Excerpt from “The Spirit of Quest” by D.M. Dooling
Excerpt from “The Spirit of Quest”
by D.M. Dooling
Who is the hero, that more-than-life-sized figure of myth and history and fairy tale; the conqueror of evil, the liberator, the rescuer of the oppressed? How terrible to think of not being the hero of one’s own life; this is the role for which each of us is cast, no matter how unsuccessfully we play it. And if the part seems too big, if we picture the hero as being indeed “more than life-sized”, it is because our daily life has dwindled, become less than real, and only pygmy proportions seem natural to us.
Every true teaching, every genuine tradition has sought to train its disciples to act this part, to become in fact followers of the great quest for one’s self. Saint or sannyasin, monk or craft apprentice, Sioux sun-dance warrior, Muslim sheikh, or knight of the Round Table, all are striving for the conquest of the ego dragon, the finding and liberating of pure essence, the center of being. As Mircea Eliade has shown in Images and Symbols, the search for centrality expressed in myths and rituals across the globe is the search for the truly human position, the midpoint and link between heaven and hell, angel and animal; the specifcally human function of the reconciliation of the opposites by which life becomes whole and holy, eternal, no longer divided, and at last “makes sense”. The search for salvation, or immortality, however we understand those terms, is first and foremost the search for that in oneself that is more than mortal.
Every person is a potential hero, even ourselves, and every society, even our own, is a potential training ground for those who recognize and accept their role. This recognition may be buried deeply in the subconscious, yet it expresses itself today in our torn and dying world as it has throughout time, if we can learn how to decode the messages of myths ancient and modern, of our own customs, our own actions and our own dreams. This world we live in, with its brutal protectorates and its lawbreaking legislators, its crusades for freedom leading to worse slaveries, this world of murderous contradiction, destruction, competition — this world needs our heroism as it has never before been needed in human memory. How to be heroes today?….
…So our search begins by looking for help; and here we find that not everything that ofers help can be trusted; the enemy puts on many disguises, and even before courage, we need a keen eye and a keen nose. Indeed, for the ancient Maya the capacity not to be fooled was the hero’s first requisite. So a constant watchfulness is needed, a certain skepticism, a refusal of stereotyped definitions. The followers of the traditions (though not their teachers) tend to stake claims on truth that are mutually exclusive, to add their interpretations to scripture. But Christ and Buddha, Moses and Mohammed, were not giving personal opinions, nor speaking of diferent things. If truth is one, where is the center, the hub of the wheel, the place where all teachings meet at their source? Perhaps the only access point is at the source and center and oneself.
The study of myths and symbols will serve us only in throwing light on our unknown selves. It is not an academic study; the efort to decipher our own unconscious symbols, unravel the real meanings behind our actions, witness unblinkingly the parts we actually play, exacts from us an exercise both of courage and of discrimination that can perhaps be the beginning of our training for the starring role we were intended for.
This text was introduced to me decades ago by my colleague Randall Benson, in the context of mythology and Grail legend, and I love how it makes the study of myth something very active in the context of our own lived lives.
