The Lucidity narrative was influenced by the potent comparative research of Joseph Campbell, considering mythologies from around the globe.
That led to underlying similarities uncovering a monomyth; a universal mythology template that outlines the Hero’s Journey. The unifying principals track the journey common to all people and all cultures, where an individual matures and decides to seek their place in the world - often leaving behind what is safe and familiar.
On this journey they are confronted by challenges that may not always be overcome. We call these learning experiences. They culminate in a victory that firmly grounds their healing and transformation, marrying them to their values as responsible and goodly beings.
Lucidity Festival’s first three years mirror the individual adventure we can each experience, if we accept the challenge. Awake In Your Dreams (2012) was a waking up to Ordinary Life…realizing the complacency to conditioning that can cause us to day-dream through life.
We awoke to the calling of something greater and stepped into Totems’ Return (2013); realizing that we have animal allies to aid us on our path.
We also began to explore the human archetypes and their blueprints framed around overcoming common challenges. In 2014 we opened to the Universe and applied the combined wisdom that all of the archetypes and animal guides presented us.
Come 2015 we reunited with others of like mind and heart in Kindred Quest. We were invited to bring forth our full authentic and expressive selves to contribute together, synergizing our strengths and intentions.
As we examined our past steps leading each of us to the present, we straddled the awareness of what has come before and what awaits us in the future - confronted with the Crossroads in 2016.
It was our choice, governed by present attention and action, which would lead us down the path of destruction and chaos. Or it would empower us toward the imminent Eudaimonia (2017), which symbolized the future we collectively hold and actively work toward together.
In 2018 Lucidity Festival initiated a new arc, completing the original 6 year story, revealing our first years together as a Lucid Dream sequence.
We experienced Rising Dawn, rising from the dream and applying our understanding of Lucidity to our waking life. The archetypes and animals within our shared dream experience are felt even deeper as we see them reflected in their base principles.
They are the vital and magical elements that create our physical world.
Dawn represents the active feminine creative energy of fire, and she burns within all of us. She allows us to see, regardless of our gender, ethnicity, size, shape, color, background, experiences, that all is accessible within us.
True balance is understanding and applying this wisdom.
Men embracing their feminine qualities and strengthening themselves through the process.
White skinned people acknowledging racial inequalities and privilege, aligning themselves to be potent and expressive allies that stand for social justice.
Analytical minded people embracing the innate creative current that runs as deep in them as any if they are brave enough to tap into it.
Parents and elders tapping into their inner child and the playful souls that can be overshadowed by years of pragmatic seriousness.
And all remembering that dance, paint, food, and love transverse all barriers and divisions.
Now we step into Moon’s Eye View. An opportunity presents itself for us to be able to see a fuller, broader perspective - from outside of our limited, personal view point.
As we examine the 12 steps of the Hero’s Journey we are reminded this year focuses on Ordeal-Death-Rebirth, which emulates the cycles of the full moon to new moon and back again to full moon.
Is this an opening to invite what is commonly referred to as ‘ego’ or ‘shamanic’ death, so we might reemerge empowered with greater wisdom, knowledge, objectivity, and relativity?
River, the avatar of Water exemplifies the malleable feminine essence of going with the flow; not at the neglect or avoidance of challenge, but acknowledging resistance and confronting all our emotions, especially the uncomfortable ones.
This approach allows us to continue in the direction we are called, informed by the many subtle senses that are easily ignored by mental or rational justification.
Rather than running in opposing directions or creating blockages that the stream must crash upon, it is preferable and part of the healing and holistic processes to incorporate all the data in as easy and graceful a way as possible.
The Moon represents collective emotional currents that influence all of us. So becoming conscious of the external conditions and applying them to our personal decisions allow for greater inclusivity in the co-creative process.
The story is as rough a framework or as deep a healing and revealing process as each of us makes it; as artful a story, as transformative an experience, or as ridiculous and noninclusive.
We have purposefully created a very neutral outline that does not draw from any one culture, but represents the elements and principles underlying many traditions. This is meant to bring one’s awareness to these unifying concepts, educate on our similarities, inspire through our unique differences, and bring us to a place of appreciation and openness.
The invite is for you to play within these guidelines as much as you want, in all the ways you find enjoyable, poignant, and relevant.
Whether it be through painting, singing, dancing, in deep personal practice or experienced with all of your friends - maybe it is simply walking through life with the innerstanding of how accessible all of these characters and spirit guides are at any given moment, and working with them to evolve your experience.
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