The Hero’s Journey
Everybody loves a hero, don’t they?
It’s the stuff great novels and movies are made of.
And I bet each of us knows at least one hero; a person who’s survived a tragedy, saved someone else from tragedy or committed their lives to serving the greater good.
Are those the only Heroes though? Just the special few whose triumphs and good deeds supersede the efforts of other, lesser, mortals?
The concept of ”The Hero” absolutely intrigues me.
What really qualifies someone as a bona fide Hero?
For little Johnny or Susie, mom becomes The Hero when she bakes some cupcakes for their third grade class party. Dad is The Hero when he drives ten miles at 3:00AM to pick you up because your car broke down on the way home from a party…and when he doesn’t complain…then…he’s a Super Hero.
One of the best explanations of that which makes a Hero was penned in the mid nineteen hundreds.
In 1949 The Hero with a Thousand Faces was published. Written by Joseph Cambell, an American mythologist, writer and lecturer best known for his work in the fields of comparative mythology and comparative religion, The Hero became an extraordinarily influential guide of sorts for modern writers and artists.
And it is from Mr. Cambell we get the term “Follow your bliss…”.
Also of note, the term “Monomyth” is interchangeable with the term or theory of “The Hero’s Journey”.
Once, I read that George Lucas credits Cambell with having a hand in the creation and success of “Star Wars” and Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead always gave credence to Cambell’s influence.
Cambell breaks down The Hero and his Quest in to seventeen stages. I won’t go in to them all here as the most significant component for the purposes of this post lies in a simple three concept formula. You may, however, find the 17 stages at Wikipedia.
No matter The Hero or specific mission, each Quest may be divided thusly:
- Departure: Departure deals with the hero’s adventure prior to the quest.
- Initiation: Initiation deals with the hero’s many adventures along the way. (sometimes called Separation).
- Return: Return deals with the hero’s return home with knowledge and powers acquired on the journey.
Sound familiar?
As of the writing of the post, February 2009, there are about 6.7 billion people on earth.
From my perspective, that’s a whole lot of Heroes.
My interpretation is:
- The Departure (Separation) is when we leave the other side to incarnate on earth. It’s the time we draw up our Sacred Contracts, ink the deal and manifest here. Because we still feel separate from God we set off on our Quest to become one again.
- The Initiation is our time here on Earth. In my book Remembering the Future I write about the Seven Spiritual Keys. While we’re here fulfilling our contracts, we’re working toward mastering Truth, Reverence, Humility, Courage, Stillness, Forgiveness and Love.
- The Return is our crossing over, once again. The going “home”.
You may not think of yourself as a Hero. But, based on one man’s very respected take on the subject, you are.
I agree with Mr. Cambell.
We’re always talking about the little things being important, right? Well how many times in your day do have the opportunity to master any one of the Seven Spiritual Keys?
Is there even a minute in each day you can work on Truth or Reverence? How about Courage? In today’s world, stillness is a huge challenge on anyone’s Quest journey.
And any day you wake up and interact with other humans the Quest puts our mastery of Humility, Forgiveness and Love to the ultimate tests.
If, at the beginning of each day, you are willing to continue on with your journey…to strive one more time to be successful in the completion of your Quest…even if you failed the day, the hour or even the minute before…you, my friend ARE a HERO.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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Well put!! Absolutely beautiful! Everyone is a hero.. many times I have tried to tell each person in my life the amount of power and importance they each have in their own way. Very difficult for people to believe in themselves. Myself included. Wow! Thank you so very much for this.. it was a great inspiration for myself today! Thank you!
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