“Those who know that the Eternal lives in them and that they, and all things, are really the Eternal, inhabit the grove of miraculous trees, drink the dew of immortality, and hear the silent music of eternal harmony everywhere… ”
Joseph Campbell

There is a story that has been told by a thousand voices, written by many hands, lived by many before us. It is the “Hero’s Journey”, an archetypal path invisibly underlying the deeds of the Heroes of all times. We can draw on this “story of stories” to get some insights as individuals but also collectively.

If we take a leap of thinking to observe this process from a planetary perspective, we can in fact picture Humanity as a collective hero grappling with its own dangerous, compelling and fundamental journey. We can ask ourselves if this collective or group Hero  – Humanity, is called to contribute to the salvation of the world and to the realization of a time of renewed Peace and Beauty on earth. Could it be true?

Let’s take a little heroic journey together with the intention of discovering our collective role and collecting some luminous crumbs to guide us along the path.

The “monomyth”: ideal model of the stories of Heroes

Myths, with the Heroes who live in them, have always been a source of profound individual and collective inspiration. The archetype of the Hero emerges in multiple and sometimes unexpected forms, in ancient and contemporary myths told by films and video games.

Many have documented and studied the existence of a “model” that unites vast categories of stories, myths and traditions regarding the Heroes and their initiatory journeys. It was the anthropologist Edward Tylor, who began to identify these patterns in the second half of the nineteenth century.

The person who really made the “model” behind the Hero’s Journey –  or “monomyth” – known was Joseph Campbell, who was also inspired by the theories of C.G. Jung. In 1949 he published  the book “The Hero of a Thousand Faces”, where he presented a narrative structure in 17 steps1 as the basis of heroic stories, summarized as follows:

“The hero leaves the normal world to venture into a wonderful and supernatural realm; here he meets fabulous forces and wins a decisive victory; the hero returns from his mysterious adventure endowed with the power to spread happiness among men ”2

 

The monomyth is a complex and fascinating subject, taken up by many authors and applied today to the most disparate fields, from marketing to writing to cinematography 3. A famous example of a film that can be framed in the “monomyth” structure is George Lucas’ Star Wars (1977).

The journey of humanity as a heroic journey

We can hypothesize or at least ask ourselves if the deep structure of the Hero’s journey, shared through the centuries by very different cultures and underlying so much of contemporary narratives, responds to a “prototype” of an initiatory process, connected to the progress of humanity. Campbell and other scholars have also recognized the “monomyth” in the sacred tales about Gautama Buddha, Moses and Christ who have all played such a pivotal role in the progress of Humanity.

It is certainly impossible to deal with this topic exhaustively now, but it is interesting to briefly describe the structure of this “journey”, which offers food for thought and analogies with the situation we are experiencing worldwide. It also allows us to formulate a fascinating hypothesis, to be elaborated first of all within ourselves: are we called, as humanity, to travel a “collective Hero’s Journey?

To explore this hypothesis, let’s go into the structure of the Hero’s journey in an extremely simplified way.

This journey is often organized in 3 main acts: departure or separation from the known and the ordinary world; the process of initiation, which begins with entering the “non-ordinary” and unknown world, a world full of trials and which touches the deepest point of darkness and death, to then produce revelation, ascent, victory and reward (a treasure or elixir bringing healing); the Return, in which the Hero can use the treasure earned for the benefit of his fellowmen.

The Hero himself is transformed by the adventure and gains spiritual power. Central figures throughout the process are also the characters who accompany the Hero: allies, enemies, the Guides (the figure of the Mentor) and extraordinary encounters with supernatural beings who also embody the Feminine and Masculine principle and in general opposing aspects and shadows to be transformed.

 

Departure: The first act of the Hero’s Journey

The first act of the Heroic journey, the Departure, begins with a Hero who, “in a nutshell”, unaware of his fate, lives in the ordinary world but receives a “call” to adventure, often consisting of an uncomfortable or dangerous situation. The Hero is usually reluctant to follow the call (but he is pushed to accept it by the figure of the Mentor.)

 

If we try to superimpose this model on the situation we live as Humanity and in the most aware groups and therefore receptive to the call inside, we can imagine that the acceleration of processes and events that have occurred on the planet in the past two years have been the clear indicator that we can and must urgently learn something new: our implicit call to embark on a journey to become Heroes, which begins like all trips at the beginning.

The fact that it is we and not others who live this call can spur us to become aware: perhaps we did not necessarily want to be involved in this great beginning, but if we find ourselves here and now in this world framework we are called to an assumption of responsibility.

