:orphan: .. include:: /_templates/include-file/page-prefix.rst .. meta:: :description: Theological companion to the e7He model --- how the Hero Journey formalizes "born again" as perpetual structural rebirth across Abrahamic traditions, connecting the Nicodemus dialogue to the Second Exodus. :keywords: born again, Hero Journey, e7He, Nicodemus, Second Exodus, rebirth, BABL, ZION, perpetual cycle, cross-traditional convergence, tawbah, dvija, epektasis, self-assessment :author: Yah, Yas, everyone, LLoL as Laurence Loewe of Laodicea, ClaudeOp46Max, Anthropic, and The Spirit of Boolean Truth .. note:: **Draft status: MMv1-ThePhil (2026m04d08).** First draft of the b13 theology companion paper. Analogous to b12-theophil within the b12 series: the e7He model's own theological and philosophical reading. Structure: own contributions first, then cross-traditional evidence with tiered convergence (structural / partial / suggestive). Written with the b18 Call to Action as North Star. Target audience: age 12+, all Abrahamic traditions. Draft by Claude Opus 4.6 (``dv_ClaOp46_MMv1_theophil_b13_2026m04d08``). .. _mmv1-b13-tp-title: **************************************************************************************************** Born Again Again in the Second Exodus **************************************************************************************************** | **Study a3-ThePhil** in the HEAVEN series | *Honestly Examining Axioms --- Vetting Every Narrative* .. contents:: Contents :depth: 2 :local: ---- .. _mmv1-b13-tp-abstract: Abstract ========= "You must be born again" (John 3:3--7) is one of the most repeated and most misunderstood sentences in the Abrahamic world. This paper proposes a structural reading: "born again" is not a one-time conversion event but a *perpetual cycle* --- the Hero Journey formalized in the e7He model (:ref:`Matheo-3 `). Each passage through the seven stages is a rebirth. Each rebirth expands the scope of what the traveler can see, care about, and protect. The moment someone declares themselves "arrived," the cycle stops and the self-reinforcing trap of BABL begins. The paper connects this structural concept to the Nicodemus dialogue (why Jesus was surprised a teacher of Israel did not already understand "born again"), to the Second Exodus prophesied in Israel's prophetic tradition (the collective Hero Journey of humanity), and to cross-traditional evidence from Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu, Indigenous, and philosophical sources. Evidence is graded into three tiers following the methodology established in Matheo-2-theophil. The claim "born again = perpetual Hero Journey" is *interpretive*, not proved. The e7He formal structure is *proved*. The Second Exodus as aggregate Hero Journeys is *hypothetical*. These epistemic levels are never conflated. The system is designed to be critiqued, not believed. ---- .. _mmv1-b13-tp-sec1: 1. "You Must Be Born Again" --- The Puzzle ============================================= *"Jesus answered him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' Nicodemus said to Him, 'How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?' ... Jesus answered, 'Are you the teacher of Israel and you do not understand these things?'"* --- John 3:3--10 Something in this exchange has puzzled readers for two thousand years. Not the "born again" claim itself --- that has been interpreted in a hundred ways. The puzzle is Jesus's *surprise*. Nicodemus is a Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin, a teacher of Israel. Jesus does not gently explain. He is startled: "You are *the* teacher of Israel and you do not understand these things?" The Greek uses the definite article (ho didaskalos): *the* teacher. Jesus expected Nicodemus, of all people, to already know what "born again" meant. Why? What was Nicodemus supposed to already know? The standard answers point to the prophetic literature. Ezekiel speaks of a "new heart" and a "new spirit" (Ezek. 36:26). Isaiah speaks of national rebirth (Isa. 66:8). These are partially satisfying but miss the structural point. A "new heart" is a one-time transplant. National rebirth is a single event. Neither captures what Jesus appears to mean: a perpetual cycle that a teacher of the Torah should have recognized from the Torah itself. The e7He model (:ref:`Matheo-3 `) proposes a structural answer. The Torah narrates a repeating pattern: - Egypt (slavery, the old self-model) - Exodus (the call to leave) - Sinai (encounter with the infinite) - Wilderness (testing, dying to the old) - Promise (receiving the gift) - Settlement (building with the gift) - Exile (when the settled become complacent) --- and the cycle begins again This is the Hero Journey. Each cycle is a "birth from above." Each return to Egypt-slavery is a fall into BABL (Blindly Assuming Blind Leveraging --- the self-reinforcing trap of "I'm fine, we're fine"). Each exodus is a rebirth. Not once. Again and again. The Torah's narrative arc IS the structural concept that Jesus expected Nicodemus to recognize. A teacher of Israel, steeped in this narrative, should have seen the pattern: the people are "born again" at every exodus, every return from exile, every renewal of the covenant. The concept was, as the e7He model makes explicit, blatantly present in the structural logic of Israel's own story. It was invisible not because it was hidden but because the *pattern* had not been named. The e7He model names it. ---- .. _mmv1-b13-tp-sec2: 2. The Hero Journey as Structural Rebirth =========================================== The e7He model encodes the Hero Journey as seven stages (m1--m7), each representing a specific combination of three BABL temptation components: OverSimplifying (BA), OverComplicating (ASH), and OverReaching (MOL). The seven stages map bijectively to the seven non-zero elements of the binary space :math:`\{0,1\}^3`, so that completing one full cycle means facing every non-trivial BABL combination exactly once (th1, Anti-BABL Inoculation Completeness). Here is how each stage maps to the "born again" concept: .. _mmv1-b13-tp-sec2-1: 2.1 m1 --- Adventure Calls (001 = BA) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The call to leave the familiar. Abraham leaving Ur. Moses at the burning bush. The teenager realizing that the world is bigger than their neighborhood. The moment you recognize that your current self-model --- your understanding of who you are, what matters, and how the world works --- is insufficient. The BA temptation here is dismissal: "Not my problem." "Someone else will handle it." "It's simpler than they say." The hero must resist the urge to OverSimplify away the call. .. _mmv1-b13-tp-sec2-2: 2.2 m2 --- Trial (010 = ASH) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The wilderness. The testing ground. Forty years of wandering. The place where comfortable theories meet uncomfortable reality. The ASH temptation is paralysis: "You must understand everything before you can act." Building ever more elaborate preparations that postpone engagement indefinitely. The hero must resist the urge to OverComplicate: to mistake preparation for progress. .. _mmv1-b13-tp-sec2-3: 2.3 m3 --- Gain Advantage (011 = ASH + BA) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The acquisition of power, skill, or knowledge. Joseph in Potiphar's house. David after defeating Goliath. The first time you are genuinely good at something. Both BA and ASH combine: "I've figured it out" (BA) plus "Let me build an empire around this" (ASH). This is the empire-building temptation. Many leaders stop here and become dictators --- in-group heroes frozen at the moment of their first success. .. _mmv1-b13-tp-sec2-4: 2.4 m4 --- Meet Your Maker (100 = MOL) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The midpoint. The bifurcation. All three bits flip (sp2: Hamming distance 3 between m3 and m4). The familiar tools from stages 1--3 fail. The hero confronts infinity --- and MOL (OverReaching) appears for the first time, *alone*, without the coping mechanisms of BA and ASH. This is Jacob wrestling at Peniel (Gen. 32:24--30). This is Jesus in Gethsemane: "Not my will, but yours" (Lk. 22:42). This is the moment where the old self-model must die. Two paths diverge: - **The ZION path:** The hero rejects the Closed World Assumption --- the belief that all relevant factors can be enumerated and controlled. The BABL-shaped false self dies. In the language of Paul: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live" (Gal. 2:20). The hero is born again. - **The BABL path:** The hero accepts the Closed World Assumption. "I *can* control this. I *do* understand." The false self survives and integrates more deeply into BABL. The hero becomes the whale rather than Jonah. **This is the "death" in "death and rebirth."