When I began my research for Once Upon A Place, I was knee-deep in studying the ancient myths from around the world, learning about how myriad cultures project their ideas of life and death and everything in between. Aside from origin stories (how animals came to be or folk tales that explain the universe), many of the myths and tales we have inherited appear to have begun as a way to support personal growth. To share the how-to of living. And to bolster one’s sense of accomplishment in a crazy and challenging world.

In fact, it appeared to me that most of the stories I was compiling from Greece, Italy, Wales, North America, and ancient Mesopotamia had remained popular all these millennia later because they talked about the nitty gritty details and difficulties of getting by. Of losing a loved one or failing at something important. In other words, though they featured great goddesses or powerful warriors, they were really about what is in each of our hearts: fear, worry, pride, wondering, hope.

These stories tell about mighty dragons and fights to the death, and falling down massive holes and being threatened with dismemberment… but they’re really about something much more mundane, something closer to our hearts.

The Symbols of Myths, Fairy Tales and Film

Why do they endure? Why, I ask in Once Upon A Place, are World Journey stories some of the most popular stories shared again and again in cultures around the world? “Because we can relate to a situation where a person falls (or is pushed) into a terrifying cave and must survive. We understand what it means to find oneself in a frightening “wilderness” with no support, no skills, no training, no hand to hold.

We’ve been there ourselves through adversities such as the loss of a loved one, by being orphaned, being the new kid at school, or failing in a business or relationship. Or as simply as missing a chance, forgetting an idea, or failing to live up to our own (or others’) expectations.”

Personally, I’ve gone through some tough situations, as I know almost all of us have. Perhaps if you had a lovely childhood, as I did, your tough situations didn't reach you until you were in your 20s or 30s or even later. For me, it was a divorce at age 49 that shifted everything in my life from relationships to money to home to possessions to career.

This is the type of challenge that is alluded to in the colorful metaphors used in myths, tales and cinema, even though it may never be mentioned by name. Identity, struggle, poor communication, loss of a job.

This kind of change in identity, this loss of a person's form and shape and structure that blindsides you and forces you to rebuild from the ground up. Events such as getting injured, the death of a spouse, the pain and worry of caretaking a sick loved one. These are all events that shake us up and we must either give in and die ourselves, or push through and experience the resurrection that is described in the tales in Once Upon A Place.

We explore the idea of resurrection in another blog, and of course the book goes into great detail about what descent and resurrection are and what they look like, and what they mean. But here, it’s important to say that these themes are essential for every one of us, and if you don’t think you need it – to put it simply, you’re mistaken. Or you haven’t reached that stage in life yet because all of us face something that will upheave our consciousness in a profound way.

That’s why these stories are so compelling, because they are so relatable and so personal even though they’re cloaked in fairies or soldiers or Olympian gods (did you watch Kaos?). That’s why stories and tales have stayed popular for hundreds of years (and even thousands of years in some cases, such as the stories of Gilgamesh or Inanna).

Stories Support Personal Growth

And the key thing about stories and tales being relatable–about them being personal–is that when we read them, or hear them read aloud, or watch them played out on the big screen – is that we know we are not alone. We understand inherently that all of our family, our friends, our colleagues, our enemies, our neighbors–everyone–is experiencing a hardship of their own. That these arduous transformations and periods of self-growth are painfully universal, and we can count on each other to understand at some level what we are personally experiencing.

How we reach out to each other is another matter. Understanding you are not alone is the first step in ameliorating the suffering we feel, but taking action is the next step. Reach out to your friends, your neighbors. Tell them what’s going on, share your pain or your confusion or your struggle. It does no good to keep it inside, because that will never bring resurrection. To rise up out the funk we feel in these situations requires conversation and opening and trust.

Get a mentor. Be a mentor for someone else. Check here for the Value of Mentorship.

These stories will tell you. The tales and myths and oral history and stories from bygone people will tell you. It’s not enough to fall down. Together, we must rise up.

Once Upon A Place: Forests, Caverns and Other Place of Transformation in Myths, Fairy Tales and Film is available for pre-order now! Purchase from your favorite bookstores or order from Amazon, Llewellyn, Barnes and Noble, and anywhere you get your favorite books. Go here for more info about Once Upon A Place.