The Hero’s Journey

This is an old one from 2018.

In the Oval Office. Kanye. I know.

But listen: Kanye quoted scholar Joseph Campbell, on the hero’s journey.

This appropriation of a classicist’s life’s work would undoubtedly bring a vehement protest from Joseph Campbell, one of the great minds of the century, the scholar of the archetypes of the Inner Journey.

Kanye claimed the hero of the journey of life to be Donald J Trump.

Campbell would be aghast.

The hero of the journey is not Donald J Trump, the archetype of the the blind king, sightless, tanning goggles on, bathed in UV rays, in seclusion with a comb-over corona- a vain, blind sun king ruling the world by darkness.

The hero is not Kanye, the betrayer, the presumptive son, whose name is associated with sundown, and with ultimate means and ends of the discredited, rational state of consciousness.

The hero is not the true son, Barron, locked away in a tower somewhere, with a mythical psychological condition, protected, controlled by the Mother, who awaits her own revenge. The true prince is Barron, but he is not the hero.

The hero is not Melania- who deserves her own fairy tale.

The hero is not the daughter, Ivanka, the object of the King’s taboo fantasy: the armoured showpiece Joan of Arc that shields the king from his enemies; a symbol of neutralized feminine power, and a religious figure as well, untouchable, impregnable: the seller of shoes to Cinderella.

No, the heroes aren’t the sons, Eric, Donald Jr, and other aides and subalterns who stand alongside- that sideshow out of Shakespeare, these symbols of the Unconscious indicate what is to befall us if we pursue them closely enough.

The hero isn’t Jared, who carries the ancient spear for the administration.

The hero isn’t even Justice, symbolized by the blackout of the drink, rather than the balanced scales and blindfolded archetype.

No, Joseph Campbell, would have something to say about this archetypal scenario in which every person’s nightmare vulnerability (or aggression-sexism, racism , fascism,antisemitism) is somehow projected,including those true victims and warriors already wounded, and arising again, like Dr Ford- the anima.

Yes, male animus and female anima, ever-present on this journey toward the Integrated Self.

The levels of consciousness at a certain stage are beset by symbolic darkness, the Shadow of projected fears, sometimes depicted as sleep, as in Sleeping Beauty. Symbolic death. Regeneration. It’s a time of crisis. Otherwise, no hero, no journey.

The Jungians were pessimistic after the Second World War, faced with the atomic bomb.

And Campbell would have hoped for the hero, but would note that we have a short time to decipher the code.

Of course the hero isn’t them.

The hero is you. It’s me. It’s you.

jk
10/13/2018