With insights from Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, what can mankind’s mythology possibly tell us about how to live our best modern lives? A lot more than you might think. After all, this universal “Call” is really about … all of us.
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Who Is The Hero With A Thousand Faces?
Has your life ever felt off course?
Have you ever strayed from where you knew you should be - or go?
Has life ever ground you down into a droll gray existence of getting up, going to work, going to bed, getting up, going to work . . .
Last August, I wrote the heartfelt Rediscovered Realms edition, “The Call To Adventure” as someone who was just awakening to the fact he had unknowingly long ago given up his agency and had lost his bearings in life.
Someone who, after decades of doing the “have to’s” and the “should-do’s” looked up one day to the dizzying disorientation of “why do I feel so incomplete?” and “where the heck did the time go?” and “is this all there is?”
Yeah, sure, some may be quick to call it a mid-life crisis, but really, what is a mid-life crisis except a stark realization of our mortality combined with the fact that you’ve outgrown where you are - or maybe you want more from life than what past mindsets, decisions and autopilot have provided.
That, and the other realization . . . as long as you have breath, you have the power to take action and make a change.
Rediscovered Realms is a product of that change.
In the panoply of human existence, we live, love, & lose in a never-ending cycle of generations.
Myth has always been a human’s constant companion & succor when we dare to gaze too deeply at that individual uncomfortable eventuality.
Mythologist, Joseph Campbell most famously noted the “Monomyth” pattern in his book, “The Hero With A Thousand Faces”, and called this repeating motif, “The Hero’s Journey” which has been repeated in part or whole throughout all human cultures and time periods.
A hero embarks on an adventure, faces challenges, undergoes transformation, and ultimately returns home.
Campbell’s original 12-17 (depending on how you slice them) steps can be boiled down to 3 simple stages, but yet they are 3 very profound stages.
Departure
Initiation
Return
Those stages contain the essence of what it means to be human, both individually and collectively.
Within their hallowed threshold boundaries are lessons, warnings, joys & pains, and of course through it all there are ultimately . . . choices.
Campbell wrote of one of those choices - refusing the call and its consequences.
But here’s the thing - when we say “no” to our individual Call, we are essentially exiting our “Heroic Journey” and being fast-tracked onto our “Shadow Journey” instead.
That Shadow Journey becomes full of painful & threatening encounters, so to compensate in our lives, we wind up building walls of defenses to avoid the responsibility for our circumstances.
And where it gets ugly? Those walls (rationalizations, fears, guilt, excuses) eventually become prisons.
It’s no wonder we then feel trapped in our lives with little joy. We’ve cordoned off the very attributes we were born with that make us heroic.
Our essence, thus constrained, starts to spoil. That’s when the malaise of a half-lived life can lull us into unobserved decades of indifference.
We are trying to stand still within a world that is built upon change.
We are in effect rejecting our need to grow and adapt.
“Walled in boredom, hard work, or ‘culture,’ the subject loses the power of significant affirmative action and becomes a victim to be saved. His flowering world becomes a wasteland…and his life feels meaningless …All he can do is create new problems for himself and await the gradual approach of his disintegration.” - The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
From Victim to Victor: Resistance is not Refusal!
We all know examples of people in books, movies and real life who refused their Call their whole lives to their detriment and to the detriment of the majority of whom they came into contact with.
Sometimes, people are only Resisting the Call for a while before eventually accepting it, and this can often turn out better for them in the long run, giving additional perspective and skills that wouldn’t have been available otherwise.
Refusing the Call permanently, however, never turns out well for anyone.
Fortunately, most of us stop resisting and wake up sooner or later.
And then, once our eyes open, other sage realizations start to become apparent, like “One size doesn’t fit all”, “It’s our duty to pursue our passion”, and “Fear is the mind killer” (thank you for that last one Frank Herbert!)
So then, with renewed vision, all that’s then left to do . . .
. . . is to take
. . . that
. . . first
. . . step.
Back in November, I took the verse from my previous “The Call To Adventure” newsletter edition and turned it into a ballad which I’ve shed several a profoundly meaningful tear over and kept close to my heart since then.
I break it out when feeling low - when I feel like giving in and start asking those same ol’ questions all over again. This song ALWAYS reminds me of the hallowed journey and how far I’ve come. It inspires me to take just one more step forward on my path.
Part of that path & my personal Hero’s Journey is that I now share it with you. May it add inspiration to your Call to Adventure as well.
And really, if you think about it, from a sufficiently lofty vantage point, wouldn’t an observer, looking down on our thousands upon thousands of faces throughout time - with our defeats & triumphs, boons & busts, our sorrows & joys, . . . and mainly just by virtue of our choices, assume we’re really on the same heroic journey together?
“The Hero’s Journey (Ballad)”
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Set to a tune that will pluck the resonant heartstrings of the most lost, wayward, and stouthearted of Adventurers.
For the lyrics/verse and to read the original article:
The “Rediscovered Realms Unlocked” podcast also had an inspirational side conversation about this article - about following your own path, pursuing your heart’s desires, and not giving up on your dreams. This podcast episode is available for all subscribers, paid & free:
And for those interested in learning more about The Hero’s Journey, Joseph Campbell, and Mythology, Brodryk said to make sure to check out his Rediscovered Realms Shoppe shelf where he keeps those items.
I personally started with “The Power of Myth” - an extremely easy introduction to Campbell with many allusions to Star Wars! This book got me hooked on Campbell and was a huge part of my awakening journey. It looks like it has a pretty decent sale on Amazon (and is a top-gifted item) right now:
“The Hero With A Thousand Faces” is a much heftier read, but well worth it for anyone interested in mythology, storytelling, and the Hero’s Journey. Amazon currently has it on sale 44% off:
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Loved the dive into the Heroes Journey topic and will need to take look at those books. And like Heavy Cav mentioned not too calls left but my goal now is to take make sure my daughter is able to answer hers.
Nearing 60 I am past most of my calls to adventure, and am merely striving to be like Farmer Maggot and live my best Shire Life
Loved the dive into the Heroes Journey topic and will need to take look at those books. And like Heavy Cav mentioned not too calls left but my goal now is to take make sure my daughter is able to answer hers.