Outline of Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey”

Departure

  1. The Call to Adventure: The call to adventure is the point in a person's life when they are first given notice that everything is going to change, whether they know it or not.
  2. Refusal of the Call: Often when the call is given, the future hero refuses to heed it. This may be from a sense of duty or obligation, fear, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or any of a range of reasons that work to hold the person in his or her current circumstances.
  3. Supernatural Aid: Once the hero has committed to the quest, consciously or unconsciously, his or her guide and magical helper appears, or becomes known.
  4. The Crossing of the First Threshold: This is the point where the person actually crosses into the field of adventure, leaving the known limits of his or her world and venturing into an unknown and dangerous realm where the rules and limits are not known.
  5. The Belly of the Whale:The belly of the whale represents the final separation from the hero's known world and self. It is sometimes described as the person's lowest point, but it is actually the point when the person is between or transitioning between worlds and selves. The separation has been made, or is being made, or being fully recognized between the old world and old self and the potential for a new world/self. The experiences that will shape the new world and self will begin shortly, or may be beginning with this experience which is often symbolized by something dark, unknown and frightening. By entering this stage, the person shows their willingness to undergo a metamorphosis, to die to him or herself.

Initiation

  1. The Road of Trials: The road of trials is a series of tests, tasks, or ordeals that the person must undergo to begin the transformation. Often the person fails one or more of these tests, which often occur in threes.
  2. The Meeting with the Goddess: The meeting with the goddess represents the point in the adventure when the person experiences a love that has the power and significance of the all-powerful, all encompassing, unconditional love that a fortunate infant may experience with his or her mother. It is also known as the hierosgamos, 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.
  3. Woman as the Temptress: At one level, this step is about those temptations that may lead the hero to abandon or stray from his or her quest, which as with the Meeting with the Goddess does not necessarily have to be represented by a woman. For Campbell, however, this step is about the revulsion that the usually male hero may feel about his own fleshy/earthy nature, and the subsequent attachment or projection of that revulsion to women. Woman is a metaphor for the physical or material temptations of life, since the hero-knight was often tempted by lust from his spiritual journey.
  4. Atonement with the Father: In this step the person must confront and be initiated by whatever holds the ultimate power in his or her life. In many myths and stories this is the father, or a father figure who has life and death power. This is the center point of the journey. All the previous steps have been moving in to this place, all that follow will move out from it. Although this step is most frequently symbolized by an encounter with a male entity, it does not have to be a male; just someone or thing with incredible power. For the transformation to take place, the person as he or she has been must be "killed" so that the new self can come into being. Sometime this killing is literal, and the earthly journey for that character is either over or moves into a different realm.
  5. Apotheosis: To apotheosize is to deify. When someone dies a physical death, or dies to the self to live in spirit, he or she moves beyond the pairs of opposites to a state of divine knowledge, love, compassion and bliss. This is a god-like state; the person is in heaven and beyond all strife. A more mundane way of looking at this step is that it is a period of rest, peace and fulfillment before the hero begins the return.
  6. The Ultimate Boon: The ultimate boon is the achievement of the goal of the quest. It is what the person went on the journey to get. All the previous steps serve to prepare and purify the person for this step, since in many myths the boon is something transcendent like the elixir of life itself, or a plant that supplies immortality, or the holy grail.

Return

  1. Refusal of the Return: So why, when all has been achieved, the ambrosia has been drunk, and we have conversed with the gods, why come back to normal life with all its cares and woes?
  2. The Magic Flight: Sometimes the hero must escape with the boon, if it is something that the gods have been jealously guarding. It can be just as adventurous and dangerous returning from the journey as it was to go on it.
  3. Rescue from Without: Just as the hero may need guides and assistants to set out on the quest, often times he or she must have powerful guides and rescuers to bring them back to everyday life, especially if the person has been wounded or weakened by the experience. Or perhaps the person doesn't realize that it is time to return, that they can return, or that others need their boon.
  4. The Crossing of the Return Threshold: The trick in returning is to retain the wisdom gained on the quest, to integrate that wisdom into a human life, and then maybe figure out how to share the wisdom with the rest of the world. This is usually extremely difficult.
  5. Master of the Two Worlds: In myth, this step is usually represented by a transcendental hero like Jesus or Buddha. For a human hero, it may mean achieving a balance between the material and spiritual. The person has become comfortable and competent in both the inner and outer worlds.
  6. Freedom to Live: Mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the freedom to live. This is sometimes referred to as living in the moment, neither anticipating the future nor regretting the past.

