THE HEROWITH A THOUSAND FACES(INITIATION STAGE)Joseph Campbell’s monomyth.

NUCLEAR UNIT OF THE MONOMYTH

(X) – Separation or Departure

(Y) – Initiation

(Z) – Return

INITIATION

(Y) A penetration of some source of power.

The Road of TrialsThe Meeting with the GoddessWoman as TemptressAtonement with the FatherApotheosisThe Ultimate Boon

This is the zone unknownthat represents a dramatic shift from the old world.A dream landscape of curiously fluid, ambiguous forms, where the hero must survive a succession of trials.If it is not a literal new world, it could be a new emotional state or view (think Father of the Bride).New rules.Ruled by a villain.Allies, enemies, sidekicks, teams, and or rivals appear.

VS.

ROAD OF TRIALS

In this new world, the hero must survive a succession of trials. The hero is secretly aided by the advice, amulets, and secret agents of the supernatural helper.Prepare the hero for greater ordeals ahead.Not maximum life-or-death test.

(If the Separation Stage is like an entrance exam, the Road of Trials is a pop quiz.)

ROAD OF TRIALS

Examples:Psyche & Cupid“The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was”Star Wars (1977)

Obi-Wan giving Luke the lightsaber to train with orbs.

The Karate Kid (1984)Daniel-san doing household chores for Mr. Miyagi.

The Matrix (1999)Neo sparring with Morpheus. Click

QUESTIONS TO HELP FRAME THIS STEP

Given this person's background and experience, what kinds of trials or ordeals make sense for him or her? What would be truly challenging for this person? What does the person fear and how will this fear be represented to him or her? What does the person consider to be obstacles to progress or growth? Does the person have some personality or character traits that will be mirrored back to him or her in a challenging way? What strategies, skills, insights, known or unknown strengths or talents, etc, does the person use or develop to survive or resolve these trials? What assistance, seen or unseen, does the person have or receive to deal with these trials?

THE STORY OF THE YOUTH WHO WENTFORTH TO LEARN WHAT FEAR WAS

Exemplifies the Road of TrialsStupid, youngest son is the hero; why?Wants to shudder:

Shudder (v): (1) To shiver convulsively. (2) To vibrate or quiver out of fear or cold

Symbolism of the number ‘3’

Shudder.

THE STORY OF THE YOUTH WHO WENTFORTH TO LEARN WHAT FEAR WAS

1. Meeting with the Sexton2. A Night at the Gallows3. Waggoner at the Inn

Fire, Lathe, Cutting-board with knife

Black cats & dogsBed moving on own accordThe half-men bowlers

MEETING WITH THE GODDESSRepresents the hero’s total mastery of life.

Woman IS life, and the hero its knower and master.

Represents the mystical marriage of the triumphant hero-soul with the Queen Goddess of the World.Occurs at the nadir, zenith, outermost edge of earth, at central point of cosmos, or in the innermost chamber of the heart.The promise of perfection; the soul’s assurance that at the end of its exile in the material world; it will return to motherly bliss; our concept of a universal mother results from the universal child-mother relationshipBy taking possession of the mother-destroyer, he knows that he and the father are one; he is in the father’s place.

MEETING WITH THE GODDESS

Sometimes, the encounter with the goddess is negative, based on negative experiences with our mothers.

1. The absent unattainable mother for whom we have feelings of aggression.2. The hampering, forbidding, punishing mother.3. The mother who holds on to the child who wants to grow and be independent.4. The desired but forbidden mother (Oedipus Complex).

MEETING WITH THE GODDESS

Lady of Tubber Tintye: The lady of the house of sleep is the paragon of beauty, represents everything in the world that has lured us or promised joy. (Sleep=mother’s womb=paradise=peace)Star Wars: Princess Leia, who wears white and was a “sister” of a higher order in earlier scriptsThe Matrix: The Oracle: She gives Neo the choice of life or death. He has mastered life.

QUESTIONS TO HELP FRAME THIS STEP

How will this step be represented in the story? Does the person have a soul mate, another half? Does an all loving god or goddess, or non-gendered but supremely loving force make itself known to the person? Can the person accept and/or identify with the ultimate creative/destructive nature of the universe? Does the person begin to understand or experience the union of opposites, for example spiritual/material, good/bad, male/female, life/death, etc.

WOMAN AS TEMPTRESSEarthly pleasures tempt us away from our quest.We deny that we are creatures of flesh.We whitewash, perfume, reinterpret, repress, and imagine that all our fleshly flaws are someone else’s fault.When it dawns on us (or is forced on our attention) that everything we think and do is tainted by the odor of the flesh, there is often a moment of revulsion:

life, the acts of life, woman as the symbol of life, become intolerable to the pure soul.

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WOMAN AS TEMPTRESS

Examples:HamletOedipusSt. Peter & PetronillaStar Wars: Anakin tempted by the Dark SideThe Matrix: The woman in red almost gets Neo killed.

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QUESTIONS TO HELP FRAME THIS STEP

Given this person's background and experience, what kinds of temptations make sense for him or her? Is this person on a spiritual journey, will he or she experience the temptations of the flesh? Are there habitual patterns of thought or behavior that serve to undermine, or tempt the person from his or her path?

ATONEMENT WITH THE FATHERThe hero makes amends or reparations for a wrong – or perceived wrong – in his or her past. This typically involves the father or a father figure.

Nursery trauma: boys see the father as the interrupter of the blissful relationship between child and mother. (Oedipus Complex)

The reflex of the victim’s ego is to project an ogre image of the father: a concept of a wrathful, aggressive god. This projection keeps the adult spirit saturated with a sense of sin, keeping it from a more balanced and realistic view of the father and the world.Atonement (at-one-ment) consists of the abandonment this ogre father and the feelings of guilt or sin.

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ATONEMENT WITH THE FATHER

Twin Warriors of the NavahoPhaethonStar Wars: Darth and Luke reconcileThe Matrix: Neo rescues and comes to agree (that he's The One) with his father-figure, Morpheus

QUESTIONS TO HELP FRAME THIS STEP

How does the person resolve him or herself with the sources of control and power in his or her life? What experiences mark the person as ready to take on the new roles of his or her transformed self? What behaviors, attitudes, relationships, dependencies, body parts, must be sacrificed to achieve this?

APOTHEOSIS

A divine state the human hero attains who has gone beyond the last terrors of ignoranceThe hero becomes free of all fear. This is frequently seen in a pair of opposites being dissolved (male/female, good/evil, time/eternity, etc.). God created Adam in his image and later separated woman from him. Male and female are created in the image of god. So what is God? Both? Well, sort of according to Campbell. The smallness of gender does not apply to Him. He is divine.

APOTHEOSSIS

Adam & EveTiresiasNeo understands he is “The One” in The Matrix.Luke becomes a Jedi Knight.The Crane Kick in The Karate Kid

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QUESTIONS TO HELP FRAME THIS STEP

Given this person's background and experience, what would heaven be for him or her? What does this person know or experience now that is beyond good and evil, male and female, life and death? Does the person give him or herself a moment to bask in the glow of what has been achieved?

ULTIMATE BOONBoon (n.) – Something to be thankful for; blessing; benefitWhen the final task is accomplished with ease. The elect hero faces no delaying obstacle and makes no mistake. A motif of the inexhaustible dish in fairy-tales.A motif of the cornucopian banquet of the gods in mythology.

Freud Alert: Paradise at the mother’s breast still play into myth and fairy tale

In mythology, the gods are not a final end. Mythology lifts us up and beyond the gods, understanding them as embodiments and custodians of the elixir of Imperishable Being but not themselves the Ultimate in its primary state.

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QUESTIONS TO HELP FRAME THIS STEP

Given this person's background and experience, what would be the goal of his or her quest? What is the ultimate boon for this person? Was there a stated goal of the quest? If so has it changed? Has the person learned more or less than he or she expected? What are the rewards of this person's journey? What relationship does this person now have to his or her own immortality, gods, or god-like figures?