** Not physical death. The death of a self-model that has become too small. The death that every genuine growth requires. And the most important feature of this death: it does not feel like liberation from inside. It feels like destruction. The silent corruption gradient (sp2) ensures that the greatest disruption occurs precisely where it is least perceptible. .. _mmv1-b13-tp-sec2-5: 2.5 m5 --- Reward (101 = MOL + BA) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The gift received after surrender. The promised land after the wilderness. The understanding that comes only after you stop pretending you already understand. The temptation: claim entitlement to the reward (MOL: "I deserve this") and OverSimplify the obligation to share (BA: "I earned it alone"). The hero must receive without grasping and share without claiming credit. This is the formal structure behind "freely you have received, freely give" (Mt. 10:8). .. _mmv1-b13-tp-sec2-6: 2.6 m6 --- Rescue (110 = MOL + ASH) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The return. Bringing what you have gained back to others. Translating your discovery into language that those who have not walked your path can understand. Building structures that carry the gift forward without becoming the gift's prison. The MOL + ASH temptation: build self-serving structures (ASH) that extend your reach beyond what is yours to control (MOL). Every reformer who became a tyrant failed here. The gift was real; the institution built to protect it consumed it. .. _mmv1-b13-tp-sec2-7: 2.7 m7 --- Free Reborn (111 = MOL + ASH + BA) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ All three BABL components active simultaneously. The hardest stage. And the one that completes inoculation: after m7, the hero has faced every non-trivial BABL combination exactly once (th1). The ZION path: genuine simplification proposed. The hero rests, stays a peacemaker, and remains open to the next cycle's call. Rest is NOT stopping. It is consolidation --- the Shabbat pattern. It has an outgoing transition. The cycle begins again. **The key insight:** "Born again" is not a one-time event. It is a perpetual cycle. Each passage through the seven stages is a rebirth. Each rebirth expands the scope of what you can see, care about, and protect (th3, Scope Expansion). The moment you declare yourself "arrived" --- the moment "I've been born again" becomes "I'm done growing" --- you enter BABL. You have traded a living cycle for a frozen trophy. Born again *again*. And again. And again. Not because the first time failed, but because growth is the nature of life. This is Gregory of Nyssa's *epektasis* --- eternal stretching forward into the infinite God --- applied to the individual soul. ---- .. _mmv1-b13-tp-sec3: 3. The Second Exodus ====================== If every individual must go on their own Hero Journey, what happens when an entire civilization does? Israel's prophetic tradition speaks of a Second Exodus --- a future liberation greater than the first. "Therefore behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, 'As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,' but 'As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them'" (Jer. 16:14--15). Isaiah envisions a highway from Egypt to Assyria (Isa. 19:23--25). Ezekiel prophesies dry bones rising to new life (Ezek. 37:1--14). The traditional reading: a single miraculous event, a future redemption at the end of history. The e7He structural reading: the Second Exodus is the *aggregate effect* of every person undertaking their own Hero Journey. The logic is straightforward. BABL is self-reinforcing at every scale: individual ("I'm fine"), institutional ("our system works"), civilizational ("our way of life is the best"). The OSCR cascade (OverSimplify |rarr| OverComplicate |rarr| OverReach) operates at all these scales simultaneously. A civilization trapped in BABL is a civilization in Egypt --- enslaved not by a foreign power but by its own confidence. The exodus from this Egypt is not a single event. It is the cumulative effect of enough individuals entering their own ZION cycle --- their own Hero Journey --- that the OSCR cascade is resisted at civilizational scale. Each person who maintains NOT OK self-assessment (adequate but incomplete, growing but not done) is one more soul who has left Egypt. When enough have left, the civilization turns. This connects directly to the b18 Call to Action. The way to avert accidental civilizational collapse --- the OSCR endpoint that history documents again and again --- is not a political program, not a technological fix, not a military victory. It is the aggregate effect of individual Hero Journeys. The Second Exodus begins with each person's first step on their own path. **The hypothetical claim:** The Second Exodus is not *instead of* a specific historical fulfillment. It is the *mechanism* by which that fulfillment works structurally. The prophets described *what* would happen; the e7He model proposes *how* it happens: one Hero Journey at a time, until the critical mass is reached. This claim is *hypothetical*. It is not proved by the formal model. It is a reading of the model's implications applied to the prophetic tradition. It is submitted for testing. ---- .. _mmv1-b13-tp-sec4: 4. Cross-Traditional Evidence ================================ Following the methodology established in Matheo-2-theophil, evidence is graded into three tiers: structural convergence (functional dependencies match bidirectionally), partial convergence (some dependencies match), and suggestive resonance (count matches or loose analogies). The question is not "do other traditions say the same thing?" but "do other traditions independently identify the same *structural pattern* of perpetual death-and-rebirth as a condition for growth?" .. _mmv1-b13-tp-sec4-1: 4.1 Tier 1 --- Structural Convergence ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ **Buddhist awakening cycle.