The Hero's Adventure

By definition a hero is someone who has found, achieved, or done something beyond the normal range. He/she gave his/her life to something bigger than the self. This can be a physical act such as saving a people, one person, or an idea or ideal. It can also be a spiritual act that includes a going out and a return.
The initiation rites of many cultures symbolize the hero’s journey. The pubescent or prepubescent child must die to childhood and become an adult. He/she must leave dependency behind for the world of self responsibility.
Often the hero sets out intentionally on this journey. One example is Ulysses’ son who went in search of his father. He began his hero’s journey fully cognizant of his quest and the object of it. Other times one can be thrust into the role of hero. There is a Celtic myth about someone who follows an animal to a new landscape and the animal transforms into something else. In this case the hero embarked on this transformational journey unbeknownst to himself. Another parallel is the young man drafted into the military. He begins his quest by being pitched into that life headlong without his overt consent.
Generally, the hero has some moral objective. He/she is involved in saving something of value and sacrifices him/herself for something. A good example of this is Prometheus who stole fire for the sake of mankind. The myth of fire theft is a universal theme across cultures. The early heroes were required to slay monsters. The themes and actions of the hero evolve as the culture evolves.
Moses, Buddha and Jesus are examples of more evolved hero stories. Moses ascended the mountain, met God and brought new rules to live by. He epitomizes the classic hero journey of departure, fulfillment, and return. Buddha and Jesus parallel one another. Each of them faced 3 temptations and overcame them. Jesus faced the financial temptation of turning stone into bread, the political temptation of “bow down to me and all this shall be yours to rule” and the temptation of “cast yourself down and God will not allow you to come to harm.” He chose to resist the temptations. Likewise Buddha resisted the temptations of lust, fear, and the social duty of doing what one is told to do by society or some authority. Each of them came back to their followers and chose disciples to go and teach others.
The hero sacrifices his/her own needs for the sake of the other. Yet, his/her deed is often lost by the inability of his/her followers to perceive the journey. The hero is aware that if one primarily thinks of oneself he/she has lost the way. One must lose oneself and give oneself to others to complete the hero’s journey.
Generally, in his/her quest, the hero went out to new lands, places that had not been explored before. Our modern myths, such as the original Star Wars trilogy, are set in space because there are no new realms left on the earth for the imagination.
Star Wars perfectly characterizes the cycle of the hero’s journey. The powers of life are reflected through man, this can be seen in the use of “the force” by the hero and his mentor and its abuse by his enemies.
In this myth there is the old man advisor (Obi Wan) who aids the hero. He gives him both a physical instrument (light saber) and helps him find his own psychic center. The hero (Luke) is not a mere adventurer. He began his journey serendipitously when his guardians were murdered and he left with Obi Wan to join the fight for the Republic. He is ready for this journey and his achievement is a manifestation of his character.
Han Solo is the mercenary who becomes a hero. He had qualities of character and a depth even he did not know he possessed. He began the adventure only looking out for himself and by the end of the first movie he had shown himself to be willing to sacrifice what was most important to him for the good of his friends and their quest. He risks his life and his treasure to aid Luke’s quest to destroy the Death Star by eliminating the pursuing Imperials.
The scene in the bar in Mos Eisely, early in the first film, where Luke and Obi Wan first meet Chewbaca and Han Solo is symbolic of the beginning of the journey. The hero is about to embark on the adventure and he meets people who have been through the lands where he will travel. They have made their lives and choices just as he must make his soon.
The trash compactor scene is reminiscent of the Jonah story. They are in the belly of the enemy ship It is a descent into darkness and fear. The water represents the unconscious and the creature that is stirring in the bottom of the trash bin is the dynamism of the unconsciousness. It almost pulls Luke to his demise there, but he transcends the lure of the unconscious for his commitment to the journey. In effect, he leaves behind his attachment to the life unreflected for a life of conscious choice.
In the second movie, when Vader traps Luke and tells him, “I am your father,” Luke is confronted with another side of himself. It shows up symbolically in the tree cave on Yoda’s planet when Luke confronts what he thinks is Vader and when he cuts off the head it reveals that inside of Vader’s helmet is Luke’s head. His own dark side has come to play. Luke must make the choices that will render that dark side impotent if he is to fulfill his hero’s quest. He must move away from the choices of his father and into his own conscious choices to become an adult and fulfill his role as hero.
Luke’s choice to refuse the Emperor is the choice of the hero to use the system rather than be eaten by it. All of us operate in relation to a system. How we choose to relate to it determines the outcome of our own mythic journey. Do we choose to use the system for what we need or allow ourselves to be overcome by it, slaves to its authority? To fulfill our destiny we must not go to the dark side. Luke, by allowing himself to be nearly killed by the Emperor, chose to refuse the lure of the dark side. He was willing to die rather than surrender to that which is dark in himself. In so doing, he allowed Darth Vader to free himself from the morass he had created for himself by eventually choosing to defy the dark side of himself and rescue Luke. He sacrificed himself for the greater good, a true hero’s ending.
The hero lurks in all of us. It evokes our higher nature. Each of us must, within ourselves, say yes or no to the adventure of living. Do we choose zest, balance, and harmony or do we allow ourselves to become slaves to a programmed life, submitting to what others want of us that is not in the best interest of ourselves or society?
Many early hero myths included the slaying of a dragon, at least in European myths. The real dragon in life is our ego. This is the monster we must defeat. Do we allow ourselves to be ruled by what we want, believe we can do, or our environment? Each of us must choose to move out of the too small world we can create for ourselves and into the larger opportunities of life. The journey is our soul’s high adventure. “Follow your bliss.” (Joseph Campbell). This is akin to John Sullivan’s “the intersection of our own deep passion and the world’s deep hunger.”
If I choose to live my life according to my belief that “I couldn’t do that” then I’ve allowed myself to choose to acquiesce to the dragon. That self doubt is indeed the dragon. If I save myself, in effect, I save the world. I bring the world to life by being alive, truly alive not just eeking out my existence until death. In service to myself, I am of service to others. This is one consequence of myth, the story of one man/woman’s conquest allows each of us a larger world view from which to make our own choices. Ultimately each of us must do this alone. We can have a companion for the journey only up to a certain point. After that it is ours alone.
In Stranger in a Strange Land, Heinlein has his character, Valentine Michael Smith, tell Jill that the “cusp” the moment of decision is the only ownership that truly exists. Choice must be arrived at alone. Others can provide input and ideas but the final decision is up to the individual and cannot be taken on by someone else. This is the true hero’s journey, to make the choice and follow it through.
Joseph Campbell speaks of the place within oneself of rest. This is the center out of which one acts. Without that place of centeredness the hero will be torn apart. Nirvana is a psychological state of mind, not a physical place. Here in the midst of the turmoil of life there is an internal place or state wherein one is not compelled by desire, fear or social commitments. The teacher can give clues to the direction and path that leads there, but the person must find that center for him/herself.
The Gaia principle operates in this realm. It is the concept of the planet as one entire organism. We ourselves come out of the earth, we are the consciousness of the earth. As we human beings lose the planet as our center, we also lose our own ability to be centered within ourselves. Campbell points to the photo of the earth as seen from space as an example of this. It appears so small, yet it is so vital. There are no divisions, not for countries or states. We are all one and part of this glorious whole.
Myths and the hero’s adventure serve to link us back to this whole consciousness and our own part in it. They bring us to a spiritual level of consciousness, beyond the needs of the flesh and the immediate moment to those of eternity and the species and the planet. The sacrifice of the hero is to serve as hope for the future not only of mankind but of the organic whole of Gaia.