The hero’s journey of life requires individuation from family.
Mark 6:1-6 (Fourteenth Sunday, ordinary time, year B)
The hero’s journey of life requires individuation from family. This can be difficult, even bitter, but it’s a crucial moment in the unfolding of a mythic life, and in the evolution of consciousness. Not everyone reaches this point in their development, and not all who do make the passage. In Mark 6:1-6, Jesus does. He returns to his home after having been abroad, teaching and healing in other places. He goes to the synagogue and starts to teach the people, but even though he blows them away with his wisdom, they reject him.
They’ve known him from his birth after all, and they know his family. Who does he think he is?
Anyone who leaves home to follow life’s lead will experience a sense of strangeness upon returning. They have grown, changed, seen more of life than their previous world view could account for, and this leaves them thinking and feeling differently from the people who raised them or watched them grow up. It’s a major moment, a mythic passage. It’s the moment when we realize that as adults we must stand alone with our perspectives and live on terms that may not be shared by the culture that raised us. We can no longer rest in the predictability of the family system or the social circle. A dream, a vision of life requires more.
This theme of individuation gets a lot of column space in the New Testament. In Luke 14:26, with extreme hyperbole, Jesus enjoins his disciples to hate their fathers, mothers, wives and children in favor of the Kingdom of Heaven. In Matthew 12:48-50 he disowns his mother and brothers in favor of those who do the Father’s will. This is Jesus illustrating the true cost of becoming who we really are. He knew the importance of standing on your own two feet and being yourself without reference to others, even to family. This movement into true independence of self, where we genuinely move beyond the influence of blood and culture was critical to the life Jesus called his disciples to lead: the mythic life.
And it was no less significant those on the receiving end. The people who know us may resent our new consciousness, or fear it. It might be as simple as questioning a daughter’s choice to eat organic foods when “regular food was always good enough before.” But it can be far more significant. In Luke’s version of the Nazareth story the people don’t simply ignore Jesus, they try to kill him. (Luke 4:16-30.)
It takes a mythical perspective to recognize this moment for what it is: a dark passage into deeper communion with reality. It can feel like leaving family and friends behind, but it isn’t. It’s actually the only way forward into loving them according to your fullest potential. We must be who we truly are if we are to give to others all we have to give. We must constantly be discovering our gifts if we are to share them. We must constantly be discovering our talents if we are to develop them. We must constantly be encountering our limitations if we are to overcome them.
The mythic life is one dark passage after another. The hero’s journey will always lead us further away from who we think we are, closer to who we actually are. The only way to proceed is to undertake the quest, to recognize life for the adventure that it is. Consciousness is constantly making greater demands, constantly requiring more of us, constantly challenging us with more rigorous circumstances. The true hero is always outgrowing his old life. He will outgrow his home and family while remaining in love with both. Once it begins there is no going back and the momentum builds toward the next dark passage. All anyone can do is participate, face the rest of the adventure, and experience life to the full.
Ever forward.
Posted via email from Ever Forward
Labels: the mythic gospel, the mythic mind
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