The Heroine’s Journey, Part Eight: Heroine Heals the Mother/Daughter Split

Post Author: Pastor Courtney R. Young

This devotional is the eighth installment in what will be a series of ten exploring the kinship between the Heroine’s Journey as established by Maureen Murdock, my lived experience of ministry as a female clergy person, and a few familiar fictional characters. Each devotional ends with a blessing for the Heroine at that stage of the journey. In the previous post, we examined the seventh part of the journey where the Heroine focuses on redefining and reclaiming  themselves by examining their past, forming new relationships, and trying out new skills.

In this eighth step, the Heroine fully integrates the feminine aspects of themselves that were abandoned in childhood within the mature adult person that they are now. The Heroine reclaims the sanctity of their body, wisdom, creativity, intuition, and passion. They are delighted to see that these aspects of themselves have not remained childish, but have grown alongside them, in the dark. They establish a place for themselves within some lineage of feminine elders.

Personal Story 

I started writing again. I had loved to write as a child, but as I grew older, writing seemed less practical. I thought that I would get to do plenty of writing as a pastor, anyway, and that writing would be enough. I let my writing practice go, especially my writing for fun, for play.

When I returned to writing, I wrote about a spiritual awakening that I had had as a teenager, almost 20 years earlier, and had been trying to conceal ever since. I wrote about my seemingly disparate series of confounding and profound experiences. About the dream where Jesus lifted me beneath a cloud and said I couldn’t come with. About hearing emotions. About crying every time I sang a hymn for a year. About how the Bible became something lively instead of static. About how I felt like a freak because no one knew how to carry this experience with me. About how I hid it all away. I re-wrote myself.

At the same time I read The Cloud of Unknowing, a work by an anonymous fourteenth century English mystic, and A Course on Christian Mysticism by Thomas Merton. I found my own story reflected back to me on the surface of someone else’s words.

I acknowledged that I was a mystic. 

Every day while I wrote and read, God stood by my side and said, “See, you are whole. You are whole. You are whole.”

Though this famous Chicago sculpture by Anish Kapoor has been nicknamed “The Bean,” its formal name is “Cloud Gate,” which I was delighted to learn as clouds have played a significant role in the development of my faith life. Here I am approaching “Cloud Gate.”

Narrative Example

Returning once more to the movies of Frozen 1 and 2, Captain Marvel, and the three Kung Fu Panda movies, let’s explore how the Heroines reunite with their feminine wisdom. There will be spoilers.

Elsa makes it to Ahtohallan, a glacier, a sacred confluence point that connects all living things both past and present. It is the source of her powers. The voice that has been calling to her since the beginning of the movie is revealed to be the voice of her mother, preserved as a memory within Ahtohallan. During the song “Show Yourself” Elsa is reunited with her mother. Together they sing these words: “Come, my darling, homeward bound. I am found. Show yourself. Step into your power. Grow yourself into something new. You are the one you’ve/I’ve been waiting for.” Elsa has finally found the place where she and her powers belong.

Vers is reunited with her best friend, Maria Rambeau, and Maria’s daughter, Monica. She learns that her name is actually Carol Danvers. She is also reunited with all the mementos from her life before the Kree and the little family that she had created with Maria and Monica. She finally gets to hear a full recording of her last flight with Dr. Lawson/Mar Vell. She remembers that Mar Vell had entrusted her to carry on with her mission to end war and to keep her technology out of the hands of the Kree.

Po allows the memory of the night that he lost his home to return to him. He sees the deep love that his mother had for him, that she was willing to let him go so that he might survive. He saw the certainty with which she drew the attackers away. Seeing her courage, he knows where he came from, and it gives him the confidence to decide what he wants to do next. Po decides to return to Gongman City to free his friends and confront Lord Shen. In the end, Po draws the fire of the cannons in order to protect his friends, just like his mother before him. Since he is acting from a settled and centered place within himself, he sees that he is able to redirect the cannon balls back at Lord Shen’s ships. In doing so, he destroys the entire fleet, protects his friends, and prevents the destruction of many other homes.    

Blessing for Heroine

My Lady Heroine, what masterful work you’ve done with yourself. 

Out of fallen strands of silver hair, streak of lightning, sliver of moonbeam, thread of scar, shock of anger, lick of salt, pull of cloud, and the cackle of old women, you’ve found yourself whole.

May you never forget what a wonder you are.

May you never forget that you never have to be something so tedious as approachable or coherent or reasonable. 

Be an enigma. Be an apocalypse. Be a pilgrimage. Be a revolution. Be an abode. Be a pulse.

Be free to be all of these things in secret solitude. 

Be free to be all of these things in open company.

You are manifold. You are singular. You are a wonder.