Star Wars:Heros Journey

7/28/2019 Star Wars:Heros Journey

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Star Wars The Epic tale of our time.

The Themes found in Literature, Mythology, Religion, History and Politics. It brought them up todate and reached a new generation.

From Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed(2007)

It revalidated the concept that there is good and evil and that evil has to be defeated.

Many levels are present did Lucas mean for this connection to be made or am I making it,participating along with the creator in seeing connections. That is the mythological process,

everyone sees themselves. Myths are cautionary tales, stories which instruct us how to behave and

conduct ourselves. A way to make sense of the universe.

Joseph Campbell, his book said myth is a metaphor for the experience of life. Like Jung, we process

experiences visually.

The Heros JourneyThe intiatory pattern, a journey story that represents a transition -- moving from young adulthood

into full adulthood. Both Anakin and Luke go on a journey and neither expects to be a hero, onegoes to evil, the other good. Lukes becomes a quest to redeem his father.

A call to adventure get them started. It pulls us away from familure comforts and what we knowhow to do. An enourmously challenging situation that he must step up to. Dorothy, King Arthur,

Harry Potter, Odysseus, Moses, Hercules -- everyman, same insecurities and fears as we do.

The possibility of rejecting the call, a struggle for a while, while they mentally brace themselves.Being called to service to deal with something that is so much bigger than him. Usually a violent

event makes him make the decision to go on his journey.

The threshould crossing, you are not in Kansas anymore, you are going into a bizarre, dangerous

place, with characters not like back home the cantina scene.

A much smaller view of the world into a much larger one certain tasks must me undertaken where

he is a key player, swept up into events and these actions define his transition and proving himself.

Athought he must struggle with his inner demons as well.

Somehting looms over him as a walking ghost that makes this a bigger struggle.

He uses specific weapons or powers that he must earn and then master.

Evil and guilt in within all of us, inescapable and we must acknowledge this. All this comes to rest

in our hero, the past, what we inherit from our parents. He must learn to not carry on the sins of theFather.


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A serious battle and a serious wounding take place to shape the actions of the hero, and letting us

know the dangers of adulthood. The injurys add up as he goes along, and that is the shaping of

character. It is what make us human and adult and wise.

Mentors and wizards

Yoda, Obi-wan, Quigan, share the role of mentor. Part wizard, priest, surragot parent to givephilosophical and spiritual guidance to the hero. They usually posses magical powers that rflect a

lifetime of study, discipline and aquired wisdom. He tells you about your origins, the past. In

moments of absolute disconnect, and loss and confusion and fear, these characters arrive that givepurpose and confidence to our hero. Gandalf, to the Odyssey with the family friend named Mentor.

The mentor does not always appear in a normal shape or size. A complete heros education id

derived.

They trust this person who will tell them what it is they will do with their life.

He presents him with a special gift, a sword or light saber, useful in the struggles to come. A gift of

an idea of wisdom of some discernment. This is sorting out life, and making the distinctions whichallow the hero to move forward in the story. Like King Arthur and the sword. He feels that there is

something special now about him.

Lessons must be learned morality, spiritual faith and strick physical discipline. The truth barers

who give their lives to stop evil. The jedi, and the force. One is believing in something higher, thatevents in the universe are not meaningless, there is a purpose, there is a meaning to life and

something is directing a guiding that. And it requires faith in it since it cannot be seen or proved. A

sense of confidence that there is a world outside of our consiouseness.

Spiritual enlightenment does not come without sacrifice. Those who seek the power of the force

must study, train, and obey strick disciplines. They must also overcome their own skepticism and

self-doubt. When a person is brought to enlightenment, they cannot be told what to do, they reallymust figure it out for themselves.

During the heros journey, the mentor cannot stay forever. Our parents die, our teachers die, thelosses in lifes long journey are great. The first reaction is that I cannot make it without their help.

But it is crucial that the mentor not stay there, that they leave or die, or we would never know if our

triaing is complete. After the mentor passes on, their spirit can stay with us, they are now within and

we are able to survive. As valuable as the mentor relationship is, we will outlive it.

You never outgrow your need for a mentor, no matter how old you are. They take different forms

and shapes is a great reminder to just take the stretched out hand.

Warriars and Damsels

In his fight agains evil, the hero needs more than courage and the teachings of a mentor. He alsorelies on the help and friendship of others. Heros need to start out with comrades, they need

teamwork and what they can learn from each other. Once the hero has undertaken his journey, they

pick up companions along the way. Dorothy meets up with the scarecrow, the tin man and the lion.

Frodo has the entire fellowship.


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There is the warrior who befriends the hero and the damsel in distress whom the hero must protect.

But far from helpless, the female characters are courageous, assertive and clever. They fight alongwith the best of them, and physically and personally evolving from film to film. Lucas speaks to the

emotional needs of men without in anyway undermining the potential of women. Greek tragedy has

very strong women, yet romantic. Also that of the nurturing earth mother, she is love andsensibilities and new life contrasts to technology and war. She loves and crys and often gets her

heart broken. Hers is a quest for peace and democracy. On the journey she is tough and resourceful

and doesnt hesitate to do what she needs to do.

The princess archetype is a young feminine ready to come into herself and blossom. Her coming

into herself is about her being in a relationship to a man she cares about. She helps to restore to

order.

Even though it is often called the heros journey, it is often done in groups. This has several

implications.

1 We need to be good team players, and often teams are imperfect. After all they are people sowe need to cope with the flaws of the people we work with. A motely crew that takes on

challenges.Han respesents the mercenary pirate, his name is solo, he is out for himself. Hes like a western

outlaw, on the run from the law, but essentially good. The cowboy who is an outsider, but a hero we

look up to because he represents independane and self-reliance. He is the warrior and the lover, andon his hero journey, he needs to commit himself to a cause outside himself and he needs to learn to

open his heart, to love. He is kind of the bad boy that women fall for. He learns to think about not

just himself, but someone else.

Our need for one another.

Jesters and MonstorsSidekicks, fools or simply clowns. During his journey, the mythic hero is often accompanied by one

or more faithful followers. Faithful, but not always helpful. They also allow for comic relief and us

to catch our breath. A classic comedy team, with the thin guy and the fat guy abbott and Costello,laurel and heady. It would be repressive without comedy relief. They are like us, we see ourselves

in them and they make us comfortable and help us to relate. They are beside the action, like us,

looking at it and they provide framing and perspective. They also serve as a greek chorus to

comment on the action. They are the comic everyman.

They can also be a child-like innocent like Jar Jar Binks, also seen as a parasite. Silly and not

responsible, but evolves to beome later in a genuine leadership role.

Obstacles along the path

These potentially deadly obstacles along the heros path test and strengthen him on his journey. Thehero becomes himself by being test by various monsters. Jabba the hut, is greed and excessiveness,

represented by his sheer physical excess. He just lays around. He is modern dragon. The snow

monster. Hercules is made to go through all this. The journey into the belly of the whale, being


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swallowed my large entities to suggest going to the deepest part of oneself. A moment of darkness

and a threat to the self. Evil is a monstrous force swallowing the heros.

Overcoming doubt about oneself. They have to overcome their worst fears and overcome their

nightmares. We have that bit of evil monster in all of us. This is why monster combat is so

prevalent in the heros journey universe. We have to fight the mosters of outside circumstances butwe also need to fight the demons that come from our own hearts.

The dark sideFor every hero, there stands a villain. For if there is good, there must also be evil. There is deep

and abiding powerful evil in the world. By the time you recognize the evil, it is too late.

Confronting this dark evil character and all that he represents is a part of the heros journey. Evil is

attractive, seductive, complete fearlessness, unstoppable, and really cool. A dramtatic reward tochoosing evil and corruption. He is also complex and there is usually a reason he became pure evil.

Terrible losses early in life and it is the rage, stemming from grief and fear that leads to the downfall

of this person. The problems of having great difficulties with loss. It throws him into a dark state.

He wants to be all-powerful.

Fear -- leads to Anger -- leads to hate -- leads to suffering.

