The other night, as an unconscious Spring seed, I started reading Steven Pressfield’s latest book The Artist’s Journey: The Wake of the Hero’s Journey and the Lifelong Pursuit of Meaning.

You might remember Steven from The War of Art fame… where he writes about how an epic battle with Resistance is part of every creative act we undertake, and what to do about it!

As someone who has been searching for meaning her whole life (and probably always will), The Artist’s Journey has been an incredible experience of hearing my own questions and reality articulated by someone else!

Over the last few months, in the dislocation of this move to Canada, I’ve been pondering which parts of me will survive the move and which parts won’t.

Phrased another way, I’ve been wondering, what’s my medicine, and what medicine of others did I try on for a while, only to find it now sliding off…? Is that even possible?

Pressfield invites me out of such black-and-white thinking, and into full acceptance and full valuing, of my (our) eclectic and essential personal history…

“On our hero’s journey, we acquire a history that is ours alone. It’s a secret history, a private history, a personal history. No one has it but us. No one knows it but us. This secret history is the most valuable possession we hold, or ever will hold. We will draw upon it for the rest of our lives.
The hero’s journey ends when, like Odysseus, we return home to Ithaca, to the place from which we started. We wash up on shore. We have survived. We have come home.
Now what?
The passage that comes next is the Artist’s Journey.
The artist’s journey comes after the hero’s journey.
Everything that has happened to us up to this point is rehearsal for us to act, now, as our true self and to find and speak in our true voice.”

We don’t plan our history. We don’t neatly choose a package of homogeneous experiences. I never chose astrology, and I’m still bemused it’s here, demanding my attention and inspiring me so deeply!

But the call to embodiment also showed up, and somehow now, my personal history asks me to bring these things together, without one of them cancelling the other out.

These seemingly opposed (at times) parts, and all the other parts of me and my personal history, make up my true self and my true voice. I need them all!

VEIN OF GOLD

Pressfield also gives examples of how various artists have landed upon their ‘subject,’ a theme or themes that roll out across all their works, over time. A vein of gold, of self-discovery, that they continue to mine of the course of their lifetime. And the same is true for us, of course!

As evidence, Pressfield lists the works of various artists, including his own ‘subject,’ the titles of all his books, written over decades. The themes are visible, even without having read them.

He says:
“Three critical points:
One, this subject materialised on its own. There was no plan on my part. No conscious decision. No moment of inflection.
Two. the subject was an absolute surprise to me. It revealed itself book by book, year by year, obsession by obsession.
Three, I had no choice as an artist except to follow this subject, and serve it, as it revealed itself and evolved over time.”

I mapped my ‘subject’ and it kind of looks like this:

Short Version
Homebirth
Bachelor of Theology
Mosaic of Grace
​Local Women’s Circle
Cycles and Spirals
Midwife of the Soul
Winter Dreaming Women’s Circle
What Lies Beneath
Lunar Journal
Priestess Your Life
Melbourne Women’s Circle
Four Seasons Journey Teacher
Devoted to Transformation

Long Version
Spiritual Community (Kairos)
Taboo (sexuality, lesbianism, feminism)
Taboo (pregnant out of wedlock)
Homebirth
Spiritual Community (Liturgy)
Bachelor of Theology
Bodywork + Counselling
Women’s Circle
Spiritual Community (Quaker)
Taboo (sexuality, polyamory)
Conscious Sensuality
The Truth Project
Mosaic of Grace
​Four Seasons Journey
Taboo (witch)
Local Women’s Circle
Cycles and Spirals
Midwife of the Soul
Winter Dreaming Women’s Circle
What Lies Beneath
Lunar Journal
Priestess Your Life
Melbourne Women’s Circle
Four Seasons Journey Teacher
Taboo (witch, introvert)
Spiritual Community (Ritual)
Devoted to Transformation

These themes of spirituality, community, taboo, birth, body, circles, healing, cycles, creativity, and fundamentally of transformation, that have consistently and undeniably called me.

What’s your list look like?

If you ever ponder what you are here on Earth to do, then I highly recommend buying this humble book by Steven Pressfield…