The Map is not the Territory

Our journey of internal self exploration often begins before we are even consciously aware that we have started on this path. Once on the quest of self discovery, it is very difficult to return to our old selves. The unknown territory of new thoughts and feelings can be very unsettling. Having a guide book or map to help integrate new awareness of both internal and external territories can reduce the turbulence of adjusting to changes in our understanding and experience.

Fortunately, the map to self-discovery is well known and has been documented by the countless generations that have gone before us. While the particular details of an individual’s experiences on the path are unique, the over-arching structures are similar across time, space, ethnicity, and belief systems.

For most of human history, the information in this map of inner expansion was conveyed from one generation to the next via the metaphors in traditional stories, or myths. In modern society we have lost our connection to the deep metaphors of these mythic stories. We may still be hardwired to key in on the stories in the mythic maps. One need look no farther than the story progressions in popular entertainment, such as movies, television and books, to see that the old themes are alive and well all around us.

By losing the awareness of the deeper metaphorical roots of these themes, our search for substance is lost or not fulfilled through many of these cursory entertainment avenues. By acquainting ourselves with the themes and key stages of development shown on the inner mythic map of discovery, we can interpret our experience, both internal and external, from a different vantage point.

A key figure in the last century who gathered traditional stories from around the world and identified in them similarities in theme and progression was Joseph Campbell. Campbell is credited with bringing an awareness of these largely forgotten mythic themes of self exploration and discovery to public attention.  

Of all of his writings and lectures on the importance of myth in the human experience, “The Power of Myth”, an extended interview with Bill Moyers just prior to his death in 1987, may best distill his life’s work in a way that most people on this journey of self exploration can understand.

“The Power of Myth” is available on both DVD and in print. It offers those on the journey across the territory of self exploration a map of key concepts to understand the path while also allowing them to appreciate that it is only a map to navigate by and that ultimately they must explore the territory themselves to gain the insight they seek.