The Hero with a Thousand Faces
The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell was an American author and teacher best known for his work in the field of comparative mythology. If you’ve ever heard of the “Hero’s Journey,” you have him and his lifelong commitment to studying mythology to thank. This book (written in 1949) is the one that captures the essence of his thoughts on the “monomyth” that shows up across all cultures. One universal hero. A thousand faces. Big Ideas we explore include: a quick look at the hero’s journey, moving past the veil of the unknown (aka romancing your discomfort zone) while creating micro hero journeys (all day every day), your ultimate boon (don’t make King Midas’s mistake), the mistake that the makers of legend made (growth mindset, guys!!), and a portrait of the modern hero (look in the mirror!).
Big Ideas
- The MonomythOne hero. A thousand faces.
- The Hero’s JourneyLooks like this.
- The Veil of Discomfort+ Micro journeys.
- Your Ultimate BoonAnd the not-so-much boon.
- Makers of LegendMade a little mistake.
- The Modern Hero← That’s you.
“It is the purpose of the present book to uncover some of the truths disguised for us under the figures of religion and mythology by bringing together a multitude of not-too-difficult examples and letting the ancient meaning become apparent of itself. The old teachers knew what they were saying. Once we have learned to read again their symbolic language, it requires no more than the talent of an anthologist to let their teachings be heard. But first we must learn the grammar of the symbols, and as a key to this mystery I know of no better tool than psychanalysis. Without regarding this as the last word on the subject, one can nevertheless permit it to serve as an approach. The second step will be then to bring together a host of myths and folktales from every corner of the world, and to let the symbols speak for themselves. The parallels will be immediately apparent; and these will develop a vast and amazingly constant statement of the basic truths by which man has lived throughout the millennia of his residence on this planet.
Perhaps it will be objected that in bringing out the correspondences I have overlooked the differences between the various Oriental and Occidental, modern, ancient, and primitive traditions. The same objection might be brought, however, against any textbook or chart of anatomy, where the physiological variations of race are disregarded in the interest of a basic general understanding of the human physique. There are of course differences between the numerous mythologies and religions of mankind, but this is a book about the similarities; and once these are understood the differences will be found to be much less great than is popularly (and politically) supposed. My hope is that a comparative elucidation may contribute to the perhaps not-quite-desperate cause of those forces that are working in the present world for unification, not in the name of some ecclesiastical or political empire, but in the sense of human mutual understanding. As we are told in the Vedas: ‘Truth is one, the sages speak of it by many names.’”
~ Joseph Campbell from The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Joseph Campbell was an American author and teacher best known for his work in the field of comparative mythology. If you’ve ever heard of the “Hero’s Journey,” you have him and his lifelong commitment to studying mythology to thank.
We have Notes on three of Campbell’s books so far (Pathways to Bliss, The Power of Myth, and A Joseph Campbell Companion), but THIS book (written in 1949) is the one that captures the essence of his thoughts on the “monomyth” that shows up across all cultures. (Get a copy here.)
One universal hero. A thousand faces.
I’m excited to share some of my favorite Ideas we can apply to our lives TODAY so let’s jump straight in.
P.S. We also have the great work of the Joseph Campbell Foundation to thank for preserving and extending Campbell’s legacy. Check out the site for more.
And… If you haven’t watched the interview series Bill Moyers did with Campbell shortly before he passed away, I think you’ll LOVE it. What I love most about it is the effervescent enthusiasm and love of life you feel emanating from Campbell!
Finally, if you haven’t watched Finding Joe yet, I think you’ll dig it. It’s a modern take on the Hero’s Journey. I’m honored to be in it along with Laird Hamilton, Deepak Chopra, and others. I’m even more honored that my Notes on Campbell’s work served as a catalyst for the director, Pat Solomon, to create the film. (My soul smiles as I type that.)
Download MP3
Download PDFThe two—the hero and his ultimate god, the seeker and the found—are thus understood as the outside and inside of a single, self-mirrored mystery, which is identical with the mystery of the manifest world. The great deed of the supreme hero is to come to the knowledge of this unity in multiplicity and then to make it known.
