In the shamanic tradition, the hero/heroine's journey begins with the call to adventure and culminates in the return journey. There is a departure from the community, from the center to beyond the edges, and a return to the community into the center. A story is always a circle.
In all cosmology of storytelling, the return is complete once the story is shared, brought back to the community, seeded in the land, and digested by the ecosystem of all relations. It is not only our human kin that needs to hear our stories but the trees of our land, the river that flows through it, the soil we step on, the spiders that crawl on it, and the sky that watches upon us all. Even the dead leaves need to hear our stories, especially the dead leaves.
We embark on this journey through various means, whether traveling vast distances spiritually within our own consciousness or perception or physically undertaking a journey to distant lands. Each step of this journey is an opportunity for growth and transformation, but it is in telling the story that we find the ultimate healing and integration.
This touches on the fundamental roots of animism, shamanism, and ancient wisdom that nothing is truly "our own" nor is anything an individual process. Our pains and personal stories are always connected, weaved, entangled, and pulsing with the collective ones. We cannot find our stories without the collective echoes weaved by the cosmos, the ancestors, and the ancient stones. Our story cannot exist without the stories of others, and cannot live very long without sharing them.
