Dear Main Character,

Have you grown accustomed to following others? Do you believe that somewhere, somehow, someone has the answer, and that all you need do is imitate them?

Perhaps that’s why you’re here?

You’re hoping for the magical combination of ingredients and recipes to tell your story, to realise your dreams, to fulfil your life’s purpose…

You’re in the right place.
Because there is no wrong place.

You’re always on your (story) path, no matter how “off” you feel.

POV
As the main character, you only see this in hindsight, when you’re relating your story in the Resolution.

While you’re actually standing on your path, you may feel that you lack the time, the perspective, or the opportunity to perceive it. Yet at some point the events that you experience coalesce — of their own accord — into a meaningful roadmap, and each pin-point appears to lead inexorably to the next.

But only in hindsight.

What to do in the meantime, at the crossroads, when we feel we can’t just skip the pages to “The End”?

“And here’s what the text says, and here’s what thrilled me. They thought that it would be a disgrace to go forth in a group. Each entered the forest adventurous at the point that he had chosen, where it was darkest, and there was no way or path. Because where there is a way or path, that is someone else’s way. And this is the romantic of Europe. That which you are seeking is the antithetical mask, the fulfilment of that which never was on land or sea. Namely, your own potential. And nobody can tell you what it is. They can give you help when you ask, ‘how do I do this,’ ‘how do I do that,’ but it’s out of you that this comes. This is the whole sense of Goethe’s Faust. The Faust is driven from this zeal from within, and all Mephistopheles can do is give him the means for realising it. And it’s beyond fulfilment. It goes on, on, on, beyond the full moon to the sun, you might say. That’s what’s in us all.” 

– Joseph Campbell, ’The Grail Quest and The Wasteland’

WHAT WORKED FOR OTHERS WON’T WORK FOR YOU
That’s a promise.
That’s the promise of archetypal stories.

You’re a unique POV on the world, and as long as you try to see it through the eyes of others rather than through your own lovely insight, you won’t experience it in its full glory.

Oh, you can Quest on the paths of others for a (long) time; Questing can be fun! But eventually you grow weary of not finding, not finding, not finding… And you lay your head down — just for a moment — and the thought drops into the pool of your consciousness. Maybe it’s the author who plops it there, or maybe it’s your own sweet soul, but what it says is: 

“what if? w h a t  i f ? w  h  a  t   i   f f f ?  ?  ?” 

in ever-expanding ripples…

And you wake up with a start.

WHAT IF THERE’S ANOTHER WAY?
Just the thought is enough to stop you in your tracks.

Because if there’s another way, a way that’s new, different, vital, freer and easier than this rutted path that others have carved out before you, you’ll take it.

Except you still can’t see that other path, that magical path that only appears clearly in hindsight, that path that is invisible to the senses at first, and can only be felt inwardly and that only by bold heroes, experienced in being themselves. 

How will you find that path? Your path?

REJECT THE PATHS OF OTHERS
Myths put it all quite succinctly, but we find the same patterns repeating in the dilatory stories of our own era. 

Jane Eyre is a brilliant example of a heroine who, over and over and over again, rejects the paths that are presented to her. Though men and women tell her vehemently, persuasively, that these are the paths that society and religion set forth in all their wisdom, though they represent to her her own misguidedness, helplessness and lack of options, not to mention the awful consequences that her refusals will trigger… she yet remains steadfastly true to herself.

“‘… I now hate the recollection of the time I passed with Céline, Giacinta, and Clara.’

I felt the truth of these words; and I drew from them the certain inference, that if I were so far to forget myself and all the teaching that had ever been instilled into me, as—under any pretext—with any justification—through any temptation—to become the successor of these poor girls, he would one day regard me with the same feeling which now in his mind desecrated their memory. I did not give utterance to this conviction: it was enough to feel it. I impressed it on my heart, that it might remain there to serve me as aid in the time of trial.”

– Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronté

It can be difficult to reject a path before a viable alternative is visible to you; to leave your warm, familiar routine, and wander out into the unknown wasteland.

The temptation of the mapped itinerary is strong; not only does it provide clear instructions, but there’s also the testimony of people who have traced it and reached their destination.

Besides, walking the paths of others can teach you a lot, especially about how you don’t want your story to unfold…

But you can’t follow others all the way to the fulfilment of your own personal potential.

And really, how far are you willing to stray from who you truly are?

A WAY APPEARS
Don’t panic. Don’t despair. Don’t turn back.

A way will appear.

Even if you have to reject 76 other trails before you find it.

When you eliminate those other directions that don’t quite satisfy your unique requirements, a path heretofore non-existent, unknown, unmapped… is presented to you (at times after a short delay or detour). 

This is the path that is yours and yours alone, along which you (and only you) can go your own way.

Until the next fork in the road, that is…

Prompts:

1. What path do you reject?
2. Why is it difficult for you to reject this path?
3. Why would it be more difficult for you to follow it?

Pick up your PDF handout in the Coterie.