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"Now we must brave the long dark of Moria.  Let us hope that our passage goes unnoticed."

- Gandalf the Grey, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

It is dark.
You are alone, abandoned, lost.
This feels like the loneliest place in the world. 

The Belly of the Whale is the point in the story in which the hero reaches her lowest point, or rather her "point of least self".  All the things she has known about the world and about herself must be transformed or discarded for her to re-emerge ready for the rest of her journey. The imagery of being "inside" something here is important. The hero appears to those outside the Whale as dead or gone, but where she has really gone is inside herself.  Her old self has died.

"Inside" in movies and stories often is a literal whale (as in Finding Nemo, or Pinocchio) or a tomb, a cave or a pyramid.  In ordinary life, this place is probably the deepest, loneliest reaches of the hero's mind. It is depression. It is despair. It is shame and loneliness and overwhelm-ment.  It is the long dark night of the soul.  Two o’ clock in the morning and you are staring into the abyss. 

"Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze too long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

This stage of the hero's journey can be depicted many ways - Hansel and Gretel being taken in by the evil witch who hopes to eat them, or Indiana Jones entering the secret tomb to steal the legendary idol, or Marlin and Dory inside the whale in Finding Nemo, or Luke and company trapped in the trash compactor on the Death Star.  The psychological aspect is always the same:  the Belly of the Whale is a place where the hero must go to lose those parts of herself that were holding her back in fear or ignorance.   What this inside represents is a place of transformation. Death and birth are one in this stage. It is a return to the cosmic forge, where personality and character are redefined and re-conceived. The hero will emerge with new knowledge of self and powers of understanding that will carry her through the rest of her quest.  The Belly of the Whale is not the place where the hero conquers her ultimate enemy (that comes later), but is the place where she contends with parts of herself.  It is a transformation from who she is to who she needs to be. This is a painful, but necessary process, for if the hero encounters her enemy or attempts her great task (the Supreme Ordeal) before she has dealt with herself, the quest will end in failure.

This is a bleak place.  In movies or in books, we know that this is a transition:  we will not stay here for ever, there is a happy ending ahead, and we know the story will take us there soon enough, while we watch, and bite our nails in pleasurable excitement.  In real life, this is not so certain.  Sometimes we feel we will be trapped here forever.  That this is the end of the story.  That there is no easy way out, no happy ending.  It is all too hard.




And yet, if we know anything, it is that we have the potential to be powerful beyond our own imaginings.  That significant transformation occurs through suffering and times of despair, and that these can be followed by a profound joy as we arrive at a surer place of self knowledge and self acceptance.  The Belly is not a place you visit only once.  You will return many times, and each time you re-emerge you are more... .  I know this about you, and I hold it for you, until you can take it and hold it for yourself.

 

And brace yourself, now, for things are about to get really hectic. 

The Supreme Ordeal lies ahead. 

You are ready. 

You are. 

 

This is Stage Six of the Hero's Journey.
The earlier stages are here:
Stage One – The Call to Adventure
Stage Two – Refusal of the Call
Stage Three – The Helpers Arrive
Stage Four –  Crossing the Threshold
Stage Five –  The Road of Trials
Next up is Stage Seven – The Supreme Ordeal

"We'll never survive."

"Nonsense, you're only saying that because no one ever has."

- Wesley and Buttercup (when preparing to enter the Fire Swamp), "The Princess Bride"

This is Stage Five in the Hero's Journey.  The earlier stages are here:

Stage One – The Call to Adventure

Stage Two – Refusal of the Call

Stage Three – The Helpers Arrive

Stage Four –  Crossing the Threshold

By the time we reach this stage, the hero has committed to the adventure. 
She is on the plane; she has accepted the new job; she is pregnant; she has said “Yes” to a big opportunity.
(Not all at once, obviously, but you get the idea?)
The die is cast, and the future lies in wait. 
Almost immediately,  the hero begins to face tests, trials and tribulations. 
The road ahead is not a smooth one.

For instance – you have been offered an internship in Venice. 
You arrive in the middle of the night, after 20 hours of travelling, and have to find your way to your hotel. 
In the dark winding alleyways of Venice you get lost, it starts to rain, and you realise your first year course in Italian has not given you enough tools to ask for – or follow – directions.
Weeping softly to yourself, you drag your suitcase along the labyrinth of cobblestones and bridges over darkly gleaming canals for what feels like a small eternity.
And you wonder why you ever thought you could do this.

Tests may include taking great personal risks, battling with monsters, solving puzzles and enduring varying extremes of discomfort. 
(Think about the Twelve Labours of Hercules, for example.  Or the number of levels you have to beat in any videogame.)
There may be a series of events or mini-adventures within the story or there may be deliberate tests, typically by a gatekeeper who will reward the hero either by giving them some magical artefact, or critical information, or otherwise helping the hero along the way.

In stories and movies, the trials and tests steadily build tension and also develop the character of the hero. 
These tribulations are necessary to hone the hero’s skills, to test her strength, to build her confidence and her resilience and capacity to cope. 
She will need all of these, and more, later in the story.  

Whilst the surface tests may be physical, the actual test is often of the inner qualities the hero will need, including courage, integrity and humility. 
Some of the battles, therefore, are with the hero’s inner self – her own frailties and failings – and allow her to become more truly herself, more empowered, more able; stronger and wiser than she ever knew she could be.

How do you meet your tests, trials, and tribulations? 
Weeping, railing against the fates, crawling under the duvet are all very tempting. 
A sense of humour helps. 
Stubbornness, determination, gritted teeth are useful too. 
Know this.  You will survive, for the ultimate arc of your story is not yet.
And when it comes, you will be ready.

 UP NEXT -  Stage Six: The Belly of the Whale