The Hero's Journey Stages, Mapped to Stages of Ascension & Avatar Heroes

The Hero's Journey Stages, Mapped to Stages of Ascension & Avatar Heroes

STAGE 1:

Hero's Journey Language - "Ordinary World":  The hero's normal world before the story begins

Ascensionist Language - "3d Reality":  Reason, logic, the mind, rationalist materialism, linear time-space, maya

FOR AVATAR'S HEROES:

Jake - Spaceship hierarchies & office politics bullshit

Neytiri - Tribal shamanic jungle life, arranged marriage, fear of Sky People

The Collective Alliance - State of separation; the alliance doesn't actually exist yet. Grace is the main human ally, but she is shut out by the Na'Vi.

STAGE 2:

Hero's Journey Language - "Call to Adventure":  The hero is presented with a problem, challenge or adventure

Ascensionist Language - "Wake-Up Call":  Visionary experience, personal crisis, etc. that sparks the spiritual journey

FOR AVATAR'S HEROES:

Jake - Lost in savage forest, saved only on the condition that he acts as a double agent

Neytiri - Assigned the role of mentoring a Sky Person who triggers her fear & distrust

The Collective Alliance - Questions of how to move past fear based on difference and trust the "other" are raised as Jake becomes member of both groups

STAGE 3:

Hero's Journey Language - "Refusal of the Call":  The hero refuses the challenge or journey, usually because he's scared

Ascensionist Language - "Fear of Letting Go":  The spiritual seeker talks herself out of heeding the call, clings to old beliefs

FOR AVATAR'S HEROES:

Jake - He doesn't refuse the adventure, but does initially refuse to accept the Na'Vi values

Neytiri - Tries to reject the role of having to be Jake's mentor

The Collective Alliance - No one imagines an alliance is really possible between humans and Na'Vi

STAGE 4:

Hero's Journey Language - "Meeting with the Mentor":  The hero meets a mentor to gain advice or training for the adventure

Ascensionist Language - "Being Guided to Gurus":  The spiritual seeker is led to "teachers"-- people, experiences, books/media, etc. that lead to awakening

FOR AVATAR'S HEROES:

Jake - Already has Grace as his 3D mentor, but Neytiri becomes higher dimensional guide/guru

Neytiri - Already being mentored by her shamanic parents and direct connection with Eywah/source, but in Jake she meets the guru (experience as teacher) that brings her from fear to love

The Collective Alliance - Each person has their own experiences that cause them to choose to become part of the alliance and reject their default group

STAGE 5:

Hero's Journey Language - "Crossing the First Threshold":  The hero crosses leaves the ordinary world and goes into the Special World

Ascensionist Language - "Tasting Divinity":  The spiritual seeker experiences visions, synchronicities, learns to listen to intuition; tastes of Higher Self, Divinity

FOR AVATAR'S HEROES:

Jake - He crosses over when the Pandora world starts feeling like the real world, his values are shifting

Neytiri - Neytiri admitting her love for Jake, fully trusting him, them choosing to mate

The Collective Alliance - When not only Jake, but Grace is allowed to speak in the Na'Vi group, an alliance becomes a more tangible possibility

STAGE 6:

Hero's Journey Language - "Tests, Allies, Enemies":  The hero faces tests, meets allies, confronts enemies & learn the rules of the Special World

Ascensionist Language - "Illusions, Assistance, Discretion":  The spiritual seeker is tested with fear, ego, illusions of separation, lack of discernment or discipline and the powerful grip of maya, is assisted by Allies/Guides in both physical and etheric forms, experiences siddhis

FOR AVATAR'S HEROES:

Jake - Training with neytiri, navigating spaceship politics & discerning who to trust, learning the rules of nature/energy interconnections & gaining psychic powers

Neytiri - Being tested on whether she trusts Jake/Eywah, losing her father & rejecting Jake, learning the 'rule' of choosing love over fear

The Collective Alliance - Tested when the collective prayer doesn't link Grace with her avatar body and she dies. But learns that Eywah is really real!

