Aidrian O'Connor 

Well, here it is - my first packet for my first semester at Goddard. Before getting any further, I want to state loud and clear that I really have no idea if what I have done here is sufficient to fulfill the requirements, as I'm not exactly sure what is expected. I expect to hear when this packet is returned to me, though. What I decided to do, in lieu of knowing the expectations, was to continue in the style which I would normally employ if I were working strictly for myself, with a little added organization and clarity. 

The following packet is divided into five main sections: notes and summery of Part 1 of Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces, notes and summery on Trungpa's Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior, some initial notes on Pearson and Pope's The Female Hero, an analysis of a sketch drawn by myself based on Trungpa's work, and an analysis of a short story I wrote inspired by all three books. 

I only dealt with Part 1 of Campbell's work because it was the part which pertained most directly to my current goal of defining the hero's role for future use in writing story lines. I have read this book in its entirety in the past, and I feel fairly certain that I have a fair grasp of Campbell's theory. What I was really shooting for with my current work was to make an easily accessible summery of the author's view of the steps that the hero must go through in his or her quest. Part 2 of Campbell's book, entitled "The Cosmogonic Cycle," deals more with an analysis of the universe that the hero is surrounded by and acts in. Frankly, in taking notes on Part 1, I found that I didn't feel that I could trust the author's analysis of symbol very deeply. I feel his main contribution was to distinguish various stages of the hero's quest, even though sometimes his understanding of what those stages represent missed the mark. 

As I took notes on each chapter of Trungpa's book, I got uncomfortable. That really is the only way I can describe the feeling. It seemed like the author was trying to get across the same few points to the reader over and over, using different metaphors each time. I feel his message is particularly important, and I'm glad to have read this book at this time. It seems as if Trungpa's message pertains more to my personal work than my work for Goddard. It has given me a much clearer idea of what it means to me to attain to the life of a hero, and I think that is vitally important if I can ever hope to convey that message to others. However, as I stated in the summery of this book, Trungpa's particular style of delivery is reliant on following a very individual process which I don't think can be directly translated into the type of educational system I am thinking of. If anything, Shambhala made me wonder if the type of message I am hoping to pass on to people can be conveyed with any specific system of education. 

I only recently obtained a copy of The Female Hero, and thus was only able to start working on it. I can say that I certainly am excited about working with this book, and plan to continue taking notes on it for part of my next packet's work. That would mean pushing back my original schedule, but it seems to me that I stand to learn much more about the true hero's role from Pearson and Pope than I have learned from either Trungpa or Campbell. They seem to possess an extremely sober and down to earth understanding of the subject, with little cultural bias. To put it simply, I thought I knew about the hero's role until I started reading The Female Hero, and now I see just how little I really know. 

Both the sketch and the short story are just two pieces of work which came as a result of my reading. I include them here as an example of how I am experiencing this learning process besides by reading and taking notes. I have always enjoyed this type of work, as it seems to me that one must have digested something thoroughly before one is able to express what has been learned through a different media. Unless there is a problem with this, I will probably continue to include this type of work in my packets. Certainly I feel that these two items hold less import than the rest of the packet, and thus I am not as concerned about lengthy feedback on them, although I certainly wouldn't mind some commentary. The way I see it, my note taking and summarizing can be rather dry reading, and perhaps these other two bits will lighten up the reader's load while still remaining focused on the subject at hand. 

With that, as they say, let's get down to business. 

A Monomyth Summery 

(A Basic Summery of Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces) 

This is a very basic outline of Part 1, Chapter 4, "The Keys." I record it here as a possible tool for later use in generating story lines which conform with Campbell's view of what a mythologically pure story entails. 

I. The Hero sets forth to the threshold of adventure 

A. might be lured 

B. might be carried away 

C. might voluntarily proceed 

II. At the threshold, the Hero encounters a shadowy presence 

A. may defeat this power 

B. may conciliate this power 

C. may be slain by this power and descend in death 

III. The Hero passes through a foreign yet familiar landscape 

A. some experiences threaten the Hero (tests) 

B. some experiences give the Hero magical aid (helpers) 

IV. The Hero arrives at the nadir of the mythological round 

A. undergoes a supreme ordeal - and triumphs 

1. triumph may be represented as sexual union with the goddess mother of the world (sacred marriage) 

2. triumph may be represented as the Hero's recognition by the father creator of the world (father atonement) 

3. triumph may be represented as the Hero's own divination (apotheosis) 

4. if the powers have remained unfriendly, the triumph may be represented by the Hero's theft of the boon he/she came to gain 

(bride theft, fire theft) 

5. intrinsically the triumph represents an expansion of consciousness and being (illumination, transfiguration, freedom) 

B. the Hero gains his/her reward 

V. The Hero now sets out to return 

A. if the powers are beneficial, he/she goes under their protection 

(emissary) 

B. if the powers are not beneficial, he/she flees and is pursued 

(transformation flight, obstacle light) 

C. at the return threshold, transcendental powers gained in the mythic realm must remain behind 

VI. The Hero re-emerges from the kingdom of dread 

A. if alive the Hero returns 

B. if dead, the Hero resurrects 

C. the boon the Hero brings back restores the world (elixir) 

The above outline is extremely oversimplified, and is more to serve as an easily accessible reminder of the system Campbell's work presents for my own future reference. In order to fill in the necessary details, I will now provide a short summery of each chapter of Part 1 of the book. I will not be dealing here with the examples from the various mythologies provided by the author, or his analysis of the symbols therein, as my current work is strictly to determine the steps which the hero takes in the course of the adventure, and what those steps represent. 

I. Departure 

1. The Call to Adventure 

As the name of the chapter denotes, the first stage for the hero is the call to adventure. What the call represents is that a time of change has come to the hero's life, whether the change be small, such as the passage of childhood to adulthood, or great, such as the spiritual transfiguration from mere mortal to divine being. The call heralds a death to the old self, and the consequential rebirth into a new state of being. Interesting to note is Campbell's statement that the creature which carries this message to the hero (Campbell calls this creature the herald) is often a dark, loathy, and somewhat terrifying creature, mysteriously unknown to the hero. To me, this sounds like the herald is a representative of the subconscious, that which is unknown and fearful to the conscious mind. This of course falls directly in line with the idea that the hero's adventure is in reality a searching of the self, a plunge into the subconscious realms to find one's center, the knowledge of which one carries back to the regular conscious realm as a priceless treasure. Also noted here is the statement that the call to adventure summons the hero out of everyday culture into a realm that is completely unknown, where he or she must find a new way of living outside the ways which are already known to him or her. 