For when a heart insists on its destiny, resisting the general blandishment, then the agony is great; so too the danger. Forces, however, will have been set in motion beyond the reckoning of the senses. Sequences of events from the corners of the world will draw gradually together, and miracles of coincidence ring the inevitable to pass.
Get the BookThe Monomyth: One Hero; A thousand faces
“Whether we listen with aloof amusement to the dreamlike mumbo jumbo of some red-eyed witch doctor of the Congo, or read with cultivated rapture thin translations from the sonnets of the mystic Lao-tse; now and again crack the hard nutshell of an argument of Aquinas, or catch suddenly the shining meaning of a bizarre Eskimo fairy tale: it will always be the one, shape-shifting yet marvelously constant story that we find, together with a challengingly persistent suggestion of more remaining to be experienced than will ever be known or told.
Throughout the inhabited world, in all time and under every circumstance, myths of man have flourished; and they have been the living inspiration of whatever else may have appeared out of the activities of the human body and mind. It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into the human cultural manifestation. Religions, philosophies, arts, the social forms of primitive and historic man, prime discoveries in science and technology, the very dreams that blister sleep, boil up from the same basic, magic ring of myth.”
Those are the first words of the Prologue.
Across all cultures across all time, Campbell tells us, you’ll find one, enduring mythical journey. He calls it “The Monomyth.”
Enter: “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.”
Establishing this fact and then showing us the universal hero’s journey is, of course, what the book is all about. Let’s take a quick look at what that arc looks like!
The Hero’s Journey
“The standard path of the mythological adventure of the hero is a magnificent formula represented in the rites of passage: separation—initiation—return: which might be named the nuclear unit of the monomyth.
A hero ventures forth form the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder (x): fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won (y): the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man (z).
Prometheus ascended to the heavens, stole fire from the gods, and descended. Jason sailed through the Clashing Rocks into a sea of marvels, circumvented the dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece, and returned with the fleece and the power to wrest his rightful throne from a usurper. Aeneas went down into the underworld, crossed the dreadful river of the dead, threw a sop to the three-headed watchdog Cerberus, and conversed, at last, with the shade of his dead father. All things were unfolded to him: the destiny of souls, the destiny of Rome, which he was about to found, ‘and in what wise he might avoid or endure every burden.’ He returned through the ivory gates to his work in the world.”
The Hero’s Journey has three parts.
First, we have the “Departure” or the call to adventure in which our hero must leave his or her known world. Then we have the “Initiation” in which our hero must face trials. Finally, our hero must “Return” to the normal world and bring the boon he has discovered back to his community.
Each of those segments has its own challenges. And, each has its own chapter in the book.
Here’s another way Campbell puts it later in the book: “The mythological hero, setting forth from his common-day hut or castle, is lured, carried away, or else voluntarily proceeds, to the threshold of adventure. There he encounters a shadow presence that guards the passage. The hero may defeat or conciliate this power and go alive into the kingdom of the dark (brother-battle, dragon-battle; offering, charm), or be slain by the opponent and descend into death (dismemberment, crucifixion). Beyond the threshold, then, the hero journeys through a world of unfamiliar yet strangely intimate forces, some of which severely threaten him (tests), some of which give magical aid (helpers). When he arrives at the nadir of the mythological round, he undergoes a supreme ordeal and gains his reward. The triumph may be represented as the hero’s sexual union with the goddess-mother of the world (sacred marriage), his recognition by the father-creator (father atonement), his own divinization (apotheosis), or again—if the powers have remained unfriendly to him—his theft of the boon he came to gain (bride-theft, fire-theft); intrinsically it is an expression of consciousness and therewith of being (illumination, transfiguration, freedom). The final work is that of the return. If the powers have blessed the hero, he now sets forth under their protection (emissary); if not, he flees and is pursued (transformation flight, obstacle flight). At the return threshold the transcendental powers must remain behind; the hero re-emerges from the kingdom of dread (return, resurrection). The boon that he brings restores the world (elixir).”