A Reference to Jungian/Post-Jungian Psychology

and Mythological Archetypes.

First and foremost, a list of helpful terms:

Myth: a story, usually indicative of issues central to a culture, that provides spiritual

and psychological wisdom that often transcends the specific culture that tells it. Usually a highly metaphoric, symbolic tale in which supernatural elements

commingle with the mundane.

Symbol: an abstract image indicative of many possible meanings (whereas a sign is

concrete and signifies one object, one meaning)

Archetype: a highly significant, mythical image born of the collective unconscious that

carries with it potentially great power of its own. It doesn’t need to symbolize

something, as it stands for itself. Archetypes that become manifest function as

goads toward individuation, and if used properly, their power can by utilized by

the hero or shaman.

Synchronicity: Jung defines this as “meaningful coincidence.” Actually, in Jungian

theory, nothing is coincidence. Coincidence signifies the manifestation of an

archetype into the conscious world.

Automatism: when something happens spontaneously and cannot be attributed to a

logical cause.

Thought transference: when the force with which one person’s thought resonates

strongly enough to cause the thought to jump into another person’s head.

Projection: powerful emotions that compel you to do things your parents (and possibly

ancestors) did. These are often autonomous complexes of the unconscious and are sometimes described as “past-life” experiences.

Conscious: your thinking mind.

Personal unconscious: the mind that lies beneath active awareness which stores latent

and/or repressed memories. This is unique to each individual.

Collective unconscious: the universal mind that lies beneath the personal unconscious

that permeates all beings and is shared by all beings. This is the storehouse of ancestral memory as well as the source of the archetypes.

Self: the total personality, which includes both conscious and unconscious minds.

Intuition: the knowledge or wisdom that comes from the unconscious.

The Transcendent Function: the place where the conscious and unconscious minds meet.

For Campbell, this is the “Threshold to Adventure.”

Enantiodromias: the idea that everything is also its opposite, such as the yin yang

phenomenon.

Syzygy or hierosgamos: the sacred marriage and union of opposites. One of the goals

of individuation.

Individuation: the process by which the individual becomes as conscious as possible by

bringing the unconscious up into the conscious. The final goal of the Hero’s

Journey.

Psycho-Mythic Stages of Life

Note: the following is a synthesis of Carl Jung’s psychology, Joseph Campbell’s Hero of a Thousand Faces, Robert Corrington’sEcstatic Naturalism, and various contortions of Mr. Ainsworth’s brain.

1. In the original position, we have the chora, the mythic womb, the dark and unknowable source of signs, which lies deep within the collective unconscious, immersed in archetype. Infinite potential, the chora continuously expels signs into the world in an effort to reveal itself though a process of transcendence. This is the void—the primeval ocean associated with creation myths.

  1. First Dimension: Local and Regional Traits

The hero assumes his shape. He carries with him local traits (those unique to the individual) and regional traits (traits unique to the region) He is innocent, and with no further significance, can only look back at the source, which he has lost and to which he cannot return. But his only relationship has been with the chora, and this melancholy compels it outward, where it seeks connection with other lives, forming lines of relevance to other local and regional traits. There is only one way back, and this is forward.

In the Hero’s Journey, this is the Call to Adventure or the initiation of the quest. If the call is refused, the sign will be consumed by the chora.

3. Second Dimension: Serial Intersection

The hero-potential carries his local and regional traits forward so they become relevant to others. They create a network of interpretation, working together to try to recapture and recreate the source. They attempt, however imperfectly, to become their maker.

They become a collection that has meaning above and beyond that of the individual, each contributing uniquely to this more complete signification.

This could be the advent of the Jungian sense-perception (awareness).

In the heroic journey, this is the crossing of the Threshold of Adventure.

  1. Third Dimension: Temporality, Introspection, and Intersubjectivity

Temporality is the ability to perceive time, necessary for a full sense of the world and thus the awareness of otherness—something beyond ourselves and our place within that continuum.

Introspection is self-reflection and sensation that brings into the conscious mind a wealth of imagery and symbolism we have difficulty connecting with any previous experience, increasing not only our understanding of the signs, but of ourselves. The recognition of archetypes and psychological complexes begin here. This is primarily an intuitive process.

