There’s a particular aspect to the Hero’s Journey stages and structure that I want to show you in this blog today, and it’s my hope that this one shift will help you see the value of your story from a big picture perspective.

It starts with the term ‘elixir’ … which refers to a symbolic object included in Stage 12 of the Hero’s Journey. ​
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This word ‘elixir’ and what it symbolises is so important to the final stage of the Hero’s Journey framework

Stage 12 in the Hero’s Journey: Return with the Elixir.
This is when the story’s hero returns to the Ordinary World, lesson learned, ‘elixir in hand’, having integrated the lessons and ready to share just a drop that could be so potent it heals something in another human… or an entire tribe.

An elixir is far more potent than an antidote. It’s not a simple salve or painkiller.

An elixir is something so powerful, so incredible, just a single drop could remedy a certain pain or suffering… it’s a miracle cure, really.
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​And in your story, the ‘elixir’ is simply something you have retrieved in yourself… that can offer salvation or medicine, to the greater world.​
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So, what’s this got to do with the story you’re writing or sharing?

I believe every compelling and timeless story offers something potent and powerful to humanity.
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And in the Hero’s Journey, the final stage (return with the elixir) we must show the reader – or viewer – that this transformation the hero has undergone…
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​Is incredibly potent and meaningful to every reader of your story.​
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This is your elixir. Your unique blend of medicine. Your rare and special amalgamation of lessons, perceptions, experiences, transformation…
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That is what this story offers to everyone who reads it.
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​A flash came to me while reading the questions coming through in The Art of Memoir from students this week. And it’s so important that I need to share it with as many people as possible.
Because it’s key to finding the VALUE of the work of storytelling…


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The entire point of why we write, tell, read, share a true story…

 

The elixir for you – the truth and the treasure YOU found, or need to find, to clarify the journey in your story…

​Is the potent elixir this story offers the world.

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​​I invite you to contemplate this idea in your writing, this weekend.​
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And, it could just help you see just how meaningful, just how valuable, any pain or suffering or struggle or challenges you faced… in the adventure of finding or rediscovering that truth about your own potential (and the potential all humans have, for great change).

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​Think about it: the most moving stories we read, show us something true about OURSELVES. The author leads us back to our power and our humanity.​
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​When I read The Salt Path, or WILD, or watched the incredibly moving “The Pursuit of Happyness” (based on a true story)… the really moving part, the element of a story that stays with you, long after you’ve finished… is what it reveals to us about our own potential for happiness and wholeness.

 


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Whether your story is a war story, a coming of age adventure, or you’re writing content for a blog about travel, you’ll find some really potent magic when you consider this idea of the point of your story actually being an elixir… that is potent medicine for someone else.

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What does your particular experience show us all, about ourselves and our capacity for change?
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​What if your elixir, ie. what healed or changed YOU, is key to what you offer the world? What if the thing YOU were terrified to do… was key to the greatest transformation and return to your divine wholeness?

This is important, and why using the stages of the hero’s journey is incredibly transformational as a narrative structure to write our personal stories. It reminds us that as the main character, WE get to choose how things end, and WE get to choose the meaning we make of things.

Here’s a few journal prompts you could use on this concept of your personal story having a medicinal ELIXIR at its core… :​
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🪄What am I struggling with… or what have i struggled with in this journey… and what is the opposite of that? Perhaps that’s key to your elixir…
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🪄How would it feel to BELIEVE that opposite thing is true?
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🪄If this story / situation could end in any way I choose, for the greatest good of ALL (not least of all, me), what does that look like?

​Finally, I want to end this post by reminding you that you hold the pen, here. That’s the power of becoming master storytellers. As the narrator, we get to play God! And by tapping back into that divine potential for change that every human holds… and seeing how to re-write the story… you take your power back. And give it to others, too.

The ultimate point of sharing our stories…
Is to reveal a deeper truth to ourselves and to others
About life, and our potential for change.

If you want to learn more about this transformational process of diving into the treasures hidden in your personal experience, so that you can write a powerful publication-standard book that moves readers across the globe, make sure you sign up for my FREE masterclass on the Art of Memoir.