Restoring America's Soul: The Hero's Journey Of Barack Obama

Part I

It is by going down into the abyss
that we recover the treasures of life.
Where you stumble,
there lies your treasure.

Joseph Campbell

Last time, we began to explore the idea of the soul's recurring requirement to descend, to find its true nature in response to an inner call to deepen. In answering this call, the soul and the being in whom it dwells, often encounters loss and suffering, and is challenged to carve out character and find courage by facing up to and taking on its greatest fears.

This then, is the archetype of the "Hero", one who takes this journey on behalf of his own unfolding and for the greater good of the whole.

Restoring wholeness is the ultimate task of the Hero. One could say the soul chooses our bodies as its earthly vehicle, necessary to ferry it to the worldly classrooms where teachers abide and lessons unfold.

One such candidate for Hero has presented himself on the world stage today. President-elect Barack Obama. Only time will tell if he fulfills this destiny. But the stage is set. The mission is complex, as heroic missions often are.

The mission? Restore the Soul of America. An archetypal heroic assignment if ever there was one.

Approximately eighty per cent of the American people feel our country has lost its way.
But what does that actually mean and what are the implications for us and for our new president?

Our Part

Surveying the wreckage left behind by the absence of leadership for, let's just say, far too long, we see a country that has lost its rudder: that being the principles upon which the founding fathers wrote into our constitution 232 years ago. The last eight years have been a wholesale betrayal of that vision and of the pillars of the democracy, upon which we as a nation, have stood.

With no captain at the helm of this ship, we've gone seriously off course, and find ourselves having crashed up on the rocks. Huddled together as citizens, we cling to the rocks, wondering what will become of us? What will become of America? Will we make it and if not, what's the alternative?

We're just beginning to wake up to the realization that something more is going to be required of us as citizens. We can no longer simply be passengers on this ship and go to sleep for the next four years. We need to develop our "citizenship" muscles and take an active role in helping to guide this vessel.

There is a certain responsibility waiting to be shared by every American. By responsibility, I don't mean burden or obligation. I'm talking about a more enlightened understanding of what responsibility is: as in, the "ability to respond". This implies we have a choice about showing up. Or not. However, know this:

The soul's journey requires that it discovers its true nature and expresses itself authentically, so it's going to find a way to make that happen, whether we like it or not. And this is where the "dark night of the soul" comes in.

If we don't respond to the inner call to deepen, if we manage to distract ourselves successfully, drown out our ability to hear the inner summons through our addictions to substances, or the delusion that something outside ourselves will be the answer, we will miss the call. In which case, we'll create yet more challenges, more crises, more opportunities to do the work.

As James Hillman says, "The soul has its own ancestors", which is to say it has its own agenda. So the Call will come again, perhaps to a new generation. But it will come.

The question is: will we leave it to another generation to clean up the mess we've made? Or as one reader questioned last time: "Are we of the journey?" Buddha instructed us to "be in the world, but not of it". Perhaps "Are you of the journey?"is the question for these times.

We must be willing to get rid of
the life we've planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
The old skin has to be shed
before the new one can come.

Joseph Campbell

The outcome of Barack's Hero's Journey to restore the Soul of America is one for which we must all share responsibiity. We are the soul of America. He is the one we've chosen to lead us away from the abyss and guide us back to our roots.

Have we chosen well? Is he up to the task? What is our role on this journey?

Here is a simple truth: Barack can lead us, but we must do our part. What that is, is up to each of us to discover. It is not cast in stone. It dwells in possibility. But make no mistake. There is a part that each of us is meant to play in restoring the soul of our country.

Last week, in response to someone's comment, I described my vision of how the soul would look, if it were a "thing", which of course, it's not. But I thought it might look like a many faceted, mirrored ball that hangs above a ballroom floor. The ball turns and reflects the light in all directions. Each facet is unique, yet part of the whole. Each facet reflects the light from an angle that only it occupies. Together, the facets form a magnificent, brilliant, illuminated sphere.

Consider the possibility that our part is to be the brilliant Beings we came to be. The Hero's journey we each take is what polishes us, it's what turns us into the gems we're meant to be. Just as a diamond begins as carbon atoms and is formed through extreme heat and pressure in the darkness deep within the Earth, the fire of the Hero's Journey transforms us, burning away what doesn't serve, leaving its ashes as the compost from which new life begins.

Our part is to be willing to do the work and not shy away. In so doing, we polish. Our job is to polish. Chop wood, carry water, polish.

And then, there is Barack's Part.

Barack Obama: Dark Knight of the Soul

How perfect is it that America, in its "dark night of the soul" is being led by its first "Dark Knight"? Kind of like Batman! Barack was a Marvel comic book fan as a child and I see they're already publishing an edition of him teaming up with Spider-Man.

True to the mythic hero narrative, Barack arrives on the scene, just in the nick of time to help us sort through the wreckage wrought by the ignorance and indifference of the past eight years. His task is to sift through the ashes of greed and corruption and the arrogance of power so that we might once again find and reconnect with the core truths that define who we are as a nation and as a people.

Hillary Clinton was right. Our Dark Knight has been preparing for this journey since the day he was born. Only she meant it like a slam. From an archetypal perspective, her mockery of him spoke to the very core of Obama's mission, only she spoke without wisdom or reverence for the task itself. I'm referencing it as an essential part of the mythic journey of Obama and how he came to be given this task of reclaiming and restoring the soul of his country.

It all makes sense when viewed from this perspective. This seeming impossibility of his presidency did come down like the Red Seas parting. The stars (both Hollywood and Celestial) lined up for this. Hillary declared this during the campaign in the form of mockery. Yet perhaps unbeknown to her, she spoke a certain truth.

This man, of mixed descent, who described his father as "black as pitch" and his mother as "white as milk" felt like an outsider most of his life. No stranger to loss and suffering, (essential to the Hero's Journey), he saw his father only once at age 10, and lost his mother to ovarian cancer when he was 34. We grieved with him when his beloved grandmother died, only 2 days before his election. Yet he was able to transform his suffering into a mission to serve the greater good. Golden Boy meets Dark Knight.

Barack has already paid some dues, but there will be more to come. He may have raised record amounts of money to get elected, but that just got him in the door. There are dues yet to be paid, for which money will not be the means of exchange.

Opportunities
to find deeper powers within ourselves
come when life seems most challenging.

Joseph Campbell

As citizens, we will need to pay our dues as well. Indifference and ignorance come with a high price tag. Hubris and arrogance of power exact a heavy toll. The bill is due, America. Call in the Dark Knight. I think we're ready to take this on.

In honor of Obama's inauguration, I share this inspiring video with you. As you watch it, see the Hero's Journey of Barack being played out before us.

Godspeed, Barack and America. May the wind be at our backs. And just for good measure, shall we all join hands as we walk down this long, dark hallway together?

Will you do your part and inaugurate yourself along with Barack on Tues. Jan. 20th? See Arianna's post on citizen inauguration here.

What is your part in helping to restore the soul of America? What are your hopes for President Obama? If you could ask of him or tell him the one thing you think is most important for the restoration of our collective soul, what would that be?

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If you'd like personal contact, I can be reached at [e-mail].

 

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