Freedom to Live is the final stage in the Hero's Journey. Campbell said that this was the stage where the hero "finds balance between internal and external worlds and no longer fears death." This is the stage where the hero stops doing things and fighting challenges and instead just exists. Applied to our life it is the calm before the cycle starts again. In Star Wars this was the stage after Luke created the school for Jedi and he began to live out a daily routine. Eventually, he had a conflict with his nephew and a new journey began for him. In the Lord of the Rings, this is the stage after the hobbits have taken over leadership roles, and they get to enjoy their day-to-day routines. This stage serves as a reminder that we are human "beings" not human doings. We cannot always be on a journey or the road becomes our home and the call to adventure may become a call to domestication, which is its own adventure. Many of our images of heaven are symbol
This week we come to the second to last stage of the Hero's Journey. Campbell called this stage "The Master of Two Worlds". In this stage, the hero tries to integrate what they learned and gained on their journey with their old "ordinary" world. Albert Einstein once said, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." This explains the challenge the hero must face in this stage. All that they learned and gained must be fully mastered and the test of this mastery is being able to use it in the ordinary world. They must simplify it so that the uninitiated can benefit from it, just as Einstein encouraged the mastery of complex ideas into simple explanations. In the Star Wars Trilogy, this stage happens off-screen after the film is over, but before the new movie begins. We learn in the newest trilogy that Luke created a school for Jedi, taking the wisdom he gained from his journey and sharing it with others. In