The Stages of the Journey (The Journey Motif)
INNOCENCE
INITIATION
CHAOS
RESOLUTION
In the stage of innocence, the world and we
are one. We feel no division or separation
from others, believing we are, literally, the
center of the universe. Suffering is minimal
and short-lived, and death is a foreign
concept. For the most part, our lives are
happy.
Three kinds of events signify the fall from
innocence: death (knowledge of our own
mortality), an awareness of evil (suffering,
pain, morality, injustice, hypocrisy), or a
sexual awakening (sex/love dichotomy, love
vs. pain). With Initiation comes the desire to
do 1 of 2 things: 1)Regain innocence,
nostalgia, denial or 2)Be the Hero (DARK
NIGHT OF THE SOUL)
The struggle of our existence to reconcile the
information revealed during initiation and
move on despite our belief that the future
holds only more pain and unrelieved
suffering. For many, the desire is to move
back to innocence (=denial). But the true
hero is not defeated by this knowledge, but
transforms it into wisdom (reconciles the
seeming paradox of good and evil and is
strengthened).
Integration, with open eyes, of Hero’s life and
death, chaos, pain, love. Historically Heroes
move to 4th stage, but in modernity, they
don’t