Unbridled passion leads to anger and leads to tragedy. He starts with issues and become Darth

Vader. He also has a mentor, but it is like the Serpent with Eve in the garden of eden. He says youcan have the power of god, and that god is afraid of the power if you get it. He gets possessed by the

fear of losing again and that leads him to the dark side.

He succumbs and make a faustian bargain. He sells his soul to the devil in order to achieve power.He is like the devil himself Lucifer who was cast out and created his own kingdom. Power and

pride and arrogance. And Pride always goes before a fall.

Greek tragedy in attempting to save her, he is the one who kills her. He is so passionate that it

burns him and consumes him -- literally on the hell-like lava planet. The price of evil becomes

apparrant.

Nemesis that you will become the victim of the things you sow. This passonate person must live

in hell by becoming a mechanical monster. No humanity left.

Half-man, half machine. Gothic horror, frankensteins moster.

The death of libertyIf the mytic hero represents freedom, the hero he stand against represents tyranny. A dark drama of

political intriqe and corruption. This is a cycle in our own history. The fall of republics and rise of

dictators. The corruption of govt. The treat from outside, actually being generated from within. AChancellor getting emergency powers to which he uses badly. He says he will take care of us, give

us security and stability, but he ends up representing oppression, evil and dictatorship. They do this

by their charisma and the command presence. Follow me and Ill take care of you. Free societies,

republics, do not collapse from without until they have destroyed themselves from within. The


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morality erodes and they will themselves out of existence. Democracy is fragile, it can always be

destroyed from within. War means the accumulation of power.

The populous is distracted by spectical chariot races, pod races, gladiatorial combat. And like

Napoleon he rises after a revolution to establish a dictatorship. If your not with me then youre

against me, my enemy. Eithre your with us or your with the terrorists. A tyrant who comes topower by exploiting circumstances and capitalizing on fear is a story that been told again and again

and again. The desire for power, for control.

Politics are cyclical, a continual process of construction and self-destruction. Power corrupts and

absolute power corrupts absolutely. We have to safeguard democracy. That threat is always there.

Man versus machineIn most mytic tales, the hero and his comrades must take part in an epic battle. Someone who has

lost his humanity is going to just do what they are told, and not necessarily what is right. The

resistance embraces diversity in contrast to the empire which is all about death and violence. The

resistance of the champions of diversity, not just ethnically, but also include women and zoologicallyvarious against the enforcers of uniformity. A broad coalition of people representing many various

value systems and structures but who have collectively concluded that they must work togetheragainst they system, the man, the monolithic power trying to squash us all.

Will we live for the machine, or will we live for humanily? Techonology is symbolic of the loss ofhumanity (darth vaders robot body, the death star which looks like a planet but is a hollow machine.)

We have the power to destroy one another, but it is how humans use machines that make them good

or bad. The rebel win not thru fire power, but because they trust in something bigger than

themselves, the force. A balance between who we are and what our intent is. Dont rely on thetechnology rely on yourself.

Resist evil and one person can make a difference.

Redemption and resurrection

A reconnection with the father or with the larger human framework. Luke goes from white to greyto black costumes. Hes passed through this tremendous initiation period and he has accepted the

negativity within himself and found a way to deal with that. Luke has a choice he ends up turning

his father back to the good side. Through his offering up of himself that he is able to bring

redemption to this father. The father is redeemed thru the son. The path to self-knowledge, requiresthat we understand where we came from. In the journey home, only thru becoming our father we

actually grow up.

The pire fire send him off into the next world and let him have closure.

The Moral purpose and valueWe have learned that we are all in this together, in the very large sense, and we need to cooperate in

order to survive.

We see people who embrace and get together for common goals rather than believeing that they

know whats best for everybody else.


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The power always belongs to the people. Never think that a handful of committed people cant

change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.

The circle is now complete

Star Wars, drawing upon all previous forms has created a mythology all its own. It has become a

cultural touchstone. A very literate story, but not a literal story, people are able to connect to it intheir own way.

The legacy is that it helps us to open our heart to the dimension of mystery in our lives and it also

gives us some guidelines in conducting our own heros journey.We can see the nature of teamwork, defiance, as well as it sheer brilliance of the imagination to the

elements that we have never seen before.

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Star Wars:Heros Journey