Mythic Lessons

by Rick L. Smith

When my stepson John asked me for career advice a few years ago my reply

came from my study of mythology and the writings of people like Joseph

Campbell who offer insights into those ancient stories. Campbell taught

that one of the original purposes of the tellers of myth was to pass on

life lessons and that those lessons can still be applied to gain greater

understanding of our lives and our interactions with others.

At the time John asked me for advice his mother (my wife D’Ann) and I

were raising his three children because he did not have the financial

means to provide for them. John was, however, responsible enough to know

that he needed to change that situation so that he could eventually

provide for his family and to that end he was attending college to earn

a degree. To support himself, and help us with his children, John had

been working as a waiter at the local branch of a popular chain

restaurant. With time and hard work, he was promoted to kitchen manager.

John came to me for advice after he was offered a management position over

one of the chain’s other locations. John was trying to decide if he

should take the offer or not.

Of course this new management position would pay more money than he was

making in the kitchen. However, having been in restaurant management at

one time myself, I pointed out that such a position would leave little

or no time to continue with college. Restaurant management is not a

forty-hour workweek. In conventional thinking what he faced was a choice

between making the money now to support his children or waiting until he

finished college and attained the financial stability he needed to care

for them.

However, I told him that his real decision was not whether he should

take the management position and make more money now, but rather that he

had to decide whether or not his original goal to attain a college

education was sound and worthy of completion. Was this new job offer an

opportunity or a distraction from what he really wanted, and needed, to

accomplish in his life?

My advice to John was based on Campbell’s concept of “the hero’s

journey.” While many myths that incorporate this journey of a hero in

pursuit of a goal depict world-changing events, Campbell taught that the

elements of the journey could be applied to anyone’s life, that anytime

we set an important goal in our lives we become the hero in the story of

our own journey.

As Campbell explained in his book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces,” the

hero’s journey is applicable to modern lives because it is what Carl

Gustav Jung described as an “archetypal image,” a universal behavior

pattern that arises out of the collective unconscious shared by all

people. This collective unconscious lies deep within our psyche beneath

our personal unconscious and consists of these universally recognized

images and patterns, according to Jung.

Most of us are familiar with the personal unconscious that is influenced

by each individual’s unique life experiences. The images of the

collective unconscious, Jung said, do not vary greatly between

individuals, although when they are manifested they may be colored by

individual personalities and differing societal norms. However, the

basic meanings associated with these universal patterns can still be

recognized, he said.

Following Jung’s lead, Campbell searched for universal behavior patterns

and images in myths from around the world. Campbell found many such

archetypes in his search and he wrote “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”

to explain the pattern he called “the hero’s journey.”

There are three basic elements to the universal pattern of “the hero’s

journey” described by Campbell. The first element he dubbed “The Call.”

This is the point when it is recognized that a problem must be solved or

a goal needs to be attained. As portrayed in some myths this is the

point where a hero learns of a terrible problem in the land, such as,

that a dragon has added a princess to his treasure hoard and someone

must rescue her. Because of his own personal makeup, the hero decides it

is his job to solve the problem, to slay the dragon and save the

princess, not to mention claim the treasure.

The second element of the hero’s journey, which Campbell referred to as

“The Initiation,” begins when the hero actually sets out to solve the

problem, slay the dragon. Solving any major problem is not easy and the

hero typically must make a hazardous journey, often through a dark

forest, where he encounters many obstacles that stand in his way.

In the last element of the pattern, “The Return,” the hero overcomes a

final obstacle and obtains his goal, he battles the dragon and, if he is

worthy, defeats it, rescues the princess and brings her and the treasure

home to benefit both himself and the rest of the kingdom.

The key to applying the pattern of “the hero’s journey” to understand

your own life is in realizing that we don’t just live straight through

our lives and then die. Rather, everyone’s life is comprised of an

overlapping and interconnected series of cycles. There are obvious life

cycles such as: newborn to childhood, childhood through adolescence,

young adulthood through middle-aged adult and elderly adult to the end

of all earthly cycles, death. But within each of these cycles are

smaller cycles and patterns that make up the events of your life. One

type of these cycles is the hero’s journey.

