The Hero’s Journey
Home/Birth
• The hero’s home environment is
uncomfortable (as if the hero knows
something is not quite right…)
• The nature of the hero’s birth is
questionable (as if one or both parents
aren’t present)
The Stages
•Separation
•Initiation
•Return
Separation
The Call to Adventure
•
First notice that everything is going to
change, whether they understand it or not
Refusal to the Call
• Hero refuses the call to
adventure.
– This may be from a sense of
duty or obligation at home,
fear, insecurity, a sense of
inadequacy.
• Hero wants his life to stay
as it is currently.
Answering the Call
• Ultimately,
the hero
finds
motivation
to answer
the call.
Supernatural Aid
• Once the hero has
committed to the
quest, consciously or
unconsciously, his
guide and magical
helper appears or
becomes known.
Meeting the Mentor
• Often a character who
helps the hero to
understand their
situation.
• Provides the hero with
special training.
Talisman
• Item with
special
significance
that is
presented to
our hero.
Companions
• The hero is aided
on this quest by
an assortment of
individuals whose
personalities are
often at odds with
each other.
Crossing of the First Threshold
• Adventure begins.
• Leaving the known
limits of his world and
venturing into an
unknown and
dangerous realm
where the rules and
limits are not known.
• Physical transportation
happens too.
Threshold Guardians
People, beings or situations
that block passage across the
threshold of adventure
They have two
functions:
•Protect the hero
from journeys he is
unprepared for
•Point the way for
the hero to begin
his journey
The Belly of the Whale
• Final separation from the hero’s
known world and new world.
• This is the point when the person
is between or transitioning
between the worlds and selves.
• By entering this stage, the hero
shows their willingness to
undergo a metamorphosis or to
die.
Initiation
The Road of Trials
• A series of tests or ordeals
that the hero must undergo
to begin the transformation.
– Often the person fails at first.
• Sometimes failure causes
the hero to have to restart
the quest from the
beginning.
Brother Battle
• The hero battles,
physically or
emotionally, with
someone who is a
relative or close
friend.
– Could be an
argument or an
actual battle/fight.
Abduction
• Our hero is
kidnapped
or someone
close to the
hero is
taken away.
Night/Sea Journey
• The hero’s travels take
him to far-away and
unknown lands across
some vast and
treacherous space.
Dragon Battle
• The hero is
forced to battle
some kind of
monster.
• Sometimes, this
struggle is with
the hero’s innerdemons.
Ritual Death or Dismemberment
• The hero is injured and thought to be dead
or someone close to him dies.
• OR hero suffers an injury in which he
loses a limb or the use of another body
part.
The Meeting with the Goddess
• Point in the adventure when
the hero experiences an allpowerful, all-encompassing,
unconditional love –
motherly type of love.
The Sacred Marriage
• The Hero creates a special
emotional bond with another
character
• This union may take place
entirely within the hero.
– Eg. Scared former self and new,
stronger self become one
courageous hero.
Temptation Away from the True Path
• At one level, this step is about those temptations
that may lead the hero to abandon or stray from
his quest.
Atonement with
the Father
• In this step the hero must confront and be
initiated by whatever holds the ultimate
power in his life.
• In many myths and stories this is the father,
or a father figure who can cause life and/or
death.
Atonement with the Father
• Although this step is most frequently
symbolized as an encounter with a male
entity, it does not have to be a male; just
someone or something with incredible
power.
• For the transformation to take place, the
hero (as he previously was) must be
“killed” so that the new self can come into
being.
• Sometimes this killing is literal, and the
earthly journey for that character is either
over or moves into a different realm.
Apotheosis
• The apotheosize is to deify.
(or to make into a god)
Apotheosis
• When the hero suffers a physical death, he
moves into a state of divine knowledge, love,
compassion and bliss.
• If no literal death, then the hero is held up as an
ideal or worshiped as if they were a god.
The Ultimate Boon
• The ultimate boon is
the achievement of
the goal of the quest.
It is what the hero
went on the journey
to get.
– Now prepared to
return home.
The Ultimate Boon
• In many myths the
boon is something
like the magic elixir
of life itself, or a plant
that supplies
immortality, the
dragon’s fire or
treasure, the damsel
in distress, or the holy
grail.
The Return
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?
Refusal of the Return
• This is much like the refusal to start the journey, but
now the hero wonders if “roots” and “home” are
necessary or is concerned how he will now fit in his
previous surroundings.
Magic Flight
• Sometimes the hero must escape with
the boon, it if 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.
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.
Rescue From Without
• Or perhaps the person doesn’t realize that it
is time to return, that they can return, or that
others need their boon.
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,
especially when others find this new wisdom
dangerous to their current lives.
Master of Two Worlds
• This step is usually represented by a
transcendental hero like Jesus or
Buddha.
Master of Two Worlds
• 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.
Freedom to Live
• Mastery leads to
freedom from the fear of
death, which in turn is
the freedom to live.
• This sometimes referred
to as living in the
moment, neither
anticipating the future
nor regretting the past.
Questions?