HERO S JOURNEY Joseph Campbell
HERO’S JOURNEY Joseph Campbell
§ Mythology: A world-wide phenomenon with fundamental similarities. It is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into all human cultural manifestations.
§ “The symbols of mythology are not manufactured; they cannot be ordered, invented, or permanently suppressed. They are spontaneous productions of the psyche, and each bears within it, undamaged, the germ power of its source.” J. Campbell
§ The Hero’s Journey is a central motif in world mythology.
§ The realm of the gods is a forgotten dimension of the world we know; the exploration of this dimension is the purpose of the mythical hero.
§ The standard of the mythological adventure of the hero is a magnification of the formula represented in the rites of passage: separation –- initiation—return: which might be named the nuclear unit of the monomyth.
§ Essentially, the monomyth is: A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.
§ #1: Departure/Call to Adventure: To be accepted or refused. If accepted there will be supernatural aid and guidance (Goethe: “be bold and great forces will come to your aid”). If refused, the adventure is converted into its negative and the hero becomes a victim to be saved, sometimes becoming monstrous in its isolated ego world.
§ The first work of the hero is to retreat from the world of secondary effects to the primary fundamental source within the human psyche. It is usually depicted as a battle and the hero a spiritual warrior who endeavors to breakthrough to both a deeper and higher dimension of reality.
§ #2: Crossing the Threshold: The beginning of the spiritual journey. The hero must pass the threshold guardians at the entrance to the zone of magnified power. Here the hero enters the realm of the unknown; the usual person is content to remain within the common, indicated bounds armed with popular belief systems.
§ The idea that the passage of the magical threshold is a transit into a sphere of rebirth is symbolized in the worldwide womb image of the belly of the whale. The hero, instead of conquering the power of the threshold is swallowed into the unknown and would appear to have died. It is a form of self-annihilation or ego-slaying.
§ #3: Initiation: the road of trials, temptations, possible atonement and purification; all here is preparation. This is enacted in society in coming of age rituals, a movement from child to adult.
§ Woman, in the picture language of mythology, represents the totality of what can be known. The hero is the one who comes to know. She lures, guides, and bids him break his chains. By deficient or ignorant eyes she is reduced to inferior and evil states. But she is redeemed by the eyes of understanding. The hero who takes her as she is potentially becomes the king or incarnate god of her created world. The mystical marriage with the queen goddess of the world represents the hero’s total mastery of life; for the woman is life, the hero its knower and master.
§ #4: Slaying the Dragon or Atonement: this last and mightiest deed marks the end of initiation. The result of the breakthrough to the source. It is sometimes symbolized as a marriage or killing of the mother or oneness with the father. It is seeing the face of god. It is a movement beyond our blind spots, our illusions and delusions. It is enlightenment.
§ #5: Apotheosis: achieving mastery, oneness, enlightenment, godhood, higher levels of awareness-- the meeting with the goddess.
§ #6: Return: master of two worlds, freedom to live, healing powers for the group.
Every failure to cope with a life situation must be laid, in the end, to a restriction of consciousness. Wars and temper tantrums are the makeshifts of ignorance; regrets are illuminations come too late. The whole sense of the ubiquitous myth of the hero’s passage is that it shall serve as a general pattern for men and women, wherever they may stand along the scale. Therefore it is formulated in the broadest terms. The individual has only to discover his own position with reference to this general human formula, and let it then assist him past his restricting walls. Who and where are his ogres? Those are the reflections of the unsolved enigmas of his own humanity. What are his ideals? Those are the symptoms of his grasp of life. Joseph Campbell