Skip to main content

Magic Flight

 


Following the "Refusal to Return" in the Hero's Journey is the stage called "Magic Flight" or "Crossing the Return Threshold".  Previously the hero completed their mission and then refused to return home.  In this stage, the hero sets aside their refusal and makes a mad dash or escape, often with the remaining enemies chasing them.  

In the Lord of the Rings after Frodo destroyed the ring he was so exhausted that he laid down to die, but the story didn't end there.  Sam helped him out of the cavern and the two of them collapsed on a rock that was quickly surrounded by lava from the erupting Mount Doom.  With no escape in sight, they sat there, seeming to accept their fate.  Sam started talking about home and the hopes and wishes he had for his life.  They embrace each other and express gratitude for being in this together and then the camera goes black.  When the camera comes back into focus they are both passed out on that same rock, but we see something coming on the horizon.  Gandalf rides atop a great eagle with two more behind him.  They swoop in and pick up the two hobbits as we see the world behind them explode and erupt.  This is the magic flight.  

In the Exodus story, we are told that Moses secured the freedom of the Israelites.  After several devastating plagues struck the Egyptians, Pharoah finally told Moses to take his people and leave.  Several miles down the road the Israelites hit a dead end in front of a river. They heard the hooves of warhorses and the marching of feet behind them.  Pharoah had gathered his army and intended to destroy the Israelites.  The Israelites had acquired the "ultimate boon" in the form of their freedom, but now they were being chased and their lives were at risk.  Moses stood before the river and parted the water, allowing passage for the Israelites, but collapsing on the Egyptians when they tried to cross.  This was their magic flight. 

We often focus on a goal and use all of our energy up in the pursuit of that goal.  Like the Israelites we acquire the "ultimate boon" but then we find ourselves in a situation where we cannot enjoy what we have earned.  Instead, we find ourselves in a situation that requires something more from us when we have nothing left to give.  Once we identify that pattern we may try to give less of ourselves, to hold back a little, to "wait for the other shoe to drop".  However, we will often discover that the "ultimate boon" cannot be acquired without all of your efforts.  So what are we to do?  We must realize that this state of need and vulnerability is part of the journey.  We must relax into it, accept it.  We must accept that we need help from the outside, but we will talk more about that next week when we look at "The rescue from without".  

God, give us the strength to give all of ourselves in pursuit of the quest you have put before us.  Help us to hold nothing back and yet to be comfortable with the vulnerability of that.  Give us peace when the world seems to be collapsing around us.  Hear our cries and send help from the outside quickly.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Death Will Lose it's Sting

Our reading from the Narrative Lectionary this week is 1 Corinthians 15:51-57. In these verses, Paul reveals a mystery, that in the end some will be transformed, given a new body, instead of facing death.  In other words death is not one of life's two certain terms.  It seems taxes may be the only guarantee.   "...in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except  death and taxes ." - Benjamin Franklin. Ok, all jokes aside, these verses are difficult to read.  Paul looks forward to a time when death will have no victory, it will have lost its sting.  But today, we are in the middle of a pandemic, surrounded by death.  Many are scared for their lives, or their loved ones, and too many have already been lost.  Death does not seem to have lost its sting at all, it feels as if it is closing in. When I worked in wilderness therapy I remember holding a child who was desperately trying to kill himself.  We cried together as he struggled to end it, and I struggled
Post a Comment
Read more

The Return Threshold

  As we come near the end of our weekly series on the Hero's Journey, today we will cover "The Return Threshold".  In this stage, the Hero has succeeded in their quest and now they are coming back to their old world.  Joseph Campbell calls this the "ordinary world".   The return to the ordinary world usually includes some type of challenge.  Sometimes an enemy must be challenged, but sometimes the enemy is the ordinary world itself.  As we have followed the hero's journey we have seen the hero change, what was once important is no longer important.  While the hero has changed, the ordinary world has not.  The ordinary world holds values that the returning hero has abandoned for something greater.  This can cause tension as the hero tries to return as a changed person. In the Lord of the Rings trilogy, we see the Hobbits finally return to their home in the Shire.  Unfortunately in their absence Saruman and his orcs have taken over the Shire and must be defeat
Post a Comment
Read more

Master of Two Worlds

  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
Post a Comment
Read more