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The Journey of a Hero - To Unlock Your own potential

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The Hero’s journey is a narrative pattern identified by American scholar, Joseph Campbell
that is evident in all myths and stories around the world.

What you see when you watch/listen/read stories; nothing but your own hopes, dreams
and fears. We humans reflect reflect on our world through symbolic stories of our life.

The symbols of hero’s journey are not manufactured, they cannot be produced, invented of
permanently suppressed. They are the spontaneous production of our psyche that exists
in all of us. All we have to do is to give a decent push to provoke our own psyches to follow
our own bliss.

This course exactly gives you that, a good and decent push to follow your dreams; as the
path had already been laid by our ancestors, all we have to is to just follow the path by
believing it completely.

Now come let us explore the path and discuss the principles of hero’s journey in relation
with our lives.

Ordinary World

The first stage of heroes’ Journey is “ORDINARY WORLD”. There are two stages in Hero’s
Journey - Ordinary World and Special World. Ordinary world is the incomplete world of a
hero and the special world is the one in which hero actually steps into.

Ordinary world signifies the incompleteness of a hero and the world he lives in. He might
be frustrated cursing the situations and blaming the circumstances or doing something he
hates etc, He is in a routine, mundane life that he always wished to change. Basically hero
is flawed at this stage.

To put it simple, hero is not satisfied with his life and needs some immediate change.

What does it teach you?

To be flawed is to be human, nobody is perfect. We all have flaws and we obviously get
connected to the flaws of the hero and starts travelling with him.
One important element that the ordinary world is trying to reach us is, “everyone who
achieved something great had their own set of flaws once” and your flaws should not limit
you to achieve something great.

So when you are frustrated with life, it is the time to follow your bliss instead of blaming the
circumstances.

Call to Adventure

This is the second stage of hero’s journey, where the hero actually receives the call to
follow his own bliss. it signifies that destiny has summoned the hero and transferred his
spiritual centre of gravity from his pa;e and incomplete society to a zone unknown.

To simply put, call to adventure is a unconscious reveal to conscious.

The call to adventure doesn’t have to involve guns, high speed chases or some medieval
texts. it can just be a problem or opportunity.

It doesn't matter whether the Hero wants the call or not, in either case, he is going to be
“unsettled” which provokes him further to act.

What does it teach you?

The call to adventure is the whispering of destiny to you. Just answer the call and believe
in the journey. We all get calls in our life, all we have to do is just answer to them.

Sometimes a failure is a call, inspiring you to try harder or approach another way.
Sometimes opportunity is a call to lead you into the new avenues.
sometimes problem is a call to explore the new solutions.

Refusal of the call

This is the third stage of hero’s journey where hero actually refuses the call. If the hero
doesn’t want the call, they might rationalise their refusal by saying that they cannot afford
to go, that this person is totally wrong for him, or that goal is impossible, crazy or both.
Because deep in the heart, they are afraid to answer the call.

This stage obviously connects to our psyche because at any point we might have faced
such fears in our lives too.

What does it teach you?

It signifies that fear should not limit you; and those who hesitate to respond to the call are
usually lost in life. And it clearly says that you are denying your own interests over petty
fears.
So the lesson is never refuse theca, you never know what you might achieve if you answer
the call.

Just remember, “In the cave you fear to enter, lies the treasure you seek”

Meeting with the Mentor

This is the stage, where hero actually gets encouraged by the mentor to pursue the
journey with confidence.

For those who have not refused the call, the first encounter of hero’s journey in the special
world is with a protective figure (often an old man) who provides the adventurer with
amulets against the dragon forces he is about to pass.

So the hero will be assisted in the form of mentor, anyone who is wise and experienced
helps him in the journey to face the uncertainties.

What does it teach you ?


Just trust the destiny and the guardians will appear. If you respond to your own call and
follow courageously as the consequences unfold; you find all the forces of your conscious
at your side helping you in the journey you aspire.

We need not to worry, if we are brave enough to embark the journey, we will be guided by
the mentor through unknown labyrinths - the journey is hard but worthy of pursuing.