2. Refusal of the Call 

The vast majority of this short chapter is dealing with examples of the refusal of the call, with very little side commentary from Campbell. Suffice to say, the message of refusing the call is as follows: The hero often denies the initial call to adventure and tries to continue living without accepting the oncoming period of transformation. In my personal opinion, I would say that this has quite a bit to do with fear of the unknown, as it is far more comfortable to stick with what we know than to face an uncertain future dead in the face. The hero finds, however, that he/she begins to stagnate; life becomes valueless no matter how well he/she does according to the old standards. Sooner or later, the hero gives in, or is taken against his/her will, and the adventure begins. I would say that this period of stagnation is one of the more moralistic messages in the myth, i.e. it states an educational message rather clearly about not trying to hold onto the old ways when the new way is calling. 

3. Supernatural Aid 

Once the hero sets out for adventure, often the first experience is with a figure, according to the author many times an old man or woman, who offers the hero some form of supernatural aid such as a protective talisman, or possibly advice. What this supposedly represents is a message to the hero that fate is on his/her side in the coming affair, no matter how great the danger may seem. Campbell states that this figure is often both motherly and fatherly, and as such is a perfect representative of the subconscious acting as an aid to the conscious mind as it faces the perils of the adventure. This is interesting to note, if compared with the earlier stated idea that the hero is going to face the subconscious. With the herald mentioned above, this makes two messengers from the subconscious mind to the conscious, the first calling the conscious to the subconscious, and the second reassuring the conscious that everything will be just fine in the coming affair. Something doesn't sit quite right with me on this, but I can't say clearly what it is at this point. 

4. The Crossing of the First Threshold 

Having obtained reassurance from the encounter with the giver of supernatural aid, the hero comes to the threshold guardian figure. The figure is depicted as representative of the limits of what the hero already knows. In other words, the hero is about to leave the safety of the old knowledge and encounter something outside the bounds of everything he/she has ever known. I might note here a parallel between the known world of the hero and the unknown realm he/she is about to enter and the simple idea of law and chaos, law being what is known, and chaos being what is not currently knowable. The threshold guardian often is portrayed as violent and dangerously seductive according to the author, and as something which anyone stepping outside the confines of the old way of living will experience. It is pointed out that the terror represented by the threshold guardian can be easily won over by a hero who is psychologically prepared for the encounter, but that the hero who is overly assured of him/herself will be crushed by the encounter. 

5. The Belly of the Whale 

Here we find that the hero has reached the realm of the unknown. Often the symbol of this realm is related to the womb, once again a strong suggestion of the hero's passage being that of a plunge into the subconscious realms. Once in this realm, the hero is effectively dead to the world from which he/she came, and the breaking down of old conventions along with the building of new ideals may begin. It is also pointed out that the hero who can remain detached from his/her ego can pass into and out of this realm of the unknown at will, thus serving as an example to the old culture that there is nothing to fear in the unknown. I see a rather clear comparison here to the teachings of Buddhism, which teach a balance between the ego and the subconscious mind as opposed to total dominance by the ego. 

II. Initiation 

1. The Road of Trials 

Here we find what might be called the meat of the myth. Certainly the road of trials is the section which has been most elaborated upon in mythology, and perhaps that is because it carries in it the symbolic lessons of the progress of the psyche through the process of change which the myth as a whole represents. Each trial encountered by the hero at this stage can be viewed as part of the process of breaking down the old mentality in preparation for the new way which is about to be born within the hero. Thus each encounter is in reality an encounter with some part of the hero's own psyche which is blocking his advancement to a complete rebirth. Often the most direct and apparent method of dealing with such encounters is not sufficient to remove the obstacle from the hero's path, which certainly speaks a clear message to one hoping to work through the obstructive aspects of one's own psyche. This section is also where the advice and amulets given to the hero by the supernatural aid figure(s) are put to use. 

2. The Meeting with the Goddess 

Here there is a problem - not with this aspect of the myth, but instead with the author's interpretation. Perhaps I don't have the right to criticize, not having the necessary credentials or experience, but it feels to me like Campbell has almost completely missed the mark. What I find in the chapter is an accent on the Goddess as a symbol of everything feminine ("mother, sister, mistress, bride" according to the author) as well as the "totality of what can be known" in this world. The Goddess is continually viewed as to how she relates to a very male psyche, with an almost Freudian accent on latent mentalities lodged in the hero's psyche. These mentalities were supposedly placed there as a small child by his (or her???) interaction with his (or her???) mother, most of which are problematic. I cringe to see the listing of "everything feminine" as "mother, sister, mistress, bride." That would make half of everything that is feminine (mistress, bride) related only to a male's interaction with the feminine. In any case, I could go on, but will instead offer my own opinion of what this particular encounter at the zenith of the adventure represents. The archetypal image of the Great Goddess to me represents the physical world that we exist in, and the forces which act in that world, such as the cycles of nature. I believe that she also is a symbol of the subconscious mind within all of us, the part which is continuously acting behind us and through us in accordance with nature's law (or chaos, depending on your point of view). Thus to have encountered the Great Goddess at the nadir of one's transformative experience would seem to suggest a momentary glimpse by the conscious mind of the force which is its base and foundation. It also suggests a sort of full materialization of the hero, by which I mean a total encounter of the material aspect of his/her self, and the world around him/her. In Buddhism, they would call this experience "getting in touch with the is-ness of the world," that part which exists before our human perception alters it in order to understand it in our egocentric way. 

3. Woman as the Temptress 

Here we find the woman as representative of what could be called "gross materiality." This stems from the idea that spirituality is opposed to materiality, and that women represent materiality. Frankly, I'm surprised there is a specific chapter devoted to this subject, which is apparently the product of comparatively late patriarchal religions. It could be said that all the other parts of the myth described by Campbell up to this point are experiences which could well up in any person at any time, be they exposed to myth or not. But do all people view the material world as gross and coarse? To continue that, do they then view women as the same? The examples cited in the chapter are the stories of Oedipus (surprise, surprise...), Hamlet, the Hindu monk Shankaracharya, Saint Peter, and Saint Bernard, all of which could be said to have been produced by rather patriarchal traditions. My feeling here is that the woman/material world as temptress could well be a product in the psyche of the potentially unhealthy urge to strengthen ego and fight off the subconscious, which carries over into spirituality (ego) versus materiality (subconscious) and then masculine (ego) versus feminine (subconscious). I guess to wrap this up, all one really needs to say is, "Do women view women as gross materiality?" 

