Hero's Journey Chapter 6: Friends and Allies
Who Walks Beside You?
Every heroine eventually realizes something important: no one completes the journey alone. After the trials, setbacks, and moments when we wonder whether we’re capable of continuing, someone appears. A friend. A companion. A community. An unexpected ally. These can come in the form of plants, people, animals, spirits, or deities. Sometimes they offer support and that much needed conversation. Sometimes they simply walk beside us. Allies don’t take away the challenge, they simply remind us that we’re capable enough to meet it.
One of my favorite examples comes from The Lord of the Rings. As Frodo’s task becomes almost impossible to bear, Sam cannot take the Ring from him—but he can help carry Frodo. That, to me, is the essence of an ally. The people who truly support us don’t live our lives for us or remove every obstacle. They help us remember that we don’t have to walk through those difficult experiences alone.
Friends & Allies in the Birth Chart
In the birth chart, I look especially to Venus, Jupiter, and the 2nd, 7th and 11th Houses and their rulers. Venus can describe connection, harmony, affection, pleasure, creativity, and our ability to receive.
Jupiter can show teachers, benefactors, generosity, protection, and the people or experiences that expand our world. The 7th House speaks to our significant one-to-one relationships and collaborations, while the 11th—the traditional House of the Good Spirit—can describe friends, communities, alliances, audiences, and the people who support our hopes for the future.
I’ve also included the 2nd House in my Hero’s Journey framework because allies aren’t only about who supports us; they’re also about whether we believe we’re worthy of receiving that support. The 2nd speaks to our resources, values, and self-worth. Sometimes we can have incredible allies standing beside us and still struggle to accept what they’re offering.
This is where what I call the art of receiving comes in.
Especially for those of us who are comfortable serving, giving, working hard, or taking care of everyone else, receiving can become its own spiritual practice. Sometimes receiving looks like asking for help. Sometimes it’s saying no. Spending money on yourself. Taking time to create. Listening when someone gives you advice. Allowing someone else to carry something for a while. Or simply doing absolutely nothing without believing you have to earn the right to rest.
Learning to Receive
This practice has been pivotal in my own Heroine’s Journey. For me, becoming more receptive has meant learning when to pull back from work—even work I genuinely loved. It has meant selling a property, spending some of the resources I had worked hard to build, listening to encouragement from friends, asking for advice, and giving myself permission to take risks without knowing exactly where they would lead.
Had I not done those things, I might never have given myself the time or permission to travel across the country for events. And had I not begun traveling, I might never have discovered a holistic finca in Mexico where I would eventually have the opportunity to express an entirely different part of myself—painting a huge mural inspired by the spirit of cacao while living, creating, and helping around the finca.
That’s one of the beautiful things about allies:
sometimes they don’t simply support the journey. They expand what we believe the journey could become.
Along the way, my definition of community has changed too. My friendships are no longer contained within one hometown or one chapter of my life. I’ve developed sisterhood and brotherhood in places like Alaska and Mexico with people I never would have encountered had I remained in Virginia, a “safer” option. My community has become scattered across the places the road has taken me.
There is a strange reciprocity to all of this. The more willing I’ve become to venture into unfamiliar territory, the more allies I’ve discovered there. The more willing I’ve become to ask for help, the more support I’ve been able to recognize. And the more willing I’ve become to receive, the more I’ve also had to offer. The universe tends to recognize this as well - and says “she’s willing to recieve by giving to herself - now we can send her the _______(add people, places, opportunities) her heart has been calling”,
The Hero’s Journey teaches us that we don’t simply find allies. We become someone capable of recognizing them, trusting them, receiving from them—and eventually becoming an ally for someone else.
Elijah Wood: Returning to the Fellowship
Elijah Wood gives us an almost literal example of this through Annual Profections. More than a decade after filming The Lord of the Rings, he was invited back to New Zealand to reprise Frodo for The Hobbit. Wood described being back on the Bag End set as surreal. The production itself became a reunion, bringing him back into the world of Peter Jackson and several actors from the original trilogy.
Wood was 30 when he returned, placing him in a 7th House Annual Profection—a year associated with important one-to-one relationships, partnerships, contracts, and collaboration. There’s something beautifully literal about that symbolism. The adventure of that year wasn’t asking him to begin entirely alone. It brought him back into relationship with people and a creative world that had already profoundly shaped his life.
And there’s another layer that I love. When Wood first arrived in New Zealand for The Lord of the Rings, he was 18 and turned 19 during the original production. So the first trilogy carried him across his 7th-to-8th-house threshold: relationship and fellowship followed by a profound transformational experience. Years later, the profection cycle brought him back around to the 7th House—and remarkably, back to the Fellowship itself. Wood recalled that he had turned 19 in Hobbiton the first time and was now returning at 30.
That’s a wonderful way to understand annual profections. Sometimes the next chapter introduces entirely new people. Sometimes it reveals the enduring importance of relationships formed in an earlier chapter. And sometimes life circles back and asks us to see an old relationship, community, or collaboration from an entirely new place in our story.
Who Walks Beside You?
One of the greatest myths of modern culture is that transformation is a solo journey. It isn’t. We become ourselves partly through relationship—with the people who challenge us, encourage us, create alongside us, open doors for us, believe in us, and occasionally carry us when the journey becomes too heavy.
The Call may be yours. The fear may be yours. The trials may ultimately be yours to face. But that doesn’t mean you were ever meant to do it all alone.
And perhaps part of becoming the hero or heroine of your own story is learning that strength isn’t only the ability to carry everything yourself. Sometimes strength is knowing when to let someone walk beside you.
Reflection
Who helps you remember who you are—and where might your journey be asking you to become more willing to receive their support?
I think that final question is stronger than simply “Who walks beside you?” because it brings your personal revelation about receiving into the reader’s chart work. It also sets up the next stage beautifully: allies can walk beside us, but eventually the hero still has to enter the Inner Cave.
Continue Your Journey
Every Hero's Journey is unique. Your birth chart reveals the lifelong map.
Your Annual Profections reveal the chapter you're living right now—where your adventure is unfolding, what part of yourself is being called forward, and where your treasure is waiting to be embodied.
If you're curious where your own Call, Fears, Mentors, Allies, Inner Cave, Treasure, and Return live within your birth chart, I'd love to explore your story with you.
Together, we'll uncover not only who you came here to be...but where you are in your journey today.
A personalized Hero's Journey Birth Chart Reading with Lainie
Discover Your Authentic Nature & Gifts Through Your Birth Chart
Your birth chart is more than a personality profile. It's a map of the journey your soul came here to live.
Using the timeless framework of the Hero's Journey and Hellenistic astrology, I'll create a personalized recorded video exploring your unique path—revealing where your Call, Fears, Mentors, Allies, Trials, Treasure, and Return unfold in your chart.
We'll also explore your current Annual Profection, helping you understand the chapter you're living right now and the gifts life is inviting you to embody.
This isn't simply an astrology reading. It's the story of remembering who you are, understanding the chapter you're living, and discovering the gifts only you can share.
Included:
✔ Personalized recorded video (approx. 30–40 minutes)
✔ Hero's Journey Birth Chart interpretation
✔ Current Annual Profection
✔ Practical guidance for your current life chapter
✔ Delivered within 5–7 business days