Crossing the threshold

The hero finally commits in taking the journey seriously. Whether the heroes thrilled or not;
the hero is committed to tackling the goal, problem or opportunity with which he has been
represented.

With the personification of his destiny to guide and aid him, the hero goes forward in his
adventure. Crossing the threshold is the first step into the scare zone of the universal
sources.

What does it teach you?

As I’ve said earlier, the journey is hard; but worth pursuing. The adventure is always and
everywhere a passage beyond the veil of the known into the unknown; the powers that
watch at the boundary are dangerous; to deal with them is risky; yet with anyone with
competence and courage, the danger obviously fades.

So take a deep breath and start doing something impossible because the terrors will
always reed before the psychological readiness.
The pair of opposites (being and not being), life and death, beauty and ugliness, good and
evil and all the parities that bind the faculties of hope and fear that crush the hero, but
between which the heroes’ will aways pass.

Tests, allies and Enemies

This is a zone of danger for hero. He is not familiar with the special world. When they
embark onto the journey, the entire world is turned upside down and he is bound to face all
the uncertainties of it after crossing the first threshold.

He might face different tests, meet allies and fight enemies; whatever he does, he has to
fight with disoriented special world.

To put it simple, hero is literally swallowed to the unknown full of uncertainties.

What does it teach you?

This stage is a beautiful metaphor. The one lesson it is trying to teach us is; the hero is
goes inward tone born again.

It is a stage of metamorphosis for the hero; it clearly signifies that, change yourself first
and the fortune will change with you.

so just remember unless you face the dark of the unknown; you re not worthy enough to
seek the glory. Just transcend yourself beyond your ego; world will be yours.

The Approach

The special world will have surprising barriers again and again, there will be a multitude of
preliminary victories, unretainable ecstasies and momentary glimpses.

The hero progresses through that, a set of obstacles that make them stronger, preparing
him for the final showdown; but he hasn’t faced his worst fear yet. To avoid that he is
always inauthentic in his approach.

His fears and egos stop him to face his worst ordeal.

What does it teach you?

We have our own fears in life - dating a girl, facing an interview and participating in the
sport. But as long as we are inauthentic in our approach; we are never going to pass this
stage.

The world is beyond physical realm; only if you are prepared enough to face your worst
fear and grow beyond - you re not going to achieve anything in life.
The lesson is simple - face your own fears, be authentic in facing them and nothing can
stop you.

Ordeal

The inauthentic identity the hero has been presenting to the world will crack and crumble
away, revealing for the first time their true essence.

All the heroes training and toil comes into play now. The journey has hardened them, and
its time to show their prowess. Once the obstacle is overcome, the tension will be relieved.

Till he faces final ordeal, hero always opts for inauthentic approach. Under compelling
circumstances, hero has to final ordeal that forces him to be authentic.

And his choice defines his character

What does it teach you?

We all face ordeals in life, what we opt when we face our biggest ordeal defines our
character too.

Do not escape out of fear, just face it with guts to achieve glory.

Life tests you with ordeals to reveal your true essence. You have to simply fight back by
being authentic

Never withdraw from ordeal, I’m not saying its easy but the end you will never regret.

Reborn - The reward

Hero is reborn in this stage.

Having confronted with their flaw at the ordeal, the old flawed hero will have died, and new,
reborn hero will emerge in this sequence.

If they have been cowardly, they will now display the courage. If they have been selfish,
the will now demonstrate compassion. But more importantly, their transformation will be
revealed through the fresh perceptions around them

This is a point of realisation in which a greater understanding is achieved after facing his
worst ordeal
What does it teach you?

Unless yo face your greatest ordeal you cannot be rewarded.

Face your worst fears to be reborn.

The font of life is the core of the individual, and within himself he will find it - if he can tear
the coverings away.

When the envelopment of the conscious has been annihilated, then he becomes free of all
fear beyond the reach of change.

Resurrection is a metaphor in various myths that indicate that cane in the self.

A new you will arise from the dark if you trust the journey.

Desperate - Road back

Just because the majority of the adventure has passed doesn’t mean that the remaining
journey will be a smooth sailing. There are still obstacles to overcome.