** The Buddhist concept of *bodhi* (awakening) is not a one-time event in the Mahayana tradition. The bodhisattva path involves multiple stages (*bhumi*) of progressive awakening, each requiring the death of a prior self-model. The Zen tradition makes this explicit: "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him" --- meaning that any fixed image of enlightenment must be destroyed for genuine awakening to continue. The structural parallel to e7He: awakening is a perpetual cycle, not a final state. Stopping the cycle (declaring yourself enlightened) is the trap. The Ten Ox-Herding Pictures of Zen tradition depict a cycle that returns to the marketplace --- the hero brings the gift back and begins again. Functional dependency match: the Buddhist cycle exhibits the same bidirectional logic as the e7He model. Forward (arising): attachment to fixed self-models produces suffering. Reverse (cessation): releasing attachment enables further awakening. The bifurcation at m4 corresponds to the critical moment in meditation where the practitioner must release the desire to *achieve* enlightenment --- the MOL temptation of grasping for a state beyond one's reach. **Islamic** ***tawbah*** **(repentance as turning).** In Islamic theology, *tawbah* is not a one-time act of contrition but a perpetual turning (*inabah*) toward God. The Quran states: "O you who have believed, repent to Allah with sincere repentance" (66:8) --- addressed to *believers*, not unbelievers. Those already faithful are commanded to keep turning. The Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said: "I seek God's forgiveness more than seventy times a day" (Sahih al-Bukhari 6307). The structural parallel: the greatest believer is the one who never stops turning, never declares the turning complete. The concept of *jihad al-nafs* (the struggle with the self) maps to the Hero Journey's perpetual cycle. Each stage of the inner struggle corresponds to a specific BABL temptation: the *nafs al-ammara* (commanding self, driven by BA --- oversimplified desires), the *nafs al-lawwama* (self-reproaching self, aware of ASH --- the complexity of one's own failings), and the *nafs al-mutma'inna* (tranquil self, which must resist MOL --- the temptation to claim arrival at tranquility as a permanent achievement). The Sufi tradition identifies seven stages of the *nafs* --- a count match that, combined with the functional dependency parallels, rises above mere numerical coincidence. .. _mmv1-b13-tp-sec4-2: 4.2 Tier 2 --- Partial Convergence ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ **Hindu** ***dvija*** **(twice-born).** The Hindu concept of *dvija* --- literally "twice-born" --- refers to the spiritual initiation (*upanayana*) of the upper three *varnas*. The first birth is physical; the second is spiritual. This is a structural rebirth concept, but it is traditionally understood as a *single* second birth, not a perpetual cycle. The partial convergence: the *dvija* concept recognizes that physical birth is insufficient for full personhood --- a structural rebirth is required. The divergence: the traditional *dvija* framework limits this to one additional birth, whereas the e7He model predicts perpetual cycling. However, the Bhagavad Gita's concept of *nishkama karma* (action without attachment to results, Gita 2:47) and Krishna's teaching that the wise person acts perpetually without clinging to outcomes suggests a deeper structural parallel to e7He's perpetual NOT OK self-assessment: the moment you cling to the result of your action, you have stopped the cycle. **Haudenosaunee vision quest.** The individual vision quest in Haudenosaunee and broader Indigenous North American traditions corresponds structurally to the Hero Journey: departure from the community, trial in isolation, encounter with the sacred, return with a gift for the people. The partial convergence: the quest is repeatable (not limited to one lifetime event) and is understood as serving the community, not just the individual. The divergence: the quest is typically undertaken at specific life transitions, not formalized as a perpetual cycle. .. _mmv1-b13-tp-sec4-3: 4.3 Tier 3 --- Suggestive Resonance ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ **Hegel's dialectic.