the hero of a thousand faces joseph campbell

But more often than not, they’re a mixture of friendly and menacing. The mentor figure might be the fairy godmother of children’s lore. This is the character who first mentions that the hero has a “destiny” they must fulfill – that the repressed element within them is a gift that must be unlocked. Or, more to the point, we don’t want to confront that scary, repressed element that lies within us.īut for the heroes who eventually do answer the call, there is encouragement in the third step, known as “Supernatural Aid.” This often comes in the form of a mercurial elder or mentor who supplies the hero with the advice and protective amulets they need to embark on their journey. We don’t want to venture forth into some new and potentially dangerous world. Right from the start we have a conflict, which leads us to the second step: the “Refusal of the Call.” Often, we don’t want to leave the comfort of our normal lives. The hero recognizes that the call to adventure is speaking to something special that has been repressed within them – which is why the hero often greets this development with a mix of fear, uncertainty, and anxiety. Either way, in symbolic terms, this encounter is also a momentary personal revelation. In some cases, the hero might catch a brief glimpse of a hidden world. It could be a mysterious stranger standing by the side of the road, or something as fantastic as a talking animal. The first step is known as the “Call to Adventure.” This is the moment when the hero is confronted with something that lures them away from their normal routine. The Departure covers five steps, or subsections, in which the hero leaves the comfort of their ordinary environment and crosses the threshold into a more dreamlike world. So, let’s start at the beginning – at the first stage of the hero’s journey – which is known as the Departure. Along the way, the hero inevitably discovers they had everything they needed to overcome adversity and find enlightenment the whole time.

So, why is this important? Because the hero’s journey is as much about unlocking inner truths as it is about slaying dragons. In fact, after studying the case files of the famous psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, Campbell found that modern people’s dreams were still full of the same symbols and conflicts that make up the monomyth. After all, these myths are the result of the fertile human imagination, and were often created in response to our ancestors’ deepest fears and concerns. Campbell notes that this is very much the same world as our unconscious dream state.

As we embark on the hero’s journey, it’s important to know that we’re going to be dealing with mythology, which is a world of symbols and metaphors.

The hero of a thousand faces joseph campbell