The logo for Clearwater Transformational Trekking is a compass modeled after the four-part journey of transformation. For the second piece of my multi-genre project at LCSC, I chose to create an infographic out of this compass as a guide to a pilgrim on the journey. As an infographic, the compass becomes something of a map in itself.
Like all symbols, this Compass is an interpretation of many things at once. It is my attempt to tie together Dr. Alexander John Shaia’s four paths to the journey of transformation in Quadratos, which is in turn built on Joseph Campbell’s map of the hero’s journey as explored in The Hero With a Thousand Faces, which itself is set into the framework of Arnold Van Gennep’s rites of passage described in three parts: separation, liminal space, and return. Furthermore, it draws on the work of Bill Plotkin who married the native American concept of the Four Shields to his own work in depth psychology and human development.
The Compass contains all of this teaching but guides the pilgrim through the Journey of Transformation in a visually simple way. Beginning in the West with the season of Change, the pilgrim moves clockwise into the North, a season of Suffering, before discovering a Joy in the East that inspires Service in the South.
One may notice that the crosshairs of the Compass do not align with the cardinal directions. This is because the Journey of Transformation is not about going somewhere so much as it is about being somewhere. The Journey is not an escape or a way out of our current experiences. Rather, it is the way through. We begin the Journey right where we are in the midst of our families and communities and everyday work, and we end the journey in the same place but now equipped to offer our inner gift to the world. So rather than point us to the North, for example, it guides us to be in the North. It is contemplative in nature, which I felt made it fitting for an infographic.
Are the teachers I’m drawing from familiar to you? Have you found your way to a similar concept along a different path? I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this compass for the journey.
Download A Compass for the Journey PDF here!
