The Hero's Journey
tags:: on/persuasion #a/concept Storytelling
author:: Joseph Campbell
"Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life.
It is a waste to be asking the question if you are the answer."
The hero's journey is a quest to find the inward thing you basically are.
Follow your bliss.
“Follow your bliss.
If you do follow your bliss,
you put yourself on a kind of track
that has been there all the while waiting for you,
and the life you ought to be living
is the one you are living.
When you can see that,
you begin to meet people
who are in the field of your bliss,
and they open the doors to you.
I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid,
and doors will open
where you didn't know they were going to be.
If you follow your bliss,
doors will open for you that wouldn't have opened for anyone else.”
The Writer's Journey - Christopher Vogler
A more modern 12-phase version
Separation
The Ordinary world
With a growing sense of something being not quite right. But it's comfortable.
The Call to Adventure
Something disrupts the comfort.
Refusal of the Call
Hero is overwhelmed and believes problem is beyond their capabilities.
Communicates the risks to the journey ahead.
Remaining here deteriorates life and relationships.
Hero desperately guidance:
Meeting with the Mentor
Leads hero eventually to the realization that personal change is required.
Practical training, wise advice or self-confidence.
Tutilary figures don't have to be "real people."
Initiation
Hero enters the special world. Unfamiliar place where one confronts his dragon.
Crossing the First Threshold
Trials become more difficult and the hero skills up.
First confrontation with the dragon is likely to fail.
Maybe he can't do this alone...
Tests, Allies and Enemies
Hero explores the special world.
Encounters tests.
Allies support change and decrease Hero's isolation.
Common theme: fear of asking for help. Being seen as less than capable.
Ironically, vulnerability becomes a key skill.
Approach to the Innermost Cave
Final preparation before descending.
The Ordeal
The greatest challenge yet. All looks lost. Feels back at place one.
Fortunately allies are here.
After repeated attempts it now becomes possible.
Psychological death and rebirth.
Reward
Hero receives insights as reward.
The Road Back
Hold his reward and return to the ordinary world.
There are enemies and dragons again. But there's no way back and the hero is motivated.
The Resurrection
The weary hero must experience a second psychological death.
Rebirth with his old attributes + new insights.
Move from dependence to responsibility.
Purified from the land of the dead.
Return with the Elixir
The final reward earned. Something to share. Something to heal, or wisdom, or just insight to share.
Joseph Campbell's Original 17 Phases
Departure
The Call to Adventure
Refusal of the Call
Supernatural Aid
The Crossing of the First Threshold
We entered the unknown.
Belly of the Whale
Initiation
The Road of Trials
The Meeting with the Goddess
Woman as the Temptress
Atonement with the Father/Abyss
Apotheosis
The Ultimate Boon
Return
Refusal of the Return
The Magic Flight
Rescue from Without
The Crossing of the Return Threshold
Back to the known.