Hero Philosophy

The Hero Workshop Philosophy

Part 1 Ð'- The Hero's Journey

You're the hero of your own journey

Joseph Campbell set out the idea of an archetypal hero's journey in 1949 after studying religion and mythology across the world. He later applied it to the life of everyone, famous hero or not. What follows is a simplified version.

The Mundane World

The first part of the Hero's Journey sees the hero in the normal world. The hero has yet to be introduced to their journey. Often they are being held in the Mundane World by forces - sometimes through ignorance of the existence of another world.

The Call To Adventure

The spark that launches a hero onto the journey is the Call To Adventure. Something from the world of adventure appears in the hero's Mundane World and the journey begins.

Crossing The Threshold

Now that the hero has received the call, he or she must step into the new world. This means Crossing The Threshold. This is often comes in the form of a task or a symbolic transition. Sometimes the Threshold is accompanied by guardians. These guardians help make sure the hero is ready for the adventure ahead.

The Path of Trials

Once our hero has taken the first step, the Path of Trials begins. The path contains challenges for the hero - often covering all of the mind, body, and spirit. The trials vary in difficulty and usually culminate with a challenge that the hero must face alone.

Friends & Foes

The hero's Friends and Foes have a large bearing on the Path of Trials. The Friends help the hero with making decisions and overcoming challenges. The Foes do the opposite, often confusing matters or deliberately hindering the hero. Sometimes people who appear to be Friends are actually Foes and vice versa. There are also the rare people who are Friends some times and Foes others.

Mentors

Mentors help the hero when the Path of Trials seems hopeless or confusing. Mentors are often on their own journey and only appear in the hero's journey infrequently, offering a piece of advice or helping overcome an obstacle, then disappearing just as quickly.

Mentors for the heroes we know are almost a word-association. Frodo/Gandalf, Harry Potter/Dumbledore, Luke Skywalker/Yoda. It is such an important relationship.

The Master of Two Worlds

After the Path of Trials has been completed, the hero heads back to the Mundane World a changed person. The world has stayed the same, but the hero is changed forever. The Mundane World becomes a better place because it has the hero in it. The journey has made the hero the Master of Two Worlds - the Mundane and the Heroic.

We have not even to risk the journey alone...

...for the heroes of all time have gone before us. As we encounter the different steps on our journey we can gain strength through reflecting on the journeys that have already been made by others. As the Path of Trials throws challenges at us we can consider the way our heroes dealt with similar problems.

Your Round Table

Your Round Table is an imaginary council of advisers that you can create to help with the difficult decisions on your journey. The people sitting at this table can be living, dead, real, or fictional. By physically writing their names down and sitting them at your desk, on your mirror, or in your car, the Round Table will be able serve as inspiration. You can assign each member a role, such as Chief Honesty Director, Lord of Tolerance, or the Countess of Courage.

What part will you play?

As you understand your life as a journey, you will realize that those around you are also on journeys.