4. Atonement with the Father 

In a rather long winded and roundabout way, I think the author is trying to get across that when atonement with the father is the climax of a myth, it is to indicate that the hero is overcoming what Neumann has labeled the Isaac Complex (maybe Neumann didn't name it that, but that's where I read it). This complex is the urge of the hero to never cease being the young revolutionary who throws down the old king and the old way he represents, and become the old king which is eventually thrown down. What that means is accepting the role of responsibility that is one's birthright. I have experienced this in my personal life - up until just a few years ago, I would have done anything to be different than my father. At some point (probably after reading Neumann...) I realized that my father and everything he represents is intrinsically part of me, and thus I no longer had to feel as if I were the "young revolutionary." The old way which my father represents is in me, and some day, my new way will be the old way which must be destroyed to make room for a newer way. That's all fine and dandy, but the thing that I am curious about, especially in light of Campbell's analysis of the feminine role, is whether or not atonement with the father and overcoming the Isaac Complex is something which females experience as well as males. I feel that it does, but being male, I can only know my own perspective. I did note that in this chapter Campbell mentions that the female's version of atonement with the father is realizing that she represents the material world which is to be conquered by some strapping young buck of a hero down the line. All I can say about that is, "Maybe the girls you know, Joe." 

5. Apotheosis 

Apotheosis is another possible climax in the mythic round. It indicates, according to the author, the divination of the hero as a result of realizing the inherent unity of all things. Apotheosis is the moment when the hero experiences the conjoining of opposites, and understands that he/she is one with his/her opposite, and indeed with all things. In this particular case, Campbell deals a good bit with the hero realizing that he/she and the divine father figure are one, which seems repetitive of the last chapter, but he does go on to deal with the unification of opposites on many other levels, and I think this is where the true focus lies. It seems that, depending on one's point of view, any of the climaxes discussed here could be considered the joining of two opposites, especially if it is considered that the hero represents the conscious, ego based mind, and the figures that he/she is encountering are other parts of his/her psyche. 

6. The Ultimate Boon 

The ultimate boon discussed here is the knowledge of being which is beyond the self. This is related to immortality, not in a physical sense, but in the sense that one who can see beyond the personal identity can understand that they are just one aspect of the never ending phenomena that is life. The process of realizing the immortal aspect of oneself here and now is a process of breaking down the limitation of oneself by the body one inhabits and it's attendant personality. This knowledge of unity in all things is the hero's gift to bear back to the society from which he/she came, and its purpose is to restore that society by breaking down restrictive conventions. This would seem to indicate that the factor which causes our societies to advance is always a greater realization of unity with all things. I think that would also seem to say that most of what we think of as our civilizations' "advancements" have mostly been in the complete opposite direction of the place (i.e. unity) that the hero's elixir would take us. It is therefore an interesting question to pose when considering bestowing the title of hero on one of our present cultural icons, "Did his/her work lead culture to a greater realization of unity?" 

III. Return 

1. Refusal of the Return 

Having received the knowledge of the new way which is represented by the ultimate boon, it is now the hero's responsibility to bring that knowledge back to the world to restore a certain vitality to it. However, as the name of this chapter would indicate, it is common to find a resistance to the idea of returning to the world with its mundane tasks and responsibilities. The hero at this point has gained what might be called a comfort or even an appreciation for the otherworldly realms and the powers which he or she possesses there. As with the original refusal (refusal of the call), it is an inevitable that the hero must return to the world, or face a stagnation which can only be considered negative. As with the original refusal, this stage of the myth is certainly another blatant moral lesson to those who hear the myth that this world must remain the center stage for our lives. 

2. The Magic Flight 

This stage seems to be more a result of the urge to tell a good story than a particular message about the process of transformation. If the hero has not become friendly with the forces which inhabit the otherworldly realm, then once the knowledge which will restore society has been obtained, the hero must flee through another path of obstacles in order to return to the world from which he/she came. It would seem to me that if the hero must flee from the forces he/she has encountered, than a true understanding of the transformation process has not occurred, but it is true that sometimes that is exactly what happens when dealing with forces beyond the scope of the regular conscious mind. 

3. Rescue from Without 

Rescue from without is in reality a continuation of the last theme, in that it is absolutely necessary that the hero return to the everyday world, and if he/she resists this, fate itself will step in and remove him/her. I don't know that it is necessary to devote a separate chapter to this subject, as it is apparently repeating the statement from the last chapter - "Even if you don't want to come back and get your hands dirty with the every day world, you have to." 

4. The Crossing of the Return Threshold 

The hero has retrieved the elixir which can and must restore the world, but now comes the difficult stage of attempting to convey the message to the old culture bound society. Most would rather not hear the ego shattering message, finding comfort in that which they already know, and this fact makes the hero's final task perhaps one of the most difficult. However, this stage is just as important, if not more so, than all the other stages of the myth. The elixir has restored the hero, but that is not the person it is truly intended for. The hero is but the vessel which carries the revitalizing elixir to the society which is effectively dying of thirst. Not discussed is the angle of viewing this ongoing process of transformation as complete inside the hero's psyche. It would seem to suggest that even after the moment of rebirth has occurred, there are still aspects of the old way of living latent within the hero's psyche which will resist the new way. 

5. Master of the Two Worlds 

Here we find Campbell discussing the life which the hero leads after his return, and the attitudes that he/she must adopt in order to remain true to the hero vocation. The hero must learn to continually open his/her mind to the knowledge of the otherworld, and not contaminate the message with his/her own personal interests. Similarly, it is the job of those who carry the message to leave the symbol a symbol, and not attempt to interpret the symbol as an absolute representative of the message it conveys (I believe this is known as personalization). Finally, any figure can embody the role of the hero, although frequently our cultures have tended to use their current cultural ideals as representative of the hero. In the East in particular, the elixir bearing hero could be embodied in any figure, and many times it was the least expected form which he/she took. 

6. Freedom to Live 

This chapter, similar to the last, deals with the hero as an on going phenomena in the everyday world. Once again, we find the message that the hero is that which is becoming, and never that which has become. He/She retains this position by allowing the message, and thus the force, of the otherworld to flow through him/her and become his/her actions. He/She floats through the world of changing forms with the full realization that he/she is but another changing form with the same force behind him/her as all other things. By retaining this knowledge, the hero is the embodiment of the Cosmic Man/Woman, and he/she represents the will of the entire universe. 

Notes on Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior 
By Chogyam Trungpa 

Chapter One: 

Interesting to note the description of the Shambhala realms as "divided by eight mountain ranges," with "the palace of the Rigdens (rulers).... built on top of a circular mountain in the center of the country," - an obvious relation to the mandala image. In this chapter, Chogyam discusses the realm of Shambhala, stressing the idea that it does not matter if Shambhala is an actual realm, but that it is inside every person regardless, and is a symbol of the ground or root of sanity from which we can all work in our lives. Also noted is the statement that this teaching is secular, and that it is possible to uplift our personal experience without any specific religious outlook. 

