JOURNEY. Day 17 of Lent. Story of a hero.
Everyone has a story. And we all love a good movie. If you’ve ever gone with me I can be a bit of a spoiler. I’ll whisper things like, “Ah, he’s refusing the call” or “Cool gatekeeper” or “creative watering hole”. I can see the structure in good stories because its universal. So to me the word journey is used to symbolize a story. In literature, The Hero’s Journey is a pattern of fundamental structures and stages that form a story, let me quickly tell you about it.
Joseph Campbell summarizes it this way in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces: A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow-man.
Campbell describes 17 stages or steps along the hero’s journey. Very few stories contain all 17 stages, and the steps may be organized in a number of ways, but there are 3 main divisions to any story. Campbell calls them the Departure (sometimes called Separation)- the beginning, Initiation-the middle, and Return- the end. “Departure” deals with the hero’s call or refusal of the call prior to the journey; “Initiation” is the sequence of the hero’s many adventures along the way; and “Return” deals with the hero’s return home with knowledge and powers acquired on the journey.
The reason a story is so powerful is that we all can relate to the hero’s journey. We all experienced the call at one time or another. And we can remember refusing some and yet finding ourselves right there, accepting it in the end. Whether it’s taking a new job or starting chemotherapy, every journey has a BEGINNING. The journey of a million miles begins with the first step. You have to start to finish. The hero begins in a mundane situation of normality and receives some information that calls them to step into the new strange world, at the beginning every hero meets a mentor and is given supernatural aid. Story magic isn’t evil or bad, its an element of story that illustrates favor and requires faith. Office supplies or ipad technology given by a tenure secretary who knows the ropes are as supernatural as the magical healing power of Taxol or Herceptin given by a caring chemotherapy nurse. Just think of Glenda giving Dorothy the ruby slippers and our hero is on the way down the yellow brick road. But there is still a moment of resistance when the final choice is made, and sometimes it’s even presented as a door or a gate-with a scary gatekeeper that requires a secret code. The hero must know the combination to open the door and once through it the hero has crossed into the field of adventure, venturing into an unknown and dangerous realm where the rules and limits are not know.
In the middle of the story the hero is initiated through a road of trials or a series of tests, tasks, and ordeals often occurring in threes that begin the transformation through improvements and setbacks. Often the hero fails one or more of these tests but they have met new friends along the way to help them like the Scarecrow or R2D2 and there is often a gathering place, a ‘watering hole’ like a cantina or coffee shop, and more dragons to slay and barriers to climb, love to find, and temptations to overcome as momentary glimpses of the goal ahead are seen in the approach. The hero and newfound allies prepare for the major challenge in the Special world and the hero enters a central space and confronts death or faces their greatest fear. Here out of the moment of death comes new life and the hero takes possession of the treasure won by facing death. Whether Dorothy gets the witch’s broom or James Bond finds the nuclear codes they have the boon in hand. There is often celebration but there is also danger of losing the treasure again.
The Return is the road back to complete the adventure, leaving the special world to bring the boon or treasure home. Often a chase scene or a ticking clock signal the urgency and danger of the mission home. It is at the climax that the hero is severely tested once more on the threshold of home. There is one last sacrifice or another moment of death and rebirth which purifies the hero to a higher level of transformation. Through the hero’s action the oppositions in tension at the beginning are finally resolved. The hero returns home bearing the boon, some element of treasure that has the power to transform the world as the hero has been transformed.
Cool, huh. The next movie you see or book you read see if you can spot some of the 17 stages. And look at your own journey. Maybe you’re refusing a call, or your being transformed by tests. Maybe there is a mentor with ‘supernatural’ powers as simple as office supplies you’ve missed seeing in your current situation. And remember, every journey has a beginning, middle and an end. God has an expiration date on trials and we’re to consider them all joy.
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,a whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” James 1:2-5
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