Transcription
The story I'm about to tell you both represents and encourages psychological growth, and it is epic. You have walked this path before, but have you learned the lesson? Have you unlocked the wisdom that's up for grabs and awakened the Seer within? Let's find out. By the way, my name is Hazel Gaale. I'm a former therapist turned author and creator of the fantasy mental health game Betwix, which is where you can find all of my best and most creative tools for developing self-awareness and self-compassion. This series of videos is devoted to the, in my opinion, fascinating world of archetypal character arcs, or Journeys, as inspired by K.M. Wyland's book, *Writing Archetypal Character Arcs*.
The Sea is my gender-neutral name for the more traditional Crone archetype, which is the fifth in a series of six archetypal Journeys that map onto the archetypal human life. Here are all six renamed archetypes in the order they would take place: The Tenderfoot and Warrior represent the traditionally feminine and masculine Journeys taken in the first part of life; the Lum and Sovereign do the same for the midlife period; and the Sea and Mage take care of old age. That said, real life doesn't tend to play out as lineally as this Mythic version, which means that we could find ourselves on versions of these Journeys during different stages of life and in any context of life. And that's because, in essence, these are stories of human transformation, which can and does happen all the time, all over the place, even when we don't want it to. Each of these Journeys sees the character transform from one archetype to the next. The Sea's Journey that we're exploring today, therefore, is not about becoming the Sea, but about arcing out of Sea and into Mage. Along the way, there will, of course, be some friction in the form of two archetypal antagonists, or baddies, and then the threat of two dark, destructive Shadow archetypes that could rise up and take hold. Finally, every Journey involves the transition from a lie to a truth. We start out believing something unhelpful, negative, or disempowering about how the world works, and the real pot of gold at the end of the journey is for us to have traded in that lie for an empowering, contrasting truth. Above All Else, the lie versus truth is the acid test; it's how we really know that we've made it. And because it can be so transformative, I'd like to challenge you to see if you can work out what the Sea's lie and Truth might be as I explain the arc. I'll reveal the two sentences towards the end of the video so you can see if you're on the right track. With that said, let's jump in.
The Sea's journey is a pilgrimage to the underworld, and as such, it's got the potential to be kind of dark. Regardless of this, or perhaps because of it, I can say with confidence that this is my absolute favorite of all the archetypal Journeys. I hope you like it too. The Sea starts where the Sovereign left off, which is a pretty rough place, even if they did so willingly. In stepping down from their position as all-powerful ruler of the Kingdom, they have just lost everything, or so it would seem at this point. And therefore, the Seer is in mourning for the Sovereign self that has, by necessity, been laid to rest. Now, in order to process their loss, they have distanced themselves from the community, choosing to live on the outskirts of the metaphorical Kingdom, in the symbolic setting of The Cabin in the Woods. But, of course, they won't stay there for long, at least hopefully they won't, because there is another adventure on the horizon, and this one is taking them to the darkest of places.
The Seer's descent into the underworld will sometimes be depicted very literally, such as when the Balrog drags Gandalf the Grey down into the fiery bowels of Middle-earth in *The Fellowship of the Ring*. Gandalf, of course, comes back after this descent into the underworld as the Mage character of Gandalf the White, and that is exactly what's up for grabs here. If we view the human life as a three-act story, which is exactly what we're doing, then the beginning of the Sea's Journey marks the third plot point in that story, which, as Wyland points out, is always the doorway of death and rebirth. That said, there is some kind of symbolic, usually death and rebirth, involved in every single one of these archetypal Journeys we're exploring. They each have their own third plot point where the character sacrifices a past self and then is reborn, a new archetype awakened, and a new leveled-up self unlocked. And what this means is that the Seer archetype is present at the third plot point of all those other stories.
Now, I'm going to admit here that I still see the Seer as a female crone-like figure when I imagine this wise but totally unforgiving and brutally honest woman with long, long white hair and all-seeing eyes. And I love the image of her showing up to guide the younger characters through the most challenging parts of their stories. I find that really comforting. But here, the Sea has to make their own transition alone, in the aftermath of the complete death of the powerful, high-status person they were. The Sea's challenge is this: Are they ready to accept the call to rebirth? So, in contrast with the Sovereign's transformation, which hinged on the willingness to die, metaphorically at least, the Sea's transformation requires the decision to live again, in real-life terms. This is about the challenge of picking ourselves up and carrying on after something like a breakup, or losing a dream job, or the death of a loved one. For a rare example of a Sea protagonist, check out Tom Creo in *The Fountain*, the climax of which sees him accepting death, having refused to do this throughout the whole story due to the pain he's in after his wife's death. Other examples of the Sea include Carl Frederickson in *Up*, Alan Grant in *Jurassic Park*, and, as mentioned, Gandalf the Grey, of course.
