Hero's Journey - Introduction to the Hero's Journey

INTRODUCTION TO“THE HERO’S JOURNEY”

“You nourish your soul by fulfilling your destiny.”–Harold Kushner

The famed scholar and mythologist Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) urged usall to “follow our bliss.” What does that mean? In its truest form, it means tofind your passion and live it. Campbell once said:

If you follow your bliss, you will always have bliss, money or not. If you follow money, you may lose it, and you will have nothing.

Finding your passion is one of the main objectives of this course. The capaci-ty for bliss is within each of us. It is buried under layers of self-doubt, peer andparent pressure, social demands, and many other deterrents that stop us fromfinding our bliss. Therefore, it is necessary to peel away those layers and lookunderneath (or within) to find your passion. Once you have identified yourpassion, you will devise a plan to integrate that passion into your life toachieve “bliss.”

Campbell states one way of finding bliss is to study the “Hero’s Journey” or“Hero’s Myth.” It is a story that is timeless. In going back to stories (myths)thousands of years old, you can see the same pattern, the same story, toldrepeatedly. From the Odyssey, written around 800 B.C., to Star Wars, whichwas written in the late twentieth century, the hero’s story stays the same.

The hero’s myth generally incorporates following themes:

• The hero leaves home by either choice or force.• The hero experiences various crises along the way and learns more about

himself or herself.• The hero will symbolically experience going down to the underworld

(looking within).• The hero will make a decision to follow a certain path, and in turn, find

his or her bliss.

This course uses the hero’s myth as its template. For example: (1) studentsleave home—psychologically and/or physically— to attend college either bychoice or force; (2) they will experience crises along the way and learn aboutthemselves (assessments and exercises in class); (3) they will look within andreflect on what they see (more assessments and exercises); and (4) they willmake a decision, and in turn, find their bliss.

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There are many myths (stories) that could be used to illustrate the hero’s myth.Going back 2,500 years, the list is endless: Buddha, Moses, Jesus, David,Mary, Joan of Arc, Krishna, Hercules, Isis, and King Arthur, to name a few.

(The following is a synopsis from Homer’s Odyssey:)

LEAVING HOME

Odysseus is forced to leave his home and fight a war in Troy. He spends tenyears fighting and defeating the Trojans, and then heads back home to his wifeand son. Along the way, Poseidon, the god of the sea, rebukes Odysseus for notacknowledging the help he has received from the gods. Odysseus claims he dideverything himself because he is full of vanity, pride, and arrogance. He prom-ises to make it home to Ithaca despite Poseidon’s warnings.

TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS

Odysseus and his men encounter their first crisis when they meet the one-eyedgiant. Successfully vanquishing the giant, Odysseus mocks Poseidon again.Later he meets the god of wind who gives Odysseus a sack and tells him notto open it until he and crew reach Ithaca. However, Odysseus’ crew does notheed this warning and they open the sack. As a consequence, they are sent far-ther from their homeland of Ithaca.

Ultimately, they find themselves on another island where the reigning goddessturns the crew into animals. They stay on that island for five years and suc-cumb to the most basic of human needs: food, drink, and sex.

LOOKING WITHIN

After Odysseus and his crew leave this island, he travels to the underworld tosee the blind seer, Teiresias. Teiresias tells him that the way home has been

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there the whole time; he just needs to see it. Odysseus and his crew face morecrises, and he ends up on another island with another woman. When he final-ly realizes that he is a prisoner of his own desires, he is able to return home toIthaca.

FINDING HIS BLISS

Having made the decision to go home, he builds a ship and designs an escapeplan. Odysseus returns home, and the goddess Athena turns him into an oldbeggar, stripped of all worldly possessions and social status, so he can deter-mine if his wife still wants him after 20 years. He wins back his wife and istransformed into his natural self. He has finally found his bliss.

THE HERO’S JOURNEY AND YOU

As you follow your hero’s journey in this course, you will learn about the tri-als and tribulations that you will face. Through assessments, you will lookwithin and learn about your personality, interests, and values. You will make adecision using your knowledge of critical thinking, decision making, intuition,and the holistic workings of your mind, body, and spirit. Hopefully at the endof all this course, you will discover your bliss, and your passion in life.

REFERENCES AND RECOMMENDED READINGS:

Campbell, J. (1972). Myths to Live By. New York: Bantam Books.Campbell, J. (1988). The Power of Myth. New York: Doubleday.Leeming, D.A. (1981). Mythology: The Voyage of the Hero. New York: Harper

Collins.Osbon, D.K. (1991). Reflections on the Art of Living: A Joseph Campbell

Companion. New York: Harper Perennial.

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Move over, Odysseus, here comes Luke Skywalker

By Steve Persall, Times Film Critic

Nobody paid $7 to hear Homer read The Odyssey, or lined up to buy Thomas Malory's15th-century version of King Arthur's legend. But, when Star Wars Episode 1: ThePhantom Menace opens at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, George Lucas' epic of galactic goodand evil will be seen by more people in one day than Homer or Malory ever dreamed ofreaching in their lifetimes.

