The Hero and Your Journey - Part 3

[[This is part 3 of a series, please scroll down to read parts 1 & 2 first]]


You are now THE HANGED MAN, forced to sit with yourself until you find a way out of your current bind (pun intended). This is decision time. You could call for help, but your lover might find you first and require explanation. Or you could remain here. With the tree. Because you are too proud.

Eventually you begin to trust yourself and the universe and accept that there is a reason for the standstill - to force new movement where you have let yourself grow stagnant. You call out for help and are rescued. But not by your lover.

Your lover has met her DEATH*. In a way you, too, feel as though you have died. You spend much time trying to forget about her/him and forget about your quest. This is the ultimate test of your resolve. Can you mourn the loss and see it as opportunity for new creation? Can you accept such major changes and move on with your life?

*Please be clear that in a reading Death does not mean death to you or a loved one – but a time of great personal change, where you literally shed your old identity and move forward toward a new one.

You fall asleep and have a dream. You have a dream that you meet a witch who is pouring liquids together in a large cauldron. What is she making, what elixir is this? She pours in fire and water and the two mix together. The message is clear. Life and death, man and woman, all opposites can be merged with the right proportion in the right way. Much like the mixing of two colours to create a new one, you can master this ART. You can learn TEMPERANCE – and neutralize materials with their opposites.

When you awake you are holding the philosopher’s stone. The ability to turn ordinary metals into gold. You don’t know how it came to you, but you are now in possession of the grail you sought so long ago.

Its power intoxicates and becomes highly addictive. You begin to suspect it is the devil’s work. But it turns out that it is you who is THE DEVIL, when you are without moderation. The Devil is the lesson of moderation in the face of intoxication and addiction (whatever the nature).

You become paranoid that others might seek to take your stone from you, so you retreat to a large tower and climb to the top so that you might see enemies approaching from miles away.

As you spiral out of control so does your life – You are no longer in control of your emotions or your delusions. You have locked yourself up in your tower and are hiding from the world. But a fire threatens the tower, and as flames lick the sides of the building and burn up the stairs, you have no choice but to jump.

THE TOWER crumbles, until there is nothing left but rubble.

You survive the fall but the stone is lost in the rubble. You howl out to the world and cry and wail, but in doing so you release the emotion you have built up and failed to release earlier. Catharsis. You feel an inner thaw. The knock on your head did you some good and you finally see clearly.

The night falls over the rubble and you begin thinking about the things you have lost and the knowledge you have gained. You look up and notice THE STAR that will guide you home. Suddenly you find yourself overwhelmed with new hope. You will find your way again. All is not lost. You realize that you are ready to return, knowing that you no longer need for anything.

Following the star you travel through the night. THE MOON rises, illuminating a watery path. You begin to feel disoriented, as if walking in your sleep. You pass under the moon, between two pillars ancient and strange. Suddenly, you look around to find yourself in another world. This is the same world the High Priestess would not show you earlier. Here are the dark mysteries, ones that have to do with the most primal and ancient powers, powers of nature, not of civilization. It is a land poets, artists, musicians and madmen know well, a terrifying, alluring place, with very different rules. Wolves, howling in homage to the moon, run wild across this land, hunting along side maidens with bow and arrows; and creatures from childhood nightmares and fantasies peer from shadows.

You are standing hip-deep in a stream, feeling the powerful pull of its ebb and flow. There is, on the nearby shore, a small boat, but it has no rudder, nor paddles. You have only two choices. You can lose yourself in this desolate, primal land of madness and illusion, howl with the wolves, be hunted down, or get into the boat, and trust the moon. As you begin to trust the Moon and the powers of the unconscious, creativity, inspiration, visions, genius, reward you. This is the real boon you sought.

As the moon sets and THE SUN rises, you feel immense happiness. Not just from the fact that you made it out of the tricky otherworld but because you now trust in yourself and the universe. This happiness radiates from your insides until you are the Sun. You feel like a child again.

Your boat finds shore and you find your land legs.


You make it back to your village but you find that you have been gone much longer than you thought. In fact, you can’t believe that not a single person even knows you anymore and the village itself is barely recognizable. Is it in fact the same place you left? You soon realize that it is not the place that has changed, but you. You have entered a new era, a new AEON. And as you let all childhood attachments go, the village embraces you.

You have no holy grail, no magic elixir, no philosopher’s stone. But you have many many stories to tell the children of the village. Many wisdoms to share. And those who will know you will love you for bringing them THE WORLD. For you are now the sum of all parts, the totality of completion, you are THE UNIVERSE in all of its forms. You are complete.