The Seer doesn't know it at the very beginning of the journey, but losing everything has actually opened the door to something much, much greater, deeper, and more meaningful. In order to fully realize this new life, though, and to claim it for themselves, the Seer must face the most universal antagonist of all: death. When written into the story, the antagonist of death is likely to be represented metaphorically as some kind of abstract evil sweeping through the kingdom. Wyland calls this a death blight. It could be a plague of some kind, or a death cult, or a dark, threatening lifestyle like drug culture. The Seer is recruited, perhaps by a questing Warrior or a visiting Tenderfoot, to reckon with this threat. Later, the Seer may well become a deeply loved mentor and guide to this younger character, but at first, they're likely to be, let's just say, a little bit cranky, because at this stage they don't care that much; they're pretty occupied by their own grief. And if they do accept this Call to Adventure, it's unlikely to be out of a sense of need or duty. They're not interested in glory, and they don't really care that much about saving the kingdom now either, because they've distanced themselves from that now painful world, and part of them is really just waiting to die. But maybe it's because of that part that they do end up accepting the call. They're old; they're going to die anyway; why not? So the Sea descends into the underworld to, in Jung's words, go and give death a good old talking to.
On this journey, though, they will meet the second of their antagonists: the Tempter, who offers them the one thing that could possibly turn the Seer's head: immortality. In a fantasy story or myth, the Tempter may well be personified, but as with all the antagonists and the archetypes and the Shadow archetypes that we're discussing here, the Tempter is a representation of something psychological that exists within all of us. The temptation to deny the reality of our mortality is a very real thing, especially in the death-averse culture of the Western world, where we actively resist the threat of aging with things like anti-wrinkle creams and plastic surgery. We don't talk about dying or funerals very often; we much prefer to just kind of pretend that that's not going to happen to us. And by doing this, we quite successfully create a collective illusion of immortality. But as with all avoidance, this is a problematic strategy, because when you numb your awareness of your inevitable end, you invite a tendency to, at best, fritter your life away with meaningless activities because you have all the time in the world, or at worst, find yourself engaging in really dangerous or unhealthy activities because immortal beings don't need to worry about getting cancer or falling from a height while drunk or contracting an STD. And so this is all very much in line with the Sea's Journey's theme and key learning: that in order to fully choose and live life, we must accept and embrace death.
The words that Wyland uses for the Crone's, that is the Seer's, lie versus truth are these: The LIE goes like this: All life ends in death. Now, the more literal-minded of you out there will probably, just like I do, scoff internally at that statement and say, "True." So here's a slightly less mysterious but more easily fallible version of the lie: I interpret this as when death looms there's no point in living, or when something is just going to end, why bother doing it in the first place? The Sea's contrasting Truth is: Life is death, and death is life. And this one can be translated, if we must, because I absolutely love it as it is, to: In order to embrace life, we must accept and embrace death. So if the Seer is to successfully complete their transition and arc into Mage, they will not accept the Tempter's offer of immortality. They haven't, at this stage, fully grasped their transformational truth, but they have an inkling. So, as tempting as the offer might be, some part of them knows that because life is death and death is life, then to deny or cheat death is to forfeit your life. Gut punch. And this brings us back to the theme that links all the archetypal antagonists, which is stagnation. Anything that halts our progress and growth is the enemy, including anything that would prevent our advance towards death. So the Seer may have descended into the underworld with the intention of facing and defeating the threat of death, but what they find is not so much an enemy as a friend or an ally. And having aligned with this most Primal Force, the Sea reemerges from the underworld, evolved. Gandalf the Grey has become Gandalf the White, or Ebenezer Scrooge has ditched his miserly ways and learned to love life after all. And so this is the reward that's waiting for us at the end of the Seer's Journey, should we integrate this most empowering truth. We are opening ourselves up to rebirth; rebirth in the form of the decision and opportunity to fully live life, life even when it means starting again from nothing. I would dearly love to hear your thoughts on this, my favorite of all the arcs that we're exploring, in the comments. And as always, I really hope it helps. Finally, if you'd like to take an epic journey through a magical world in the name of personal growth and wellness, then you can download Betwix, the mental health game, which is available on the iOS app store and Google Play.