The hero’s journey, or monomyth, is an idea extensively detailed and explored in author Joseph Campbell’s work, and notably his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The hero’s journey is a narrative pattern informed by a syncretic analysis of numerous myths and folk tales from all over the world. It is a foundational layer of story that generically explores how a person could become a hero.
“Hero” is an archetype. Pioneering psychiatrist Carl Jung talked a lot about archetypes, which are somewhat mysterious in nature, but they are essentially, like the hero’s journey, something like mythic templates. Unlike the hero’s journey, which is a template for a story, archetypes are usually templates for characters. But not all characters are archetypes, which have a particular kind of power that’s hard to come by. Real and fictional heroes actually both have something of this in their nature, being larger than life because of rare and particular achievements, as well being of very good character.
Deconstructing a hero within fiction too much leaves you with something less inspiring, and you usually lose the archetypal nature of the character. You’ll just have a protagonist, then, or possibly even less. They still might be referred to as the hero of the story, but they are usually not an archetypal hero.
I like archetypes a lot as a subject, in part because the more alchemy I’ve practiced, the more a doorway into their arcane mysteries has opened up to me. When I was in eleventh grade, I remember asking my English teacher if there was a list of all the archetypes I could find somewhere. He said there wasn’t one that he knew of, which was the right answer. An exhaustive list is actually probably not available, but nor are archetypes up to the discretion of the writer or audience. They are more objective than that. There’s something about them that’s like those mineral compounds that can be polished into gems. Some may still be unknown, but there are quite a few we know of, and their luster is predictable if they are pure enough.
So what happens to a hero? Campbell’s proposed monomyth contains seventeen steps, which I’ll add concise original descriptions of, according to how I’ve come to understand them after exactly the amount of alchemical work I’ve done plus the sheer amount of suffering I’ve gone through by the time I’m writing this.
The Call to Adventure
The hero is more or less a normal person at this stage, but there’s something about them, or there’s something about the world they’re in, that has the potential to explode into an incandescent adventure. Human condition, I guess you could say.
Refusal of the Call
But the hero would prefer to live some version of the life they can see all around them, thank you very much.
Supernatural Aid
Not so fast, says something genuinely abnormal. To the hero, it is possible that this stage feels very far from what they would recognize as “aid”. Maybe it feels worthwhile, and maybe it doesn’t. It can be a mentor with a certain spiritual connection, or a mysterious happening, or a mystical experience.
The Crossing of the First Threshold
The hero can’t stay where they are, doing what they probably thought they wanted to do when they were refusing the call. They have to get moving.
Belly of the Whale
The bad news is, that this endeavor isn’t going to be quite as easy as the hero probably deserves. A problem arises, and the hero faces it, more or less alone. This moment probably proves something about the hero: maybe that they’re a good person (which heroes have to be), or that they have the right idea (which is helpful for a hero), or that they have skills or potential or fortitude (which heroes have to have).
The Road of Trials
The hero has to keep moving, and alas, the way is arduous. Difficulties arise along the way, defining the adventure as a quest, as opposed to a mere travel log.
The Meeting with the Goddess
This one is rather confusing when you’re doing literary analysis, as most stories do not feature a meeting with any actual goddesses. This is a reference to finding something special. Perhaps it’s adapted from the theological theory that the manifest universe is the domain of the Goddess in a particular way. At this point, the manifest universe somehow seems to have a pinnacle to show the hero. It can be an item, a goddess, a splendid city, or something else, but it is worth seeing.
Temptation
Here is where the question “Why continue?” or “Why go anywhere else?” comes up in one way or another, but it is not wholesome in contrast to the hero’s actual destiny. Once the hero comes to realize this, the hero rejects the temptation to halt the quest, and continues on.
Atonement/Abyss
Something happens that brings up a new idea: someone or something might have a quarrel with the hero based on the hero’s history, nature, or conduct, or based on the nature of reality itself. Suddenly there is a problem that cannot be solved so directly as the prior challenges. The hero must confront something about themselves here, and understand who they the hero are, what they’ve done, and how they feel about the world, all well enough to navigate this stage.
Apotheosis
Oh good, the hero did a good job navigating the last stage! Now they’re the bigger person, compared with before. They are something larger than life, and their instincts will from now on be to do the very right thing.
The Ultimate Boon
Now the hero reaches a key objective, getting something they needed or at least wanted very much and are not entirely undeserving of.
Refusal of the Return
There is likely something on the journey or at the end of the journey that the hero doesn’t want to leave. But one thing the hero has learned is that not everything can stay exactly the same all the time. What we see here is actually usually much more like reluctance than refusal, though stories may vary. A hero at this stage can move forward if they know they’re supposed to. They just can.
The Magic Flight
The hero starts on the journey home, usually with the ultimate boon or something gained from it.
Rescue
The hero deserves help, and sometimes they really need it by now. It’s usually help from someone or something powerful, and this is where it comes in.
The Crossing of the Return Threshold
At this point the hero often returns in some way to what one could call the real world, which is at least semi-distinct from the more single-minded existence of the quest. This is where that shift occurs. The hero may be reunited with previous companions, locales, or pursuits.
Master of the Two Worlds
This is where the hero integrates back into that real world, but this time as a person who has developed new abilities, new understanding, and the right instincts. The world is lucky to have a person such as this. They have the education and life experience that faithfully following the quest offered them, and they are better for it.
Freedom to Live
Life can be good, and the hero is ready– and well-equipped– to live it. Sometimes the status quo even changes because what came before was so pivotal in the world, and part of the hero’s great reward is this: it’s a better status quo.
For real life heroes, hewing to the best in themselves can take them into and through some of these steps rather naturally, sometimes in this order, sometimes in a different order.
──── by Lync Dalton ────
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