The journey of the soular hero
First published in Kindred Spirit magazine Jan/Feb 2008
In ancient times the death and re-birthing of the Sun at the winter solstice was enshrined in myth by the birth of the legendary ‘solar’ hero. As we state our own intentions to be ‘better,’ ‘happier,’ ‘wiser’ through our New Year resolutions Dr Jude Currivan recounts a very personal tale to encourage us all to take heroic strides forward.
The solar heroes of the epic stories are often ordinary people undertaking extraordinary missions – and their journeys are as relevant for us today as when they were first told. The legends relate how the choices made at each step of the hero’s journey unfold as the destiny of their higher, but often unseen, purpose. Indeed the deepest meaning of their epic journeys of inner and outer transformation is for the hero to understand and embody their spiritual wholeness.
The language of myth, the journey of the solar hero – his or her inner pilgrimage to wholeness – resonates with the cosmic numbers of twelve and thirteen. These are the numbers that harmonise with the cycles of the Sun, Moon and Earth – the twelve solar and thirteen lunar months in a year.
The journey of the Sun, or “sol” through the twelve-fold zodiac, is then reflected in the journey of the solar hero on Earth. This cosmic resonance of twelve and thirteen is also encoded in the ancient musical scale of thirteen notes – where the thirteenth completes one octave and begins the next. And its universal significance is further revealed in the number of companions that surround the solar hero. For instance, twelve companion deities surrounded Osiris, the ancient Egyptian god of regeneration, twelve followers accompanied the Greek hero Odysseus, King Arthur had twelve knights of the round table and Jesus was accompanied by twelve disciples. The ancient myth-makers intended the solar hero to be an inspiration, but not to be worshipped, for these sages understood that each and every one o us has this divine potential. Yet, for 2,000 years, the voice of the greatest of solar heroes has gone unheeded, for Jesus said, in John 14:12 ‘as I do these things, so shall ye do them, and greater.’ We’re the ones he spoke of. Now is the time for us to realize that we are all innately, solar - or soular - heroes.
Each of us follows a unique path and yet, wherever we begin and whatever route we take, we all share the same ultimate destination. My own journey of self-discovery too, revealed twelve “steps” of awareness that I needed to take and which sooner or later, I feel we all tread. My own scenic route to this understanding took me six years and on an incredible global odyssey that revealed a profound understanding of our hidden heritage and cosmic destiny and which I share in my book The 13th Step. I now personally believe that this was the journey I was born to take. It reached an unexpected and revelatory thirteenth step that culminated at dawn at the golden gate of the old city of Jerusalem on 19th October 2006. In that moment I felt that I’d completed a mission that had taken many lives to a point of completion – and an inner re-birth to another ‘octave’ of experience. But I also now realise that such inner understanding could also have happened if my life’s purpose had involved my outwardly travelling no further than the end of my street. For the old legends describe how when we arrive at our outward destination, our inner destination is revealed as the spiritual home we once left and to which we now return.
These are the twelve steps, revealed during my own odyssey of self-discovery and I hope they help you as you undertake your own quest as a soular hero to journey home to the wholeness of who you really are. The steps actually interweave with each more like a dance. And I find that every day, there are opportunities to continue to practice and refine them in the way I live my life and the choices, large and small, that I make. But like any dance, and indeed any journey there’s always a first step. For me, in the midst of what was my darkest hour, it was recognizing and acknowledging that at some higher level I’d chosen to be here. And without blaming others – or myself – I began to take conscious responsibility for my future choices and their implications. The second step, I painfully discovered is to make choices from love rather than fear – in thought, word and action. Whilst occasional fear alerts us to danger, and love shouldn’t be blind, courage finds us when we allow the wisdom of our heart to spur us on.
My own realization of this came during of all things, the divorce settlement with my then to be ex-husband. I was aggrieved, hurting and fearful of my financial security. I could have chosen to claim all that I could. But early one morning, above the turmoil of fear and anger that swirled around me, the quiet inner voice of my heart reminded me to love. And in that moment, and guided by such love, I could suddenly see for the first time that the end doesn’t justify the means – the means become the end. Along the long journey that was still to unfold, I found myself discovering that to become whole I needed to recognize and accept all of myself, light and shadow. Only when we’re ready to take this third step can we integrate – in-to-great - all aspects of ourselves and begin to heal our dis-membered psyche. As we do so though, something almost miraculous happens. As though a veil is being lifted, we begin to see beyond the limitations of the polarities that pervade the manifest world to the wholeness that lies beyond. We all dissipate our energies to some degree by dwelling on the past or projecting our hopes or fears into the future. The fifth step, that I’m still practising each day, is to live in the Here and Now. Otherwise, as I’ve discovered, we’re now-here. I’ve found that taking this step carries us from a way of being to a “wave being.” We don’t go with the flow – we become it. And whilst the challenges of life remain, like cosmic surfers, we learn to ride its waves of experience. During my own amazing journey, I was fortunate to experience some of the most beautiful natural sights of Gaia and to commune with Nature. And as I learned to connect consciously with Gaia and all her children, I recognized that this sixth step of re-establishing our relationship with her and the wider Cosmos is crucial to our future destiny as cosmic beings. The myths of old are full of examples where a solar hero hears their inner guidance and then promptly ignores it – with dire consequences. I’ve done my fair share of hearing but not ‘listening’ with similar results. As apprentice soular heroes, and as we begin to hear the inner voice of our higher guidance ever more clearly, the seventh step is increasingly then to trust and follow it! The eighth step is for us to be authentic and lovingly true with ourselves and all life. Such loving truth is always open but never merely “honest.” And it involves our listening to the loving truth about ourselves too. The ninth step often requires us to transcend the habits of lifetimes, by stopping judging ourselves and others. For when we’re able to do so, we know that we’re indeed moving beyond the limitations of polarity-based awareness and seeing the greater whole. But a health warning comes with such insight. For such non-judgement is not unquestioning acceptance of peoples’ actions but rather discernment of what feels right. The tenth step is often a consequence of the ninth, in that it involves the forgiveness of others – and ourselves. It’s often the latter which we may find the most challenging as we seek to release trauma and find redemption and reconciliation in our lives. Jesus spoke directly to us of the eleventh step when he asked us to treat others as we would wish to be treated ourselves. And in doing so he and other spiritual masters have shown us how to honour all experience without condemning, condoning or colluding. The twelfth step of our inner journey calls us to go beyond the me-powerment of ego-based power to the empowerment that transcends it – we don’t ‘lose’ our ego but have learned to fly free of its limitations. And like the soular heroes of all times, all twelve steps have led us to a homecoming, the threshold of whose thirteenth step reunites us with our true and divine nature.
The Shift of consciousness that many mystics have heralded for the winter solstice of 2012 has already begun. Our awareness is already expanding beyond the fears and limitations of our ego-based selves. We’re beginning to access the newly available energies. Our individual choices now will make the collective difference to our cosmic destiny. We’re being called to re-member who we really are. And at this momentous time, we all have within us, everything we need to make a real difference however small. Like all soular heroes, all we need to do to begin is to take the first step of the journey ….
Dr Jude Currivan is a healer, scientist and mystic and author of The Wave, The 8th Chakra, and The 13th Step. See www.judecurrivan.com
© Jude Currivan 2007