This is #18 in Crossing the Threshold series.

                                              Genesis the “Backstory”

Our story starts with a hero of course and before we step out on the journey with him we have to understand one of the many titles given to him in scripture. In First Corinthians 15:45 Jesus Christ is referred to as “The Last Adam”; what does this mean? We find the answer by going to the Genesis account and looking at the First Adam, the son of God (Luke3:37). This back-story is vitally important to all that follows in the biblical narrative.

In Genesis on the 6^th day of creation God created man in his own image and gave him the vocation of ruling over the plant and animal kingdoms, as well as commissioning him to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. In ordinary everyday terms God was making man his “vice-regent”; someone he would uniquely empower to rule the earth along with him. We have a great distortion and perversion of this idea when we see ruthless dictators setting up their own images all over their countries, as a reminder of just who rules the place. Man (Adam) created in God’s image was to be a reflector of God; of his glory, giving an exact representation of  who God is by exercising benevolent dominion over the earth. Being fruitful, he would multiply and fill the earth with the glory of God.

In Chapter Two of Genesis this vocation is more clearly defined when in verse fifteen God takes man and places him into the Garden of Eden “to cultivate it and to keep it”. Adam is given the priest-king role of serving (to cultivate) and guarding (to keep) God’s first temple Eden. This includes keeping out all uncleanness. In “journey” language Adam leaves his Ordinary World, the ground from which he was created, and enters the Special World of the garden. When he is placed in Eden he is confronted with a test; will he obey the one command God gave him? Only one stipulation: “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). Adam failed the test; he failed to love and trust His Creator.

Do you remember our definition of Hero in Chapter Two? The word hero comes from the Greek root of the word that means “to protect and to serve”; a hero is someone who is willing to sacrifice his own needs on behalf of others, like a shepherd who will sacrifice to protect and serve his flock. Protect and serve was Adam’s Genesis vocation, he was called to be God’s shepherd over creation. Adam did not reflect God when he allowed the unclean “serpent” into the garden, he was not willing to lay his life down to protect his flock instead he willingly chose to sin. He turned in on self and became the first tragic hero. 

What was God to do? Scrap the whole project of filling the earth with glory by using his image bearers; his priest kings? No, he had spoken his word. Did he know Adam would fail? Absolutely, and he already had a plan for the great rescue operation. God’s salvation is not about saving some people so they can go to “heaven” when they die. His salvation encompasses rescuing his entire creation; of restoring the earth and reuniting it to heaven, of restoring his images bearers to be his royal priesthood, and of saving the plant and animal kingdoms that have been subjected in bondage to corruption

For the task of saving God’s creation, another Adam had to be found. The Last Adam would be one that would not fail the test but be obedient even to the point of death; one who would be the true hero by sacrificing his own life to protect and serve his flock and in so doing defeat all the powers of evil unleashed by the first Adam’s disobedience.

This is #17 in the Crossing the Threshold series.

                                                   The Hero’s Journey

Now that we have a better understanding of the word myth we can return to The Hero’s Journey or Hero’s Myth without automatically thinking fable, falsehood, untrue story. We can now begin to see its cosmic pattern and perhaps by “looking along and through” as C.S. Lewis would say, connect the myth of the Hero’s Journey with the “true myth” of Jesus Christ.

In Chapter Two I used Christopher Vogler’s Twelve Stage version of The Hero’s Journey and we will return to that, but let me give you another formulation that may also prove to be insightful. In his book Mythology: The Voyage of the Hero, David Adams Leeming outlines the journey like this: 1. Miraculous conception and birth

                                                2. Initiation of the hero-child

                                                3. Withdrawal from family or community for meditation                                                           

                                                      and preparation

                                                4. Trial and quest

                                                5. Death

                                                6. Descent into the Underworld

                                                7. Resurrection and rebirth

                                                8. Ascension, apotheosis, and atonement.

Oh does this sound familiar? If I had not revealed the source of this eight point list you could easily have thought “I know this story, it sounds very much like the one that’s been going around for well let’s see, two thousand years; the one about Jesus!” If you attend or have attended a liturgical church you probably recited either The Apostle’s Creed or the Nicene Creed, both are very early statements of the Christian faith and both include the essential outline of Christ’s life: miraculous conception and birth, trial and death, descent, resurrection, ascension, atonement. You see Joseph Campbell was wrong in one respect; the hero does not have one thousand faces he has one, and the Hero’s Journey that we find in all cultures at all times does not originate in the primordial past, it originates in eternity.

