Hero’s Journey II: Revelation of the “Bone Forest” Part I

It took me seven years to feel compelled to revisit the story in another larger painting I titled, “Hero’s Journey II” and to open up the jungle, but only to the viewer.

The Forest reveals its secret:

As the “curtain” is drawn aside, we see that the dense, beguiling jungle is gone with only a few remnants of its former beauty. It is a now a hollow place where something mystical is taking place. If we zoom in we see a ghostly severed skeletal arm just underneath Death, (see below ), indicating that this place could be a kind of battle field where perhaps an incorporeal, battle took place, or at the least a spiritual conflict that ended up with the maiming or even death of one of the combatants.
I was reminded of the drawing in which shadows of skeletal hands appeared, floating over the forest. I now knew what the shadowy bone hands were trying to say; they were indeed a forewarning that this place was far from the idyllic place it seemed to be in “Hero’s JourneyI”, but a place where Death reigned. And from the ethereal severed arm I gathered it was surely a battle field in another world, in a spirit world. In this painting I saw that Death and Trickster have shed their earthly disguises and have revealed their true numinous characters… And another character has entered the scene, a mysterious, luminous figure sitting under the tree where the invincible Pierrot sat in the painting “Hero’s Journey I”. I asked myself these questions, “ Would hero enter the forest if he knew what awaited him?” - perhaps not. “Why does Death want him to enter?” “Is he just a malicious, evil character, trying to draw Hero to his actual death, or does he have another motive?”

I looked at the story as a Universal one. How does it relate to us human beings? Hero in this myth stands for all of us. In order to transform psycho-spiritually, in order to grow we all need to face our fears, wage our inner battles. If Hero, like us, overcomes his fear of the unknown he will become an evolved being.
Thus we can see that “Death” , the ultimate unknown, in my myth is not a villain, but indeed a transformer, a catalyst in Hero’s transformation. While he is tricking Hero into entering the “Bone Forest”, a place of transformation and redemption, he is doing this for Hero’s ultimate benefit. In Shamanic terms he is helping Hero to submit to a dismemberment and rebirth. I later learned from my spiritual instructor, Andrew Camargo, that this is a big part of his Shamanic Initiation, that Hero’s false ego, built up over previous incarnations and through societal influences needs to die, in order to allow his new healthy ego to be born. Death is not the only catalyst; Trickster, who reveals his true spiritual form in the final “Hero’s Journey”, is actually the guiding spirit in his shadow work, in uncovering his repressed feelings, what he is ashamed of.

The Historical, Archaic Source of this fable:

Hero, just as many young men throughout history, had been taught that fear has to be hidden because if he acknowledges that he is afraid he will be considered to be weak, a coward. He may actually be called a “sissy”, according to the Free Dictionary, “A boy or man regarded as effeminate.” His parents most likely discouraged him from the time he was a toddler from expressing his feelings by telling him to stop crying if he hurt himself, or if a bully hit him. His father probably even taught him to fight back. As a result, he has learned to become ashamed of these feelings whenever they surfaced and quickly repressed them.

The “war paint” he is wearing in the painting is meant to symbolize the archaic nature of this phenomenon. In ancient tribal societies when a boy reached puberty he would be subjected to a test of courage. For instance,” historically the Australian Aboriginal ritual of a walkabout, or temporal mobility, was performed by teenagers as their initiation into adulthood. This usually happened when an individual was 10–16 years old, though the elders of the tribe decided when a child was ready for it. [Similar rites of passage were inflicted on youths is other tribal societies]. Prior to the walkabout, the elders would teach the child all about adulthood, how to survive in the wild, and how to perform the ritual…During this period, the child was expected to survive in the wilderness on his own without interacting with another human. This would prove that he could live off the land and be self-reliant as he would have to make his own shelter and find his own food and water. The child would leave his tribe wearing nothing but a loincloth, though his body was likely decorated with paint and ornaments…The child was also meant to discover himself and communicate with his spiritual guides.”

https://listverse.com/2019/02/22/10-ancient-coming-of-age-rituals/ The modern day hazing rituals in universities are remnants of these tribal rituals, although the spiritual aspect of them are gone. Boys were trained to become warriors just as they are trained up to this day, in sports and in the army. Fear and cowardice is not acceptable in either of these arenas.

To return to my earlier versions of the Hero’s Journey, Hero is being aided by spirits, guiding animal spirits, the giant raven and moth, and once he arrives at the forest, by Death and Trickster, in his process of transformation. In the first two versions of the story Hero, if he acknowledges his fear and faces it, accepts his call to initiation will gain spiritual strength, will be less afraid to face his challenges, including pain and suffering. However, he will also lose his youthful innocence and exuberance.
In the final version of the story his future higher self if he continues on this path of working on his karmas and on his shadows over many lifetimes will become illuminated, transcendent. I didn’t know this at the time I painted the second “Hero’s Journey” painting; all I knew was that I was being shown Hero’s future spiritual self.

At this point I knew that this was a place of transformation. I wanted to show that transformation was taking place, but didn’t know how. The blank, dark hollow space in the center of the canvas taunted me to the point where I had to leave my apartment and make my way to the beach to clear my head. When I returned that afternoon I stared at the blank space again hoping for an inspiration when all of a sudden a small white line appeared. I decided to trace it with white oil paint mixed with a bit of blue. As I traced it, it began to move and started creating a small outline of a form. I continued to trace it, but because it moved very slowly I lost patience and started moving my brush ahead of it, trying to complete . As I tried to subject my will on it, it stopped. I felt very disappointed, blamed myself, but there wasn’t anything I could do to bring it back, so I left the canvas.
The next morning I went back to my easel and to my delight the line started moving on the canvas again. The image that was beginning to form did so bit by bit as if it was being projected onto the canvas. This time I waited for it to move. When it stopped again I left it with the hope and more trust that it would start again. It took several days of excruciating slow painstaking work. Little by little I saw what was being shown to me. It was giving me what I wanted a symbolic transformational image of death and rebirth. It was perfect, much more than I could even have imagined, never mind created. I felt filled with gratitude. This image finally proved to me without a doubt that the forest was a place of transformation through inner psycho-spiritual battles. It was indeed a symbol of the psyche.

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