The Hero's Journey

What is the hero’s journey?

The hero’s journey is a widely recognized storytelling pattern that has been used for centuries in literature and mythology. It is a framework that helps writers create compelling stories that resonate with their readers by depicting a protagonist who goes through a transformative journey. The journey usually involves a series of challenges that the protagonist must overcome in order to achieve their goal. The hero’s journey is also known as the monomyth, a term coined by Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero With a Thousand Faces.

The monomyth, or hero’s journey, is a storytelling pattern that transcends genres and time periods. It is a timeless concept that continues to be relevant today because it speaks to universal themes such as self-discovery, transformation, and growth. (Found at https://www.grammarly.com/blog/heros-journey/#:~:text=What%20are%20the%20steps%20of,and%20the%20freedom%20to%20live.)

The Hero's Journey is one of the oldest ways of story known. It is in all of our societies from the most ancient days on down to modern times.

One of the oldest known examples of a Hero's Journey that we know of is the story of Gilgimesh. One of the newest is the Star Wars saga.

And I find it really interesting that the academic world has taken the journey and broken it down into 12 Steps that the hero must take in order to complete the journey.

This is truly a voyage of personal Transformation in a most fundemental way. It takes one from lost, and confused, to whole and complete. And, in my opinion, each completed Transformation is the beginning of the next Hero's Journey. Because we are never Completed.

We are all on the Hero's Journey called Life. Being alive in this world is a Journey and, I believe, that we all chose to come to this place and at this time to be in this journey and learn a vital lesson that our Souls need to learn in order to become something greater than we are.

The 12 Steps of the Hero's Journey are:

1) The Call to Adventure = Or, as I call it, the Call to Live. For me this was the moment when I knew that I could no longer live the way I had been living. That I needed a new way of life or I was going to die as a broken lonely person.

2) The Refusal of the Call = Or, going thru the motions with no real action. I was looking into ways to change my life. To make it better. Yet, inside, I knew this would involve a lot of internal work that scared the daylights out of me. So I looked good with a lot of furious motion, and nothing of any real substance was going on.

3) Meeting the Mentor = In this journey I have had many mentors. In this context I could not begin the Transformative Process until I chose a specific mentor. In this case called a Sponsor. I have been blessed with 3 different Sponsors in this journey. Each one of them brought their Authentic selves to the table. And each of them has been an incredible gift in my process.

4) Crossing the Threshold = This is where the process of leaving the known, the past, behind truly begins. It is here in the process where I began to see the things in my life that I needed to let go of and began to step into a new me that is unknown to me. And in this process I faced many tests and trials within which was always the possibility of refusing to move forward any more. And, while I sometimes got stuck in place for a while, I never truly stopped moving forward. Although at times it was a near run thing.

5) Tests, Allies, and Enemies = In this journey I have faced many tests. And these tests were always created by Internal, Self Centered, Fears. And they were tests that to pass all that I had to do was walk thru those fears and carry on. And I had, and have, many allies. The support and Love that I have recieved has been phenominal. And the only enemies that I have ever truly had are myself. The me that is in this moment hanging on with great desperation to BE fearing what will become in the Transformation ahead.

6) The Approach to the Inmost Cave = This is the place where we have to face our biggest fears. For me it was facing that every choice I ever made about running away from the world around me, in trying to control everyone and everything, was the exact opposite of what I needed to do in order to live. I had to let go of a certain future, that I was never able to achieve, by giving up the illusion of control. I had to challenge myself to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

7) The Ordeal = Here I faced my biggest obstacle, my biggest enemy, myself. I had to overcome the self that is to become the self I wanted to be. My biggest enemy being the current self of Fear, Rage, Control, etc, in order to become something greater that I could not see clearly. Until I could overcome my own Fears I could not keep growing.

8) The Reward = My reward was the beginning of a relationship with myself and the world around me that is based in Reality and not the Fantasy of Fear. As time goes on that keeps getting deeper.

9) The Road Back = The journey back to Life and Loving. This is an ongoing journey for me. And, I believe, that I will never arrive. That the journey is the reward.

10) The Ressurection = This is the death of the Self that is ruled by Fear and the Birth of the Self that is Guided by Love. And this Death and Rebirth is happening over and over again in every moment, in every choice.

11) The Return = In this I get to be with the World around me as the One Who is Guided by Love. This is a benefit for myself and those around me. Both known to me and unknown to me.

12) The Freedom to Live = I now get to live as I wish with the Past in the Past and the Future wide open. I get to be in Balance and Harmony with the world around me and all who I encounter on this journey.

All of this is an ideal, and a great way to craft a powerful story.

And it is the Story of our Lives that we are writing.

I know that I do not do any of this perfectly. And that is also part of the Hero's Journey of Life. We are not perfect. We have times where Yes, we do not feel or act like Hero's. We are again being ruled by fear. Where we are not Loving.

And, we can choose to let go. To be Guided by Love again. To be Comforable with Being Uncomfortable.

And that is the Hero's Journey of the every day. That is the Hero's Journey in each moment. It is the choices that we make and the actions we take in each moment of our lives.

That is the True Hero's Journey.

YOU are a Hero.

So tell me of your Journey Hero.