So let’s take a look at God’s Eternal Story in a fresh new “mythic” way by seeing it as The True Hero’s Journey.

This is #16 in the Crossing the Threshold series.

                                                True Myth

The high meaning of myth: a means by which the eternal expresses itself in time, went to the low meaning of myth; a discredited popular belief , in much the same way Christianity went from being the one true metanarrative of the one true God to being….well myth!

In the undivided world prior to 1400 Christianity looked upon earlier pagan myths, not so much as lies but as primitive attempts to express God’s eternal truth prior to the coming of the full revelation of His truth in Jesus Christ. They did not dismiss the pagan myth; they sanctified it by using it as a means to communicate in story language the one “True Myth”, the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is exactly what we earlier saw the Apostle Paul doing in Athens; taking the myth of an unknown god and explaining it with the true myth, the gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, beyond myth in the primordial past lay true myth in eternity, for as Mircea Eliade says myth is simply “nostalgia for eternity”.

When Christianity and the Bible were rejected as fable and falsehood by The Enlightenment, the world lost this understanding of true myth. Instead of being the source from which all truth originated the Biblical narrative was reduced to just another “myth” and all myth was reduced to its lowest possible meaning; a false explanation or a pleasant lie.

This loss puts men in perilous circumstances for “whether or not people are aware of the fact, they cannot live without myth, nor can they reach full stature as people without true myth. Wrong myths destroy lives; those partially true affect the human spirit like disease. A proper response to true myth is necessary to moral and spiritual health” (R.Hein)

What is the proper response to true myth? It is not to deny it like the secular modernist do; nor to relegate it to a subjective personal belief signifying nothing like the postmodernist does. And certainly it is not to abstract it from scripture making the Biblical text nothing more than a set of doctrinal truths and moral precepts, the way so many in the religious world do.

A proper response is to see that true myth is essential to who we are as human beings. We were created in the image of God to live a mythic life in an epic story. The proper response is to identify true myth with Truth himself Jesus Christ, for only then can we understand “why we respond as we do to patterns of myth, why the human heart is so strongly moved and fascinated by them and where they come from in the first place.” (R. Hein)

This is # 15 in the Crossing the Threshold series.

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Myth

If you were to ask most people in the postmodern world; what is myth? The answer coming back from both the sacred and secular arenas would surprisingly be the same: a false or untrue story. Differing on just about everything else these two opposing factions find common ground by dismissing myth as fable at best or worse an entrenched lie. Wheaton College Professor Emeritus Rolland Hein says this low meaning of myth; a discredited popular belief is the complete degeneration of its high meaning. It is essential in our examination of the Hero’s Journey to regain the true high meaning of myth.

For Hein myths are “first of all stories; stories which confront us with something transcendent….the eternal expressing itself in time”. Clyde Kilby former President of Wheaton says “myth is the name for a way of seeing, a way of knowing.” For these men and many others including the great Christian mythmakers C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien, myth is the only way certain transcendent truth can be expressed in a comprehensible form. Far from being entrenched lies myths are stories that help people see and experience the transcendent in ways the rational never can.

This is #14 in the Crossing the Threshold series.

                                                         The Monomyth

This is the Hero’s Journey, the world’s most basic story. It exists in all cultures at all times. It is a three act story that transcends cultural boundaries, time, language, gender, politics and religion, and resonates in the heart of every person in every time and every place.

