By Brenda Sutton

Can you teach someone how to walk the Hero's Pathway from a young and tender age? Much of what makes a hero is rooted, but can heroes spring from barren soil with the right husbandry? Should our schools help students have both the freedom and the capacity to understand who they are and may become? An interesting collection of academics, educators, and businesspeople in North Carolina believe the answer to these questions is a resounding yes.

Scott Livengood, President and CEO of the Krispy Kreme Doughnut Company, has thrown the considerable weight of his corporation behind a unique and exciting pilot project in education – The Heroic Journey: Uncovering Our Full Potential . Its purpose is to cultivate critical thinking, personal myth, and self-awareness.

In late November, I traveled to Winston-Salem, NC to meet Mr. Livengood in a discussion around Krispy Kreme's impressive corporate version of the Arthurian round table. The goal was two-fold; to learn as much about Krispy Kreme's project to lure faculty from Paideia School in Decatur, Georgia into a similar venture, and to encourage Mr. Livengood and other project leaders to present their project in the Business and Education track at Mythic Journeys in June.

Joining us for the afternoon were his executives Steve Anderson, Krispy Kreme's Vice President of Community Building / Story Master, and Dr. Steve A. Martin, their Dean of the Learning Initiative.

Others on this impressive team included Mythic Journeys guest presenter Dr. Sam Keen, Harvard's Dr. Joseph Milner, and Wake Forest graduate student Katie Moore and Daniel Robinson. Reporting on similar projects were Jimmy Neil Smith and Crystal Fields from the International Storytelling Center, and Tina Blythe of Project Zero.

Changing the world should begin in one's own backyard, so the project team chose as the seedbed for their cultivation Winston-Salem's Forsyth Country Day School, a traditional, independent, college-prep institution of 958 students from preschool to grade twelve. In the summer of 2003, Assistant Head Master Eric Peterson and literature teacher Doug Pierce accepted twelve essayed applications from a group of prospective high school seniors interested in the experimental elective.

Like the black and white pillars of Boaz and Jachin, the lintel of this class rested on two important elements. Name one pillar The Power of Story. Stories have the evocative ability to illuminate our lives, allowing us to understand more fully our path and to follow it with confidence and clarity. Story creation and story telling trains students to become the authors of their own stories, both literally and figuratively.

In the literal sense, the students worked on a number of projects and assignments that resulted in an autobiography. Chapters, sub-chapters, central characters, key ideas, recurring themes, crucial moments, and events.

Figuratively, the students became the authors of their own lives. They labored to uncover the personal, familiar, and cultural myths that have shaped who they are. Once uncovered, they consciously scrutinized and considered those myths and ideas with a goal of authenticity.

According to Dr. Keen, “An authentic life truly belongs to the person, in the same way that a novel belongs to its author.” This story belongs to the student. Each person detailed his or her past with honesty, while projecting a future that is both successful and desirable. The “existential task” of writing one's own story creates a guidepost, or a Life Map as Dr. Keen calls it, and the student may follow that map toward fulfillment.

Name the other pillar The Hero's Journey, mythically expressed from inauthentic to authentic. The Journey is a helpful way to understand the process of self-discovery and creation. Its course begins with the here and now, asking the most personal questions: Who are you? And are you living someone else's story or your own?

Pre-reflectively, the students withdraw, abstract, and struggle to understand themselves anew with daily journaling. Their task is arduous. They must battle and overcome many ‘fearsome monsters and dragons' that lie in the depths or roar from the summits of the younger self, the old understanding. At some point, with Fortune's good aid, the student achieves a new sense of self and potential. They can then return to the here and now, to a shared existence with new awareness, a fresh perspective – a boon, if you will.

The Mythic Landscape is wide, and our young travelers cover a lot of territory in six short months. Using The Hero's Journey as the alternate roadmap, they visited a broad range of topics, but maintained the focus and continuity of the territory. Doug Pierce teaches literature, so he crafted his version of the six-month course in great literature.

Each morning the students met together for the first period of the school day. As the topic of the day unfolded, a different student acted as scribe, keeping detailed notes that are posted on a web site. This allowed the other eleven students to focus on and contribute to the discussions, participating “in the moment” with open engagement. Each section of the project covered a primary story, enlisting enrichment material, film, and extensive writing projects. They were constantly reminded that, “This story / film / article is somehow about you. Find yourself in the story.” Discussion was important, but courage was essential

The Introduction to the Heroic Journey began with the primary story of The Magic of Myth. Enrichment material included Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth , Dr. Sam Keen's Your Mythic Journey , a discussion of Homer's The Odyssey , Plato's Allegory of the Cave, Gilgamesh , Forrester's Other Side of the Hedge , and the film Star Wars . The student's personal response entailed writing:

• a personal resume / statement
• five adjectives to describe him or herself
• a personal mission statement / business plan
• a timeline of his or her life
• and a first unguided story.

