Everyday Myth

The Hero’s Journey

A Very Short Talk on Myth

We all need mythology in order to live out fulfilling lives. We all need heroes and villains, gods and monsters, noble quests demanding of us great risk for greater reward.

Calling something a myth doesn’t mean that it’s false or that it’s a lie. Rather, myths are stories that make sense of our reality: that explain, in ways that we can digest, the great truths of God, the world, and our place within it. In this sense, the Garden of Eden is a myth. For that matter, so are the Big Bang and Darwinian evolution.

This doesn’t mean that these stories didn’t happen, or that they aren’t true. Instead, calling a story a myth affirms the deep truths that this story imparts, truths that often go far beyond mere factuality or historicity.

If there is an underlying structure to mythology—a monomyth, as Joseph Campbell put it—then it must be the so-called Hero’s Journey. The Hero’s Journey is an archetypal quest deeply embedded in the human psyche. Our minds are goal-oriented: when we interpret the world, we imagine ourselves in one state of being, Point A, and we always want to get to a better or higher state of being, Point B.

Everything we encounter in life is thus viewed either as an instrument helping us to Point B or as an obstacle in our way. This is why we yell at other cars on the freeway. We’re heading toward a goal, darn it, and your beetle-shaped carapace is in the way.

In its simplest expression, the Hero’s Journey plays out thusly:

(1) We find ourselves in a place of comfort
(2) But we want something more
(3) So we venture out into the unknown
(4) And adapt.
(5) We find what we’re looking for
(6) But pay a high price for it
(7) And we return home again
(8) Having changed.

The Hero’s Journey above isn’t just the bare-bones summary of almost every great story that humanity has. It’s also a roadmap for living out a meaningful, purposeful life. We must always venture out from comfort into the unknown, for out there—in the darkness, in the chaos, in the mythic dragon’s cave—lay both risk and opportunity. In the unknown are riches to be found. In the unknown we must adapt, grow, strengthen, overcome. Only in this way can we reach true maturity.

What more do you want from life? What is worth seeking out, venturing into the unknown, trading great risk for great reward? Seek ye out the Hero’s Journey, and you’ll find mythology in the struggles of everyday life, shouldering heavy responsibilities, becoming the hero of your own story—the story of your life.