Some years ago, I think it was probably when I was just entering middle age, I sat around a campfire with friends when the perennial question “what do you most desire?” was asked. I don’t remember the exact phrasing or the context but I am very clear about the answer that came to me then, quite unexpectedly.

I said, “I wish that I could experience my emotions with clarity, like the perception of the distinct colors of the rainbow instead of the way I do now, like mixed up paint pigments in a brown puddle.”

I had no idea at the time how that might be achieved or how to go about in pursuit of it but many years later and much to my astonishment, I find that, through the power of Myth, I have been given the key to open that door.

I have learned to use the Classical Greek gods, or rather an updated (rebooted?) understanding of them as metaphors or archetypes which bring the personal, subjective experience of fundamental human needs into a clear focus. By fundamental human need, I mean the root emotions which motivate all human activity as each of us try to find the thing or things in life that satisfy them. These motivations are the core emotional program of the human organism; a product of evolution as surely as our physical body parts.

As I came to understand how each god fit into a distinct human motivation, one that made sense for the survival of the species across evolutionarily significant time scales, I come to recognize the hand of that god in my own emotional experience. My desire to make in difference in the world, came from Zeus, dedication to family, from Hera, desire to create beauty, Apollo and so on.

As the nature of each god was discovered (“revealed” to me?) I came to perceive their influence on me as a pure and distinct emotional experience. The “brown puddle” that had been my subjective, spiritual life clarified and was replaced by deep, pure, experience. Seldom is the influence of one felt alone, they are all there, if in varying intensities, perceived together like the colors of the rainbow.

All sweetness and light? No, quite the contrary, the gods “want” you to manifest them in your life and actions and, as each of them gifts you with a particular joy when you do, so they each have a special torment for you when you fail them (torments you feel with unprecedented depth and clarity). But, at least when you know them by name, when you recognize their hand upon you, you can negotiate a bit, pray for their guidance, patience and forbearance. Something impossible if your emotional life is a complete muddle as mine once was.

The gods are metaphors for evolved aspects of our psychology. They motivate us to seek and find the things in the real world, the objective world, that we need to survive and thrive. Zeus smiles to see us damn a real river or build a real city, (not so much virtual ones,) Aphrodite wants us to find our soul’s mirror in the eyes us our flesh and blood beloved, not in a dream lover. It is problematical to offer the gods abstractions or ideals instead of the real thing.

The gods though, are abstractions, archetypes themselves, they do not exist in the natural, physical world except as (according to my understanding anyway) a component of human psychology. Never the less, once you come to know them you begin to experience a desire to know them better, to experience them more fully, to dwell with them where they live.

This is the “Intoxication of mythology” as Jung called it, it is the Love of God, the yearning for the spiritual. Paradoxically it seems to draw us in the opposite direction from the real world, the natural world of our senses that the gods evolved to help us with, in the first place.

This is, I think, because the gods dwell in a place, in component of our psychology, a place in our brain perhaps, that is different from, having evolved earlier than where our reason, consciousness and ego now reside. Our consciousness now operates between the senses and our older sentient mind and cuts it off from the light of day. It has become a dark mysterious place to us. But it still exists within us all, potentially accessible by all. It is the realm of the spiritual, the world of dreams. It is place where time does not run straight, where everything happens for a reason, and magic really works. It is where the Tree of Immortality grows.

We actually know more about this magic realm, this ancient precursor to consciousness, than we generally suppose. It is the source of vitality not only of the classic myths of the great world religions but is also the wellspring of artistic inspiration. It’s magic imbues the Land Farie, Middle Earth and Oz with wonder for those that are open to the experience.

The intoxication of the place is not really a mystery, as Dorothy said after she returned to Kansas. “Some of the people there were not very nice but most of it was beautiful!” An intoxicating beauty mixed with danger and some not very nice creatures. Light Elves and Dark Elves (Orcs), White witches and wicked ones, the High Gods and our own very personal demons that we think we safely buried long ago but are waiting to confront us if we dare pass the hidden portal.

It is a door to a world that many seek and never find while others fall through the floor and find themselves there with no idea how it happened. Certainly the door cannot be forced, the key or password is a divine gift and the gods must make the invitation. But once that door is open and you stand on the threshold it is you that must decide what you are going to do.

As Joseph Campbell has described so elegantly, so begins the Hero’s journey. You are transfixed between the desire for spiritual beauty and fear of what you will discover about yourself and what the gods will require of you – for once invoked they cannot be ignored. Some refuse the call, in fact refusal at first is the norm but once you commit to go forward there is no going back. The first thing you experience as you feel your way forward, hands outstretched in the darkness is the sound of falling stones behind you, crushing and blocking the portal you entered through. If you ever see anything of the world you left (and there is no guarantee you will) the way lies forward not behind.

So you are walking your path, you are on the Hero’s journey.  If the thought makes you proud, you are in deep trouble. It is called the Hero’s journey in honor of those who survive the trip and come back (if

they decide they want to) with something useful. See those bones lying in heaps on either side of the path? There lie many of your predecessors on the Hero’s journey but no one calls them heroes.

Why are you here? It may be simply because you heard the call. Not because you like adventure stories it may be hoped. What is an adventure but, as J. R.R. Tolkien said, “a story about some people far away having a really difficult time?” The only reason to walk this path is for love of the gods – and what is that? It is the desire to live in accordance with the best that is within you, to be all that it is possible for you to be, to find and make use of your hidden potential, to live life to the fullest of your innate gifts and capacities. You simply want to follow your bliss with malice toward none.

Alas, good intentions and a pure heart are not magic amulets that will protect you on this path. Even if you have success at laying you own demons to rest, “the demons of the nursery” Campbell called them, the neurotic adaptations of unmet childhood needs and responses to early trauma, as Freud saw them, you are not out of the woods. Gifts from the gods, though of incalculable value, are not free and the price may be more than you can bear – thus the bones on the path.

Paris judged Aphrodite fairest of the goddesses and she rewarded him with Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world. No matter to her that Helen was already married –  but Hera cared deeply about marriage and in the ensuring Trojan War even the gods took sides and did battle one with another. It is a battle that has played out many times in the psyche of so many of those who have attempted to walk the Heroes’ path.

The lesson here is to try not to honor one god over another, give each their due, their proper sacrifice in the proper place and time. But if you stumble, if you find a stone in your path too heavy to lift, you may learn to your grief that the goddess who rewards you for so splendidly for your devotion is no help when the other goddess you transgressed to do so has you chained to a rock while your liver is plucked out daily.

Can this too be survived? I believe so. The key is to submit to all the gods in all things. Do not struggle too much against divine retribution. It is possible to find serenity in suffering. Learn to love all the gods, even the ones that make you suffer – they are the best within you – they are what make you human – they are what make life worth living – even when living is painful.

So the love of the gods is the same as the love of virtue – of human excellence. Is that not the one thing we should practice without moderation?