It’s just that he conquered his fear but not reached his goal yet.

Hero is faced with dilemma in this stage and he is lured with every option of going back to
the ordinary world, but the hero opts for the hardest choice that clearly signifies his
change.

What does it teach you?

Destiny is tricky, nevertheless it is the result of our previous choices.

So when you are lured by the circumstances to go back where you have started. Just ask
yourself, “Why did I start the journey in the first place”. Then you will strike of that
particular choice of going back to the ordinary world and continue with the journey as hero
does in the hero journey.

just remember life always tests you with continuous dilemmas - but trust the journey and
go forward, never ever succumb to the temptation of going back. It doesn't make any
sense.
Decisive - Resurrection

This is the showtime, it’s where we discover whether the hero will take this opportunity to
prove to us that they have indeed been transformed by the journey.

The heroes have also grown in spirit and strength. The mastery of the outside world
qualifies them to be giants in their own.

But just because the hero is decisive, it doesn't mean the ending has to be happy. It just
has to be satisfying, hero sometimes may lose the external battle but wins the more
important personal wars with their demons.

What does it teach you?

We are self terrorised beings who live in the fright of our own nightmares.

Within the final eradication of delusion, desire and hostility; the mind knows that it is not
what it thought. Thought goes. The mind rests in true state. That is the stage of
resurrection one has to aspire for.

Return with the elixir

At last hero returns back to his home with treasures

Having completed the journey out and back in, the hero is now the master of both the
domestic and alien worlds and can pass over the threshold between the two without
further trail.

Or he can be a mentor to the heroes who start their journey.

What does it teach you?

Basically it teaches you to conquer yourself first and you can master the world

As Carl Jung says, “ When there is darkness outside, it means there is darkness inside”

The journey is not actually about achieving goals but to find oneself in the process.

The agony of breaking through personal limitation is the agony of spiritual growth. Art,
literature, myth and cult, philosophy, and ascetic disciplines are instruments to help the
individual past his limiting horizons into spheres of ever expanding realisation. As he
crosses threshold after threshold, conquering dragon after dragon, the stature of the
divinity that he summons to his highest increases, until it subsumes to the cosmos to a
realisation transcending all experiences of form - all symbolisations, all divinities: a
realisation of ineluctable world.
Conclusion

The hero’s Journey is ageless and universal, exists anywhere and everywhere. Having
mere knowledge of the journey will liberate you form lots of conflicts as the ancient heroes
dreaded the same path with exceptional courage.

The modern hero, the modern individual who dares to to heed the call and seek the
mansion of that presence with whom it is our whole destiny to be atoned, cannot, indeed
must not, wait for his community to cast off its slough of pride, fear, rationalised avarice,
and sanctified misunderstanding. “Live”, Nietzsche says, “As though the day were here”. It
is not society that is to guide and save the creative hero, but precisely the reverse. And so
everyone of us shares the supreme ordeal - carries the cross of the redeemer - not in the
bright moments of his tribe’s greatest victories, but in the silence of his personal despair.

Extra Notes

Joseph Campbell was heavily influenced by the Swiss Psychiatrist Carl Jung whose theory
of collective unconscious involved archetypes - recurring images, patterns, and ideas from
myths across various cultures. Below are several archetypes often found in myths.

HEROES - Central figures in stories. Everyone is the hero of his or her own myth

SHADOWS - Villains, enemies, or perhaps the enemy within. This could be repressed
possibilities of the hero, his or her potential for evil

MENTORS - The hero’s guide or guiding principles

HERALD - The one who brings the call to Adventure. This could be the person or event

THRESHOLD GUARDIANS - the forces that stand in the way at important turning points,
including jealous enemies, professional gatekeepers, or even the hero’s own fears and
doubts.

SHAPE SHIFTERS - In stories, creatures like vampires or were wolves who change
shape. In life, the shape shifters represent change.

TRICKSTERS - Clowns and mischief makers

ALLIES - characters who help the hero throughout the quest

WOMAN AS TEMPTRESS - Sometimes, a female character offers danger to the hero.