The Hero’s Journey – A Hero is someone who is willing to sacrifice his own needs on behalf of others, like a shepherd who will sacrifice to protect and serve his flock.
"The Hero's Journey" Painting by Larry Chambers
At the root the idea of Hero is connected with self-sacrifice. Sacrifice is the Hero’s willingness to give up something of value, perhaps even her own life, on behalf of an ideal or a group. Like soldiers who know that by enlisting they have agreed to give their lives if their country asks them to, Heroes accept the possibility of sacrifice. They may give up a loved one or friend along the way or some cherished vice or eccentricity as the price of entering into a new way of life. They may return some of their winnings or share what they have gained in the Special World. They may return to their starting point, and bring back boons, elixirs,
Heroes facing internal guardians, monsters, and helpers in the quest they find teachers, guides, demons, gods, mates, servants, scapegoats, masters, seducers, betrayers, and allies, or characters found in our dreams. All the villains, tricksters, lovers,friends, and foes of the Hero can be found inside ourselves.
The Call is the adventure into the unknown.
The Refusal – this is where the hero may hesitate or hold back. She meets a Mentor that helps her.
The Crossing of the First Threshold –the hero goes forward in the adventure until she comes to the threshold Guardian. They guard the entrance to the zone of magnified power.
The Road Of Trails – Hero is tested and faces ordeals or a difficult task.
The Approach The Inmost Cave – The hero has a second threshold.
The Supreme Ordeal – Hero faces her toughest ordeal.
The Reward – The hero takes possession of the reward or some type of healing power, or breaks through a personal limitation and experiences spiritual growth. After the hero’s triumph wins the blessings of the gods and is commissioned to rerun to the world.
The Road Back –The hero is transformed by the experience.
Return with the Elixir – a treasure that benefits the ordinary world.
The mythologist Joseph Campbell had spent his entire life investigating the myths and legends found in different cultures around the world. Campbell found mythological themes repeat in every culture and every society.
Campbell wrote Hero With a Thousand Faces which could be applied to understanding of almost any human problem including going broke and restarting your life. These hidden patterns are used a guide to life by some of the most famous writers for books, and movies so there must be something to their order. I’ve taken the liberty of outlining an trying to reflect some of the common themes.
Campbell wrote that the hunter is an individual in a way that no farmer will ever be. Toiling in the fields and waiting for nature to tell you when you’re going to do it is one thing, but going off on a hunt—every hunt is a different hunt from the last one. And the hunters are trained in individual skills that require very special talents and abilities.
He says the hunter is always directed outward to the animal. His life depends on the relationship to the animals. His mythology is outward turned, that divergent thinking. But the planting mythology, which has to do with the cultivation of the plant, the planting of the seed, the death of the seed, so to say, and the coming of the new plant, is more inward. With the hunters, the animals inspired the mythology. When a man wanted to gain power and knowledge, he would go into the forest and fast and pray, and an animal would come and teach him.
With the planters, the plant world is the teacher. The plant world is identical in its life sequences with the life of man. There’s an inward relationship there. When you kill that animal, he’s dead—that’s the end of him. There is no such thing as a self-contained individual in the vegetal world. You cut a plant, and another sprout comes. Pruning is helpful to a plant. The whole thing is just a continuing in-beingness.
The planting culture
These plant stories actually penetrate as a hunting area in the Americas. The North American are is a very strong example of the interaction of hunting planting cultures. The Indians were chiefly hunters, but they also became growers (farmers).
There is a Algonquin Indian myth about a boy was wondering whether there might be some other way to get food besides hunting. The vision came to him out of his intention. And the boy says to his father at the end of the tale, “We no longer need to go out hunting now.” That was a moment these people became famers.
A good way to learn is to find a book that seems to be dealing with the problems that you’re now dealing with. That will give you some clues. Create a sacred place where you can sit in a read and read—and read and read. And read the right books
