Myth, Star Wars & the Canvas
Lately, my grandson has been completely immersed in Star Wars. His Christmas presents revolved almost entirely around it—LEGO building sets, books, a backpack, games, and more. Watching his excitement has been pure joy, but it also led me to an unexpected realization.
His love for Star Wars connects directly to my own long-standing fascination with Joseph Campbell.
Campbell’s work emerged because he refused to follow a conventional path. In 1929, while pursuing a PhD at Columbia University, he was told to choose one narrow specialty. Instead, he wanted to study mythology, psychology, religion, art, and literature together…to see the whole rather than the parts. When Columbia said no, he walked away.
Just weeks later, the Great Depression began. With no job prospects, Campbell rented a small cabin in Woodstock, New York, and went largely off the grid. For five years, he read nine hours a day, myths and stories from cultures all over the world. He wasn’t trying to prove anything. He was listening.
What he discovered were patterns repeating across time and place: a call, resistance, a descent into the unknown, trials, transformation, and a return changed. These weren’t just stories about heroes. They were stories about us…about how human beings grow, change, and find meaning.
Years later, while teaching at Sarah Lawrence College, Campbell shaped these insights into The Hero with a Thousand Faces. When it was published, the book quietly entered the world and remained mostly unnoticed for decades, until George Lucas discovered it and used the Hero’s Journey as the foundation for Star Wars.
From there, Campbell’s ideas quietly became the blueprint for modern storytelling, shaping how writers and filmmakers structure stories, often without even realizing where the pattern came from. The Power of Myth later brought Campbell himself into the public eye, helping a wider audience understand why these stories resonate so deeply and how myth continues to shape our inner lives, not just our movies.
What stays with me is this: stories and myths are how we meet who we are. They give shape to our struggles, our courage, and our becoming. They remind us that what we’re facing is not random, but part of a shared human journey.
Intuition painting is an embodied way of meeting ourselves within our own story. When we paint without a plan, we step into the same territory as the hero, crossing a threshold, staying with uncertainty, and allowing something true to emerge. The canvas becomes a place of listening rather than fixing, discovery rather than control.
We are not just learning about the Hero’s Journey.
We are living it.
Each of us is the hero of our own unfolding story—and sometimes, the doorway is a blank canvas.
As Joseph Campbell reminds us,
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”
If you feel a quiet pull to explore your own inner landscape, I invite you to step up to the canvas. Paint without a plan. Stay with what emerges. Let color, symbol, and movement reveal what words may not yet know.
This is how we meet ourselves inside our own story.
And this is where transformation begins.
From my soul journey to yours,
Maria
