The Heroine's Journey

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The Heroine's Journey
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Journal

• Who are your heroines? Tell me about the women
  you admire and respect. Explain your choices.

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The Hero's Journey
Call to Adventure
Supernatural Aid
Return
The Journey
Crossing of the Threshold
Abyss
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The Heros Journey

• A public transformation
• Societal
• Heroic deeds are visible to many

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The Heroine's Journey
Separation from the feminine
Identification with the masculine
Sacred marriage
Healing the wounded masculine
Road of Trials
Boon of success
Healing the mother/daughter split
Awakening to feelings of spiritual aridity
Urge to reconnect with the feminine
Initiation and descent to the realm of the goddess
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The Heroines Journey

• The journey inward
• The female journey is a journey of self discovery
• Focus upon emotional transformation
• Finding balance in an unbalanced society
• The first six stages are led with the mind
  (intellectual journey)
• The last four stages are led with the heart/soul

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Separation

• Daughter sees her mother as vulnerable, self
  loathing or powerless
• Cultural distortions of female body cause a
  disconnect
• Daughter separates herself from perceived
  negativity
• She is cutting off key parts of herself which
  will need to be resolved later in the journey
  (loss of integrity or balance)

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Identification with the masculine

• Connection with father figure and outward forms
  of power
• Masculine role is heroic with freedom
• Father affirms a young girls sense of self

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Road of trials

• The journey towards adulthood and overcoming many
  myths
• Dependency
• Inferiority
• Contentment through the affirmation of others

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Boon of success

• Focus on product instead of process.
• There is a struggle to achieve which becomes an
  addiction.
• One is never satisfied

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Awakening

• Spiritual aridity
• feeling out of synch with ones self.
• The river of creativity has dried up
• Painful stage that causes one to transform.
• Beginning to look down and in rather than up
  and out

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Initiation and Descent

• Moving into a different state of being.
• Feeling of sadness, undirected.
• This descent has a task to recover the discarded
  parts of ones self that were originally lost.
• Often looked at as depression but this descent is
  necessary as a call of the soul.
• Creating oneself anew and undertaking these
  challenges. Demeter/Persephone myth
• Shattering the mirror of the feminine occurs in
  separation and then needs to be put back in
  order. It will invariably strengthen the
  individual and clarify their sense of self.
• Lots of work needs to be done at this stage.
• A reexamination of ones values

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Urge to reconnect with the feminine

• Listening to ones intuition.
• Returning to the sense of self that was there
  before a focus on achievement.

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Healing the mother/daughter split

• looking at ones ability to express feelings.
• Grief comes from a recognition of the loss.
• Accepting who the mother was and identifying with
  her place in her time.
• Sense of compassion.
• A need to learn about being instead of doing.

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Healing the wounded masculine

• Identifying what denies your limits.
• What is the driver in oneself that causes loss?
• Then
• Find the positive aspects of masculine nature
  (protecting oneself, taking action, developing an
  internal man with heart, developing compassion
  for oneself).
• Growing an internal, supportive father.
• Developing a benevolent, loving aspect of ones
  masculinity.

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Sacred marriage

• Integration of masculine and feminine.
• Finding balance between masculine and feminine.
• Integrating all aspects of ones nature.

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Maureen Murdock article

• Read and annotate for her ideas regarding this
  journey
• Create a gist statement on the back of this
  article which responds to the following question
• What is the major difference between the heros
  journey and the heroines journey? What did you
  find most important about this difference?