The first principle of Shambhala is listed as not being afraid of who you are. This fear leads to extreme selfishness and insecurity. When we are comfortable with ourselves, we can then begin to work with those around us, and perhaps more importantly, with ourselves, without fear. A large part of the Shambhala outlook is appreciating the very real goodness of our experiences. This goodness can be found in things which we normally view as mundane. When we look in these basic experiences, we find nonaggression and freshness in our lives, which is basic goodness. Through this process of experiencing the simple things every day, we find that basic goodness can happen, in fact is already happening. There is a danger related with this goodness, however, and that is our urge to want it so badly. We try to buy it, to own it, to surrender ourselves or humble ourselves to obtain it. Frankly, we end up taking our experience of goodness too seriously. This is where a sense of humor comes into play. A sense of humor provides us with a light touch of appreciation without the need to grasp onto a particular experience. It lets us laugh a bit when the goodness isn't quite so evident, and thus relieves the urge to strain for the goodness to come back. Trungpa defines the essence of warriorship (that is, human bravery) as refusing to give up on anyone or anything. By finding the experience of goodness in our lives and our selves, without trying to attach ourselves to it, we can find the strength to continually work with the world and all the problems inherent in it. 

Chapter Two: 

Here Rinpoche explains the practice of meditation as a tool for working with the self, which leads to working with the world. By simply sitting, just yourself sitting on the earth, with an attitude of human dignity, and by observing the breath, we can experience just being alive. It isn't complicated, and I applaud the author for pointing out that this is not religious in any way. At the same time, it isn't easy to just sit, because we are so used to living in a complicated way that it is difficult to live simply. When we practice the simple experience of sitting, we can carry our experience to the rest of our lives, and appreciate the simplicity there as well. 

On a personal note, it fascinates me to notice that, despite the fact that this book was one the first book I read by Trungpa (about two years ago), I never learned how to just sit until more than a year later, even though the author lays out the instruction here in black and white. The difference was, I believe, that I had a person sit down with me face to face and teach me. By that time, I had read about five of Trungpa's other books, but still I didn't know how to sit. It is said that one can never learn sitting meditation from a book, and I see now that it is true. I might add that since I had personal instruction, I don't think that I will ever forget the technique, and indeed couldn't even if I wanted to. 

Chapter Three: 

A further definition of basic goodness is provided. Basic goodness is good because it is unconditional, or fundamental. It is like the earth being under you, or the sky being over your head. It is like the seasons changing, or day being light and night being dark. These things are not something that we can be for or against. They just are, and they work in a way that we can't really question. Life is natural and it works, and in that way it is basically good. Humans are good in this way as well, because we have every faculty that we need, and we do not have to struggle and fight with the world around us. 

Closely related to basic goodness is awakened heart (bodhicitta). Awakened heart is a product of sitting or standing erect, as opposed to slouched, as in the practice of sitting meditation. Here we are not trying to hide our heart from the world, but are exposing it fully, naked. We are effectively exposing ourselves completely, and this leads to a certain experience of sadness. This sadness is a product of opening up to the raw experience of living of feeling as feeling comes. The warrior feels this sad and tender heart, and at some point it becomes fearlessness. Real fearlessness is the product of tenderness. It comes from letting the world affect you directly, without trying to cover up or protect yourself. When you are fearless enough to let the world in like this, then you are willing to share yourself with others in a fully open way. 

Chapter Four: 

This chapter discusses fear and fearlessness. According to the author, one finds fearlessness by examining one's own fear, which is constantly lurking in our lives. It takes many forms, such as the fear of death, fear of inadequacy, and abrupt fear, or panic. When fear is examined, behind it is found sadness. Chogyam says that feeling this sadness is the first sign of true warriorship. This sadness he describes sounds similar to the tender heart described in the last chapter, i.e. when fear doesn't block our experience of the world, our experience becomes very strong and emotional. The true warrior is sad and tender, and because he/she is not afraid to be that open to experience, he/she can become very brave. 

Chapter Five: 

Basic goodness is connected with gentleness, and gentleness comes from the absence of doubt. The absence of doubt occurs when the mind and body are synchronized, which is the focus of this chapter. An excellent metaphor for why the mind and body must be synchronized is the camera. The camera is likened to the body, and the film inside is likened to the mind. If the camera's various settings are not set to match the film inside, a proper picture can't be taken. In a like way, we cannot get an accurate picture of what is occuring around us if our minds and bodies are not synchronized. 

The process of perception is here divided into two parts, looking and seeing. Looking comes first, and is heavily hindered by doubt. The less doubt we have, the more we can afford to look around us, and that leads to seeing what is there. There is another hindrance to the process of looking and seeing, which is perceiving the world through a filter of preconceived ideas. This is like just looking a little, and then filling in the details with what you would like to see. When one does not narrate along like this, then that is what is called first perception. First perception is like looking and seeing beyond language, because there is no voice in our head telling us what it is that we see. It is much more direct than that. So, by synchronizing mind and body we learn to look and see beyond language, which gives us a clear idea of what is happening around us, and this allows us to respond to that information correctly. Mentioned briefly at the end of the chapter is the statement that synchronizing the mind and the body leads to the "dawn of the Great Eastern Sun," which is the subject of the following chapter. 

Chapter Six: 

A good portion of chapter six is devoted to describing the Great Eastern Sun vision of culture, which is described as a "rising sun" mentality as opposed to the "setting sun" attitude that our current culture has. The G.E.S. (Great Eastern Sun) is based on the idea that all things in this world start pure and good, and that it is possible to return everything to its original state of purity and goodness. We are presented currently with a world which is not as pure as perhaps it was, but that is fine, because it is possible to work with the problems inherent in the world. This applies to all things, from the environment around us to the world inside each one of us. The G.E.S. attitude has a lot to do with being honest, especially being honest with ourselves. We like to try and hide away the dirt around and inside us, and pretend that it is not there. This makes itself evident in our setting sun culture in the way that we produce garbage and send it away for someone else to deal with, or in the way we put our criminals out of sight and try to forget that they exist. In ourselves, we do the same thing, trying to just not think about those parts of ourselves which we find unpleasant to experience. This honesty of the G.E.S. is based on accepting everything for what it is, whether it is "dirty" or not, and on working with those unpleasantries in order to help things get back to their original pure condition. The analogy is made that we must launder the dirt from the world and our selves so that the problems go away and stay away. 

Chapter Seven: 

In order to feel secure, we construct what could be called a cocoon around ourselves, so that there is no chance of experiencing something new, which we might not know how to deal with. The cocoon is made of fear, and inside it we feel secure - warm and secure, almost like a second womb. When we remove ourselves from ourselves enough to perceive our condition, we begin to see just how claustrophobic our situation in the cocoon really is. We begin to break down the cocoon at this point, searching for light to break through our dark security. Eventually the cocoon tears, and the light which comes in is the light of the Great Eastern Sun. Once we find this light, it is so refreshing, so revitalizing, that we find a sudden great interest in the world around us. We want to bask in this new found light forever, and forget about the darkness that we experienced inside the cocoon, but it is important to always remember the darkness and suffering. This remembering gives us the drive to push on with the journey of warriorship. 