Intersubjectivity is the thought process—the drawing of connections through logical processes which shape the impulses of the introspective mind—that sketches the connections and parallels to further our understanding and therefore the meaning of the given signs.

This is the thinking and recognition element of Jungian consciousness…the understanding of what is perceived.

This is the Ordeal of the Heroic Journey, where the candidate is tested to determine if he or she is worthy of greatness. At this stage, the child must be ritually killed, as well as any lingering connection with the mother-source.

  1. Fourth Dimension: the Spirit

Here we find the gestalt of the sign transfigured through the previous process. Gestalt suggests the force of a given thing, the total impact, which implies the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The hero assumes a mantle of power he couldn’t have had before the interpretive process.

The hero now moves beyond his previous life.

This is the turning point, as the hero, transfigured, looks forward to his transcendence (individuation) and reunion with its lost chora in the future.

The sensation of the Jungian system, where the mind accesses more directly the unconscious.

This is the Prize of the Hero’s Journey, the gift of power as reward for successfully completing the ordeal.

6. Fifth Dimension: Signs, Traces, and Nature’s Unconscious

Traces are the motive energy propelling the sign forward. At the heart of the sign, they hold open a channel of restlessness that keeps the hero from becoming satisfied.

They remind the hero that the central emptiness cannot be filled from within, so he must keep on the road to complete transfiguration/individuation/transcendence.

Ultimately, traces point back to the lost chora and provide a conduit for a surging of archetypes from the unconscious. These archetypes become goads for individuation, showing that the hero must reconnect with the source, must make the return journey. The archetypes point the way and provide the power to return to the source. But there is only one way back, and that is forward.

The hero must open himself to the collective unconscious, surrendering his ego, and realize that he is but a part of the whole. It is this that sets the stage for final individuation and the transcendence of duality—the syzygy. Note, this is not surrendering to the collective unconscious, the monster of the abyss, but rather it is the shifting of consciousness, the opening of the doors of perception, that allows the hero to participate in both worlds and be master of both. However, the hero must return to this world.

In Jungian psychology, this is the evaluation of the sensations.

In the Heroic Journey, this is the Return across the Threshold. The Hero cannot rest alone with the prize but must bring his gift back to his people so all will benefit.

7. Sixth Dimension: Return of the Positive

Fully transfigured or individuated, the hero is reunited with his lost object, the chora, his return to his “village.” He envelops and absorbs the first five dimensions and, transformed, is sustained by the transcendental power. The chora is redefined and also transfigured in the process. (This process is, according to Corrington and other naturalist philosophers, the self-transcendence of nature.)

If the hero didn’t make it this far, he is reabsorbed by the chora. If he does succeed, he attains permanent signification. If he is of enough power, he becomes identified with the archetype, like a Jesus or Buddha-figure.

In post-Jungian psychology, we have full individuation. The threshold of consciousness has expanded to include the unconscious, allowing transcendence.

In the heroic journey, we have the reunion and apotheosis of the hero. His power is fixed for all time.

An Archetypal Glossary—use the back if you run out of room!

Mother

Convex imagery (the breast):

Concave imagery (the womb):

The Maiden/Goddess:

Sacred Bride:

Queen of Hell/Femme Fatale:

The Mother/Queen of Heaven:

The Crone:

The Witch Hag:

The Wise old Woman:

Father

Phallic imagery (the penis):

The Terrible Father-God:

The warrior:

The destroyer:

The Benevolent Father-God:

The kind father:

The Wise old Man:

The Hero

The Call to Adventure:

Helpers (see next page):

Tests:

The Threshold Crossing:

The Ordeal:

The Prize:

The Flight:

The Return Crossing:

The Reunion:

Transcendence or Tragedy?

The Spirit Guide

Anthropomorphic Male:

Anthropomorphic Female:

Animals:

Mammal:

Reptile:

Bird:

Aquatic:

Insect:

Animal Symbolism

Plant Symbolism

Landscape Symbolism

Number Symbolism

1:

2:

3:

4:

5:

6:

7:

8:

9:

10:

Others:

Shape Symbolism

Circle:

Square:

Triangle:

Pyramid:

Pentagram (5 pointed star):

Other shapes:

Other symbolic things not of the above categories: