The Heroes Journey: Dorothy, Luke Skywalker and the
UUFM
Presented in service by Ken Moore
Our founder’s story calls us on our own hero’s journey. To answer the call, you the hero must leave the comfort of home and venture into the unknown. It may be an outward journey to perform a task or an inward journey from one way of being to another.
Something calls us out the door – to adventure, to love, to greater spiritual depth, a new career – a longing to be our greatest selves. Every hero’s quest is ultimately for the freedom to live – free from the inner shackles of isolation. Free from outward shackles of oppression. The hero may be battling prejudice in the world around her -- or his own racist demons. To do this, the hero must step out into the unknown. But stepping out is a risk. You can fail. You leave security behind. You can look bad. But the hero steps out regardless. We can all step out – and I will tell you about some people who did. To do this I will describe the journey using the following stages of classic hero tales:
World of the Common Day
The Herald and the Crisis
The Call to Adventure
Meeting with the
Refusing and then Accepting the Call
Crossing the Threshold
Approaching the
The Supreme Ordeal: Facing Death
Resurrection and Return with the Elixir
The
heroic story of the creation of the UUFM includes all of us, but at first there
were only four of us. Beth, Susan, Marcia and Pam. Beth and Marcia were
neighbors. Beth, Susan and Marcia had Linfield connections so they had to go to
the 1st
Our heroes like most heroes, before the crisis that sets the story in motion, live in the World of the Common Day.
In
the Wizard of OZ, Dorothy’s life was so boring it was in black and white… in
In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker was another bored farm kid.
In the myth of Adam and Eve who knows how long they were just hanging with the animals before Eve got her big idea?
In the children’s story, I told earlier, the world of the common day was the children of the tribe working and playing in a beautiful valley.
For
most of us The World of Common Day may look something like this: While driving along
we think: “My sunglasses are scratched…. That Dan, He is so bias it makes my
stomach hurt… that cloud looks like a…Alice really lied to me, is she my friend?...
My shoulder hurts, oh jeez; I don’t want to think about my health ….my teeth
….my knee…my skin….. I’m turning on the radio
The
next stage of our hero’s story is:
The Herald and the Crisis
Homer’s Odyssey starts with Hermes as
the herald telling Calypso that she must let Odysseus go. In Mary Poppins- the weather vane signals a
change in the wind which heralds her arrival. The telegraph clerk in High Noon brings news that Gary Cooper’s
enemies are out of jail and comin’ to kill ‘im.
In the children’s story the Herald is the earthquake and the Crisis is the withered plants signaling the end of life as they knew it.
When taking an inner journey the crisis is separation and isolation. The Hero is analogous to the ego. The ego sees itself as separate from the world it desires.
Thus far our UUFM heroes are on an Inner Journey. Spiritually they all long for something more.
Susan, Beth and Marcia didn’t feel at home at 1st Baptist every time they turned around there was Jesus, which is OK if you are into Jesus but they weren’t and Pam was no longer nourished by her Episcopal roots.
Susan said “I wanted more than a book
club. I want to be with people who are listening to each other. I didn’t know how
to get there. I like to be with seekers.
Off and on our heroes attended UU 1st church in
So,
Beth started going to the UU church in
Marcia hoped for a spiritual home for her daughter’s family.
Pam
had recently lost her husband and wanted to think about something else. Her
great grandmother’s sister was Universalist Olympia Brown, who in 1863 was the
first women in the
What is our Herald? What is our Hermes, our new wind, our telegram? It was An Article in The News Register. More on that later.
Stage 3
The Call to Adventure:
In Star Wars Obewan calls Luke to join the Jedi Knights. In Close Encounters of the Third Kind the call is images of Devils Tower planted in the Hero’s subconscious. In the Wizard of Oz, after Miss Gulch takes Toto and Aunt Em displays a lack of sympathy, Dorothy’s need for the freedom to live calls her to run away from home.
The Call in the children’s story came from the Elder in the smoke.
On the Inner Journey the call may be a dream or an inner voice that says “OK this is it! Now is the time to act.”
That article
in the News Register detailed the success and growth of fundamentalist churches
in
Stage 4
Meeting with the
Where would the Hero be without the counsel of Obewan, Yoda, Glenda the Good Witch, Merlin, The Fairy Godmother or Jiminy Cricket? Nine out of ten Greek Heroes would have failed miserably without the help of Chiron the Centaur. This selfless mentor received the highest distinction the Greeks could bestow- Zeus made him a constellation and a sign of the Zodiac- who? Sagittarius.
The
The mentor of the inner journey is the aspect of the personality that is connected with all things, a good advisor to the ego which separates itself from all things.
As a
result of Beth’s calls to the UU District office a UU mentor, Tandi
Koerger, comes to town dispensing a manual of UU magic and web links used by UU
wizards and she issues a challenge to visit the alien worlds of other UU
congregations.
Refusing and then Accepting the Call
Luke Skywalker refuses the call from Obewan and returns home to find his aunt and uncle murdered by Imperial Troops. He then joins Obewan in the cause of the rebels. Dorothy meets with the magician, Dr. Marvel who convinces her to refuse the call to run away but to accept a higher one, returning home to make peace and that is the road of her adventure.
In
the children’s story after a night of fear and doubt, the children gather for
the adventure.
To accept the call is to die to the world of common day, to sacrifice the old self and to cross the threshold into the unknown. This often gives one pause.
Our
heroes are now at the threshold. They wonder “If we build it will they come?”
