Order of Paladins
Lesson : 18
The Hero’s Journey
copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain
Warrior’s Admonition
Your body is your temple: Care for it!
Do not engage in useless activity.
Listen to the Goddess.
Help thyself.
You create your own reality.
The Warrior’s path is creativity.
A serene path to enlightenment.
Know thyself.
Master thyself.
Create your own reality.
Nurture the ability to perceive the truth in all matters.
Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye.
Learn from your mistakes.
Teach thyself.
Create your own reality.
Do not be negligent, even in trifling matters
Grace and guilt do not exist:
Strive for responsibility.
Honor thyself.
Create your own reality.
copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain
13 Precepts:
1. Know thyself.
2. Nurture the ability to perceive the truth in all matters.
3. You create your own reality.
4. Develop a sense of Right Action.
5. Do not be negligent, even in trifling matters.
6. Your body is your temple: Care for it!
7. Minimal appearance, maximum content.
8. Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye.
9. Power with.
10. Who dares wins.
11. The Gods cannot help those who will not help themselves.
12. Be creative!
13. Do not engage in useless activity.
copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain
Code of Chivalry:
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All members of the Order of Paladins must live according to the principles of
chivalry, which include:
Sincerity.
Courtesy.
Compassion.
Perseverance.
Industriousness.
Justice.
Loyalty.
Courage.
Self-Discipline.
Humility.
Largesse.
Truth.
Honor
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Hint:
 Refer to the notes pages in this Power
Point presentation for more in-depth
information on the subject of each slide.
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The Hero’s Journey
From the Vedas:
“Truth is one. The sages
call it by many names.”
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Hero Quest
 The modern
Warrior/Hero’s
quest is to find
himself. To find
his soul.
Cuchullain
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Hero Quest Purpose: Mastery
 As I told you in the Squire level of training:
Master yourself and everything else will take
care of itself.
 As Campbell puts it: “Man himself is now the
crucial mystery... A transmutation of the entire
social order is necessary, so that through every
detail and act of secular life the vitalizing image
of the universal god-man who is actually
immanent and effective in all of us may be
somehow made known to the consciousness.”
copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain
Mastery
 I summarize mastery of the elements like
this:
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Wind and water
Flow around
Fire and Stone
Hold your ground
Mind and spirit
Holds them bound.
copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain
Hero’s Quest
 “The modern hero,” Campbell tells us, “the
modern individual, who dares to heed the call
and seek the mansion of that presence with
whom it is our whole destiny to be atoned,
cannot, indeed must not, wait for his
community to cast off its slough of pride, fear,
rationalized avarice, and sanctified
misunderstanding. ‘Live,’ Nietzsche says, ‘as
though the day were here.’ It is not society that
is to guide and save the creative here, but
precisely the reverse.”
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Hero Quest: Stages
 The mythical quest of the hero, as
reflected in our Order’s three levels of
training, has three stages:
 Separation,
 Initiation, and
 Return.
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Hero Quest: 1
 The first, separation, is the Squire
making a decision to leave the world
they’ve known up to know and follow
a new path, the Warrior path, and
forge their own reality. Their first
task is, as Campbell puts it, “to
retreat from the world scene of
secondary effects to those causal
zones of the psyche where the
difficulties really reside and there to
clarify these difficulties and eradicate
them.”
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Hero Quest: 2
 The second task, initiation, is about
discovering one’s power and becoming a
Knight.
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Hero Quest: 3
 And the third, return, is
about mastering that
knowledge and bringing
it back to share with their
peers and the greater
community. For today’s
community is no longer
the nation, tribe, etc.
Today’s community is
the planet.
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Myth
 You can’t suppress myth. Like water, it
will find its way out. It is within us, and if
we let it out it can transform us. We
encourage our Knights to experience
myth, to see how it works through them,
inspiring, informing and empowering
them to become greater than they were.
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“Old Time Religion”
 This isn’t about going back to “old time religion”. Many
people, faced with the terrors and frustrations of
modern life, try to turn back to established religions
seeking comfort and reassurance. They try to cling to
what worked in the past, not realizing that what worked
2000 years ago no longer works in todays’ world. The
world’s great religions can no longer meet people’s
needs. As Joseph Campbell told us in his book The
Hero With A Thousand Faces: “[The world’s great
religions] have become associated with the causes of
the factions as instruments of propaganda and self
congratulation.”
copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain
Making Myths
 That isn’t what we’re doing here. You
cannot make the required changes by
turning your back on the future or turning
away from progress. You can’t walk
backwards into the future.
 Neither do you want to ignore the past.
We’re using ancient myths here to inspire
us to make modern myth come alive.
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Perilous Glen
 In the myth of
Cuchullain’s journey
to Scáthach’s island,
one of the last
obstacles that he
encounters is the
Perilous Glen. This
glen is full of
whatever things one
fears the most.
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Guardians
 When you journeyed to
Caer Paladin (Lesson 3)
or Eilean a' Cheo (Lesson
11, pictured in this map)
you may have
encountered beings in the
form of animals or
“guardians” that stood
between you and your
objective
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Guardians
 Myth is full of
monsters and
guardians that come
between the hero
and her quest
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Guardians
 Such frightening guardian
figures are commonly
found around Buddhist
temples
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Celtic Guardians
 The ancient Celts
used to take the
heads of their
enemies and
display them
around their sacred
sites. This is yet
another form of the
same thing.
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Our Perilous Glen
 So right now, we’re
going to create our
own version of this
myth of the
Perilous Glen, right
outside of Caer
Paladin
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Our Perilous Glen
Right here
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Guardians
 I want you to
think of the
fearful things
that you had to
overcome to
achieve your
Knighthood …
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Guardians
 I want you to
come up with
a symbol of
those fearful
things…
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Guardians
 … and then put
that symbol
outside the east
entrance gate of
Caer Paladin as
a “guardian”.
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Guardians
By placing symbols/avatars of your fears
outside the gates you are doing several
things:
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Guardians
 You’re leaving a
symbol of your
achievement for all
to see
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Guardians
 You’re “populating” our “Perilous Glen” with
fearful guardians that newcomers will
encounter. No doubt many of them will
recognize these guardians as they’ll have
identical or similar fears to face in their quest.
Hopefully this will show them that they’re not
alone in facing such things.
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Guardians
 You’re also
reminding
yourself of what
you’ve achieved
and what you’ve
got to watch out
for
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Guardians
 At the same time
these guardians
will discourage any
“wannabes”
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Lesson 18 Assignment
 Create Guardians to place outside of
Caer Paladin
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Order of Paladins
Be Glorious!
copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain