The Heros Journey

1
The Heros Journey
2
Why the Heros Journey

• Why do something that is painful and difficult?
• It is necessary to grow, mature, and become an
  adult part of the community
• Completion of the journey brings new rights and
  privileges.
• Its a pattern for understanding human
  experiences

3
Three Parts

• Separation
• The hero must be separated from the world in
  which they are safe and comfortable
• Initiation
• The hero must face and conquer challenges to
  transform their consciousness
• Return
• The hero must return to their home to share their
  transformation

4
The Separation

• Essential for new growth
• The Call
• An invitation to the journey
• The initiate can leave willingly or be forced to
  leave
• The initiate leaves for various reasons (right a
  wrong, something missing in his life
• Refusal of call dooms initiate life to boredom

5
The Separation 2

• The Threshold
• The border between the known world (safe and
  comfortable) and the unknown (new and dangerous).
• After crossing, initiate loses old support
  network
• The Threshold Guardians
• Protect a person from leaving on journey too
  early force them to leave when an initiate is
  ready to leave

6
The Initiation

• Challenges or Temptations
• Strike at initiates weakness
• By succeeding, the hero grows and matures
• Helpers
• Provide assistance or direction to hero
• The Mentor
• The most important helper, provides focus and
  stability

7
The Initiation 2

• The Abyss
• The greatest challenge
• Requires total commitment from the initiate
• Hero must face this challenge alone
• Failure leads to a diminished life for the
  would-be hero
• Success leads to transformation into hero

8
The Initiation 3

• The Transformation
• One part of the hero dies metaphorically, so that
  something new can be born
• The Revelation a sudden, dramatic change in the
  way the hero sees the world
• The Atonement
• The hero is at one with himself and with his
  world, possessing greater self awareness.

9
The Return

• The hero must return to their original place or
  community
• The hero brings a gift (often in the form of a
  message to be shared)
• The hero must decide to share this gift or keep
  it to himself
• The hero can be accepted or rejected by the
  community