Story and Myth; Find your Path
Dreams are real. Story and myth can help you find meaning in your life.
“[myth]… it will always be the one, shape-shifting yet marvellously constant story that we find, together with a challengingly persistent suggestion of more remaining to be experienced than will ever be known or told.”
— Joseph Campbell; The Hero With a Thousand Faces.
We have a hidden story inside our subconscious. You’ve been told it before. Some call it folklore, fairytale, superstition or myth. Whatever it is, it’s been with us a long time.
In 1949 author and literature professor Joseph Campbell called it the ‘Monomyth’ or, The Hero’s Journey. And according to Campbell, it’s the story of every human as well as all humans. That our lives arch along a certain path, a pattern that takes us through life’s stages and brings alive our purpose; to actualize ourselves with what we are meant to become. The Hero’s of our own stories.
The story roughly goes like this: We’re born into a simple and ordinary world, and then one day something or someone calls us to adventure (we must leave our comfortable nest), but simple-minded and innocent— we refuse. Scared of the unknown and failure we resist until fate intervenes. Eventually we give in or get pushed and thrust into the unknown; fresh, naive, green-eyed, and accepting of the adventure calling us.
The adventure will take us to a different place, a ‘special world’, and along the way we’ll face challenges and obstacles. But we also meet friends, mentors, and enemies. Mentors are specifically important says Campbell, they give us the knowledge and tools to preserver. And the power to slay the dragons and save the princess.
The roadblocks and obstacles Campbell calls thresholds. And just like in the movies we finally reach the point of no return, the boss battle, the ultimate threshold, or ‘the inner most cave’. It’s going to take everything we’ve got to get out of this one. It’s the Hero’s ultimate test.
But to survive ‘the belly of the whale’ says Campbell, the hero must die and be reborn.
“The idea that the passage of the magical threshold is a transit into a sphere of rebirth is symbolized in the worldwide womb image of the belly of the whale. The hero, instead of conquering or conciliating the power of the threshold, is swallowed into the unknown, and would appear to have died.”
— Jospeh Campbell
But the hero is not dead. He’s been reborn. Shedding his old skin and becoming something, or someone new. It symbolizes many things including getting rid of the traumas and characteristics that have held us back— whatever has stopped us from being the Hero of our own story.
The last stage for our hero is the ‘return’. The monomyth says that we shall all eventually return home to share the knowledge or artifacts we’ve gathered on our journey. We give back by teaching others about the journey and our rebirth.
“When the hero-quest has been accomplished… , the adventurer still must return with his life-transmuting trophy. The full round, the norm of the monomyth, requires that the hero shall now begin the labor of bringing the runes of wisdom, the Golden Fleece, or his sleeping princess to the renewing of the community, the nation, the planet, or the ten thousand worlds.”
— Jospeh Campbell
It sounds nice doesn’t it? You might think it sounds like a movie. Well that’s because it is. It’s almost all movies and most novels. The strangest thing happens when you learn about the monomyth and The Hero’s Journey. You realize it’s the story of all stories. Not just the old stories Campbell references: The Epic of Gilgamesh (1200 B.C.), The Odyssey (800 B.C.); tribal stories spoken around the fire for thousands of years; religious texts (the story of Buddha; 400 B.C.), Jesus Christ; but also newer stories from Shakespeare to Tolstoy, and finally to modern day movies like Star Wars, The Matrix, and Harry Potter. A quick YouTube search will give you hundreds of videos of people explaining on how to write a screenplay or a novel using Campbell’s Hero’s Journey framework.
After studying many ancient texts and stories Campbell realized that us humans keep telling the same story over and over again. And then eventually he (correctly imo) realizes that the monomyth isn’t just a story— it’s a guidebook. Human beings naturally produce, tell, and live the monomyth. Because the myth of The Hero’s Journey is inside of us. And Campbell further cooborates this after reading and learning that some of the greatest psychologists have discovered the same phenomenon, but not in books, in our dreams.
“In our sleep and in our dreams we pass through the whole thought of earlier humanity. I mean, in the same way that man reasons in his dreams, he reasoned when in the waking state many thousands of years… The dream carriers us back into earlier states of human culture, and affords us a means of understanding it better.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche
And Freud explains the connection of the symbols of myth that his patients describe in their dreams and what humans write and speak about in myth and folklore.
“This symbolism is not peculiar to dreams, but is characteristic of unconscious ideation, in particular among the people, and it is to be found in folklore, and in popular myths, legends, linguistic idioms, proverbial wisdom and current jokes…”
— Sigmund Freud
This is evidence of the collective unconscious of humans. That the myth, symbols, and archetypes that appear in our stories are the same ones that appear in our individual unconsciousness— in our dreams. Refusal of the call, meeting a mentor (obi wan), killing the father for the mother (Oedipus), and other archetypes like the shadow or the trickster that have been noted by Carl Jung, all have roles to play in the monomyth.
Myth is our collective general guidebook about our story and the steps along the way. Our subconscious (our dreams), they’re the individual guidebook. They’re what is trying to nudge us in the right direction. To keep following our story.
“Dream is the personalized myth, myth is the depersonalized dream.”
— Jospeh Campbell
Do you feel like there is an adventure that’s been calling you? Do you dream?
