The Batman Trilogy
In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell defines the hero’s journey:
“The standard path of the hero is represented in the rights of passage: separation – initiation – return… A hero ventures forth from the world of common day, encounters fabulous forces [achieves] a decisive victory, then comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man…The Hero is the man of self-achieved submission.”
We witness this journey in the trilogy of Batman – from Batman Begins, to the Dark Knight and then The Dark Knight Rises. We are also presented with this in the Final Vision (Chapter 31) of A Course in Miracles. Let me examine Batman’s evolution within the context of Chapter 31.
The Separation:
Batman Begins
In the first stage of our hero’s journey, we find ourselves separated.
“The world began with one strange lesson, powerful enough to render God forgotten, and His Son an alien to himself, in exile from the home where God Himself established him.” (I.4.5)
This separation is metaphorized in the death of our Father. In Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne’s father and mother are killed outside the opera house. This propels him into the world of guilt. Our separation from our consciousness produces guilt. Like the young Bruce, we blame ourselves. Wayne separates himself from all the pain and grief of the world by escaping to Tibet for 7 years.
“The certain outcome of the lesson that God’s Son is guilty is the world you see. It is a world of terror and despair. Nor is there hope of happiness in it. There is no plan for safety you can make that ever will succeed. There is no joy that you can seek for here and hope to find.” (I.7.4-8)
This guilt and anger foster fear. “For hate must father fear, and look upon its father as itself.” (I.10.2) We must learn to face our fears. Bruce’s training with Ra’s al Ghul is such a quest.
But the key to salvation is:
“Let us be still an instant, and forget all things we ever learned, all thoughts we had, and every preconception that we hold of what things mean and what their purpose is.” (I.12.1)
Upon return to Gotham, Alfred reminds Bruce to be “not concerned with the past”. He, like us, must make a choice.
“What you would choose between is not a choice and gives but the illusion it is free”…we but walk with our Higher Self on “the selfsame road” (Verse II .6.5 – Walking with Christ)
Rachael, Bruce’s childhood sweetheart, berates Bruce with “Your Father would be ashamed of you” for leading the apparently trivial life of the playboy millionaire. Bruce realizes that he must become more than a masked vigilante, he must become a symbol – a Higher Choice. Rachael again reminds us “it is what you do that defines you”. We must take a stand.
"Let me repeat that to achieve a goal you must proceed in its direction, not away from it.” (Verse IV.7.3 – The Real Alternative)
Early in our journey of consciousness we often fall back.
“There is no choice where every end is sure. Perhaps you would prefer to try them all, before you really learn they are but one.” (IV.3.1-2)
As Batman goes through the trials of his new identity, Alfred asks, “Why do we fall?” The answer is “to pick ourselves back up.” We have all felt like the rat chasing the cheese down the selfsame path. It is time for us to find the “Real Alternative” - one for which our “Father would be proud” - as Alfred reminds us at the end of Batman Begins.
The Initiation:
The Dark Knight
“A journey from yourself does not exist” (IV.10.5)
Possessed with his role as defender of the truth, Bruce Wayne stares at himself in the mirror (figuratively speaking). He has seen “what he would have to become” in his fight against evil. “Batman must make the choice no one else can”.
This brings us to the concept of Self, which “has always been the great preoccupation of the world” (Verse 5.14.1 – Self Concept versus Self)
“The building of a concept of self is what the learning of the world is for…that concept is made by you. It is an idol, made to take the place of your reality.” (V.1-2)
“The concept of the self embraces all you look upon, and nothing is outside of this perception.” (V.14.7)
In some of the classic lines of the Joker, he proclaims to Batman, “You complete me!” Seth is one of the five aspects, and is a part of me. As Horus, I must learn to ride the hippo. In that sense, the Joker completes Batman. The Joker also asks, “What happens when an unstoppable force meets an incorruptible force?"
“On this one choice does all your world depend.” (VI.1.6 –
Recognizing the Spirit)
We must become the true hero. Thus, in the end, with Harvey Dent falling as Two Face, Batman must become “the hero Gotham deserves but not the one it needs right now”. He becomes “the silent guardian, the watchful protector, the Dark Knight”.
“The truth in you remains as radiant as a star, as pure as light, as innocent as love itself” (VI.7.4)
The Return:
The Dark Knight Rises
Bruce Wayne has reached the point where “there is nothing in the world for me” – as we must. He has become a recluse, and the Bat is at rest. However, Alfred (in a strong bid for the role of Isis) states that he” wants something more for [him] than that - there is nothing in Gotham.”
“The concept of yourself that now you hold would guarantee your function here remain forever unaccomplished and undone. And thus it dooms you to a bitter sense of deep depression and futility.” (Verse VII.6.1 – The Savior’s Vision)
We learn that evil is rising in the West with a mercenary named Bane. Does the city of Gotham need Batman, or as Alfred asks, does “it need Bruce Wayne’s knowledge, not his body?”
In breaking Batman’s back, Bane further muses, “I wondered what would break first – your spirit or your body?” In the duel, Batman’s mask is also broken. This symbolizes the breaking of the veil.
“The veil across the face of Christ, the fear of God and of salvation, and the love of guilt and death, they all are different names for just one error; that there is a space between you and your brother, kept apart by an illusion of yourself that holds him off from you, and you away from him.” (VII:9:1)
Bruce is sent to a foreign prison pit from which no one rises.
“And what you see is hell, for fear is hell. [But] all that is given you is for release; the sight, the vision and the inner Guide all lead you out of hell with those you love beside you…” (VII.7.7)
It is from the depths of this prison that we witness the return of the Hero.
Bruce recognizes a cause beyond himself – the people of Gotham.
“This is the savior’s vision; that he see his innocence in all he looks upon, and see his own salvation everywhere. He holds no concept of himself between his calm and open eyes and what he sees. He brings the light to what he looks upon, that he may see it as it really is.” (VII.11.5-7)
This brings us to the final leap of faith.
“For what appears to hide the face of Christ is powerless before his Majesty, and disappears before His holy sight. The saviors of the world, who see like Him, are merely those who choose His strength instead of their own weakness” (Verse VIII.4.3 – Choose Once Again)
We must throw off all shackles that bind us. Like Bruce Wayne, we must jump unassisted by the rope. It is only then we rise. With submission in our hearts and eyes, a new vision awaits:
“To your tired eyes I bring a vision of a different world, so new and clean and fresh you will forget the pain and sorrow that you saw before. “ (VIII.8.4)
Bruce finds peace and atonement. He has gone through separation, initiation and finally returned home.
