Fabrice's Newsletter #4
Fabrice's Newsletter #4
Myth-making and Myth-digging
This newsletter tries to capture a myriad of topics and commentaries and bring you greater purpose and clarity in your life and in the world. My hope is this can inspire you to greater heights of understanding and a create a better future for this planet!
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Hey everyone! I hope you are doing well and had a fantastic weekend!
This week I want to explore mythologies and how important they are in framing them within our own lives. I also have a special announcement at the end of this newsletter!
The Hero’s Journey
When I think of myth, I think of Joseph campbell, he was an American Professor of Literature who studied mythologies from all around the world. From the Roman empire, the Aztecs, the Greeks, the Sumerians, Native Americans, Indigenous tribes from all across from the Amazonian forest to Australia’s Aboriginals, from Chinese mythologies to all major religions - Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Taoism, Gnosticism and even European Alchemy. What he discovered was that all the different patterns of storytelling carried a unique framework, certain archetypes that were very similar to each other and could be mapped into something he coined “The Hero’s Journey.”
It was earth shattering for me when I first came across Joseph Campbell and his work in the phenomenal ways that he was able to tie the patterns of life, our ways of thinking and the ways we evolved as humans to tell stories and how deeply tied it is all together. I see the patterns of our consciousness how it organizes itself is interrelated to everyone else on the planet. The implications are astronomical. Finding the right myths or learning about myths expands us. We tap into previous forms of knowing and civilizations that lived before us.
I also see the patterns of life from micro attempts at something new (habits, learning a language, taking a class, going after a target goal) to macro aspects of the trajectory of our entire lives that we undergo move within a very similar flow as seen in the Hero’s journey chart below. It is such a unique framework to understand our individual story, the ones of others around us but also the collective journey of groups of people and our human species. So many aspects of ourselves/identities inside of us are at different stages and places within the Hero’s journey.
How do I apply this to my own life? How can you?
First, two major push back that I have to this Hero’s journey is that its fairly patriarchal and also fails to empathizes the community and the collaborations that comes from others that aid us and the parts of ourselves that are unknown to transform and unfold into what we are becoming.
Our becoming is inextricably tied to the people we work with, what we learn from them and whom we actively associate with. Our becoming and our journey on this planet is tied to these stages and the people we collaborate with. We are the Collaborative Heroes. Thats how we should see it. We collaborate with others and ideas and meaning to make the journey more integrated and fulfilling.
I really like these episodes from Ray Dalio on his Principles.
I know for sure when I moved to the United States from Haiti, that trajectory was a call to adventure yet all the hurdles that I had faced and who I am today as a black men would make me an anomaly.
But I wouldn’t have been able to reach who I am today without my collaborations with mentors, friends and my sheer will to make the impossible possible from those collaborations and new meaning that it brought. So seek out new mentors and collaborations, they will expand you!
Perseverance is what you began to embrace when you engage the long view that the hero’s journey brings in all its transformations, its ups and downs and what you go through by the fact of life.
Its about the journey, it is about how you discover pieces of yourselves along the way. Thats the reward. Its not about the end destination.
Its about what you have control over right this moment with your own two hands and own two feet. Life is quick ending. So be present and be mind full of discovering yourself and your myth-making.
Our Own Mythologies
The more powerful mythologies that for me I have seen can propel us to our highest excitement which I believe is one of the key factors for achieving true change on this earth are the mythologies of our childhood.
When we were young we dreamed a lot. Dreamed of wonders and thought a certain way about the world and what we felt pulled us towards something very particular. But over time society, our parents or even our education moves us away from this particular thing and defined for us what was possible.
But for a second imagine what if a parent or a mentor had been there all along, saying “that you were great at such things” or that “You should pursue this” or “These are your gifts” ?
Going back deep into when we were young and thinking about some of the wildest dreams you had, try to tie this into what you want to do in the next few years, anchor that framework of meaning from your childhood to your personal mission now and your perception of your outlook on the total future and the impact that you want to make.
I have always felt that the personal myths of our childhood are so so important. They are tied to our bliss. If you don’t remember, then ask your parents, ask your friends and find out what you talked about most and what interested you most at that time. Keeping a daily morning journal really helps with this, your future self will thank you!
For me it was the natural world, the stars, the wild life, the critters, insects and animals while I grew up in Haiti. I wanted to help these animals, understand them so deeply, study them. I know that my actions today and what I am doing is tied to that child dream of mine in aiding the planet. This is how you can make your life more blissful, more connected!
It is imperative that you make the connections to your own myths, those gone long ago and those you adopted over time.
A new Podcast about the future!
I am developing and producing a podcast. I will be interviewing experts and some of the brightest creatives and intellectual minds of our generation to uncover what their visions of the future is. What are the most important ideas they think will shape the world!
If you remember on a previous newsletter I produced a Manifesto on the Future. Please read it! It inspired this entire podcast and unique framing. I believe there’s a strong need to really wrestle with tough and new ideas that can allow us to reimagine what the future holds and what the next 25 years of this planet will be like.
Stay tunes for more information!
Thanks as always for reading. Please share this newsletter if you like it or reply if you have feedback!
In good spirit,
Fabrice