The Veil of your discomfort zone + Micro Hero Journeys
“This is a dream that brings out the sense of the first, or protective aspect of the threshold guardian. One had better not challenge the watcher of the established bounds. And yet—it is only by advancing beyond those bounds, provoking the other, destructive aspect of the same power, that the individual passes, either alive or in death, into a new zone of experience. In the language of the pigmies of the Andaman Islands, the word oko-jumu (‘dreamer,’ ‘one who speaks from dreams’) designates those highly respected and feared individuals who are distinguished from their fellows by the possession of supernatural talents, which can be acquired only by meeting with the spirits—directly in the jungle, through extraordinary dream, or by death and return. The adventure is always and everywhere a passage beyond the veil of the known into the unknown; the powers that watch at the boundary are dangerous; to deal with them is risky; yet for anyone with competence and courage the danger fades.”
That’s from the first part of our Hero’s Journey: The Departure. Sub-section: “Crossing of the First Threshold.” The hero receives a call. He or she must leave the known world (or suffer the negative consequences). But, first they must get past the guardians of the threshold.
There are a lot of ways we can unpack this idea but I was struck by the line about highly respected individuals who are “distinguished from their fellows by the possession of supernatural talents.”
How’d they get that supernatural power? They were willing to go “beyond the veil of the known into the unknown.”
For whatever reason, when I thought of who in our society possesses supernatural talents, I thought of Michael Jordan. Then I thought about his mental toughness/mindfulness coach George Mumford. Mumford wrote a great book called The Mindful Athlete in which he tells us HOW these great athletes obtained their supernatural powers.
Guess what? It’s almost EXACTLY what Campbell is describing mythologically, just on a micro level. You know what Mumford taught them? He taught them how to get comfortable right “beyond the veil of the known into the unknown.” In more prosaic terms, right on the other side of their comfort zones.
Here’s how he puts it: “Our bodies like to be in homeostasis. We like to be balanced. Life is hard enough—we want to be comfortable! But, again, to get better and improve our game on and off the court, we need to move out of our comfort zones. That doesn’t mean you should go so far out of your comfort zone that you can’t function well. Our bodies work best when we push them in small increments. If we push ourselves too far, eustress can become distress. We have to really pay attention, because they can manifest the same symptoms. Eustress is achieved through moderation, sticking to the middle way, and not going to extremes. …
Moving out of your comfort zone through experiencing eustress is a continuous incremental process of romancing your discomfort zone. It’s not like you get to a certain level and then stay there. Things are always either going forward or backward; they’re not staying static. If you are comfortable where you are and you just want to stay comfortable, that’s fine, but that isn’t the way to pursue excellence and wisdom.”
In short: Want supernatural powers? Get (really) good at romancing your discomfort zone.
When? ALL THE TIME.
I was on my hike/trail run contemplating this idea and the fact that, as Campbell tells us, the good life is one hero’s journey after another. Then I realized that this heroic call to adventure happens in micro cycles all day every day.
As I’m working out, in any given moment there’s a call to train a little harder. There’s also a voice in my head that wants to ignore that call. But… If I want to Optimize and actualize and live heroically/develop supernatural powers, I need to answer that call and move beyond the threshold of a little bit of pain. Then I’m initiated and return a little stronger.
Repeat. All day. Every day.
It’s the same idea we’ve discussed with Maslow’s idea of stepping forward into growth or back into safety. +1 or -1. Each time we refuse the call we stagnate. Each time we answer the call we step beyond the “veil of the known” and cultivate our superpowers.
Let’s do that a little more today.
Your Ultimate Boon
“The Japanese have a proverb: ‘The gods only laugh when men pray to them for wealth.’ The boon bestowed on the worshiper is always scaled to his stature and to the nature of his dominant desire: the boon is simply a symbol of life energy stepped down to the requirements of the specific case. The irony, of course, lies in the fact that, whereas the hero who has won the favor of the god may beg for the boon of perfect illumination, what he generally seeks are longer years to live, weapons with which to slay his neighbor, or the health of his child.
The Greeks tell of King Midas, who had the luck to win from Baccus the offer of whatsoever boon he might desire. He asked that everything he touched should be turned to gold. When he went his way, he plucked, experimentally, the twig of an oak tree and it was immediately gold; he took up a stone; it had turned to gold; an apple was a golden nugget in his hand. Ecstatic, he ordered prepared a magnificent feast to celebrate the miracle. But when he sat down and set his fingers on the roast, it was transmuted; at his lips the wine became liquid gold. And when his little daughter, whom he loved beyond anything on earth, came to console him in his misery, she became, the moment he embraced her, a pretty golden statue.”
Answer the call.
Win the battle with your dragons.
Receive your boon.
But choose it wisely!! :)
Alas, Campbell tells us that “the boon is simply a symbol of life energy stepped down to the requirements of the specific case.”
In the case of King Midas, he wanted everything he touched to turn to gold. Oops.
Reminds me of what psychologists call the “affluenza virus.” It’s a sort of modern version of the mistake King Midas made. Too many of us incorrectly prioritize money above everything else—which leads to a sort of psychological brittleness that mirrors Midas’s dilemma.
The much wiser course?
Ask for what REALLY matters. As Campbell would say, the “boon of perfect illumination.”
What would that perfect illumination show us?
It would show us that money isn’t everything. Neither is a million Instagram followers checking out your six-pack on the beach. (Laughing.)
It’s all about your psychological balance sheet. A sense of flourishing. Close relationships. Meaningful work. Enjoying the experience that is life—with ALL its “good” and its “bad.”
When? RIGHT NOW.
Here’s to your ultimate boon!
The Makers of Legend Made a little mistake
“But the makers of legend have seldom rested content to regard the world’s great heroes as mere human beings who broke past the horizons that limited their fellows and returned with such boons as any man with equal faith and courage might have found. On the contrary, the tendency has always been to endow the hero with extraordinary powers from the moment of birth, or even the moment of conception. The whole hero-life is shown to have been a pageant of marvels with the great central adventure as its culmination.”
Our makers of legend, as Campbell tells us, weren’t “content to regard the world’s great heroes as mere human beings who broke past the horizons that limited their fellows and returned with such boons as any man with equal faith and courage might have found.”
And, that’s kind of a big problem.
In fact, it’s one of the reasons we, as a culture, are so mired in a fixed-mindset orientation.
Our heroes aren’t normal people who had the courage to push their limits. They aren’t LIKE US. For whatever reason, myth makers seem to think our heroes have to be extraordinary from birth (or conception!)—making us feel like we must be missing that special “gift” of awesome. If only we’d been lucky enough to be born with “it”…
But, as Anders Ericsson tells us in Peak, we ALL (!!!) have “The Gift.” The gift of adaptability. The gift of being able to get better and better as we romance our discomfort zones and cultivate supernatural powers. Growth Mindset 101 style.
It’s funny because I recently saw the new Star Wars movie (The Last Jedi). What do we have? A wonderful heroine with “the most raw talent” Luke Skywalker has ever seen. She’s a natural. Needs essentially no training to be a Jedi Master. Congratulations, Rey!
But you know what I’d rather see? A hero who worked hard to cultivate that natural talent who then shows EVERYONE else that they, too, have the same capacity to tap into the Force and master the ways of the Jedi.
That’s the true way of the Hero. In fact, THAT might be the truly ultimate boon worthy of us as we work hard to Optimize and Actualize in service to the world—embodying these Ideas as humble exemplars and then showing everyone around us how they can do the same!
The Modern Hero ← That’s you
“The modern hero, the modern individual who dares to heed the call and seek the mansion of that presence with whom it is our whole destiny to be atoned, cannot, indeed must not, wait for his community to cast off its slough of pride, fear, rationalized avarice, and sanctified misunderstanding. “Live,’ Nietzsche says, ‘as though the day were here.’ It is not society that is to guide and save the creative hero, but precisely the reverse. And so every one of us shares the supreme ordeal—carries the cross of the redeemer—not in the bright moments of his tribe’s great victories, but in the silence of his personal despair.”
Those are the very last words of the book. Published in 1949.
The Modern Hero. ← That’s you.
We can’t wait until society gives us the signal. WE must be the signal.
Let’s live, as Nietzsche says, as if today’s the day. Because, quite simply, it is.
I appreciate your support on my Hero’s Journey and I’m honored to support you on yours.
Sending love and high fives. May the Force be with you.
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