CCM - The Monomyth and Archetypes Lesson

The Monomyth and Archetypes

 

Remember how Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell influenced the world of mythology?

Carl Jung found archetypal behaviors in humans across the board. Campbell took these archetypal behaviors and expanded them into characters, found in many stories across the world. They are intertwined into mythology to create the archetype as we know it today. The basis of the archetype is a behavior or character upon which others are based. So, according to Jung, our behavior can be traced back to those archetypal behaviors. According to Campbell, characters found in many stories, can be traced back to original archetypes and archetypal behaviors.

The Hero's Journey is an archetypal story pattern, common in ancient myths as well as modern day adventures. The concept of the Hero's Journey was first described by mythologist Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero With A Thousand Faces and refined by Christopher Vogler in his book The Writer's Journey.

It can be boiled down to three stages:

1. Departure: the Hero leaves the familiar world behind.
2. Initiation: the Hero learns to navigate the unfamiliar world of adventure.
3. Return: the Hero returns to the familiar world

Campbell describes seventeen stages or steps along this journey. Very few myths contain all seventeen stages—some myths contain many of the stages, while others contain only a few; some myths may focus on only one of the stages, while other myths may deal with the stages in a somewhat different order. These seventeen stages may be organized in a number of ways, including division into three sections: Departure (sometimes called Separation), Initiation, and Return. "Departure" deals with the hero's adventure prior to the quest; "Initiation" deals with the hero's many adventures along the way; and "Return" deals with the hero's return home with knowledge and powers acquired on the journey.

Hero's Journey Review Activity