Campbell’s Hero’s Journey: 5 Key Stages
Campbell’s Hero’s Journey: Five Stages
In Joseph Campbell’s book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, the author uses stories from different cultures, religions, and myths to explore the hero’s journey. He identified a common pattern of 15 stages in stories of heroes across cultures and religions. In the classic Greek sense, a hero means a person of distinguished courage and noble character who serves as a role model for behavior. Heroes exemplify the values of a culture. Myth is from the Greek word mythos, which means inspired art from the mouth. Inspiration is from the Greek word entheos, it means god in or spirit in. This essay will explain five stages of the hero’s journey, which are:
- Stage one: the call to adventure
- Stage three: cross the first threshold
- Stage five: the road of trials
- Stage seven: temptation
- Stage nine: apotheosis
The Call to Adventure
In order to get the hero on the journey, to set them on a new path, an invitation pointing the hero in a new direction out of their comfort zone is needed. The hero needs a call, an inspiration to explore an adventure. Gandhi, the leader of India’s independence, being ejected from the train in South Africa, serves as a perfect example of the call to fight for social justice. This call led him to be aware of the social injustice imposed by the British discrimination on people of color. This call starts him on his journey of civil resistance.
Crossing the First Threshold
In Stage 3: crossing the first threshold, the hero enters a place they have never gone before. The threshold is a piece of wood or stone placed beneath a doorway, it is the doorsill. Crossing the threshold means going through a doorway to set aside the ego. The hero will need the courage to enter an unknown zone. They will need to set aside the ego. In this book, the author gives an example of Christopher Columbus, the sailor. Popular belief at that time was that the ocean had borders. Columbus sailed his vessels, breaking the horizon and setting aside people’s beliefs. He sailed into the Atlantic Ocean and has been credited for opening up the Americas to European colonization.
The Road of Trials
Stage 5 is the road of trials. Trials are in the unknown zone and can be physical, moral, and intellectual. In the road of trials, the hero must learn their and their opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. The purpose of this stage is the two become one; the hero encounters their opposite and swallows their opposite. The hero then discovers that they and their opponent are not so different, but of the same flesh. This stage can be seen in sports contests; the contestant must know and learn their opponent’s strengths and skills in order to win the game.
Temptation
As the hero goes along the trials, they encounter Stage 7, which is temptation. Temptation makes the hero have the desire to do something that is immoral, wrong, or unwise. Temptation for a male hero is women; for a female hero, it is a man. It symbolizes danger that distracts the hero from completing their journey. Temptation can be sex, greed, and power.
The purpose is to raise consciousness, to begin to see things from another’s perspective.
The author gives us an example of Saint Petronilla. When her father, Saint Peter, found out she was too beautiful, he asked God to make his daughter sick with a fever. Saint Peter had the power to cure his daughter, but he did not do so until she began to be perfected in the love of God. Petronilla refused a noble gentleman’s love, and she fasted and prayed. Finally, she rendered her soul up to God.
Apotheosis
In Stage 9, apotheosis, the hero has had their success. Apotheosis means above the god, meeting the god above, and realizing one is a part of the source of creation. It also means deification—becoming one with God. This stage serves the purpose of the hero experiencing the enlightenment that God is the source of creation, God is beyond all opposites, and we are a part of this eternal divine source. Gandhi is an example of a hero who has reached the top, experienced apotheosis, and can see things from the other’s perspective. He saw the British as siblings, and he believed Muslims are equal to Hindus. He believed in non-violence and poor people as “children of God” rather than the lowest class.
Campbell referenced different myths of different cultures to conclude a typical hero’s journey. The hero’s journey can be seen in people living in contemporary culture as well. There are many stages that echo many people’s lives and struggles. In order to be at the top of the mountain and enjoy the gift of God, one must accept the invitation, cross the threshold, move along the road, and defeat any temptation.