1. Order of Paladins Lesson : 18 The Hero’s Journey copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

2. Warrior’s Admonition Your body is your temple: Care for it! Do not engage in useless activity. Listen to the Goddess. Help thyself. You create your own reality. The Warrior’s path is creativity. A serene path to enlightenment. Know thyself. Master thyself. Create your own reality. Nurture the ability to perceive the truth in all matters. Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye. Learn from your mistakes. Teach thyself. Create your own reality. Do not be negligent, even in trifling matters Grace and guilt do not exist: Strive for responsibility. Honor thyself. Create your own reality. copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

3. 13 Precepts: 1.Know thyself. 2.Nurture the ability to perceive the truth in all matters. 3.You create your own reality. 4.Develop a sense of Right Action. 5.Do not be negligent, even in trifling matters. 6.Your body is your temple: Care for it! 7.Minimal appearance, maximum content. 8.Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye. 9.Power with. 10. Who dares wins. 11.The Gods cannot help those who will not help themselves. 12. Be creative! 13. Do not engage in useless activity. copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

4. Code of Chivalry:  All members of the Order of Paladins must live according to the principles of chivalry, which include:  Sincerity.  Courtesy.  Compassion.  Perseverance.  Industriousness.  Justice.  Loyalty.  Courage.  Self-Discipline.  Humility.  Largesse.  Truth.  Honor copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

5. Hint:  Refer to the notes pages in this Power Point presentation for more in-depth information on the subject of each slide. copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

6. The Hero’s Journey From the Vedas: “Truth is one. The sages call it by many names.” copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

7. Hero Quest TTTThe modern Warrior/Hero’s quest is to find himself. To find his soul. Cuchullain copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

8. Hero Quest Purpose: Mastery AAAAs I told you in the Squire level of training: Master yourself and everything else will take care of itself. AAAAs Campbell puts it: “Man himself is now the crucial mystery... A transmutation of the entire social order is necessary, so that through every detail and act of secular life the vitalizing image of the universal god-man who is actually immanent and effective in all of us may be somehow made known to the consciousness.”

9. Mastery  I summarize mastery of the elements like this:  Wind and water  Flow around  Fire and Stone  Hold your ground  Mind and spirit  Holds them bound. copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

10. Hero’s Quest ““““The modern hero,” Campbell tells us, “the modern individual, who dares to heed the call and seek the mansion of that presence with whom it is our whole destiny to be atoned, cannot, indeed must not, wait for his community to cast off its slough of pride, fear, rationalized avarice, and sanctified misunderstanding. ‘Live,’ Nietzsche says, ‘as though the day were here.’ It is not society that is to guide and save the creative here, but precisely the reverse.”

11. Hero Quest: Stages  The mythical quest of the hero, as reflected in our Order’s three levels of training, has three stages:  Separation,  Initiation, and  Return. copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

12. Hero Quest: 1 TTTThe first, separation, is the Squire making a decision to leave the world they’ve known up to know and follow a new path, the Warrior path, and forge their own reality. Their first task is, as Campbell puts it, “to retreat from the world scene of secondary effects to those causal zones of the psyche where the difficulties really reside and there to clarify these difficulties and eradicate them.”

13. Hero Quest: 2 TTTThe second task, initiation, is about discovering one’s power and becoming a Knight.

14. Hero Quest: 3 AAAAnd the third, return, is about mastering that knowledge and bringing it back to share with their peers and the greater community. For today’s community is no longer the nation, tribe, etc. Today’s community is the planet.

15. Myth YYYYou can’t suppress myth. Like water, it will find its way out. It is within us, and if we let it out it can transform us. We encourage our Knights to experience myth, to see how it works through them, inspiring, informing and empowering them to become greater than they were.

16. “Old Time Religion” TTTThis isn’t about going back to “old time religion”. Many people, faced with the terrors and frustrations of modern life, try to turn back to established religions seeking comfort and reassurance. They try to cling to what worked in the past, not realizing that what worked 2000 years ago no longer works in todays’ world. The world’s great religions can no longer meet people’s needs. As Joseph Campbell told us in his book The Hero With A Thousand Faces: “[The world’s great religions] have become associated with the causes of the factions as instruments of propaganda and self congratulation.”

17. Making Myths TTTThat isn’t what we’re doing here. You cannot make the required changes by turning your back on the future or turning away from progress. You can’t walk backwards into the future. NNNNeither do you want to ignore the past. We’re using ancient myths here to inspire us to make modern myth come alive.

18. Perilous Glen  In the myth of Cuchullain’s journey to Scáthach’s island, one of the last obstacles that he encounters is the Perilous Glen. This glen is full of whatever things one fears the most. copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

19. Guardians  When you journeyed to Caer Paladin (Lesson 3) or Eilean a' Cheo (Lesson 11, pictured in this map) you may have encountered beings in the form of animals or “guardians” that stood between you and your objective copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

20. Guardians  Myth is full of monsters and guardians that come between the hero and her quest copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

21. Guardians  Such frightening guardian figures are commonly found around Buddhist temples copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

22. Celtic Guardians  The ancient Celts used to take the heads of their enemies and display them around their sacred sites. This is yet another form of the same thing. copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

23. Our Perilous Glen  So right now, we’re going to create our own version of this myth of the Perilous Glen, right outside of Caer Paladin copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

24. Our Perilous Glen Right here copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

25. Guardians  I want you to think of the fearful things that you had to overcome to achieve your Knighthood … copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

26. Guardians  I want you to come up with a symbol of those fearful things… copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

27. Guardians  … and then put that symbol outside the east entrance gate of Caer Paladin as a “guardian”. copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

28. Guardians By placing symbols/avatars of your fears outside the gates you are doing several things: copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

29. Guardians  You’re leaving a symbol of your achievement for all to see copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

30. Guardians  You’re “populating” our “Perilous Glen” with fearful guardians that newcomers will encounter. No doubt many of them will recognize these guardians as they’ll have identical or similar fears to face in their quest. Hopefully this will show them that they’re not alone in facing such things. copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

31. Guardians  You’re also reminding yourself of what you’ve achieved and what you’ve got to watch out for copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

32. Guardians  At the same time these guardians will discourage any “wannabes” copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

33. Lesson 18 Assignment  Create Guardians to place outside of Caer Paladin copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

34. Order of Paladins Be Glorious! copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain