The Hero’s Journey

1. The Hero’s Journey "A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself" -- Joseph Campbell

2. The Hero’s Journey • The hero’s journey is a series of adventures beyond the ordinary, either to recover what has been lost or to discover something.  • The journey is a cycle of going and returning. 

3. The journey is a process of separation, transformation, and return. The stages must each be completed successfully if we are to become heroic.

4. The Separation

5. The Separation • The Call • The Call invites the hero into the adventure, offers opportunity to face the unknown and gain something of physical or spiritual value.

6. The Separation • The Mentor • The hero will encounter a helper who provides assistance or direction. • The most important of these helpers is the mentoror guide. • Mentorscan assist and point the way, but they cannot take the journey for the hero.

7. The Separation • The Refusal • The hero may initially refuse the call to go on the journey.

8. The Separation • The Adventure Threshold • The Threshold is the doorway between the known and the unknown. • In the known world, the hero feels secure because she or he knows the landscape and the rules. • Once past the threshold, the hero enters an unknown world filled with challenges and dangers.

9. The Separation • The Threshold Guardians • Threshold Guardians - people, beings, or situations which block the hero’s passage to the new world. • Sometimes these threshold guardians are the hero’s own fears and doubts.

10. The Transformation

11. The Transformation • Companions • After crossing the threshold, the hero may encounter companions who will assist the hero in his or her journey.

12. The Transformation • The Challenges • Challenges are the obstacles or temptations that the hero faces as he or she attempts to achieve the goal. • As the journey progresses, the challenges often become more and more difficult, testing the hero to the utmost.

13. The Transformation • Into the Abyss • When the hero reaches the Abyss (a deep gulf or chasm), she or he faces the greatest challenge of the journey. • Here is where "the monsters" of fear and doubt must be slain.

14. The Transformation • Revelation and Transformation • The hero often has a Revelation—a sudden, dramatic change in the way he or she thinks or views life. • The revelation gives the hero the courage they need to make the Transformation — the change from the person they were to the hero (the new person).

15. The Transformation • The Atonement • After transformation, the hero goes on to achieve Atonement—the hero’s acceptance of his or her new self (or their new role).

16. The Return • After Transformation and Atonement, the hero faces the final stage of the journey: the Return to everyday life.

17. The Return • Return with the Gift • Upon the return,the hero discovers his or hergift, which is the result of a new level of skill and awareness. • The hero may become richer or stronger, or may become a great leader.

18. The Return • Master of Two Worlds • As the hero completes the challenges, the hero's bravery is noted by those around him or her. • The hero is often looked up to in the old world as well as in the new world. • There are times when the hero returns to the old world and his/her message is unheard or the achievements unrecognized. In this case, the hero sometimes returns to the other world.