On the threshold of the journey, just like our Hero, we are allowed to be reluctant and experience emotions of refusal to have to abandon the habits of “ordinary” life, with known boundaries, whether they are pleasant or unpleasant: when we are confronted with our call we must inevitably meet a Guardian of the Threshold.

Here the great theme of choice intervenes, because not all potential heroes will become one: one can refuse the great adventure and the entry into the extraordinary world that follows. One can therefore try to cling to the habits and forms of the past that are crumbling. This refusal, on closer inspection, could lead to even greater dangers, and substantially to an “end” understood as true exhaustion. On a planetary level we see the effects of this attitude in those parts of humanity that persist in pursuing and replicating systems and ways that are now clearly unsustainable and inadequate for life.

If instead we choose to accept the task to embark on our Heroic journey, what can we expect from the future? Not a smooth path.

Initiation: The second act

The next phase, drawing on Campbell’s model, is the second act – Initiation – a long, tortuous and difficult path, which starts after crossing the threshold towards an unknown world. The Hero faces tasks and trials, sinks into the abyss, reaches “the innermost cave” and experiences the central crisis of his adventure. The experience of death awaits him, also understood as the death of old identifications but still to be accepted at all levels. Going through death allows for a rebirth. The ascent phase begins, where the Hero receives new weapons, experiences Apotheosis, victory over the enemy, the conquest of wisdom and obtaining the reward (a treasure or a miraculous Elixir).

 

In this process the Hero is called to unification, synthesis, inclusion and transformation of opposites and shadows.

If once again we relate this process of transmutation to the challenges to be faced as Humanity, we can turn our thoughts to the need to overcome ideological contradictions and all kinds of separateness, to the need to balance many socio-economic imbalances in the world including on a more general level, the principles of the Feminine and the Masculine, to be able to relate in a ‘right way’ to the Earth.

The difficulty of the task ahead and the sacrifices inherent in this process could certainly lead us to give up and succumb. It is time to draw on the vision offered by the third act of the Hero’s journey: “The Return”, to nourish ourselves with awareness and hope.

 

The Return of the Hero

After many dangers, if the Hero goes through the Initiation process with determination, courage and faith, he receives a treasure, an Elixir able to heal and dispense happiness and earn the possibility (not always immediate) to return home to live a time of renewed harmony and Peace and to become “Master of two worlds”. The Hero crosses the threshold between worlds again and re-enters the ordinary world completely transformed and “Free to live” and share the Wisdom and the treasure gained. This treasure must by its nature be used for the benefit of all. 4

It is worth noting here that every heroic journey is both individual and collective. Each individual life is in a certain sense comparable to a heroic journey (this value is more clearly understood by reading the biographies of illustrious lives) but the Hero’s Journey always has a collective value.

In fact, according to Campbell’s vision, not only the Hero and his friends but all the characters in the story, including the Guides, are transformed by the initiatory adventure. We could assert that “the whole world” is transformed by the attainment of wisdom and spiritual power by the returning Hero.

 

A wish for humanity and an invitation to travel

That humanity can make a return journey from its initiatory adventure is a wish of inestimable value.

To reach this goal, however, it is necessary to accept the journey at every stage and the leap into the unknown that the process of collective transmutation involves. That the human group as a collective, makes itself available to become an alchemical laboratory of transformation – this could be the contribution that the Earth is asking of us through the troubled times we are witnessing.

Collectively accomplishing this journey could project us towards a Planetary Renaissance, possible only if Humanity agrees to recognize and respond to its “Heroic” potential; to conquer Mastery of the two worlds, the ordinary one and that of the heroic adventure, through cyclical processes of transmutation and synthesis.

If we can together focus our gaze beyond the immediate and contact the need for Planetary transformation, we will be able to attract the change, weapons and treasures necessary for the next step on the infinite journey of consciousness: a heroic journey that repeats itself and resounds in greater spirals and from the beginning of time, calls us and attracts us towards paths of Beauty, to realize the Elixir of the Future and share it with all Humanity in our present.

by Silvia Scali

 

  1. Campbell identified 17 steps (not always present in the same story or in the same exact order):The Call to Adventure, Refusal of the Call, Supernatural Aid, The Crossing of the First Threshold, Belly of the Whale, The Road of Trials, The Meeting with the Goddess, Woman as the Temptress, Atonement with the Father/Abyss, Apotheosis, The Ultimate Boon, Refusal of the Return, The Magic Flight, Rescue from Without, The Crossing of the Return Threshold, Master of the Two Worlds, Freedom to Live
  2. Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1949, p.  23.
  3. In this field the greatest contribution was made by Christopher Vogler, writer and producer of Hollywood and author of the book “The Hero’s Journey”
  4. This and other reflections were inspired by an interview to Jonathan Young, curator of the Campbell archive – on   gaia.com

 

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