Workbook Chapter Twenty-Seven

Live the Mythic Life

 

Self-Assessment:

 

Self-Assessment:

How Can I Map My Journey of Transformation?

 

Below is an exercise designed to help you map your own transformational journey. As was mentioned previously, if you look closely at the major events of your life you can begin to see the patterns, and if you have a map for organizing these patterns, you should be able to chart your life journey of transformation and determine and at any given moment you can determine where you actually are on that journey. By using this same map, you will probably be able to discover a number of mini-transformational journeys that are also part of your larger life journey.

 

Look at the handout with the map of the Transformational Journey and read the short descriptions of the steps in the transformational journey below, thinking about the events in your life that relate to each of these steps.

 

1.  The Call to Awaken:  This is the time in your life when you feel that things must change for you; the call is often caused by some kind of life crisis or a sense of an impending crisis or some inner awareness that things must change in my life.

What was my Call to Awaken?  (My illness in 2013, my new role in 2015, my self-awareness activities 2016-2019, my relationship 2018-2020)____________________________________

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2.  Refusing the Call or Answering a False Call: The call is refused, or you choose to do something that will help you avoid waking up to something you need to do or know. What events in your life can you identify with that fit these circumstances?

How did I Refuse the Call to Awaken or Answer a False Call? ___________________________

I did not answer the call after my job loss in 2018 and stayed around as consultant instead of 

freeing myself up and really look for new opportunities

 

 

I did not answer the call 2018-2020 and did not divorced 

 

 

3. Answering the Call to Awaken:  The call to make changes in your life is so strong that you cannot refuse to listen to it. When you answer the call to awaken you make a conscious choice to awaken.

How did I Answer the Call to Awaken? _In 2013 I started the journey, full of fears. My illness became the biggest call to awaken. Since than I am in journey to awaken. ____________________________________________________________________________

 

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4. Gathering Allies:  You search for friends or resources to help you, to provide you with information or skills, and to support you while you take the risks to change.

What did I do to Gather Allies? __I started to enter different self-awareness programs and meet people who was advising me what to do next ___________________________________________________

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5. Crossing the Threshold:  After getting up your courage and collecting enough 

information, you decide to act. You cross into the unknown (perhaps you quit a job, end a relationship, return to school, enter therapy). This step requires encountering all your worst fears and limitations. You (or others) may think you are going crazy. You may be afraid that you will lose your relationship with loved ones or family (the familiar). It is a very scary time.

What did I do to Cross the Threshold?  (I quit my job, started to look new opportunities, I almost quit my family at least I quit codependent relationships I had before with my wife.) _____________________________________

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6. The Road of Trials:  Tests of your courage and determination challenge your decision to make changes in your life. Are you ready to do this? Self-doubts may cloud your perceptions but you must go on.

What was the Road of Trials like for me? __For me it is finding my new purpose, the job I serve Also for me its creating new kind of relationship, which is based on partnership and not co-dependence ___________________________________________________________________

 

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7. The Dark Night of the Soul:  During this time in your life you face great difficulties and challenges that become a crisis for you. It may be the death of a loved one or a betrayal.

What was my Dark Night of the Soul? _I found that my main employer fired me, so I am jobless. Also, I am in the middle of decision to choose which kind of relationship I want to have in the future. It’s tough times for me and its testing my new me _______________________________________

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8. Finding New Allies:  Friends and allies who have been helpful in the past may now be replaced by new allies who are farther along on their own journeys. You may have to say good-bye to old friends and safe situations as you journey onward.

What New Allies did I find? ___________________________ ________I am still on this way. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

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9. The Sacred Marriage:  At this halfway point of your journey you need to surrender to your inner masculine and feminine energies. You balance yourself through an inner marriage that allows you to take charge of your life without feeling guilty and helps you receive what you want and need without resistance.

How did I reach the Sacred Marriage? _____I do not know yet I am not clear about it yet I feel stuck here __________________________________________________________________

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10. The Apotheosis:  This is another kind of union in which your higher and the lower selves unite. You begin to know your own divineness and can begin to live out of a deeper sense of who you are and what your life purpose is.

What experiences did I have with this step? ___Not feel that I am there yet_________________

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11. The Return:  You may experience a long voyage back to the daily, external world where you can use and apply things you have learned on your inner journey. This can mean letting go of the old ways of relating or resolving conflicts and replacing those ways with your newly developed skills and information.

Give an example of how I Returned _____________Maybe we can say that I am returned with new vision of helping companies to become more productive instead of marketing I did for them before_____________________________

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12. The Master of Both Worlds: This is when you experience the world of your inner journey and your external world working together. This enables you can live a life that is fulfilling and satisfying. This allows you to return at any time to your inner world to process what is happening to you in your outer world or to look for guidance on some problem or issue you are facing. 

What experiences did I have where I felt the Master of Both Worlds? 

____Not feeling that I AM yet there_________________________________________________

 

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Case Example:

 

While living and studying in Switzerland, I was attending a workshop facilitated by Dr. Arnold Mindell. We had an assignment to use Active Imagination to work through as dream or other problem we were facing.

 

I chose to work on a recurring dream I had as a child and adolescent.

In my dream, I was being chased by a monster down the hall from my bedroom. The dream is very real as I can feel the hot breath of the monster on the back of my neck. I know the monster is about t grab me. I turn the corner at the top of the stairs and I have only one choice to escape: leap from the top of the stairs. To my surprise, I land on my feet softly and I am free from the monster. 

 

I decide to draw a picture of what I imagined the monster looked like. I drew an ugly, fang-toothed monster, with fire coming out of his nostrils . He had horns like a demon. Then I molded the head of the monster with clay and placed him in front of me. I suddenly realized in my dream, I never faced mu monster.

 

I began to ask my monster questions. My first question was, “Why were you chasing me?’ I waited and the answer came to me and I wrote it down. He said, “I was chasing you because I knew it was not safe for you to stay in that house. I knew that you had to get out of there as soon as possible.”

 

This answer shocked me. I knew that my mother had a mental disturbance that would flair up from time-to-time. I was always the target of her rage. Mostly, it was verbal abuse. I don’t remember her hitting me. However, I did not think I was in danger. Maybe I was more than I dared to  admit.

 

I hid out from my mother. I stayed in my room with the door locked most of the time. In the summer, I stayed away from the house as much as I could. It was only much later, that I realized the truth of my monster demon.