05 Oct The Hero’s Journey: Embracing our Inner Odyssey in Therapy
We all face challenges in life. Just like in the best told stories, our lives have patterns. In his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell spoke about one such pattern as the Hero’s Journey.
By looking at our life through this lens, we can see it as an adventure. This journey helps us understand our highs and lows. Think of it as a possible map for life. Using it, we can navigate troubles and celebrate victories, knowing every step is part of our story.
Drawing on ArchetypeS
The Hero’s Journey, is illuminated by a series archetypes – a term influenced by the Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, which refers to universally understood symbols or characters. From the naïve fool to the wise old sage, these archetypes, as Campbell shows, weave a narrative that resonates with many of us, transcending cultural, historical, and linguistic barriers.
Jung saw the Hero’s Journey as an integral component of the collective unconscious, a shared reservoir of experiences and symbols. For Jung, this journey was not just a mythological construct but a psychic necessity, a route to individuation and self-realisation.
The Different Stages of the Hero’s Journey
The Hero’s Journey is not merely a linear progression but a cycle, an odyssey of self-discovery, challenges, and eventual rebirth. It is categorised into the following stages:
- The Ordinary World: Our protagonist, comfortably ensconced in familiarity, experiences a calling.
- The Call to Adventure: An external event or internal yearning propels our hero out of their comfort zone.
- Refusal of the Call: The initial fear or reluctance to leave the familiar.
- Meeting with the Mentor: Guidance is sought, and the hero prepares for the journey ahead.
- Crossing the Threshold: The commitment to the quest, entering the unknown.
- Trials and Challenges: The hero is tested, facing a series of hurdles.
- Approaching the Inmost Cave: Confronting the greatest fear or challenge.
- The Ordeal: The apex of the journey, where the hero must face their greatest fear.
- The Reward Gaining the object or knowledge sought after.
- The Return: With the boon, the hero returns to the ordinary world, transformed, and with gifts to offer the wider community.
THE HERO’S JOURNEY IN CULTURE AND FILM
The Hero’s Journey is illustrated in many of our best known and loved films. In Star Wars, we witness Luke Skywalker’s progression from a simple farm boy to a galactic saviour. Neo in The Matrix transcends from a hacker bound by the confines of reality to the saviour of humankind. And Harry Potter, the orphaned child, evolves into a wizard who faces the darkness both outside and within.
Embracing the Hero Energy
The Hero’s Journey offers a potential metaphorical blueprint for personal transformation, one that can be powerfully applied when considering life changes or shifts in career.
For example, embarking on a new career is akin to heeding the “Call to Adventure”. It requires stepping out of our “Ordinary World” of comfort and into the unknown. There will inevitably be challenges and “Trials” — such as rejections, learning new skills, and overcoming personal doubts — but these are vital aspects of the journey towards growth. With each test, just as the hero becomes more resilient and wiser, so do we.
The mentorship phase can be equated to seeking guidance, be it through professional networks, mentors in the field, therapists or supportive friends and family who help hold us to account. By framing our life changes within the context of the Hero’s Journey, we not only recognise the inherent challenges but also the potential for growth and eventual triumph.
Procrastination and inner criticism are analogous to the “Refusal of the Call”, where fear and doubt paralyse the hero, making them hesitate to venture forward. These internal hurdles can be our most formidable adversaries, but the Hero’s Journey reminds us that confronting and overcoming our inner dragons is an integral part of any transformation.
By externalising these internal battles and envisioning them as challenges on our personal heroic path, we can better muster the courage to face them head-on. Just as heroes learn from their encounters, by actively engaging with our procrastination and inner judgments, we gain insight into their origins, allowing us to address root causes and harness our heroic energy to push beyond them.
Tension between Belonging and Authenticity
Trauma expert, Dr. Gabor Maté, highlights in his latest book: The Myth of Normal, the inherent tension we all have to hold between our need for belonging and our pursuit of authenticity.
This intricate dance between our innate need for belonging — an evolutionary imperative for our survival — and our drive for authenticity maps onto the hero’s journey. To belong, we often unconsciously mould ourselves, sometimes suppressing or altering core facets of our identity in order to fit into our families, societies, and cultural expectations. This is especially palpable in early childhood, where the longing for attachment can lead to adaptive behaviours that might not necessarily resonate with one’s authentic self.
Yet, as we grow up into adults and navigate through life, this very tension can become a crucible for personal growth. The pursuit of authenticity, the quest to be true to oneself, often demands that we confront these adaptive behaviours, question inherited beliefs, and sometimes challenge the very systems to which we once sought to belong.
This journey is not without its struggles, as it can mean facing fears (and the potential reality of) alienation or even ostracism. Calling on, and embodying the heroic energy and archetypes offered in Joseph Campbell’s myth, can support us in the challenges, offering us the potential for profound self-discovery and true connection — a belonging not borne out of conformity but out of genuine self-expression.
In today’s world, we can often find ourselves resisting change, cocooned within the comforts of modernity, and cultural norms. Yet, it’s by tapping into this archetypal hero energy that we muster the courage to meet our internal and external dragons. And sometimes, it’s not about slaying these dragons but learning to understand and even ultimately embrace them.
“Follow Your Bliss”
Joseph Campbell’s famous quote to “follow your bliss” is an evocative call to people seeking purpose and meaning in their lives. At its core, “bliss” in Campbell’s language is not simply ephemeral happiness or transient pleasure, but rather an alignment with one’s true calling or deepest passion. It is the authentic voice within that speaks of one’s unique path in life.
Identifying our personal “bliss” can be both challenging and enlightening. It often demands introspection, a deep dive into the self to discern what truly drives and motivates us beyond the noise and expectations of society. One idea that may help is Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of “flow” — those moments when we are so engrossed in an activity that time seems to vanish, and we’re in a state of seamless alignment with the task at hand. When we consistently finds ourselves in a state of flow during certain activities, it could be an indicator of where true passions and bliss reside.
Alternatively, dreams long forgotten or dismissed from childhood and adolescence can hold the keys to what might be a personal calling. Such hidden or buried passions may be uncovered using tools such as Julia Cameron’s The Artists Way. In this 12 week programme, Julia Cameron offers 3 tools including daily morning pages, weekly artists dates and regular walks to help people reconnect with their creativity and inner voice.
What to explore the Hero’s Journey further?
To really bring the hero’s journey alive, I would recommend watching the movie: Finding Joe, produced by Patrick Takaya Solomon. It is available to watch for free on YouTube and is illustrated with clips from some of the best-known films of our time including Star Wars:
Joseph Campbell Quotes From “Finding Joe”
“I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.” 0:16
“The function of mythological symbols is to give you a sense of Aha! Yes. I know what it is, it’s myself.” 13:42
“Your life is the fruit of your doing. You have no one to blame but yourself.” 19:57
“The call to adventure signifies that Destiny has summoned the hero…” 25:07
“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” 33:23
“Follow your bliss.” 37:47
“The universe will open doors, where there were only walls.” 49:39
“I want to sing like birds sing. Not worrying who listens or what they think.” RUMI 53:03
“Find a place where there is joy and the joy will burn out the pain.” 55:55
“Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging.” 59:04
“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.” 1:11:26
Every Hero’s Journey: This Jungian Life Podcast
You can also listen or watch this podcast episode: Episode 123 — Every Hero’s Journey from This Jungian life or watch on YouTube:
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