A Heroes Journey

Everyone loves a hero. Countries around the world have multiple myths containing heroes. The Greeks and the Norse loved their heroes. For that matter, every ancient culture loved their heroes. Heroes faced the things that the people themselves feared. These things change from culture to culture but mainly included creatures of the fantastical kind. However, no matter how different the story every hero story has the same formula as discovered by Joseph Campbell. Each story starts out with the call. This explains why the hero goes out on his/her adventure. Often it is something they have to do in order to help the community. Other calls are personal ones, like needing to find out who their father was.

After the call there is the transition. The transition is when the hero enters the usually supernatural world. In place of the supernatural they may enter a world of the nonliving. If that s not the case then they enter non normal way of life. In some religions, they even meet with gods.

Soon after they face their challenge. This challenge sometimes occurs while the hero is still in transition. The challenge maybe either physical, mental, spiritual, or emotional. However the hero does not need to beat these challenges in order to proceed to the next part of the tale. In fact, many cultures have heroes that fail.

The final stage is the return. This occurs when the hero returns to their home. For most heroes their homecoming turns into a huge festival. Other heroes return to a family celebration. The type of homecoming depends on the values the culture holds.

That is the basic formula for a hero tale. However, Campbell also made a good point when he said that this formula can be applied to everyone. We all face our own challenges and go through our own heros journey at least once in our lives. So the next time you receive the call to go out on your own journey remember there is a hero in all of us.

(photo credit: harrsch)

April 10th, 2009 by admin | Posted in History | (0)