A short heads up that I will be taking three months break from recording - because I’m going on pilgrimage myself! I am setting out to walk the full Santiago de Compostela across the south of France to the edge of Spain.

Hi friends, the classical Hero’s Journey greatly parallels our spiritual journey.🧙🦁 Using the Lion King, we’ll explore ten key stages of the Hero’s Journey identified by Joseph Campbell, drawing parallels with Jesus’ own life, death and resurrection.

Diagram of Lawrence's "The Hero's Journey adapted for Spiritual Direction."

Excerpt from episode:
"Stage 2: the Call to Adventure. At some point, there is a visitation from outside the home, that acts to draw the hero out … or at least shake him up out of his mundaneness. It is Hagrid coming to Harry and telling him he’s a wizard, Morpheus telling Neo to follow the white rabbit or Obi Wan suddenly appearing and offering a chance to rescue Leia. It is God the Father at Jesus baptism, commissioning him to leave Nazareth and begin his mission. Whatever form it takes, the call to adventure comes from beyond the home, calling the hero on somewhere further, newer or deeper. In the Lion King, this happens when Mufasa takes Simba out that first morning in order to show him the world, and to tell him that there was more to life than childish games, that one day he would be king and rule over all the pride lands. Confused at first, Simba agrees, and when he later sings ‘oh I just I can’t wait to be king’ he is fully embracing the call to adventure... "

This episode will continue on from the previous, exploring The Lamb's victory over the Dragon, Whore of Babylon and Antichrist. More importantly, we will dwell on the climactic finale of the entire bible: the Wedding feast of The Lamb! Prepare for a ride!

Excerpt:

"... fact check first: unlike what is presented in popular culture, the antichrist is not actually mentioned in the book of Revelation at all, and flowing from that, there is also no explicit notion that the antichrist is even one particular person / or entity that’ll appear at the end of time. While interpretations of these ideas could technically be drawn from scripture, they are to be held lightly.

Let’s begin by looking at where the term antichrist actually comes from – and for that we turn to the letters of St John. About the antichrist, two significant passages are written: "every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already." Then in his second letter John says "for many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist."

These passages are very indicative of the true nature of the antichrist – the one who denies the incarnation of Jesus – and more especially, the one who denies that God came in the flesh. Pause to think about this - for this is actually quite bizarre. After all, you’d think the anti-Christ would be some great leader who persecutes Christians, deceives the world to sin or simply wages war against love and peace etc. But as it turns out the most damaging opposition to Christian message is the denial of Jesus’ humanity – of his fleshliness. The antichrist then, can be understood as an idea, a false idea, a heretical idea, as much as it could be depicted as a singular person in time. St John Paul II’s Theology of the Body goes to lengths to explain why denial of Christ’s humanity is absolutely toxic to Christianity... "

Soundtrack credits: The Battle (Harry Gregson-William, The Chronicles of Narnia), Sogno di Volare (Christopher Tin), Holy Forever Instrumental (Chris Tomlin and CeCe Winans)

Soundtrack credits: The Battle (Harry Gregson-William, The Chronicles of Narnia), Sogno di Volare (Christopher Tin), Holy Forever Instrumental (Chris Tomlin and CeCe Winans)