The Taroic Journey
“ . . . a thirteen-year-old cannot describe the compulsion to cast aside the thing she loved fiercely as a child.”
Chapter XI continues Asmeret’s Taroic Journey to her next way of being. You may be familiar with the 3 Stages of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, which he derived from an exhaustive life-long study of cross-cultural and ancient mythology. I borrowed this simple description from Scott Jeffrey (thank you, sir).
Stage 1: Departure
Campbell called the initial stage departure or the call to adventure. The hero departs from the world he knows. In the Departure stage, you leave the safety of the world you know and enter the unknown.
Stage 2: Initiation
Now the hero must face a series of trials and tribulations. The hero’s journey isn’t safe. The hero is tested in battle, skill, and conflict. The hero may not succeed in each action but must press on. The hero will meet allies, enemies, and mentors with supernatural aid throughout the initiation stage.
Stage 3: Return
Having endured the trials and hardships of the adventure, the hero returns home. But the hero is no longer the same. An internal transformation has taken place through the maturation process of the experience.
Campbell actually expanded the three into up to 11 Steps on the journey, depending on which scholar, fan, or Hero’s Journey practitioner you ask, but of course my fascination is with how it looks and feels to travel the Wheel of Wholeness.
In Chap X (Fortune) Asmeret prepares for her departure, and it has been a slow leaving since she first walked into the woods four years ago. In the ancient tales and myths, and cited in African rituals even today, the elders (or gods) plan this departure pretty carefully and stick close by to offer guidance and a measure of safety. As with many of us now, and certainly for Asmeret, we may feel compelled to start the journey into the unknown—feel the hand of our god(s)/goddesses/guides—but our free will is so strong in many ways we are winging it, blind, and have to kick ourselves out of the safe nest we have feathered and tended so carefully.
In Chapter XI, the first Stage, departure, is signaled by heartbreak. (Ruin: 10 of Swords) as Asmeret leaves behind not only the Village of her birth and family of origin, but Arsema (her deepest desire) and the little black dog (the other half of her heart).
ATU XI Lust(re) (which in many tarot decks is named Strength) stands for the search (and iterative fulfillment) of one’s holy grail. Once again I bring in Joseph Campbell for clarity of terms: holy grail being a life lived from one’s deepest gifts and divine impulses in accord with nature (wholeness) versus a life of ‘shoulds.’
ATU XI LUST(re)
In Frieda Harris’ painting of ATU XI, the human | goddess rides the lion (her own source of strength and inner ‘king’) holding up the grail cup as an offering to the world. Yes, her knowledge, skills, wisdom are built ‘on the shoulders’ of the mystics, scholars, philosophers, etc that have gone before (the heads of the lion and background figures) but at this moment she has ADDED the value of her own perspective, her own unique talents, and her being and thus is a glorious sovereign source of radiant energy. It’s all very sensual, thus the title LUST and the often addended (re) for lustre—radiating light from within.
3 day/nights is the first mythic threshold from the known to the unknown worlds . . .
“For three days Asmeret walked . . . more focused on progress than stalking a meal.”
Asmeret is leaving a life of simply being every day . . . hunting, eating, surviving, dreaming (learning how to live with help from Raven and Hestia) and now PROGRESS is essential—making her way forward. (A nod to the bigger shift humans made in their consciousness over the aeons.)
And now she is in it. The initiation stage begins.
There are plenty of trials for Asmeret to face. One you may have noticed as you read was a general lack of clarity and well-being the further she travels away from the little black dog, Tree and the Red Sea. She even questions the validity of her past experience (was Raven real?). But she does have her (invisible) protector (Hyena), her magic tools (the cape, the quartz and bones) and remembers to use them. Notice also how the practical tools—her bow and arrow—are set aside as they really can’t help her in this liminal world. She isn’t even expected to hunt for food.
So she finds her way to the City of Clouds, with the help of her father (his voice clarifying when she uses the quartz—also recall his name is Red Lion). Her conquering of the train and her ride sensually mirrors ATU XI as well. The powerful vehicle carrying her that she earned through study, ingenuity, and strength, the wind in her hair, the agency to get where she has determined to go.
As for friends and foes, as in any myth worth its salt, it isn’t always so easy to tell them apart.
Does the fortuneteller, Freya, have her best interest at heart?
“ . . . a liar knows a liar”
Despite any intentions Freya may have, Asmeret achieves a moment of Lust(re) as she steps fully into her legacy as storyteller— recounting the origin myth of Red Lion that appears out of the ether of stories looking for a teller. (A story that also happens to be a story about the Hero’s Journey of the very first storyteller in her land.)
Which brings us to the biggest challenge of any Quest . . . to get the Quest(ion) correct. When Asmeret sets out on the Road to Asmara, she isn’t clear on what she is after. Her father, who she is sure has disappeared for good, most likely to the city where his councils are held? The brother she once met in a market (but not in Asmara)? Finally, in the presence of the cards once again, she finds the words and strength to name the real question:
“What am I?”
Not the question Freya was expecting and so gives an answer that we aren’t sure Asmeret fully hears, comprehends, or accepts.
“You are the one these cards have been waiting for . . .”
She knocks the cards away, but of course the cards have a Will also. They will answer her question whether she likes it or not.