From my experience mentoring people there are some common phrases that I hear every year: ‘Loss of purpose’, ‘I need to find my direction’, ‘I want to start the 2nd phase of my life’, ‘This (one thing) is the only thing that keeps me going or gives me meaning’. And, ‘I feel useless or broken’, ‘there’s no meaning’.
Many ancient tribes and societies knew the monomyth. They wouldn’t call it that but they were aware of certain thresholds and challenges one needs to pass through to come of age. Becoming a man, becoming a mother, going to battle, becoming a leader or mentor, and eventually dying. Life is difficult and people struggle, thus many cultures in different places around the world used the same tool to guide each other through these thresholds— rites of passage.
“… consider the numerous strange rituals that have been reported from the primitive tribes and great civilizations of the past, it becomes apparent that the purpose and actual effect of these was to conduct people across those difficult thresholds of transformation that demand a change in the patterns not only of conscious but also of unconscious life. The so-called rites of passage…”
— Jospeh Campbell
Campbell identifies the 3 main rites of passage along our hero’s journey:
separation — initiation — return
We must separate from our humble beginnings, die and be reborn through initiation and trials, then return home having changed to teach the lessons learned. This cycle can represent different phases and aspects of our lives, as well as our life in totality.
Modern society and our lives today are different from our ancestors in ways we cannot comprehend. We no longer live in collectives. We no longer have rites of passage and people that can show us the way. We no longer look inside ourselves. And we no longer ask what does it mean?
The unconscious mind gives signals in different ways than the conscious one. Maybe you’re on a false path, or maybe you’ve just lost your way. But the body knows. Those little hints and weird coincidences that tug your shoulder. That thing that just seems to keep catching your eye. The recurring dream or the feeling deep down inside you barely acknowledge exists. It’s there and it’s trying to tell you something.
We’re all somewhere along our hero’s journey. If you’re stuck in life and something doesn’t feel right, or you know what it is but can’t find your path— chances are you’re avoiding the next stage of your journey. I was too. But, I did feel those weird moments and day dreams. Something inside of me was ever so slightly nudging me and reminding me to not get lost. To follow my journey even though it had gotten hard. And that I must change to move forward.
Take note of how your body reacts to certain thoughts and conversations. Realize how you feel when you watch a movie or read a novel. Day dream about your future and where you want to be. Read, talk to others, and then reflect. Do not be so busy with the trappings of your fast-paced chaotic life that you don’t hear your soul’s whisper. The signs are there, they’re everywhere.
“The unconscious send all sort of vapors, odd beings, terrors, and deluding images up into the mind— wether in dream, broad daylight, or insanity; for the human kingdom, beneath the floor of the comparatively neat little dwelling that we call our consciousness, goes down into unsuspected Aladdin caves…
… some chance word, the smell of a landscape, the taste of a cup of tea, or the glance of an eye may touch a magic spring, and then the dangerous messengers begin to appear in the brain… for they carry keys that open the whole realm of the desired and feared adventure of the discovery of the self. Destruction of the world that we have built and in which we live, and of ourselves within it; but then a wonderful reconstruction, of the bolder, cleaner, more spacious, and fully human life”
— Joseph Campbell
What is your story trying to tell you that you’re avoiding? Brushing off as weird coincidences or impossibilities. Humanity has given you the story and your subconscious will show you the chapter you’re stuck on.
I’ve been taking people into the wilderness to help them discover themselves for seven years. Not only does being in solitude and nature help you listen to your inner self, heading into nature for a retreat is in itself a rite of passage. Something that industrial society has long since lost. I encourage everyone to create a yearly (at least) ritual for themselves of retreating into nature and reflecting on and listening to their soul.
Nature and solitude have been used for ritualistic growth by many societies throughout history. Sometimes our subconscious is screaming at us. But we’re too distracted by our phones, jobs, families, daily problems, and whatever garbage the media and society drum up to tell us we should worry about. Take back your time from them; explore, sit, and listen to yourself. You need it.
"The trip reinforced in me how I want to live my life. It reminded me of coping mechanism and healing tools I had either forgot or was neglecting to use. It hit the reset button on my primal instincts and behaviours… All of modern life distractions were removed, which helped me focus on what's important for mental and physical well-being.”
— Warrior Adventures Alumni
All in all it’s not an easy task. Many of us wander around society like zombie NPC’s hoping for our next break of luck. Apathetic about our plot in life and any thoughts of changing or altering it are too big, too scary, past due, or never gonna happen. But it can, and it must— if you want to live.
It took me years. I was struggling after two decades in a high tempo career in the Canadian military, I was stuck in the belly of the whale. After multiple trips into the wilderness, reading, and talking to friends and my partner— I’ve finally went through my painful rebirth and only now slowly taking my haggard steps back home. I haven’t completed the full circle yet but my why is there. I can see the path. And writing is a part of that journey. I write for myself. I write for my soul.
You can do it too. Where you are in life right now might not be your full story. I encourage you to read, retreat, and then reflect. Understand that these ancient texts and stories were written for us and for our children. Despite all the primitive ways our ancestors lived, they were not primitive in spirit and soul. They knew themselves and they knew us humans and our “one, shape-shifting yet marvellously constant story that we find, together with a challengingly persistent suggestion of more remaining to be experienced than will ever be known or told.”
Further reading:
Deep and in depth: The Hero with a Thousand Faces; Joseph Campbell
Short and light: The Cafe on the Edge of the World; John Strelecky