As a separate point, there is no warfare for the true warrior, because he/she has an attitude of being all-victorious. This is not a matter of convincing oneself that everything is okay, but is more a matter of knowing that there are no fundamental problems, and thus no war to be won. 

Chapter Eight: 

Renunciation is discussed and defined here. This renunciation is the renunciation of your privacy, in order to be able to open to others completely, which is necessary if one is to serve the world fully. The need for renunciation arises when you begin to feel that basic goodness belongs to you, and also if the vision of the Great Eastern Sun elicits fear in you. Both of these circumstances cause us to build little shelters around ourselves, and it is that protection which keeps us from being fully open. In order to truly care for others, caring for yourself (an attitude of selfishness) must be renounced. Self-renunciation in this way also has to do with cultivating gentleness in ourselves, so that we can allow softness and tenderness to come into our hearts. By opening so much to the world, we come to love the world very much, while simultaneously feeling a certain loneliness and emptiness in ourselves. This love and loneliness work together to enable the warrior to constantly reach out and help others. 

Chapter Nine: 

Warriorship is a continuous occupation. It means being genuine in every single moment, all the time. There is a type of discipline related to warriorship, but is a slightly different type of discipline than we are used to. The discipline of the warrior is that of promoting gentleness and selflessness in yourself and in others. This discipline is likened to the Sun, which shines on all things, and does not pick and choose what its rays shine on. 

The image of the bow and arrow is related to the discipline of the warrior. The arrow here represents sharp intellect, which immediately distinguishes degraded "setting sun" mentalities that are occuring. The bow represents skillful action, that which carries the penetrating quality of the sharp intellect to remove the degraded mentalities. The principle of the bow and arrow is learning to say no to ungenuiness, carelessness, and lack of wakefulness. 

A form of trust that the world will give the warrior a message of success or failure after action has been taken must develop. The warrior finds that failure results from undisciplined, or unsynchronized action and intellect. Success results when action and intelligence are fully joined. 

The principle of meditative awareness acts like an echo. When the warrior begins to slip out of complete awareness, automatically the echoing message of his or her lost awareness comes back to him or her, and this warning allows the warrior to return to awareness again. This becomes an automatic reaction, and is likened to the experience of riding in a saddle - as soon as you start to slip out of the saddle, you automatically right yourself, because of the fact that you have started to slip. Thus slipping out of awareness at this stage acts to keep one aware. This is the point where fearlessness really takes hold, because the warrior is able to enter any situation and be fully awake, with no initial fear to interfere with his or her perception. 

At this point, I decided that, despite the fact that I appreciate the work of Trungpa in this book, his work does not relate directly enough with my attempt to define the role of the hero in relation to the average person. His discussion certainly relates to my work, but I can find no direct way to relate his system to my goal. I will finish reading the book, and write a summery and critique of Trungpa's work. 

Summary 
  
Having finished Shambhala; The Sacred Path of the Warrior, I am frankly amazed. I believe that what Trungpa has done is to map out one specific route of the path to what Jung would call individuation. There are, of course, many different routes with the same goal, all paths to what might be called the center, and I think it is reasonable to say that the mystic aspect of most religions suggest the various routes which are possible. For myself, the path which Trungpa lays out is the path with which I personally can relate with and understand the most. It is unfortunate that I feel that I cannot relate his work directly enough to my goal of attempting to convey the process of individuation to the average person through a workshop atmosphere. Perhaps it is because this book hits so close to home for me, and thus I have a hard time removing myself from it enough to really take it apart piece by piece. But I feel that the methodology of the particular path described is too dependent on a gradual change of internal attitude to be simply summed up and spit back out. It is the nature of this teaching that the goal of the work is present from the very beginning, and the beginning is absolutely present at the goal. All parts of the teaching apply at all times. This is not a simple process which people step through with clearly defined stages, but is instead much more true to the way we experience life - everything relates to everything else, and there is nothing which can be truly and clearly defined. It is almost as if the author uses his words and lessons to create a feeling within the reader, and not so much to state a fact for the conscious mind to grab on to. The feeling grows inside the reader, and is pushed and prodded by further reading, until it makes itself fully known to the conscious, and is born almost as a separate entity into the inner landscape of the reader's mind. Then it is for the conscious ego to try to deal with this new aspect of consciousness, and either try to ward it off out of fear, or accept it without fear and doubt, even embrace it and surrender to it. The author's writing style is absolutely penetrating, cutting through and hitting home nine times out of ten. The messages he conveys relate directly with reality. There are no false promises of what the message of these teachings represents, just the facts about how our modern minds work, how they often cause us trouble, and how we can go beyond that troubling aspect and become truly honest and giving people. The only way to really understand the sacred path of the warrior is to live it, and thus I will not attempt to convey directly Trungpa's teachings through my perhaps overly simplified system of modern interactive ritual. I feel it would cause more harm than good. I will, however, continue to study his writings for my own personal growth towards the path of the warrior, and perhaps I will focus some of my studying on that subject down the line. 

Notes on The Female Hero in American and British Literature 

By Carol Pearson and Katherine Pope 

Although I am sure that I will not be able to finish my notes on this book for the deadline of this packet, I will start analyzing the book chapter by chapter. I plan on continuing my analysis in the next packet, as well as spending some time comparing this book with The Hero with a Thousand Faces. This will, of course, push back my original schedule of what will be covered in each packet, but I feel that it is very important to spend a good amount of time working on this subject (the role of the hero) before I move on to the next. 

Chapter One: 

This chapter, entitled "The Female Hero," provides an introduction to the subject. A good part of the chapter deals with past attitudes towards the role of the female hero, with an accent on how predominant patriarchal views have confused that role. Also, there are a fair number of statements as to what a more accurate understanding of the female hero's, and indeed all hero's, roles entail. 

Initially I cringe at what could be called a very negative analysis of the past patriarchy, as this angle could seemingly lead to a victim mentality, as well as the anger and even hatred of the oppressor (the patriarchy) by the oppressed. This type of anger and hatred can often lead to a clouding of effective action, not to mention the continuance of an oppressed mentality within the potential female hero. However, it becomes clear as the chapter progresses that the authors are simply taking stock of what has brought this subject to its current state, so that we can clearly understand what our point of departure is. The hero can not revitalize society if he or she does not understand what the society is that they are revitalizing. 