Where did it come from? Who is its author? Certainly not Joseph Campbell, he just made the observation that the world had a Hero Myth. Nor did it originate with Mr. Vogler or any of the other authors who have devoted study and scholarship to writing on The Hero’s Journey. They all acknowledge the origin of the Monomyth to be in the primordial waters of the time before history…..the time they call Myth

This is #13 in the Crossing the Threshold series.

                                                       The Characters

Since The Hero’s Journey is a basic foundational story, there are some basic characters better known as archetypes that are associated with it.

Hero

First and foremost of course is the hero, the central protagonist in the story. We may be tempted to think of heroes as being strong and courageous however these are really secondary qualities. Mr. Vogler says “the word hero is a  Greek word, from the root that means ‘to protect and to serve’…a hero is someone who is willing to sacrifice his own needs on behalf of others, like a shepherd who will sacrifice to protect and serve his flock.”. The true mark of a hero then is a willingness to sacrifice. To surrender something of value, perhaps even their very life on behalf of another person, group, or cause.

 Heroes also show us how to face the ultimate fear by facing death and doing it well. Some may lay down their life like William Wallace in Braveheart, others may die symbolically like Chuck Noland in Cast Away, while others simply face the possibility of death like Harry Potter in The Deathly Hallows. Whatever the outcome is, a hero is someone who does not give death a victory. They transcend it.

Mentor

Mentors are wise old men and women who come along side the hero to teach, guide, and protect them. Often they are former heroes, ones who have survived the tests, trials, and ordeals and grown to an old age full of wisdom. They are willing to impart to their young protégés all that experience has taught them.

A mentor will often speak as “the voice of God” and serve as the source of divine wisdom in the story. Along with life saving advice they may give magic gifts like magical weapons. They help the hero to overcome his fears and impart a code of virtue that all heroes are required to have.

Merlin, Gandalf, Dumbledore, Yoda, are all classic examples of a hero’s mentor.

Threshold Guardians

One of my favorite visual scenes in Peter Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring comes toward the end when the small band leaves the Woods of Lothlorien and paddle up the river on their quest to reach Mordor. They come to these immense stone figures …The Argonath, The Pillars of the King; here is how Tolkien himself describes them:

“As Frodo was borne towards them the great pillars rose like towers to meet him. Giants they seemed to him, vast grey figures silent but threatening….Upon great pedestals founded deep in the waters stood two great kings of stone: still with blurred eyes and crannied brows they frowned upon the North. The left hand of each was raised palm outwards in gestures of warning; in each right hand there was an axe; upon each head there was a crumbling helm and crown. Great power and majesty they still wore, the silent wardens of a long vanished kingdom. Awe and fear fell upon Frodo, and he cowered down, shutting his eyes and not daring to look up as the boat drew near.” (The Lord of the Rings) These are perfect images for the archetype known as Threshold Guardians.

Threshold Guardians stand at the threshold of new worlds to keep out those they deem unworthy. They maybe a boss, a watchman, a sentinel, a guard, or anyone whose job it is to block the way of the hero.

Herald

A herald is a forerunner used to introduce or give tidings, to make proclamations or announcements of significant change. They can be as small as the robot R2D2 in George Lucas’ Star Wars or as large as Hagrid the giant in Harry Potter and the Scorer’s Stone. They are used to present the challenge and get the adventure going.

Shapeshifter

A shapeshifter is exactly what the word implies; a figure who changes shapes at least from the hero’s perspective. Are they friend or foe? Loyal or traitor? Honest or Dishonest? They are not the villain but they may be used by him and they always keep the hero guessing.

Shadow

The Shadow of course represents the darkside. They are the forces of evil that are dedicated to the hero’s destruction. They can be outright villains who want the hero’s death, or they may be antagonists, those who are after the same goal but do not like the hero’s way of achieving it.

Ally

The hero usually has a few close allies who make at least part of the journey by his side. They serve different functions; messengers, sparring partners, figures who fight along side in battle, loyal servants, and companions. It would be hard to imagine Frodo without the Fellowship, Arthur without his Knights, or Robin Hood without his Merry Men.

This is post #12 in Crossing the Threshold series.