The next section, Cultural and Family Myths, explored the primary story of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman . Enrichment material examined Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It , Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven , Gogol's The Overcoat , and the film Ordinary People . Sojourners in this portion of the course wrote about their own family's Ten Commandments. They reflected on the moment that they ceased to be a child. The students discovered five pivotal scenes from their past, outlined a screenplay in response to Death of a Salesman, wrote their second story, and outlined their own autobiography. Very busy people, these students!

Studying Philosophical Myths, our travelers next tackled the primary story of Antigone , using enrichment material found in Nietzsche's Death of God , Heidegger's They and Mass Man , Sartre's Freedom and Responsibility , Nausbaum's The Fragility of Goodness, Percy's The Man on the Train , and the film The Wild Duck . In this countryside, they wrote about their own heroes and villains. Eschewing the easy answers of Einstein, Gandhi, and Hitler, teacher Dan Pierce encouraged them to find heroes and villains in their everyday lives, people they know and touch. A science teacher, crazy Uncle Alfred, the bully next-door, your best friend. Students began a video to the self, their third story, and defined the central characters in their autobiography.

Now they moved into the arena of Psychological Myths with the primary story of Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde . They read selections from the writings of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, Pathway's Pyramid , Maslow's Heirarchy , Mass Media and Selfhood , and analyze the film Equus . Their autobiographical writing hunkered down to the central events and ideas in their own lives.

Religious Myths were reserved for the last section of the journey, following the primary story of Dostoevsky's “The Grand Inquisitor” from The Brothers Karamazov . They plunged into Genesis and Job, and played with the parables of Jesus. They delved into the spiritual legacy of the Plains Indians. They contemplated Lao-Tzu's Tao te Ching , Paul Rep's compilation Zen Flesh, Zen Bones , selections from Daisetz T. Suzuki and Eugen Herrigel's Zen and the Art of Archery, The Greatest Climber in the World, and the films of Kurasawa's Samurai Trilogy. Final writing projects included a mixed media presentation of the seminar experience (journal, music, video, and writing), a formal and cumulative Oral Defense, and the final chapter of their autobiography.

Throughout the course, Wake Forest graduate student Katie Moore documented the work on a daily basis in an attempt to record “the process.” What occurred in the classroom that day? How well did yesterday's idea / project work towards the goals set forth? Why did that idea / project facilitate or fail on the road toward the human potential they are aiming to reach?

And six months down the road, just how well did the initial project succeed? Both students and teachers admit to growth in ways even they didn't expect. Most of the project students have attended Forsyth Country Day School from their very first day of kindergarten, working towards the ultimate goal – college preparation. Soon they will graduate and leave their families and community for the first really large journey of their young lives.

With this valuable instruction, they are now able to identify The Hero's Journey in every aspect of the world around them. They've dragged the monsters of the past out of the darkness and into the light. With keen navigation, they've defined what is worthy and noble to them, what is heroic and villainous, and become the authors of their own authentic stories. Some of them have even found strength that springs from self awareness, and have sat down in discussion with their parents and said, “Mom, Dad... I don't want to go straight to (insert profession) school right after graduation. I'd like to (fill in the blank) first, and then go to college.” Not a small chasm to leap for one who's always thought they were going to be a doctor / lawyer / mogul just like Dad / Grandma / Great-Grand Uncle Whosis.

There is more work to do, of course:

• Shaping this program so that it functions as well in a public school as it has in a private school setting;
• Providing guidelines for teachers to shape the course with their own individual creativity, determining the means to grade this type of unique experience;
• And finally, arranging follow-up in five years, ten years, even longer. The students themselves have formed close bonds with their guides and companions, and will doubtless recount the journey as one of the most memorable and shaping of their lives.

It's been an exciting and heroic adventure thus far. Most important to Scott Livengood, “are the skills these students are going to take with them.” What is the ultimate reward for attempting the venture? Strong, young, independent thinkers with clear visions of their own worth and abilities, who continue on magnificent journeys – tomorrow's heroes.

Paideia School in Decatur, Georgia is joining Mythic Journeys in a mythic adventure. Some of their dynamic teachers are working to craft mythic curricula for the Spring semester. Catherine Tipton's high school literature class plans to explore the themes of myth found in the poetry of Coleman Bark's translations of Rumi, Robert Bly, Naomi Shihab Nye, Carolyn Dunn, Galway Kinnel and others. That poetry will springboard into art projects for Madelaine Carolan's art class, which will be presented in the Mythic Journeys art exhibit at the DeFoor Centre in May. Another class is exploring the mystery of the labyrinth, even going so far as to create a labyrinth of their own that will be displayed and walked at Mythic Journeys. The projects are exciting and innovative. Better still, they reintroduce myth in modern schools.