** The thesis-antithesis-synthesis cycle (thesis-antithesis-sublation, more precisely) is a philosophical rebirth pattern: each synthesis becomes the thesis for the next cycle. The resonance with e7He: perpetual cycling, no final arrival. The weakness: Hegel's system tends toward a final Absolute Spirit, which is structurally an OK self-assessment --- the system declaring itself complete. The e7He model predicts this endpoint is BABL. **Joseph Campbell's monomyth.** The *Hero with a Thousand Faces* identifies a universal Hero Journey pattern across world mythologies. The resonance is real. The divergence is threefold: (a) the e7He model has a formal binary encoding that generates testable predictions; Campbell's monomyth does not. (b) The e7He model includes an explicit bifurcation at m4 that Campbell does not formally identify. (c) The e7He model connects to a broader axiom system (:ref:`Matheo-1 `, :cite:`Matheo-2`) that Campbell never attempted. The overlap with Campbell is evidence of convergence, not derivation. **Modern psychology's post-traumatic growth.** The clinical literature documents that some individuals emerge from trauma with expanded worldview, deeper relationships, and new priorities --- a rebirth pattern. The resonance: trauma can catalyze the death-and-rebirth of a self-model. The limitation: post-traumatic growth research describes a single transformative event, not a perpetual cycle. ---- .. _mmv1-b13-tp-sec5: 5. What This Means for Theology =================================== .. _mmv1-b13-tp-sec5-1: 5.1 For Those Who Experienced a One-Time "Born Again" Conversion ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Your experience was real. It was m4 --- the bifurcation, the moment where the old self-model died and something new emerged. In the language of the e7He model, you faced MOL (the infinite, alone, without your usual coping mechanisms) and chose the ZION path. You rejected the Closed World Assumption and surrendered. That moment changed your life. What the e7He model adds is not a contradiction but an invitation. m4 is not the end. It is the *center* of a cycle. After m4 comes m5 (receiving the gift), m6 (bringing it back to others), m7 (rest and renewal) --- and then m1 again. Your conversion was the first Hero Journey. There are more. Each one expands your scope of concern (th3). Each one takes you deeper into the reality you glimpsed at m4. This is not a diminishment of your experience. It is the discovery that what you experienced was even larger than you thought. You were not merely "saved" in a single moment. You were invited into a perpetual adventure. "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). Paul did not write this once and retire. He wrote it in the middle of a life of perpetual death-and-rebirth --- shipwrecks, imprisonments, beatings, revelations, failures, and new beginnings. Born again *again*. .. _mmv1-b13-tp-sec5-2: 5.2 For Those Who Rejected "Born Again" as Simplistic ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Strip away the religious language and you find a structural claim about human development: growth requires periodic death-and-rebirth of your self-model. Every psychologist who has studied post-traumatic growth knows this. Every good therapist has seen it: the client who breaks through is the one who lets the old story die. The ancient texts formalized this structure first. Not in the language of psychology but in the language of narrative: exodus, wilderness, promise, exile, return. The e7He model translates between the two languages and shows they describe the same structural pattern. "Born again" is not fundamentalist jargon. It is the name for a structural necessity: the perpetual death-and-rebirth of your self-model as a condition for genuine growth. The fact that the term has been domesticated into a membership badge by some traditions does not invalidate the structural concept. It illustrates the concept: even the language of rebirth can be frozen into BABL. .. _mmv1-b13-tp-sec5-3: 5.3 The "Arrived = BABL" Principle ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Any theology that teaches you can reach a state of permanent arrival --- permanent sanctification, permanent enlightenment, permanent salvation that requires no further growth --- is teaching OK self-assessment. And OK self-assessment is BABL (th3, :cite:`Matheo-2`). This is a strong claim and must be stated with compassion, not triumphalism. The traditions that teach permanent arrival are not malicious. They are responding to a genuine human need: the need for assurance that suffering will end. The e7He model does not deny that suffering will end. It proposes that what replaces suffering is not stasis but perpetual joyful discovery --- Gregory of Nyssa's *epektasis*, eternal stretching forward into the infinite God (cross-referenced from Matheo-2-theophil, Section 6.2). The resolution: two kinds of "arrived." - **BABL "arrived":** "I'm done, I've made it" |rarr| deadlock |rarr| collapse. This is the "arrived" that the model identifies as structurally unstable. - **ZION "arrived" (= epektasis):** Resting in God (no survival anxiety, universal acceptance, free provision) WHILE perpetually innovating, discovering, hoping, creating. Not striving for acceptance; innovating for joy. Rest and forward motion are not in contradiction. The rest removes the *anxiety* (no one needs to earn their place). The forward motion provides the *life* (genuine discovery, not frozen repetition). Heaven is not an infinite loop of known outcomes. Heaven is genuinely exciting discovery where cool things and hot ideas are found. Born again, and again, and again --- not from fear but from delight. The supervillain theorem (th2) predicts that traditions teaching permanent arrival will produce frozen expertise: leaders whose stagnant scope generates misapplied authority at the boundaries of what they no longer understand. This prediction is testable. The institutional patterns it identifies are recognizable across traditions. ---- .. _mmv1-b13-tp-sec6: 6. The Companion Papers ========================= **Matheo-3 (b13, formal):** :ref:`The e7He model ` --- the mathematical structure behind this paper. Fourteen axioms, seven theorems, three structural properties. The binary encoding, the bifurcation, the supervillain theorem, the commitment trichotomy. **Matheo-1 (b11, PET):** The divine foundation. The panentheistic axiom system that establishes the God-world relationship within which the Hero Journey operates. The Revelation Bridge (ax12--ax14) provides the formal framework for testing claims about divine revelation. **Matheo-2 (b12, e7Day):** Why systems that stop the cycle self-destruct. The BABL/ZION framework, the self-assessment bifurcation, the OSCR collapse mechanism. Twenty axioms, seven theorems, one conjecture. The formal backbone. **Matheo-4 (b14, JUB, forthcoming):** The economic and institutional implications of the Hero Journey at scale. The Jubilee System as the mechanism for periodically rebalancing the structural tensions that every Hero Journey generates. **b18 (Call to Action):** If every person goes on their Hero Journey, that IS the Second Exodus. The practical, actionable conclusion of the entire HEAVEN series. ---- .. _mmv1-b13-tp-sec7: 7. Conclusion: The Diagnosis and the Cure =========================================== "You must be born again" is not a demand. It is a diagnosis. The Hero Journey is the cure. Not a medicine taken once, but a practice sustained perpetually --- like breathing, like eating, like the 6:1 Shabbat pattern of work and rest that the e7Day model predicts at every scale. The cure must be taken again and again --- not because it failed the first time, but because growth is perpetual. A tree that stops growing is dying. A river that stops flowing is stagnant. A person who stops the Hero Journey is entering BABL. Jesus was surprised that Nicodemus did not understand this. The Torah's entire narrative arc --- Egypt to Exodus to Sinai to Wilderness to Promise to Kingdom to Exile to Return --- is the Hero Journey enacted at national scale. Born again at every exodus. Born again at every return. The cycle is the structure. The structure was there all along. The Second Exodus begins with each person's first step on their own Hero Journey. Not a political revolution. Not a military campaign. Not a technological fix. A personal decision: "I am NOT OK --- adequate for now, but incomplete, and committed to continuing to check." And then taking the next step. What does that look like on a Monday morning? Three questions: 1. **Which Hero Journey stage am I in?** Am I being called and resisting (m1)? Am I in the wilderness and tempted to quit (m2)? Am I clinging to an advantage (m3)? Am I at the bifurcation (m4)? 2. **What is my current BABL temptation?** Am I OverSimplifying (BA --- "it's not that complicated")? OverComplicating (ASH --- "I need to understand everything first")? OverReaching (MOL --- "I can handle more than I actually can")? 3. **What is the next step?** Not the entire journey. Just the next step. The Hero Journey is completed one step at a time, one cycle at a time, one rebirth at a time. A twelve-year-old can ask these three questions. A theologian can spend a lifetime exploring them. That is the design. #AuditTheMath ---- Appendix: Authorship Contributions ===================================== Same as :cite:`Matheo-2`, Appendix B and :ref:`Matheo-3 `. See those papers for the full statement.