The World
“The usual person is more than content, he is even proud, to remain within the indicated bounds, and popular belief gives him every reason to fear so much as the first step into the unexplored….”
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–Joseph Campbell |
A. Most People…
1. Content, nay proud
Most people are content to remain in the World; it is familiar; it offers all the creature comforts, but what’s more, it offers a “clear path” to success and security, a serious of logical and reasonable steps to get someone where he or she wants to be; it offers the promise of security and happiness if you just “stay on the RIGHT path”; thus, most people are proud because they are getting signals from the World that they are “doing it right.”
2. Secure the system
The goal is to secure the current system; to remain at the standard of living that you currently know (or improve); to keep or improve one’s class standing, one’s standing among one’s peers, one’s standing with significant other, family, etc. It’s about not rocking the boat and making sure you don’t “lose” anything.
3. Live in the “real world”
Glued to the five senses means glued to the real world; the stuff we can touch and believe in because it’s “real” — unlike the promise of a God and a destiny and the power to transform the World.
4. Guardians at the Gate
Because most of us refuse our calls and are proud to know success on the World’s terms, we often function (consciously and unconsciously) as Guardians at the Gates to those who have heard their call and would go on their hero’s journeys…
We would stop them not because we necessarily want to prevent their happiness, but rather because we fear the change they would bring… we would stop them from changing the World we enjoy and benefit from (even though the promise of hope they would bring would offer so much more).
B. The Realm of Supernatural Power
1. Dark
We are taught to fear the journey, to fear anything outside of the known world. We are taught to fear it because it is dark (forest; night; blindness)…
2. Unknown
Unknowable?; no clear path, no clear outcome: God? Real? Promise (of golden seed/destiny/God’s promise) = true?
3. Dangerous
The danger is real, not just imagined; substantial, not just a little).
4. New
BUT, it is a zone of new experience (what cannot be experienced in the “real world”). ALL point to the power that is possible in this “new landscape.”
C. Popular Belief
1. Live in fear
We are taught to that the realm of supernatural power (and our destiny) is to be feared (literally avoided for its danger.
2. Disdain the heroic
To be disdained (it’s not enough to not go oneself, one must mock and deride those who would go or inhabit that space)
3. Be civilized
Taking the journey is uncivilized (unintelligent, regressive, unevolved) — the idea is that it would be a step back, not just a step out…
4. Hang out with the right people
Outside the “world” inhabited not just by unsavory people but dangerous people who would “lead us astray” if we let them.
(These could be real heroes even, like Mother Teresa, who does something noble that the World will acknowledge while at the same time warning against following in her footsteps because of the suffering and lack of resources/comforts such a life would demand— her lifestyle, if not her life, is undesirable); thus, we learn to be skeptical even of our “heroes” and those the World might acknowledge as doing “good”… it’s just not right “for you.”)
