Christopher Vogler wrote a book called The Writer’s Journey, Mythic Structure for Writers (first printing, 1998). Borrowing heavily from Joseph Campbell’s landmark book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), and the work of Carl Jung, he was the first to describe The Hero’s Journey as a template for stories. I used to wonder why he called it The Writer’s Journey instead of The Hero’s Journey, but over the years I’ve come to understand. Vogler wrote his book for writers, and learning to write is a true Hero’s Journey. But unlike a story, which has a beginning, middle, and end, the writer’s journey never ends. It’s not a circle; it’s a spiral. Each turn takes you deeper into the mystery of how to create a story. The stages and archetypes that Vogler describes remain the same, but they are portrayed by different events and people with each turn. At the start of my journey: The Ordinary World was my life experience: family and friends, the… Read More »

A Library is a magical place: all those books jammed together, whispering and daring each other to grab the attention of unsuspecting patrons and teach them a thing or three. I am certain I was the subject of just such a conspiracy. I had chosen my stack of books and was ambling contentedly toward the checkout machines when I made an unplanned right hand turn toward the mystery section. Maybe just one more, I thought. A mystery. Haven’t read a good murder mystery in awhile. My eyes skimmed the titles and immediately lit on an ornate font that hinted at a medieval murder mystery, my favorite. I plucked the book from the shelves and sure enough, it was The Song of the Nightingale, one of the Hawkenlye Mysteries by Alys Clare, set in early 13th century southern England. In retrospect, I’m sure I heard a triumphant “Gotcha!” as I added the book to my stack. I enjoyed the book mostly because of its view into… Read More »

Weddings and funerals are the rituals that bind community and families together. They are also events that are quite magical because they take place in a twilight zone, a time that is neither one thing nor the other, neither this nor that. The bride and groom have ended their single lives and the wedding marks the beginning of their marriage. The deceased has ended her life in this world and is beginning her afterlife. Both rituals mark a time for intense attitude adjustment for the celebrants and the threshold of a new life for those who are being celebrated. They are times of power when our world and the other world overlap. They are times when synchronicities happen with unnerving consistency. Last weekend I attended the memorial of a friend who died way too young. She was a quiet woman with a wicked sense of humor, a talented artist, a loving wife, and an admirer of wolves. It was a comfort to remember her along… Read More »

The Hebrew letter, Tzaddi, is attributed to The Star. Tzaddi means fishhook, or that which is used to pull a fish, Nun (Death), out of water, Mem (The Hanged Man). * Water is the great unconscious and the fish symbolizes abundance, growth, and productivity. The fish is also a symbol of the place where the material world intersects the spiritual world (see The Hanged Man, Part II). And so we must use the fishhook of meditation or prayer to delve into the great unconscious and discover the hope, healing, and inspiration of The Star. Aquarius is associated with The Star. Natives of this fixed air sign are idealistic, eccentric, egalitarian, humanistic, intelligent, and stubborn. They are the rebels that oppose the bondage of the status quo and give us hope and inspiration. They are also capable of the mental focus necessary to meditate or pray effectively. The sign’s glyph of two wavy lines one over the other is an image of the magical axiom “As… Read More »

Stars are bright points in the nighttime. We wish on them, we worship them, and we seek guidance from them. They remind us that even in the darkest dark there is hope and inspiration. The Star is the perfect key to follow the desolation of The Tower. The brightest star in the heavens is Venus. Actually, Venus is a planet not a star, but she is a very bright point in the nighttime. When she sets just after the sun in the west, she is the Evening Star, which the Greeks called Hesperus. When she rises just before the sun in the east she is the Morning Star, Phosphorus Aster, the Greek title for the reborn Dionysius.* She is the most ancient Sumerian goddess Inanna, who begins her descent into the underworld as the Evening Star, is hung out to die on a meat hook by her sister Ereshkigal, and is reborn in the east as the Morning Star. She is Ishtar. She is Astarte,… Read More »