There are a lot of churches town. We can’t get our friends together for a
dinner party. What makes us think people will come to a church and do it over
and over again? How would you feel at this threshold? I know how I would feel, “that’s
a lot of work, what if I’m not good enough to pull this off, what if it fails
how stupid will I look?” Heroes’ journeys are not logical but the longing of
the hero does not succumb to logic. .
Crossing the Threshold
Dorothy’s
home, the place she hoped to return to is carried away by the tornado which is
inhabited with familiar sights in bizarre settings. There is nothing she can
count on now – except Toto. She is lost is space. With Obewan, Luke enters the town, the bar,
The Millennium Falcon, hyper space, The Death Star and finally is wrapped up by
a dumpster dwelling demon and drug under the foul water of the Death Star’s
garbage hold. He is clearly not in
The children of the tribe cross the threshold one by one as they enter the narrow tunnel to the lower world.
If
this quest of the ego to overcome the illusion of separateness is to be
successful it will be uncomfortable. Remember The Man of La Mancha as he
cowered before the Knight of the Mirrors. So too will the ego cringe and resist
the death of self-importance, relinquishing the nonessential and surrendering
to the community.
Remember
that Sacred Manual of UU magic and the challenge to visit other UU churches? Well
the manual is quickly forgotten but the challenge is taken up in earnest and our
fab four visit the strange realms of West Hills,
Approaching the
The Wicked Witch’s hour glass is running out and with it the last moments of Dorothy’s life. Her three new friends heroically con and force their way into the presence of the Witch and her minions. They are trapped and the stage is set for the Supreme Ordeal. Luke repeatedly flies his x-wing fighter down the gauntlet attempting and failing to destroy the Death Star. His companions sacrifice themselves to allow him one more try. Darth Vader is closing in. The target is too difficult to hit. There is little hope. The stage is set for the Extreme Ordeal.
Surrounded by thousands of waking mole-bats, the children of the tribe enter the cavern and approach the cavern containing the Elixir of Life and the Evil Queen.
Approaching the death of the ego, nervous heroes may be heard to chant something like, “Lions and tigers and bears. Oh My!”
On April 29th 2007 dozens of new Heroes assemble in Beth’s home, drawn by the ad in the paper and the desire for the freedom to live, they surrender to the group to gain that which cannot be gained alone. Who here was at the first meeting at Beth’s? Please stand. Who was at the second meeting at Marcia’s? Please stand. Thank you. Who was on the first steering committee? Thank you. At the second meeting one new hero asks the founding four, “Do you have a guide manual?” The forgotten text is unearthed and given into the hands of Kris who uses it, with the help of many others, to forge the structure of our fellowship.
The Supreme Ordeal :
Facing Death
Taking one more run at the target in his X wing fighter Luke shuts down his flight computer and surrenders his fate to The Force. The music tells us that the power of The Force is with him and the Death Star is toast.
Meanwhile
back at the castle, the Wicked Witch declares she will kill the foursome one by
one. She sets the Scarecrow ablaze. To save her friend, Dorothy douses him with
water from one of the castle’s handy fire buckets. Unintentionally, like a
bullet ricochet, death is deflected from the Scarecrow to the Witch and she is
soggy toast.
The
children of the tribe grab the Elixir with courage and cunning.
On
the inner journey the supreme ordeal is to accept the death of the ego and thus
we are reborn, vulnerable and connected to the larger world.
The supreme ordeal for the UUFM was…. to survive all the business meetings. They wanted a spiritual home but first they had to take care of business. Then there was the battle of “in” vs. “of”. After a “lively” discussion and a vote of 14 to 9 we became UUF of M rather than UUF in M. After the vote the rift was bridged the effort to unite everyone continues. Whew, that was a close one. (Though there are rumors of an in rebellion.)
Resurrection and Return with the Elixir
The hero is reborn as a god. Boundaries of self have been transcended. The hero has attained the ability to soar above the normal limits of death and see the broader view of the connectedness of all things. The Greeks called this apotheosis.
For
Luke the Elixir is two movies away but he does seize it when, despite the
urgings of The Emperor to “Feel the hate.” he refuses to kill his father, who
turns out to be none other than…um, for those of you who haven’t seen it yet I
better not spoil it. But you better see it soon because after 32 years someone
might accidentally give it away. Dorothy returns with the Elixirs of love,
courage and common sense given to her by her three companions. But what she
sought was freedom to live and she has returned with a new sense of home: Being
at home with herself.
The children
of the tribe emerge from the cave and restore life to the valley.
The
Elixir of the inner journey is the freedom to live connected to life around us.
This fellowship is the Elixir brought to us by our founders. This fellowship is a conduit to the innermost cave where the things that you long for may be found.
So here we are – what started with an ad in the newspaper and a small gathering has grown into a thriving spiritual community – where we worship together, and we play together – We eat together at the Circle Suppers. We march together at peace rallies. We even have an annual picnic. We serve together – donating money and food and volunteering at the soup kitchen. The journey of our fantastic four has been realized because they responded to the call. What calls you? Does it sound something like this?
From The Call of the Wild by Jack London:
The call still sounding in the depths of the forest filled him with a great unrest and strange desires. It caused him to feel a vague, sweet gladness, and he was aware of wild yearnings and stirrings for he knew not what.
Irresistible impulses seized him. He would be lying in camp, dozing lazily in the heat of the day, when suddenly his head would lift and his ears cock up, intent and listening, and he would spring to his feet and dash away, and on and on, for hours, through the forest aisles and across the open spaces.
But especially he loved to run in the dim twilight of the summer midnights, listening to the subdued and sleepy murmurs of the forest, reading signs and sounds as man may read a book, and seeking for the mysterious something that called—called, waking or sleeping, at all times, for him to come.