Act Three: Return

The Road Back

The hero is not safe yet nor is the journey over by any means. The enemy usually comes back with great vengeance. Commodus unleashes his fury after his humiliation in the arena and all of Rome feels the brunt of it. The Road Back is leading in one direction; to the final and ultimate confrontation.

The Resurrection

If the Ordeal is the crisis of the story then the Resurrection is the climax. This is the final clash between life and death and usually includes a sacrifice. Something must be given up, surrendered in order to “sanctify” the story. This is Harry Potter’s walk ‘Into the Forest Again,’ it is Chuck Noland’s loss of Wilson the volleyball, and it is Jack and Rose’s final descent into the waters in Titanic. From this last most dangerous meeting with death the hero will emerge transformed.

Return with the Elixir

The journey is now over and the hero returns to the Ordinary World having been transformed by the experience and brings with him the elixir. The elixir can be a treasure, a lesson learned, love, and friendship. Whatever it is the hero will be forever different and will enter into a new life.

Not only does change come to the hero but the elixir he returns with can change the Ordinary World.  “The whole world is altered and the consequences spread far. There is a beautiful image for this in Excalibur. When Percival brings the grail back to the ailing Arthur, the King revives and rides out with his knights again. They are so filled with new life that the flowers burst into bloom at their passing. They are a living elixir, whose mere presence renews nature.”(The Writer’s Journey)

This is # 11 in the Crossing the Threshold series.

Act Two: Descent and Initiation

Crossing the Threshold

The first four stages of the Hero’s Journey comprise Act One in the story and they are about separation. Now the moment comes when the hero must actually Cross the Threshold from the Ordinary World and go into the Special World. There is always some sort of a boundary that separates these two worlds. It may appear as a door, a bridge, a wilderness, an ocean, a forest, a river, it can be almost anything. However it appears it is the demarcation between two worlds. Harry Potter runs into a brick wall at Platform 9 ¾, Rapunzel leaves a stone and mortar tower and touches  grass, Mattie and Rooster Cogburn ford a river into Indian Territory, Moses crosses a desert and leaves Egypt, Hero Boy steps onto the Polar Express. Sometimes the boundary crossing results in a crash. Chuck Noland’s plane crashes in the ocean, and Balian’s ship to the Holy Land is crushed by waves, both men wash up on distant shores in new worlds. Whatever the threshold is there is no doubt that the hero is out of his mundane world and has entered a new one.

Tests, Allies, Enemies

The Special World is very different from the Ordinary World. Think of Dorothy waking up in Oz or Jake Sulley landing on Pandora in the movie Avatar. Both characters arrive in worlds that are radically different from the ones they left behind. The new environment of the special world forces the hero into a series of tests that actually serve as training for what lies ahead. He will also be forced to make new allies while being confronted with powerful enemies for the special world is not a safe place. This stage can go on for some time but it is always going in one direction…downward. If Act One is separation, Act Two begins with a descent.

Approach to Inmost Cave

The hero is pressing into the very heart of the new world where as Mr. Vogler writes “the greatest treasures are guarded by the greatest fears.” This is a dangerous journey that often goes underground to where the object of the quest is hidden. It can even be a descent into hell itself.

The Ordeal

The Ordeal is where the hero hits bottom. It is the crisis of the heart; the facing of the greatest fear which usually is a death of sorts. It can be facing a failure, a death of a relationship, or an inner struggle. Whatever it is it becomes the turning point of the story.

My favorite Ordeal scene is the unmasking of the gladiator in Ridley Scott’s movie Gladiator. After winning ‘The Battle of Carthage’ in the arena Maximus is ordered to remove his helmet and reveal his identity to the emperor. When he does he comes face to face with Commodus the man who murdered his wife, son and the true emperor Marcus Aurelius. This is a life and death moment, for Commodus now has the power to execute Maximus on the spot.