The authors show a greater understanding of the subject of the hero than their predecessors (in this case Joseph Campbell) early on when they discuss Campbell's definition of the stages of the hero's progression. Under the subject "Initiation," they define two of the stages as "encounter with the tempter figure of the same sex (I think here they mean opposite sex), and "reconciliation with the parent of the same sex." Campbell's actual terms for these stages were, respectively, "Woman as the Temptress," and "Reconciliation with the Father," obviously directed at a strictly masculine hero figure. 

An excellent point made by the authors is that the true role of the hero is not to master anything, especially his or her world(s). This attitude is, I believe, a result of taking the actions of a hero too literally. Instead of understanding that the hero is overcoming his or her obstacles by truly understanding those obstacles, and then proceeding with action, those who believe the hero masters the opposition are focusing too heavily on the often violent symbol of overcoming. In other words, just because the hero's specific action of overcoming the opposition might be violent does not necessarily infer that the hero possesses a violent state of mind such as conquering his or her environment when he or she acts. This might seem like nit-picking, but in fact it makes all of the difference in the world, as it is in reality the hero's internal attitude about his or her interaction with the world from which we learn the most. Pearson and Pope can be quoted as saying, "An exploration of the heroic journeys of women - and of men who are relatively powerless because of class or race - makes clear that the archetypal hero masters the world by understanding it, not by dominating, controlling, or owning the world or other people," (page 5), and also, "The hero's achievement, in short, is to affirm life." 

Another excellent point made by the authors is that when the hero is not the cultural ideal he or she is almost intrinsically a revolutionary, and challenges the status quo simply by being strong while on the downside of culture. This reminds me how important it is to try to get this message to the people who need it the most (those not in a position of power). It is indeed the multitudes which are culturally oppressed the most, and who need a way to overcome that oppression the most. 

After reading this chapter, it occurred to me that one of the only ways to find the hero aspect in each one of us is to fully understand what our culture often inaccurately tells us that we are. We must learn to recognize assumption about both the roles that we are supposed to play and the roles that we assume others play. Once we learn how culture inaccurately views us, then it is necessary to forget those cultural assumptions, lest we be contained by the urge to react against those assumptions with an unnecessary ferocity. As with the hero, once we understand the situation clearly, we act, with a mind not clouded by the urge to conquer and dominate that which would oppress us. Rather, we simply transcend the oppression without creating oppression in the process. 

It is so easy to slip in this vital stage. As an example, I quote Pearson and Pope, who refer to the following quotation from George Gissing's novel The Odd Women: 

"Miss Barfoot mused, and her face lighted up with a glad thought. "You are right. It's better to be a woman, in our day. With us is all the joy of advance, the glory of conquering...." (italics mine) 

Although the authors' point in quoting this was that when we are oppressed there is a greater opportunity for us as beings because we have the opportunity to overcome the oppression, my point is simply that it is so easy to view overcoming our internal oppression as an egotistical victory instead of a process of understanding and moving on. I feel confident in saying that one of the hero's greatest enemies will always be his or her own ego, and its attendant urge to settle in to what it views as accomplishment. 

An Alchemical Illustration 

Inspired by the Work of Chogyam Trungpa 

An Analysis of the Alchemical Illustration 
  
I often times sketch what I would call alchemical illustrations to clarify in my own mind something which I am learning, or to map out some process which I see unfolding in my life. The only reason that I call these sketches "alchemical illustrations" is that I am attempting to convey a message about a situation in life using symbols, in the same way that the alchemists of medieval times did. 

As a side note, I would like to add that I drew this while hanging out at a friend's house, and the next day realized that it related to my school work, and thus should be included in my packet as something which expresses how my studying is affecting my personal life and attitude. Anyway, on with the analysis: 

Starting with the center of the page as our focus, we find a representative of the warrior, depicted as a geometric shape of round balls connected by tubes. This is a common symbol in my work of what has been called by others Anthropos. His/Her eyes are X's, which is a symbol of death in some cultures, but here represents a lack of ego. The tools found in the hands of our warrior are the dorje, or bell, and the vajra, or lightning bolt, of Tibetan Buddhism. These symbols represent the feminine (bell) and the masculine (lightning bolt), and thus our warrior has overcome restriction by the duality's, and has learned to make the duality's into a useful tool. The warrior is flying out of some kind of window cut through the surface of the page, and through this interdimensional portal we see the land of Shambhala, with the Great Eastern Sun apparent in the upper right hand corner. Thus the warrior is coming out of the land of Shambhala into the realm of the setting sun to work with determination (note the rigid line of the mouth) on the problems inherent in the setting sun world. Below the window are the words, "Invoking drala?" Drala is the magical wisdom which is inherent in all things. The question posed has two meanings - am I (Aidrian) invoking drala (bringing out the wisdom of the cosmos in myself and my world), and also are you (general audience) invoking drala? This is sort of a reminder of our collective responsibility. Below this, printed largely, is the word "Shambhala," which is there to assist the audience in finding the meaning of the other symbols present, and slightly smaller below that is the term "loving-kindness." Loving-kindness is one of the great and necessary qualities of the warrior, and in particular is the quality which I feel I must, in my personal life, pursue the most (if such a thing is possible). At the top of the page is a tetrahedron, which is the platonic solid which Plato believed represented the element of fire. I add it here because the role of the warrior seems heavily related with pure and simple activity, which the element of fire represents to me. At the bottom of the page is my tag, or signature, which is written 'Eze' in a sort of geometric symbol, and next to that is '409,' which is the name of the group of artists which I am a part of. 

Fairy Tale 

This is the story of the King, the Queen, and most importantly, their daughter, the Princess. As is only fitting, our noble family lived in a castle in a range of the most beautiful glistening, white mountains. The sky there was always blue, the grass vibrant and green, and the water of the nearby lake was clear and pure. It seemed as though nothing could ever invade the purity of the place, and the Princess felt assured that no harm would ever come to her in the castle in the mountains. 

Now, there was something very special about the King, the Queen, and their daughter, besides the fact that they were beautiful beyond compare. They had a trait that set them apart from everyone else in the realm, and it was that very characteristic that made them royalty. The trait was easily missed if not looked for, but it made all the difference in the world. There was, in each of their eyes, a certain glimmer, just a flashing gleam, something which couldn't really be defined, but certainly couldn't be denied. That spark of life meant home to the young Princess, and she knew down deep that if ever she was scared or hurt, all she had to do was look into her parents' eyes and see that bit of light, and all the fear, all the hurt, would vanish instantly. 

For the first seven years of her life, the Princess lived in this heavenly realm with her parents, full of joy and without a care in the world. 

All good things must end someday, however, and eventually that day came to pass. It was the day for her lessons to begin. The King and Queen had decided that the Princess should attend the local schoolhouse, as opposed to getting a private instructor, so that the innocent girl could experience a world outside the castle in the mountains. And so she was sent to the nearest schoolhouse, which was located at the base of the mountains. 

