‘The Dead’s Hero’s Journey’

     
The Aish Center on West 36th Street (between Eighth and Ninth) is a locus for Jewish learning and cultural activities. It offers a variety of resources to you online, one of which is a podcast series recently launched that aims to interpret some of the songs you’ve known for years. One of these, posted to YouTube last month, looks at the Grateful Dead’s “Terrapin Station,” which Rabbi Adam Jacobs describes thusly:


“Terrapin Station” discusses the concept of the Hero’s Journey—the quest to understand life and the striving to arrive at an elevated destination. It shows how each of us inhabits more than one world simultaneously.


“Terrapin Station” was written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter. The Hero’s Journey, as defined by Professor Joseph Campbell, is a staple of storytelling as old as, well, storytelling. Thanks to Bro. Marco, who illustrated it in his 2008 Rose Circle lecture at Masonic Hall by recalling the character arc of Luke Skywalker, I’ll ask you to remember Skywalker’s actions in that original Star Wars movie from 1977 when you look at this:

Click to enlarge.

Aish’s Terrapin Station podcast: