Initiation Stage- Meeting the Goddess
It is also known as the "hieros gamos", or sacred marriage, the union of opposites, and may take place entirely within the person. In other words, the person begins to see him or herself in a non-dualistic way. This is a very important step in the process and is often represented by the person finding the other person that he or she loves most completely. Although Campbell symbolizes this step as a meeting with a goddess, unconditional love and /or self unification does not have to be represented by a woman. (http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/smc/journey/ref/summary.html)
Mythology is not just a simple story told to explain a natural phenomena. According to Joseph Campbell it involves psychological and spiritual issues. Many people dismiss the validity of mythology especially when they see the word "goddess". It is strange that we have become so unbalanced to believe that God is so much more important than goddess. Carl Jung did extensive studies on the male, animus and the female, anima that resides in each individual. This is where the male hero comes to the journey of the self, which involves accepting your whole self. The male hero must acknowledge the feminine aspect that resides within him. The same is true for the female hero. She must deal with her male aspect. Hero's journey in the initiation stage of "Meet the Goddess" relates directly to this psychological task.
In our daily lives in the modern world we may or may not understand the unconscious tendencies or projections. If you live a unconscious life then you are at the mercy of your male or female shadow. This means in relationships most people are projecting their opposite( animus or anima) onto their significant other. There relationship is really just a consequence of their own projections.
The sailor archetype has a definite unbalanced life on a steel ship. The nature of the ship is male. It is a technical and man-made with a male dominated labor force. It is very difficult to be balanced or embrace the feminine side of yourself when work as a merchant marine. If we can imagine Odysseus in his bloody war for ten years it is a similar problem. In the Odyssey Odysseus entire journey was about assimilating the feminine aspect back into himself. The merchant marine does not have to experience such violence on a ship, but there is a lot of verbal abuse. The mentality on a ship is highly ego driven. If most of the men have been on ships their entire career, then they have been locked into a very unbalanced life. This creates a lot of shadow activity, which leads to power struggle.
Jypsy is very much devoted to the goddess on land. Literally his favorite activity is to be up on a mountain, trekking around in the natural world, looking for the perfect powdery slop to ski down. He is not into the ski resort lift and down hill fast forward thrill. He does like the thrill, but it more of the untouched run that is way out in the back of the ski resort. He skins up the mountain which requires stamina, patience and love for the moment. So if the Earth can be considered a goddess, then he is completely in love with her. If the hero can enjoy the sea while he is sailing around the world then he might get a little bit of soul-nourishment, but it seems rare for a merchant marine.
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