An Experience of Mythic Proportions

One week ago, I completed a Hero’s Journey, the Co-Active Leadership Program. Ten months. 19 people.
Yes, one like Joseph Campbell so iconically laid out.

I began in my ordinary world. I was called to adventure. I almost refused the call.
But I went. I met my mentors. I went into at least one dark cave of the soul.
I met magicians. I was tested. And I returned home, forever changed.

Answering the Call

All 19 of us went through a version of the hero's journey.
We were called here. And we came — against the pull of natural and societal forces.

We even defied gravity to get here. Up in the air from near and far, we flew.
We left our jobs, families, friends, communities — to build this one, again and again.

Against the human forces that whisper:
We should not do this work. It is too hard.

We came here against the prevailing message that war and misunderstanding are the natural way.
We came anyway.
We joined hands. We cried. We laughed. We shook with fear. We climbed ropes. We danced — yes a room full of global leaders — we danced our asses off.

Meeting the Mentors

We were met by our mentors, our sages — in the form of our leaders:
Özlem, Dori, John, and Sue.

All along, from day one back in November, they have been leading us to the completion of the journey.
They were leading us through curated chaos, aloneness, and community building.

All along they were leading us to lead ourselves:
Leaders grow leaders.

Facing the Dragons

There were strong urges at times to not stay —
to not stay in the moment, in the project, in the relationship.

The fiercest dragons are the ones within.
We abandon ourselves to escape the dragons.

But we stayed.
Or perhaps more important: we learned to come back.

To recover to the relationship. To the Reishis — the name we were given from the first day.
Even when we were apart, we called each other back.

When we checked out, we led each other back to the circle.
Back to the Reishis.

Over and over, we taught each other to return.

Leaving the Masia

We left the masia — a large, gorgeous mansion in the serene hills of Sitges, Spain,
that has its own stories to tell — last time, last Friday.

We drove out through the gates, through a portal to a new “real” world, forever changed.
Each of us heroes and heroines, moving into a world that needs us.

But this is our hero’s journey — and so true to Campbell's description,
the road back will be much more than our physical journeys back home.

We will — and many of us already have — face tests anew:
Tests to our commitment to stay, to love, to have our hearts at peace.

This is all part of it.

Returning with the Elixir

Our elders handed us the torches to bring into the world. We returned from this hero’s journey with our elixirs — the medicines of hope and love our world so badly needs. We also returned with our swords to fight the internal demons of “not enough” and “too much”.

Our wizards and sages now live within us, right alongside our dragons.
We went through those gates of the masia embodying peace, wisdom, healing, and magic.

We went back to our homes all over the world —
to our families, to our jobs, to our job losses,
our intimate relationships, to funerals, children, and the yearning for children.

All of it.

Many Journeys Within One

While this was certainly one of the most influential and powerful Hero's Journeys of my lifetime,
it has not been, nor will be, the only one.

All of us have perhaps one overarching life story — and many stories within it,
each with its own arc.

And each of our stories can be told from a multitude of perspectives — all of them within us.

Through the lens of Carl Jung's 12 main archetypes,
the same "facts" can add up to a very different story,
depending on the perspective from which it is told.

Have you been telling a life story from the perspective of the Orphan, the Magician, or the Hero, for example?
All of these archetypes have a place and help us uncover the most empowering "truths" of our stories.

The Story Continues

Our stories shape us, and we shape them.
We are not only the protagonists of our stories, but the authors.

We are both — and everything.
We are shadow and light. And everything in between.

I will be unpacking this leadership program story for years to come.
This journey has already given birth to new ones — including my latest Leadership Quest, a workshop both online and in person: The Way Home: Reclaiming Your Story Through Myths and Archetypes. Seems pretty fitting, doesn’t it?