The Boy Hero Must Die
Life is a Festival #48: The Mythic Masculine Podcast with Ian Mackenzie
Photo by Eric Schwabel from Artumnal Gathering 2015
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It is the humility of the failed hero that allows him to truly connect with his brothers.
My man Ian has a new podcast called The Mythic Masculine. It’s a bi-monthly exploration of myth, culture and the emerging masculine archetypes. On today’s episode of Life is a Festival I’m sharing our conversation from Episode 5 of his show titled The Boy Hero Must Die.
If you’ve been following my story, this conversation picks up where we left off in Episode 18 of Life is a Festival where I shared my Rite of Passage initiating with the Bwiti people in Gabon and the plant medicine iboga. On today’s show, we explore the aftermath of that self-authored hero’s journey and the Sisyphean task of the ego attempting to surpass itself. We discuss the Mythopoetic Men’s Movement and the idea of using masculine archetypes for personal development, particularly the paradox of the hero archetype. We explore masculinity as non-universal, we discuss the troubles with building brands around mens work, and we share tools to cultivate a culture of trust amongst men.
Ian MacKenzie is a writer, documentary filmmaker and now a podcaster. You can check out his writing on Medium (I really loved “Home is Wherever I’m With You — And Other Modern Calamities”). He produced the films Occupy Love in 2012, Amplify Her in 2017 and the forthcoming documentary Love School about the polyamorous community Tamera in Portugal. If you’d like to learn more about the philosophy of Tamera and how they are teaching love free from fear, check out the interview Ian did with Tamera co-founder Benjamin von Mendelssohn on Episode 5 of the Mythic Masculine.
From our speaking tour in Australia, to lounging at Bass Coast in Canada, I have had many edifying conversations with this brilliant man and I’m honored to share this one with you.
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TIMESTAMPS
:07 - The Art of Surrender
:12 - What are masculine archetypes and where do they come from
:21 - A well-lived life is a series of heroes journeys
:26 - The paradox of the hero archetype and the egoic adventure to write the story of overcoming ego
:36 - The humility of the failed hero that allows us to connect with each other
:44 - The state of mens work now
:51 - Why masculinity can’t be universal
:57 - The trouble with brand building around mens work
1:08 - In a culture of trust instead of competitiveness we can model different masculinities for each other
Graphics Designed by Andy McErlean
Theme song ““Peculiar Colors” [Manjumasi]“ by dj atish