There was, as chance would have it, a particularly high concentration of noble families in that region, and as such, the school was full of many young princes and princesses. None of them were nearly so noble as our Princess, and certainly none of them had that special trait which she possessed, but even at that young age the children were proud and boastful of their royal lineage's. 

The Princess entered her classroom for the first time, somewhat frightened and unsure of what to expect. She saw the other children at play, and thought, "How wonderful! So many children like myself! I will have many friends to enjoy my time with!" 

But then something horrible happened. She entered the group of children, smiling and shy, but her smiles were not returned. The other children saw this beautiful young stranger enter their midst, and instantly they perceived that there was something special about her, something they could never have. Instead of rousing curiosity in the proud, cruel hearted children, that thing they couldn't possess roused jealousy, which quickly turned to anger. "Who is this girl who thinks she is better than we?" they thought, "We don't want that glimmer in our eyes. We don't like that spark, and we certainly don't like this girl!" 

One particularly strong headed and highly jealous girl pointed at her and yelled, "You are ugly, and I don't like you!" "Yes, ugly," joined in the other children, following the lead, "Ugly! Ugly!" 

The Princess ran from the classroom in tears, and she didn't stop crying or running until she got home. She was so upset that she didn't even notice the dark, menacing clouds that now covered the sky over the castle. Once there, she ran through the castle, trying to find her parents so that they could make the pain of rejection disappear from her heart. But the King and Queen were nowhere to be found, as they were off taking care of responsibilities of the state. Finally, exhausted, the Princess went to her room to cry alone. 

She collapsed into a chair in front of a large mirror, and looked at her reflection through tear-blurred vision. "I'm ugly," she said out loud, and the tears came down. "I'm ugly, I'm ugly, I'm ugly." Before her own bleary eyes, she watched her countenance twist and her body contort. All that she could see now was her own horrible wretchedness, and the glimmer in her eyes began to fade away. Soon enough, it was all but gone. 

It stayed cloudy for a long, long time. The Princess went to school, as her parents told her she must, and she hated it every day. The other children sometimes would still pick on her, but often now they left her to herself. It was obvious to those horrible little beasts that the girl had learned her place, and with the gleam gone from her eyes, she was far less of a threat to their little world. 

The longer this went on, the worse our Princess became. She felt uglier every day, and she was so sure that none of the children would ever like her that she stopped even trying to be friends with them. At home, The King and Queen seemed to be far too busy to ever spend time with her, and she attributed this to her horrible ugliness as well. Though they noticed a change in their daughter, the royal couple reasoned that she was simply going through the rough waters many children experience when leaving the homestead for the first time. They decided to just give the Princess space, which was probably the worst thing they could have done, all things considered. The clouds overhead thickened and darkened. 

Finally, the lonely Princess could take it no longer. She fled the empty, mirror filled house, and ran into the dark woods nearby. As she ran, she became frightened, which caused her to run that much more recklessly. The shadows seemed to move like loathing beasts, and the branches tore at her royal gown. She ran and ran until she was exhausted, and then she ran more. She was more frightened and alone than she had ever been in her life. 

Suddenly, the Princess tripped on an unseen rock or tree root, and fell hard onto her hands and knees just at the edge of a large, deep pond. The jolt of pain temporarily blurred her eyes, and as they cleared she was presented with a clear reflection of her face in the still, dark water. All that she could see was her own wretchedness, and she burst into tears. 

As the first big tear rolled off her soft cheek and hit the water, the ripples became what was first just a dark lump, but soon proved to be a gnarled turtle head. The Princess cried on, not noticing, and as more tears hit the surface of the pond, more of the turtle became evident until, quite suddenly, the Princess realized that she was nose to nose with the turtle's face. She screamed and threw herself back, landing in the mud not far away. 

"What do you want?" she yelled at the turtle. He just laughed quietly and pulled himself up onto the shore. He really was quite large for a turtle, about three feet across by the Princess' estimation. 

"I just want to talk," said the wrinkled old tortoise in a kind voice. "Why are you crying, pretty girl?" 

"I'm not crying," she said, sniffing, "and I'm certainly not pretty." 

"Oh yes, of course. What was I thinking?" said the turtle with a slight grin. Under his voice he added, "With that gleam almost gone, how could you possibly be pretty?" 

"What was that?" the irate little princess demanded. 

"Oh, nothing, nothing. Why don't you pick yourself up out of the mud and sit down on my shell, and I'll tell you a story to help you relax a bit," offered the wizened reptile. 

"Why should I trust you? I mean, I would be stupid to trust anything that lives in this dark forest." 

"Look at it this way," came the reply, "If I try anything, all you have to do is walk away quickly, and I'll never be able to catch up. Besides, I'm a vegetarian, so you don't have much to worry about." 

The Princess thought about it for a minute, and figured that at this point, she didn't have much to loose. "All right, but no funny stuff!" 

"No funny stuff, I promise," said the turtle. With that the Princess picked herself up and sat down on the turtle's back. The turtle repositioned himself a bit at the edge of the pond, and began to talk. "Now then, look here." With a swipe of his great flipper he rippled the surface of the black pond. As the water became placid again, the light reflecting off its surface broke up and moved around, until it formed rather clearly the image of a handsome young man. The princess gave a short gasp as she realized that in his eyes was the very same gleam which she had only seen in her parents' and her own eyes before. 

"He's a prince, isn't he?" she found herself saying. 

"Yes, he is, or more correctly, was," replied the wrinkly green head. "You see, that was me when I was young." 

"What are you talking about?" the dubious Princess asked. 

"Well, if you'll be quite for a bit, I'll tell you." The Princess, a bit miffed, grew silent, and the turtle continued, "When I was a young man, as you can see, I was fairly handsome, and I had inherited from my parents a certain extra spark of life in my eyes. I believe you are already familiar with that," he said with a wink. He continued, "Now then, I didn't know why I had this gift, or what it meant, but I did know that I could use it to make people like me. And that is just what I did. I took advantage of that gift, and became as a result rather popular, especially with the young princesses in that area. But you see, it was very unfortunate, as I put very little value on the friends I made, figuring that I could always make more easily enough. With this attitude I went about my business in a carefree manner, and I hurt a lot of people by not considering my actions before I took them. I told myself that it was all right, that it was their own fault for them getting hurt. It took loosing the person closest to me before I realized that I could make no excuses for myself any longer." 

"I broke when I finally realized what I had done for so many years. It made me hate that gleam, and hate myself even more. I felt evil, horrid, disgusting. I was so repugnant to myself, I could no longer face those around me. And so I ran. I ran and ran, feeling more and more retched with every passing moment. Suddenly I tripped, falling at the edge of this very pond. In my reflection, I saw just how ugly I had really become. I wept, not knowing what else to do. When the tears stopped flowing, I found that I had become a gnarled and wretched old turtle. I slipped into this pond, and it has been my home ever since." 

