The Road Ahead

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the Door where It began,

Now evermore the Road does lead

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with weary feet

Until It joins some larger Way

Where many paths and errands meet,

And whither then?

I cannot say.

–  J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

I had some difficulty formatting this poem from The Hobbit for my recent post on “Better Beginnings,” yet it is so apt to our monthly theme of “The Call to Adventure” that I repeat it here as I recall the poem from my initial reading of The Hobbit some 43 years ago.

I first memorized and used this poem when I was 19. I was adventuring for the summer of my freshman college year in Yakutat, Alaska.  I worked at a crab and salmon cannery there that summer. I was traveling with a good friend, Barb. One day—which became one of many similar days—we were hiking some five miles along a dirt road through a primeval Ponderosa Pine forest that led to a beach unpeopled for hundreds of miles.

The Forest was higher, I realized as I walked along that primitive pathway, than the skyscrapers of New York City. In the City I would feel daunted, but in the Forest leading to the Ocean I felt connected with the whole of Nature and Life Itself.

I started reciting “The Road” song that Bilbo Baggins wrote (as I recall the story from way back then) in The Hobbit. It mirrored directly the experience I was having as Barb and I trekked through the primeval Forest.

The ROAD goes Ever ON and ON…

Down from the DOOR where IT Began…

And EVER MORE the ROAD does lead,

And I must FOLLOW, IF I CAN…

PURSUING IT with weary feet

Until it joins SOME LARGER WAY

Where many paths and errands MEET,

And whither then?

I CANNOT SAY.

Reciting “The Road” song from The Hobbit over and over again like a mantra while walking hours through a remote Alaskan pine forest became prophetic for me of my entire lifetime of spiritual adventure and travel. Within a year of returning from this Alaskan odyssey I discovered a spiritual path (Eckankar, which does not necessarily endorse the ideas I express in this blog) which has brought much freedom, love and joy into my life.  I discovered this path first in a dream of returning on a bus from my Alaska adventure, then connected outwardly with my spiritual path less than a week later after encountering a woman who was in my dream! I have followed that Road ever since.

Here is a creative technique I offer that I have been using myself this week.  Close your eyes as if to daydream (enter a light contemplation state). Imagine THREE ROADS leading off slightly to your left, ahead forward, and slightly to your right (imagine more than three if you choose; this is for you to develop as you please).

Explore each pathway with your imagination; where does each Road lead? If these represent alternate futures (which is how I have been envisioning them this week), which is the Way for you to go forth in your life in order to realize and fulfill your deepest sense of life Purpose and Mission?

images are from pixabay.com

Maybe one of these pathways is your current best way forward, but the others might hold potentials to integrate into that direction, so your path forward does not have to sacrifice one set of qualities or values in order to embrace a greater Whole.

I welcome your comments and stories!

 

Warrior Ally Protectors

Archetypal Warrior Allies often serve in epic narratives to protect the heroes as they fulfill their Epic Quest that benefits humanity or the Good. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring of course is all about this. Strider and the elves and dwarves form a Warrior cadre to accompany the diminutive hero Frodo and his companions as Frodo pursues his noble quest to destroy the One Ring that could cause massive destruction in the wrong hands.

The various Warriors protecting Frodo on his journey fight Orks and the Dark Forces that threaten to destroy all humanity. They are pledged to the worthy cause of maintaining the forces of Light and Balance.  Gandalf, the Wizard (a MYSTIC archetype Ally himself), leads the expedition with his wisdom as long as he is able, but it is Strider (a rightful heir to his father’s royal throne as well as a Warrior archetype) who  maintans the balance and fights valiantly to uphold Frodo’s selfless cause.

So, the story of The Fellowship of the Ring is of itself an Archetypal story. It is the story of Warrior protectors who uphold the Good and preserve a noble Way. Why do you believe these stories exist?

I would say these stories reveal something about our own inner potentials. There are times when our own Inner Warrior must stand up to uphold and protect a noble Cause we aim deeply to fulfill.

Can you relate? On Friday I will ask you to Tell YOUR Story of a time when your own archetypal Warrior Allies (outwardly or inwardly) have stepped forth to protect and enhance your capacity to thrive or to accomplish a noble objective.

I welcome and invite your story.

A Better World Community: Contact II

One of my favorite movies ever, Contact, ends with a determined ambivalence. Carl Sagan, the world famous physicist from TV’s Cosmos who wrote the book, is raising questions about science and religion in relation to the linking concept of “the pursuit of truth”.  As the movie ends, Dr. Eleanor Arroway returns to her SETI radar array in New Mexico, coaching a visiting tour group of youngsters with Carl Sagan’s own insight from the book:

“The universe is a pretty big place. If it’s just us, seems like an awful waste of space.”

There should definitely be a sequel to Contact. Maybe it would go something like this:

Eleanor and Palmer Joss marry; that much follows clearly from the film.  Their marriage is symbolic of the inherent convergence of cosmology with a universalist, non-sectarian spirituality.  Dr. Arroway writes a book soon after her life-transformative journey, recalling her otherworldly encounter in great detail and raising her own unanswered questions about what the reality she alone was privy to might mean in both scientific and humanistic terms.  Then she and Palmer Joss write another book, together (nicely paralleling Sagan and Ann Druyan‘s real life collaboration). This book unifies quantum physics with ideas and practices from mystical traditions from around the world.

At the same time, the 16,000 pages of encyclopedic knowledge that have been transmitted from Vega are fully translated, supporting the emergent ‘new paradigm’ of Unification Cosmology. Federal agencies, finally acknowledging the validity of Dr. Arroway’s journey through a wormhole and her encounter with alien intelligence, reveal the actual footage beneath the static on Eleanor’s video.  The principles and forces that had created the wormhole effect become the basis for a much accelerated, interstellar space exploration program. The Earth’s scientific communities combine, as they must collaborate and delegate to develop the global resources and energy needed. Earth’s humanity comes to transcend the myopic, fragmented religious doctrinarianism it had once exhibited, as science expands its focus to embrace the potentialities of consciousness itself as reflecting a Grand Design. Telepathic spiritual contact with other-than-human modes of consciousness both within our universe and across multiple dimensions leads to new forms of interdimensional and even inter-universal (Inter-Brane) noetic awareness. This results in a holistic transformation of conscious existence and sentience itself, not even fathomable with our current, limited language.  All I can close the sequel with from our present level of understanding comes, most appropriately, from J.R.R. Tolkien‘s The Fellowship of the Ring, Book 1/ Chapter 1:

The Road goes ever on and on,
Down from the Door where It began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing It with eager feet,
Until It joins some larger Way,
Where many paths and errands meet.
And wither then?
I cannot say.

Related articles

• Carl Sagan Lived His Life Believing Science Belonged to All of Us (tor.com)
• Avoiding “Sagan Syndrome.” Why Astronomers and Journalists should pay heed to Biologists about ET. (praxtime.wordpress.com)