The Hero's Journey

Many have written about the hero’s journey: the ancients used myth and lore, and the Native Americans use the medicine wheel, while other indigenous cultures follow the guidance of the shaman’s and utilize ritual.  All the great religions speak mystically about freedom from suffering and use the lives of saints and others to depict the journey.  Robert Dilts, author of The Hero’s Journey writes in summary:

On the journey, we follow our hearts, vision and calling to find our own way and discover something new. This is the path of all great leaders, entrepreneurs and pioneers. Through the challenges and discoveries along the path we acquire courage, insight, wisdom, resiliency and greater awareness of ourselves and the world. When we return to the village we are able to make our own unique contribution to others and become recognized and acknowledged for who we really are…As a result of our growth, we bring new ideas and new life to the village, making it possible for more to thrive there. We may even find it possible to bring healing and transformation to the wasteland (Dilts, 2014, p. xxx).

The concept of the hero’s journey was first popularized by Joseph Campbell; however, the archetype of the hero began long before Campbell wrote about it, as did the human fascination with heroic adventure.  Joseph Campbell detailed and compiled multiple views from various cultures and mythic legends in his book The Hero With a Thousand Faces.  In 1949 Campbell wrote with regard to his greatest work:

 It is the purpose of this present book to uncover some of the truths disguised for us under the figures of religion and mythology by bringing together a multitude of not-too-difficult examples and letting the ancient meaning become apparent of itself…we must first learn the grammar of the symbols…and as a key to this mystery I know of no better modern tool than psychoanalysis……let the symbols speak for themselves.  The parallels will be immediately apparent; and these will develop a vast and amazingly constant statement of basic truths by which man has lived through the millennia of his residence on the planet (Campbell, 2008, p. xxx).

     Campbell goes on in great detail to outline the “composite Adventure of the Hero, the world’s symbolic carriers of the destiny of Everyman” (Campbell, 1949, p.28).  Campbell’s friend and well-known psychoanalyst Carl G. Jung has written extensively on the subject in a slightly different way that parallels the hero’s journey but also identifies the stages of human psychological development: “we first develop the ego, then encounter soul, and finally give birth to a unique sense of Self” (Pearson, 1991, p.27).  Jung has written extensively about archetypes and the increased awareness of symbolism over the course of the psyche’s developmental journey.  Carol S. Pearson, a depth psychologist following in Jung’s footsteps, has created a “12-archetype system that includes the archetypes or story lines that her research found to be most correlated with success and fulfillment in contemporary society” (Pearson, 2014, p. xxx).  Pearson’s system parallels the hero’s journey and human psychological development.  Her research indicates that at each stage of the journey we are in fact working with archetypal energies and her system helps to make conscious what was previously unconscious with regard to the energies at play.  

     It has been my experience that the hero’s journey, the universal life-story structure in which the individual overcomes great odds to find their authentic voice and service contribution to society, is not only a journey into healing and wholeness but also holistic in nature.  My journey has been holistic in that it has required me to address every major aspect of being.  Physically it has required addressing toxicity/detoxification, personal nutrition, supplementation, activity types and levels that work for my constitution, postural alignment for improved energy flow, and the release of cellular memories from past traumas.  Mentally I have been called to challenge beliefs, overcome habits of mind, and transform life’s difficult experiences into sources of strength.  I have needed to increase my quality of perception, become my own witness, and hold a vast space for emotions to come and go without feeling triggered by them.  The space I created became a sacred space in which I was able to make connections between my past and present. This allowed me to take new action from an inspired place of peace and self-knowing so that on a spiritual level, I was developing the positive qualities of a mature self-regulated, self-fulfilled, individuated adult while attending to my core values.  Through the exploration of subtle sensation I came to understand how the energies of my thoughts and feelings affected my etheric body, from moment to moment.   In this integration of body, mind, and emotions, I came to understand myself not only as a complex physical being but also an energetic being.  I followed my path through the chakras.  The way I live my life as a complex energetic multidimensional being became a source of spirituality and opened my way to “the essence of spirituality- discovering the extraordinary in the ordinary business of life” (Tisdell, 1999, p.88). Understanding this complexity along with the occasional paradoxical nature and resultant opposing tensions that manifest experientially, physically, mentally, and emotionally create a playground for me to transform and work toward an energetic self-mastery that connects me deeply in the present moment with Spirit, my highest aspect of Self.  I imagine I am not alone in this holistic view and experience of the Hero’s Journey.

     Future posts will delve further into the Hero's Journey, including how we can take it, find support through it, and support the journey in others.  As Campbell once said, the Hero's Journey is the destiny of every (wo)man.