"Dreams are self-luminous: they shine of themselves, as gods do. Myths are public dreams. Dreams are private myths. By finding your own dream and following it through, it will lead you to the myth world in which you live."

~ Joseph Campbel

In each issue of Mythic Passages, we'll share a few of our favorite links on the World Wide Web. We hope these resources help you with your own Mythic Journey. 

This time, we'll begin with some reference "mything links," followed by links offered in the spirit of the winter holiday season. We'll also point you to some resources available from the Joseph Campbell Foundation.

Myth

A Winter's Tale – Nature Myths in Fantasy Literature by Terri Windling

This site, Coriosolite Expert System, deals with coinage and the mythic symbols that appear on them

Myth and the Modern World

Myths and Legends (resource site)

Another site, also called Myths and Legends, features a large collection of links and writings from various sources — a real treasure for lovers of myths and legends everywhere.

Myths and Legends Trivia Quiz (great for kids)

Looking for information on the historical sources for Arthurian myth? Click here for one view of this question and a summary of most of the recent academic work on this issue. The sitealso has a links page.

The Ringing Rocks Foundation works independently and with partners to research, document, and help conserve diverse global wisdom traditions and their healing practices. Through photography, audio and video recordings, and preservation of artifacts, cultural ways are documented and archived for study.

Santa Claus

Frequently Asked Santa Questions

Another Santa FAQ Page

The History of Santa Claus

A really great essay on parenting, and children inventing their own Santa Claus myths

Santa Claus: A Biography

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

NORAD tracks Santa

Yule

Yuletide traditions and myths from around the world

Origins of the holiday season compiled by mythological studies doctoral candidate and friend, Leslie Emery

Satunalia

Yule Lore

An Alternative View of Advent

Solstice Celebrations: Modern and Ancient Festivals of   Lights

Solstice Celebrations: Zagmuk and Saturnalia

Solstice Celebrations: Dies Natalis Solis Invicti and Mithras

Kwanza

Kwanza: what is it?

Hanukah

Hannukah Tales

Torah.org

Solstice Celebrations: Hanukah

Our associates at the Joseph Campbell Foundation have made a wealth of new materials available on their official Web site. To access the materials, youmuist register on their site. However, registration is free and their privacy policy is completely reassuring.

First, a short appendix is one of the most requested media items on the Joseph Campbell Foundation site. It comprises a master reading list for Campbell's famous Introduction to Mythology class, which he taught at Sarah Lawrence College from the late 1930s to the mid-1970s. This reading list gives a sense of the material covered in this class, but also an insight into the authors and books that most influenced Campbell in his own thinking. It has been published in The Mythic Dimension: Selected Essays 1959-1987, edited by former JCF Publishing Director Antony Van Couvering. Please visit the JCF media page to download this reading list in a PDF format. Please note that you will need to be logged in to view this page.

The Joseph Campbell Foundation is alsomaking the video of Sukhavati, Place of Bliss: A Mythic Journey with Joseph Campbell available to download for free in the popular DivX format. The various parts (10) will be made available incrementally over time.

In this video, Joseph Campbell, takes us on a journey through the ages. He traces the mythological symbols left to us by the ancients and reveals a drama layed out across the screen of the universe. Primal mythological images, filmed around the world, evoke a sense of the experience as well as the spirit of the great story that so excited Joe. He reminds us that the human soul has always walked the same path in search of the place of bliss. This is a journey of transcendence and illumination.

Audio materials are also available. The Faoundation continues its project of making the entire Joseph Campbell Audio Collection available for FREE online!

Three new MP3 audio files have been uploaded to JCF.Org. Currently available audio from the site are as follows:

* Volume II, Inward Journey ~ East and West...
* Imagery of Rebirth Yoga
Parts 1 & 2 [56:58]
* The World Soul
Parts 1 & 2 [78:12]

* Volume III, The Eastern Way...
* Oriental Mythology
Parts 1 & 2 [63:21]

These early lectures are the recordings Campbell kept in his study and used as the basis for later lectures on myth, symbolism, the psyche, and spiritual awakening. Provocative and exhilarating, full of wit and wisdom, they are the windows into one of the greatest minds of our time.

Please enjoy the new media downloads. Visit the Joseph Campbell Foundation on line, log in, and navigate to the media section.

Holiday Shopping? Three Geese in Flight is a small, independent online bookstore seriously dedicated to Bardic thought, Native American lore, Arthurian legend, Celtic myth, and more.