The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell 12 Stage Hero Journey

Joseph Campbell was a mythology expert. He is famous for his public television show called The Power of Myth and the famous book called The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

Campbell said all myths (and bestsellers) follow the same ideas and the heroes went through similar adventures. This path has become fundamental in today’s fiction and is used in everything from thriller novels to Disney.

The Hero’s Journey has 12 stages. They are:

1.Ordinary World - The hero's starts the story in the normal world, trapped in a mundane existence. The hero is often suffering, boredom and neurotic anguish.

2.Call to Adventure - The hero is presented with a problem, challenge or adventure. It is the hero’s actions and decisions that force the plot forward – not random events. The hero may enter this for selfish reasons, to save their own skin, or because they are tired of life. Rarely, do they enter the journey for enlightened purposes, or to save the world.

3.Refusal of the Call - The hero refuses the challenge or journey. The cause for this is usually a basic instinct such as fear. The hero is unenlightened, uneducated, but does possess wit and cunning.

4. Meet the Mentor - The hero meets a mentor and is given advice or training for the adventure. In many of today’s novels the hero is forced into a series of conflicts, each of them teach and train, building self confidence, and skill, until the character is able to not only ‘survive’ the climax, but to ‘thrive’ the circumstances.

The mentor is often overlooked in today’s fiction. This is sad, as it gives the storyteller an excellent venue to enlighten their character, introduce a breather into the story’s structure, and explore the human condition in-depth.

5. Crossing the First Threshold - The hero leaves the ordinary world and enters the special world. This can be seen in many novels. It is sometimes shown by nightfall. Or, it could be a different location that is out of the main character’s comfortzone.

6. Tests, Allies, Enemies - The hero faces tests, meets allies, confronts enemies & learn the rules of the Special World.

7. Approach the cave - The hero hits setbacks during tests is forced to admit that their old habits and beliefs will not work they try a new idea. This is where they are forced to look inside themselves and see the true evil beneath, their weaknesses, the dark side they never see normally.

8. Ordeal - The biggest life or death crisis. This can be the first climax. The hero is often forced to deal with things that shamed him or terrified him earlier in the story. The characters in many of today’s books are forced to make a moral choice.

Is it okay to murder to save an innocent life? Can I blow up a building to murder terrorists inside? Just take a look at adventure movies to see this done.

9. Reward - The hero has survived death, overcomes his fear and now earns the reward. This may not always be a happy ending depending on the genre.

10. The Road Back - The hero must return to the Ordinary World. This may be very short, as in a horror or thriller, or long as in a saga or woman’s fiction.

11. Resurrection Hero - another test where the hero faces death – he has to use everything he's learned. This can be the second climax. They hero experiences more passion (not necessarily sexual) and a love for life. They are happier, more content.

12. Return with Elixir – The true hero archetype is selfless. Their quest has been for the good of mankind, or others. A person is not a hero if they only struggle to save their own lives.