Reward

Having survived the Ordeal the hero takes possession of the treasure. For Maximus it is the crowd’s approval. Proximo his mentor  told him “win the crowd and you’ll win your freedom”. This special weapon (love) is one that Commodus is powerless before. As the whole arena erupts in chants of live, live, live, Commodus has no choice but to demur to the crowd’s demands and give Maximus the thumb’s up sign. Great jubilee breaks over the arena as Maximus marches off triumphantly. Celebration is typical for the ending of the Reward stage. Act Two is now complete and the final act begins with a turn toward home.

This is # 10 in the Crossing the Threshold series.

The Hero’s Journey

Act One: Separation

Ordinary World

The Hero is first introduced in a very Ordinary World. There is nothing special or remarkable about the hero at this point and certainly not his world. All is not well though, as a problem or challenge is presented to the hero. Think of Chuck Noland the Tom Hanks character in the movie Cast Away. He is just a regular guy in a FedEx world who doesn’t have time for anything, not even a trip to the dentist. Or consider Balian the common blacksmith in Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven. It is winter in 12th c. France; Balian’s young wife has committed suicide after the death of their infant son leaving him in state of shocked numbness. For a heroine take Rapunzel in Disney’s new animated movie Tangled. She is confined to her tower doing her everyday chores wondering and singing “when will my life begin”. The story starts in the mundane world and zeros in on one character and then something happens.

The Call to Adventure

The hero receives a Call to Adventure which requires him to make a choice: stay in the Ordinary World or step into the adventure. For Chuck Noland the call comes through his pager on Christmas Eve, responding to it puts him on that ill fated flight over the ocean. Balian’s call comes through his real father who suddenly appears and identifies himself and offers Balian a new life in the Holy Land. Adventure beckons to Rapunzel yearly on her birthday when mysterious floating lights appear in the sky speaking to her in a special way. However the Call to Adventure may come the hero will be faced with a choice to make, and a risk to take.

Refusal of the Call

Usually the Call to Adventure is at first refused. Why? Because of fear. Fear of the unknown is very powerful and that is why there is so much risk involved. Will the hero overcome the very first obstacle; the initial fear of leaving what is known. Will Frodo leave the safety of the Shire and step out onto The Road?

Meeting with the Mentor

At this point a wise man or woman may show up to help the hero. Cinderella is in the Ordinary World of her Stepmother’s house when an invitation to the King’s Ball arrives. The shredding of her hand me down dress by the ugly step sisters forces Cinderella to refuse the call. Now the fairy godmother appears with exactly what she will need for her adventure. A mentor may supply special gifts like the godmother does to help the hero overcome fear. Old Ben Kenobi gives Luke Skywalker his father’s light saber and invites him into the world of the Jedi; but he can only take him so far. There comes a point where the hero must continue on his own.

This is #9 in the series Crossing the Threshold.

                               The Hero With A Thousand Faces

In 1949 a book by Joseph Campbell entitled The Hero With A Thousand Faces was published. This may not seem like a very momentous occasion especially if you have never heard of the man or his book. However, on a time line for Western Civilization that lists great events for each year beginning with 2000BC and ending with 1990AD; the year 1949 has only four entries and Joseph Campbell’s book is one of them (Passions of the Western Mind). What was so important about this book that it would be given such acclaimed status?

Joseph Campbell spent a lifetime studying cultures all over the world, and he became a keen student of their stories, legends, myths, and oral traditions. He observed that all these vastly different cultures shared one universal story about a hero who went on a journey. The heroes may have had different names but the story followed the same basic pattern. He recorded his discovery in The Hero With A Thousand Faces.

Since the publication of his book many people have studied Campbell’s work and developed variations of what is now commonly referred to as The Hero’s Journey or The Monomyth. There is one version that I have found to be most helpful in understanding this foundational story; it is contained in Christopher Vogler’s book The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers.  Mr. Vogler confesses that there is nothing new in his book; the ideas are “older than the pyramids, Stonehenge, and the earliest cave paintings….the theme of the hero myth is universal occurring in every culture in every time.”

So let’s embark on the Hero’s Journey using the twelve stages Mr. Vogler has identified as the basic pattern. After we become familiar with each stage we will introduce the characters or archetypes that inhabit the story.