Different eras, different heroes, yet Lucas' film series contains the same mythic qual-ities those ancient storytellers and others used to fuel imaginations throughout theages.

Lucas always claimed that his lucrative Star Wars saga blends mythology and technol-ogy. Instead of a Scylla, he has Darth Vader. Luke Skywalker and Thor have more incommon than you may think.

Indeed, Lucas' fascination with mythology led to an enduring friendship with the lateJoseph Campbell, perhaps the best-known expert in the field.

Lucas blended archetypes of legends and visionary cinema into three Star Wars chap-ters between 1977 and 1983. Star Wars (known to Jedi disciples as A New Hope),The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi have grossed billions of dollars inworldwide ticket sales and merchandising.

The reason goes beyond state-of-the-art special effects and studio hype. Lucas' filmseries isn't merely a hit, it's a myth.

“Star Wars is an example of what Joseph Campbell called the Monomyth, which reaches abroader audience and is more enduring,” said Shanti Fader, editor of Parabola maga-zine, a publication of the Society for the Study of Myth and Tradition.

“The stories speak to something inside us that wants to know how our world lives, thatwants to make order of it and find some meaning. Myths fulfill that in a way that scienceand facts don't always do, because science and facts don't always give us meaning.”

Campbell -- known to mass audiences through The Power of Myth, the PBS TVseries based on his books -- was an expert in the construction and cultural resonanceof mythology. His books, Masks of God and The Hero with a Thousand Faces areconsidered the ultimate guides to what has enthralled the world for centuries.

Campbell defined the Hero Cycle, a course of events that occurs as a rite of initiationin every myth, pinpointing the need for mentors, villains, elixirs and jesters along theway. Each step can be traced in the adventures of Star Wars hero Luke Skywalker.

Before Campbell died in 1987, the scholar and Lucas became friends. A storytellerneeds a mentor as much as a hero does.



“Yes, I consider him a mentor,” Lucas said at a recent New York press conference. “Hewas an amazing scholar and an amazing person. When I started doing Star Wars, I re-read Hero with a Thousand Faces. After Return of the Jedi, somebody gave me a tape ofone of his lectures. I was just blown away by that. He was much more powerful as a speak-er than he was as a writer.”

A short time later, Lucas loaned his studios to PBS to produce the Campbell series.Letters and gifts exchanged by the two visionaries are on display in the JosephCampbell Archives in Santa Barbara, Calif.The founding curator of that museum, Dr. Jonathan Young, said Campbell comparedLucas to the masters.

“Campbell was very grateful that Lucas presented the elements of Luke's initiation so clear-ly,” Young said. “The idea of a calling, of being drawn away into a place of wisdom, find-ing allies and mentors, accomplishing the ordeals, and then returning.”

In Campbell's teachings, myths inspire both awe and recognition. They communicatea sense of universal order and show how people should live.

Sound like Star Wars? Campbell thought so.

“Campbell was impressed that Lucas had so diligently presented this large mystery in a waythat was so accessible to large numbers of people,” Young said.

The hero and the quest

“Luke fulfills a number of the characteristics that you see in mythic heroes,” Feder said: “Aroyal lineage that he grows up ignorant about in a simple, obscure way, and he has specialpowers and abilities that are brought out by a series of teachers.

In classic mythology, the hero reluctantly leaves the homeland (in Luke's case, the planetTatooine) on a quest that takes him over a supernatural threshold into a strange land. Ahelper/co-hero such as space jockey Han Solo lends a steady hand through a series of ordeals.Comic relief is provided by tricksters such as the Greek muse Thalia or C3PO and R2-D2.

Ultimately, the hero must stand on his own, face the darkness and conquer it before return-ing to reality, stronger and wiser.

For Luke, the darkness was the evil side of the Force, a cosmic spiritualism that Obi-WanKenobi and Yoda taught him to harness for good purposes, another element of the HeroCycle. Luke and Han, by association with the Force, both evolve from self-centered peopleinto crusaders with a grand purpose.

“No one becomes much in this life without powerful mentoring experiences,” Young said.“These are both universal and precious. It is a rare and beautiful thing that everyoneknows on some level is of great, great value.”

A series of obstacles must block the hero's path to an enchanted land where final victory -- the elixir of a golden fleece or galactic peace -- awaits. Threshold guardians constantly

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interfere with the hero, whether it's the terror of Medusa, Mordred, or the Empire'sstormtroopers and a conniving Jabba the Hutt.

Even after defeating the guardians, mythological heroes can't breathe easily.

“The seeker has to go through a death and rebirth experience,” Young said. “When Lukeis trapped in the garbage dump in the first movie, or Han Solo is turned to stone in thatcarbonite block, these are experiences equal to Jonah being swallowed by the great fish.”