"Sometimes, as I lay in the mud, a vision would come to me and relieve my internal strife for a while. It was of a beautiful girl's face, bending over the edge of the pond. This is what I saw," the turtle said, and disturbed the surface of the pond water again. 

The Princess watched as the light played across the surface for a second, and transformed into the image of a young girl whose countenance was undeniably radiant. Her hair was long and curled, so dark brown as to almost be black. Her lips were full, and her jaw line strong and square. Her nose was like a button, and her cheeks were dappled with faint freckles. But it was her eyes that radiated her true beauty. They were slightly oblong, and shone with an inner light that blazed like a full moon on a clear black night. She looked somehow familiar to the Princess, in an undefinable sort of way. 

The turtle watched on as the Princess looked at the image. "She's beautiful," she said quietly. The turtle smiled at her and said, "Yes, she is... Watch now." He repositioned himself closer to the water. The girl realized that she could now see her own face reflected next to the image of the beautiful young girl. Before she could say a word, the images began moving toward one another, with one superimposing itself atop the other. In a moment's time, the two images were one, and as they moved into perfect alignment, the Princess realized that they were the same face. Her face. The only difference was that in the turtle's dream image, the eyes had that inner radiance. She looked away in bewilderment. 

"Look at me," demanded the turtle, "Do you see what happened to me when that inner light vanished? I only look this wretched to you because I feel this wretched inside. You can save yourself now, before it's too late for you, too. Just believe in yourself, that's all. If you are wretched in your own eyes, you become wretched in the eyes of others. It's as simple as that! I showed you an image of your self just now, the image that I see when I look at you, and you didn't even realize it, you didn't even recognize yourself. You are beautiful beyond compare, and if you would believe that, you would see it too. And then everybody else will see it as well." 

For just a moment, the Princess realized that the turtle was right. It was more of a feeling that rose out of her than a thought in her mind, but for that moment she saw that she was indeed a beautiful young princess. And that was all it took. It was like a great weight had been lifted off her shoulders, and she laughed out loud. 

"Good heavens, Sir Turtle, your right!" She realized that the woods were dark and menacing no longer, and past the tree branches overhead she could have sworn that she saw blue sky. She jumped up on her feet, but then stopped short. "But what about you?" 

"Ah, I'm afraid I realized the truth too late to save myself," said the turtle quietly. "But it does me good to know that I helped the girl of my dreams. I will stay here, as I should, and wait to see if any others come to this spot. I have a feeling they will come." 

"Are you sure? I could try to come and visit sometimes?" said the Princess. "I mean, it doesn't seem right just leaving you here like this." 

"No, no, I'll be fine. You just run along now, and remember what I said." With that he turned to go back to the cold murky depths of the pond. 

"All right," came the reply. "But before I go - thank you Sir Turtle," and with that she kissed his wrinkled face square on the lips. 

The next thing she knew, she was looking into the vibrant eyes of a handsome young man. They both gasped and pulled away quickly. Both the Princess and the young man looked down at his body in disbelief. "You've broken the curse!" he exclaimed, looking back to her face. 

"But how?" she said, puzzled. 

"When you've gone so deep as I was, believing in yourself will do no good. It requires somebody else believing in you to help..." The young man looked into the Princess' shining eyes, and she looked into his, and they kissed again. 

With that, they rose, and walked hand in hand out of the forest, and back to the Princess' castle. A few short days later, they were married, and they lived happily forever after. 

THE END 

An Analysis of "Fairy Tale" 

I wrote "Fairy tale for a few major reasons. First, I have a friend who suffers from a certain lack of self-confidence, and I wished to send her as clear a message as possible about how I view the issue of self-confidence, with the hope that it might at least give her a different angle on the subject. I have noted this lack of self-confidence in many people that I personally know, and I would venture to say that it effects the majority of people to a greater or lesser extent. In talking with many of my female friends, it seems clear that the issue of lacking self-confidence about one's physical appearance is a particularly strong issue in our culture today. So I hoped to address the subject as a message to our culture at large, particularly those who suffer from this unfortunate attitude. And last, but certainly not least, I wanted to try and convey my message using what I have learned thus far about the hero role and the symbols which we often find surrounding the hero. 

To describe the symbols I used in the story, I will simply pick them out in the order they appear, so that you can read the story and look to the following for clarification. I will try to keep the following as concise as possible. If there are questions as to why I feel a certain symbol represents a certain meaning, I will be glad to respond. 

The King, Queen, and Princess represent the creative trinity, which is housed in the uroboric realm. The symbols of the uroboric realm include the fact that they live on a mountain, and everything there is related in some way to purity. 

The glint in their eyes is the mark of the hero, or divinity. It simply is there to set our trinity apart from the masses. 

The Princess spends seven years in the uroboric realm, seven being a number of spiritual completion. 

The Princess' descent from the mountains to the schoolhouse is representative of the descent into the realm of duality's. Here she finds hardship like she has never experienced before, which is the essence of the dualistic realm. 

The other children at the school are obviously cowards, afraid of the truth and simplicity that the Princess represents. This is equated in some way with the culture resisting the elixir of the hero. 

The Princess' disbelief in her self results in a downfall, a loss of divinity. The noble hero aspect withers, and with it her beauty. As this continues over time, the world which was once the uroboric realm is now perceived as impure and painful. Also note that the mother and father are no longer apparent, and thus the creative trinity has now faded to be replaced by the individual hero. 

The Princess flees into the dark woods, a common symbol of the otherworldly realm. She is running on a path through her subconscious mind, and all that she can feel is fear. When she reaches the center, she finds a dark well of water, a further symbol of the unknown which is at the center of our subconscious minds. All that she can see reflected there is her own wretchedness. 

The turtle is the loathy messenger from the subconscious to the conscious. Note that he is male, and thus fulfills the role of animus nicely. 

The turtle's story is in fact part of my message to my personal friend about my past, as well as carrying the main message of this story to the public. There is an obvious symmetry in the way that both Princess and turtle fled from pain and found themselves at the same spot, which just seemed appropriate for some reason which I can't define. Note that the turtle was consumed by the pain, and now it is his place to help others from sharing a similar fate. 

Finally, the return of belief in the self restores the Princess, and consequently her world is restored as well. The Princess' belief in the turtle restores him, which really is just to provide an appropriate, if cheesy, ending to the fairy tale. This was also part of my personal message to my friend, showing that we can help each other in this particular department. 

The whole point was just to make a story with a message which could withstand analysis from the comparative myth point of view, as well as being interpretable on many different levels. Hopefully I succeeded in these goals, as well as in the most important goal of writing an enjoyable story.