STAGE 7:

Hero's Journey Language - "Approach":  The hero has hit setbacks during tests & may need to try a new idea

Ascensionist Language - "Techniques":  The spiritual seeker knows enough to know that what she was doing was not fully working, has problems like dissonance between internal and external reality, isolation & spiritual ego, feelings of backsliding; she may need to incorporate either new techniques or new attitudes

FOR AVATAR'S HEROES:

Jake -  After losing the Na'Vi's trust & Neytiri's love, he realizes he must show and not tell the Na'Vi that he is part of them... by taming the biggest banshee

Neytiri - Chooses trust instead of fear, lets Jake in again, opens to the idea of Alliance

The Collective Alliance - The "technique" is the creation of the alliance itself... the gathering of the disparate tribes, the 'all or nothing' tactic

STAGE 8:

Hero's Journey Language - "Ordeal":  The biggest life or death crisis

Ascensionist Language - "Bridge":  The spiritual seeker comes face to face her her deepest fears, and eradicates all fear within her self

FOR AVATAR'S HEROES:

Jake - The battle over Home Tree, getting his masked knocked off his human body & almost suffocating

Neytiri - The battle over Home Tree & destruction of its knowledge archives, losing another part of her "self"; the moment in which she's about to get killed, but the animals save her and she realizes Eywah was listening, and that the Collective is real

The Collective Alliance - The battle over Home Tree, the collaboration of animals, humans, and aliens when Many are transformed to One

STAGE 9:

Hero's Journey Language - "Reward":  The hero has survived death, overcomes his fear and now earns the reward

Ascensionist Language - "Shift":  The spiritual seeker shifts from fear-based separation consciousness to love-based christ consciousness, dimensionally Ascends

FOR AVATAR'S HEROES:

Jake - Being accepted by the Na'Vi, getting Neytiri's love back, kicking war-monger earthling ass, saving Pandora

Neytiri - Getting to have both Jake & her civilization

The Collective Alliance - For those left alive, getting to live on the Pandora that they saved, in the experience of unity, as One people

STAGE 10:

Hero's Journey Language - "The Road Back":  The hero must return to the Ordinary World

Ascensionist Language - "Integration":  The spiritual seeker has to integrate her new self into her old environment. At this point, stages 6 thru 12 are repeated on a loop until Ascension is complete. Could also be construed as what occurs in successive lifetimes.

FOR AVATAR'S HEROES:

Jake - Return to spaceship, being in his avatar self in the presence of his human counterparts for the first time, as he escorts them off the planet. He's a new person in his old world.

Neytiri - Na'Vi and humans share the same space in ways they never have before.

The Collective Alliance - Na'Vi and humans share the same space in ways they never have before.

** at this point, the protagonist feels like it shifts from Jake to the Collective Heroic Alliance

STAGE 11:

Hero's Journey Language - "Resurrection Hero":  Another test where the hero faces death - he has to use everything he's learned

Ascensionist Language - "Rebirth":  See above; stages 6-12 loop.

FOR AVATAR'S HEROES:

Jake - Death of his human body & transfer of his soul

Neytiri - Works with Mo'At to help transfer Jake's soul to his avatar body

The Collective Alliance - Works with Neytiri & Mo'At to help transfer Jake's soul to his avatar body

STAGE 12:

Hero's Journey Language - "Return With Elixer":  The hero returns from the journey with the "elixir" and uses it to help everyone in the Ordinary World

Ascensionist Language - "Ascension":  Ascension is complete. The spiritual seeker is in Christ Consciousness existing as fully connected loving light.

FOR AVATAR'S HEROES:

Our heros don't ever quite return to their "Ordinary Worlds." Perhaps the "Ordinary World" has now been shifted to the real world in which viewers are watching the movie, and the "elixer" is Jake's nod to the audience as his cat eye pops open after he is resurrected, breaking the cinematic wall.