"They are being completely overwhelmed by defeat, a near-death experience, and thenthey're revived and are able to become new people. That's a challenge that every humanbeing goes through.”

After the hero prevails, the final showdown with the villain, either real or psychological,can begin. Psychologist Carl Jung, a mentor of sorts to Campbell, called this antagonist theShadow archetype. Darth Vader's black cloak and helmet, or his estranged conflict with his soncertainly fit that description.

This pattern of myth appears in plenty of books, TV shows and films. Consider Dorothy'strek to OZ or Rocky Balboa's heavyweight boxing career.

“Every culture has them, and they're essentially the same story,” said Liam Neeson, whoplays Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn in The Phantom Menace. “We immediately recognizethem in some way, and we feel the need to have them told.”

“We're living in such a complex world, with so much confusion each time we turn around,that we want to see something that makes the world more palatable. (Myths) just remindyou of those basic pillars of wisdom that everybody should have.”

Moving beyond myth

The most obvious is the massive exposure and instantaneous cult of devotion that surroundsThe Phantom Menace. Lucas is the first mass media mythologist, which causes some aca-demics to question placing him among the elite creators of legends. Ancient myths thrivedon the power of their stories alone, not mass communication

“There is the test-of-time thing to consider,” Feder said. “A lot of people would hesitate toput the label of ‘myth’ on something relatively new like Star Wars. But, a myth is a myth,no matter what trappings we put on it. Give them light sabers instead of swords and itdoesn't matter.”

Feder also noted Luke's shift toward pacifism, which is different from past mythologicalheroes. Yoda and Obi-Wan teach Luke to use the Force for knowledge and defense, and theyoung Jedi knight tosses away his weapon during the climactic battle with Darth Vader inReturn of the Jedi.

“That's a pretty radical idea,” she said. “We're used to the hero fighting; slaying the drag-on or killing the monster. That's what we find most familiar. This idea of triumphing by

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not fighting, of being passive, of letting this power work through you, is a very Zen type ofidea.”

The most intriguing twists on mythological convention are just starting to take shape withthe release of The Phantom Menace. By moving backward in time and focusing on 9-year-old Anakin Skywalker, who will mature into Darth Vader, Lucas may be creating a larg-er, more shadowy multi-film epic. If so, Luke's story may be one portion of a larger vision.

It may turn out that Anakin is the ultimate hero, and his Darth Vader identity is merelythe low point he endures on the trail of a finer elixir. A rumor dating back to 1977 thatLucas would create nine Star Wars films has since been denied. However, with ThePhantom Menace beginning with Anakin's childhood and chapter six, Return of the Jedi,ending with his immortality, Anakin's Hero Cycle could logically be completed in six films.

Concentrating on Anakin Skywalker is a daring position to take, according to Young, whoread The Phantom Menace screenplay while it was being produced.

“In each of the four films, Lucas has been willing to take on darker themes, what Jungwould call ‘shadow material,' ” Young said. “We know Anakin Skywalker will someday beDarth Vader. Here's this very charming 9-year-old boy that we're following, and we knowwhere he's going.”

“It casts this troubled quality across the whole story, which I think is fascinating for a large-scale movie or any myth.”By revealing Darth Vader's redemption from the dark side of the Force in Return of theJedi, Lucas has already informed audiences that there is light after the shadows. It's thatpromise of goodness that Feder believes is vital to the Star Wars phenomenon and Lucas'place among the master mythmakers.

“For all that we like our gritty stories and our dark, brooding anti-heroes, how many ofthose gritty stories have endured?” she asked. “People may not realize it on the surface, but(the Star Wars story) touches something inside us in a way that mere entertainment does-n't.”

“Last year's action movie is last year's action movie. Most of them are forgotten. Somethingmythical like Star Wars endures.”

© Copyright 1999 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.

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INTRODUCTION TO THE HERO’S JOURNEY

Suggested discussion questions:

From the reading - “Move over Odysseus, here comes Luke Skywalker:”• Explain why “Star Wars” was so successful. • Describe some elements of the Hero’s Myth that are embedded in “Star Wars.”

Assignment Module:

Directions: All assignments must be typed with the exception of the tear-out worksheets.Please make sure to use correct form, grammar, and punctuation when composing assignments.

Self-Assessment Component• “Perfect Job” - Describe your idea of the “Perfect Job.” What is the job title? What kind of

duties would you have to fulfill in this job? What would the work environment look like?Where would you like to see yourself walking into in the morning (or evening)? Type - oneto two paragraphs.

• “Hero” - Describe someone you consider a hero. This can be a real or fictitious person.Describe the obstacles, trials, or tribulations that your hero had to overcome. Type - one totwo paragraphs.

Critical Thinking Component• From Introduction to The Hero’s Journey. How does the “Hero’s Myth” correlate with a

student going to college? Describe all four parts. Type - one to two paragraphs.



Presentations & Public Speaking

Hero's Journey - Introduction to the Hero's Journey