Adventure
http://blip.tv/file/1394046

2 – Message of Myth
http://blip.tv/file/1394100

3 – First Story Tellers
http://blip.tv/file/1394024

4 – Sacrifice & Bliss (masculine)
http://blip.tv/file/1394108

5 – Love & The Goddess (feminine)
http://blip.tv/file/1394021

6 – Masks of Eternity
http://blip.tv/file/1394105


Sukhavati (Place of Bliss) – A mythic Journey with Joseph Cambell

Part 1 (40m)
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?...2EDA&q=sukvati

Part 2 (40m)

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?...DA&q=sukhavati

http://lifecoachesblog.com/

Man you're on another fuckin level.
Highly inspirational!

Varies.

Cheers though

Again another awsome and inspiring piece of writing man thankyou

That was quite a read but worth it. Does that mean I'm a hero?

Excellent post Sync