By understanding the pattern of the hero’s journey, how it applies to

your life and where you are as the pattern unfolds in your life, you can

gain greater understanding of what is happening to you and why. Because

the basis of the pattern is the same for everyone, you can even use it

to prepare for what might happen next in your life.

The first element of the pattern of the hero’s journey as it applies in

life is: recognizing a change is happening or needed in your life and

setting a goal to make it happen (The Call). My stepson John answered

The Call when he recognized his need to attain a college degree.

Circumstances may be thrusting the change upon you as something you have

to do (perhaps to survive) or it may be something you want and choose to

do. It may be that at this time something deep inside of you is urging

you to respond to a need to take action.

As soon as you set out to accomplish a change in your life obstacles

arise that must be overcome to attain your goal and you have begun the

second phase of the hero’s journey (The Initiation, the journey through

the dark forest). This is the point when the hero-knight of myth leaves

the safety of the king’s castle and enters the dark and dangerous forest

through which he must travel to reach the dragon and free the princess.

In this forest lurk many dangers that could end the knight’s quest

before he even gets near the dragon.

Once you begin your journey to attain your chosen goal you enter into

your own shadow land in which at first you cannot clearly see all the

obstacles that lay in wait to waylay you on your journey. In myth, the

knight usually encounters these obstacles in the form of mysterious

people or creatures that personify the psychological and life obstacles

humans have always encountered on journeys of personal growth. While in

the mythical forest the knight might encounter a Temptress who tries to

lure him from his task to come with her instead and enjoy her pleasures.

On your journey you might be presented with an unforeseen opportunity

that looks good but would require you to give up or delay your chosen

goal.

With the management position offer John faced the same Temptress that

the heroes of myth encountered on their journeys. Recognizing such

instances is one way any of us can understand what is happening in our

own life. If an opportunity looks good but will interfere with attaining

a goal you have set after thinking long and hard about it you must ask

yourself if it is worth setting aside your original goal. More times

than not, the Temptress eventually reverts to her monstrous self and

destroys the hero who sets aside his original quest and chooses instead

to enjoy the pleasures of the Temptress.

Of course, the fact that the hero-knight gives up the quest proves he is

not worthy of battle with the dragon or winning the princess and the

treasure. This is what all the obstacles to your goal are all about, to

prove you are worthy of the goal and its benefits.

John decided to turn down the offer to manage his own restaurant and he

stayed with his goal of finishing college. He rejected the Temptress and

continued on his journey.

The last phase of the journey is achieving the goal and enjoying its

benefits (The Return, slaying the dragon and returning to the kingdom).

Often, the final and greatest obstacle to attaining your goal will come

along when you are tired from the struggle and are at your lowest, most

discouraged point. If you have prepared yourself to face this final

challenge you will achieve your goal just as the knight who resists the

Temptress and overcomes other obstacles, thereby proving himself worthy,

arrives at the dragon’s lair and defeats the dragon in his final battle.

For any student seeking a higher education, the last big challenge may

come in the form of finals. Or it may be a personal crisis that has to

be overcome. However it is manifested, defeating the dragon proves to

the student and the rest of the world that he is worthy of the goal and

sets him up for the final step in the cycle, using his achievement to

benefit himself and others.

When John graduated with his Masters in Education he achieved his goal,

defeated the dragon and won the treasure. Next, he was faced with taking

his reward, a Masters degree, and using it to benefit himself and his

kingdom, his children. John now has his children living with him as he

builds a teaching career. He recently purchased his first house, got

married to a lovely maiden, and took back the responsibility and

pleasure of raising his children. John is now involved in at least two

hero’s journeys, building a career and raising his three children. The

ending of one cycle is usually the beginning of another.

Observed from the mythological viewpoint, life becomes a series of

adventures that all come together to form the epic story of your life.

Like any good myth, each of our life stories will be filled with

interesting characters in dynamic relationships and challenges that will

affect the life of the story’s main character, you. While the knowledge

gained by the mythological perspective may not make battles encountered

any easier, at least we can know why we are fighting them and what we

might next expect. These life lessons from the ancients can guide us

through many aspects of our lives, exactly as their authors intended.

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