The Artist’s Journey
I have a theory about the Hero’s Journey. We all have one. We have many, in fact. But our primary hero’s journey as artists is the passage we live out, in real life, before we find our calling.
The hero’s journey is the search for that calling.
The hero’s journey ends when, like Odysseus, we return home to Ithaca, to the place from which we started.
What then?
The passage that comes next is our Artist’s Journey.
Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac on their mid-20th Century “hero’s journey”
On our hero’s journey, we acquire a history that is ours alone. It’s a secret history, a private history. No one has it but us. No one knows it but us. This secret history is the most valuable possession we hold, or ever will hold. We will draw upon it for the rest of our lives.
The hero’s journey ends when we return home, metaphorically, to the place from which we started. We wash up on shore. We have survived. We have come home.
Now what?
The passage that comes next is the Artist’s Journey.
The artist’s journey comes after the hero’s journey.
Everything that has happened to us up to this point is a rehearsal for us to act, now, as our true self and to find and speak in our true voice.
The artist’s journey is the process of self-discovery that follows.
It is the passage during which we will produce the works we were put on this Earth to bring forth.
The Artist’s Journey will last as long as we’re alive, and maybe longer.
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