Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

The Hero's Journey - The Meaning of Myth (Lecture I) (Patreon)

Published:
2021-07-07 15:34:23
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:
haven't archived this post yet. have a subscription? use the importer!

Content

Welcome to your hero's journey.

This is your call to adventure. 

'The Hero's Journey' lecture series will run alongside and complement our next two books, Siddharta and Don Quixote.

Analysing the framework of the hero's journey will also unlock the power of every Great Book you encounter on your reading quest. 

Perhaps you will even derive some wisdom, inspiration, and courage to help you in your current battles and adventures. 

This is the optional 'textbook' for the lecture series:

You may be familiar with the concept of the hero's journey from stories like Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Harry Potter, King Arthur, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

The different stages are also deeply encoded in every world myth and religion since the dawn of man.

The journey, which we will examine in depth, looks like this:

I. DEPARTURE

i) The Call to Adventure
ii) Refusal of the Call
iii) Supernatural Aid
iv) The Crossing of the First Threshold 
v) The Belly of the Whale

II. INITIATION

i) The Road of Trials
ii) The Meeting with the Goddess
iii) Woman as Temptress
iv) Atonement with the Father
v) Apotheosis 
vi) The Ultimate Boon

III. RETURN

i) Refusal of the Return
ii) The Magic Flight
iii) Rescue from Without
iv) The Crossing of the Return Threshold
v) Master of the Two Worlds 
vi) Freedom to Live

Below the video timestamps, you'll have some adventure assignments.

Video Timestamps:

  • 0:00 memory is long when clothed in myth
  • 1:00 myths are public dreams, and dreams are private myths
  • 1:30 what is our quest? How can we be the hero in our own lives?
  • 2:00 the similarities of myths from all over the world
  • 2:30 etymology and meaning embedded in our language
  • 4:00 the meaning of journey, story, narrative, conflict
  • 4:30 unconscious needs vs conscious desires
  • 6:30 day-tight compartments and human’s as herd hunter-gatherers
  • 7:00 the presence of Jesus: “do not worry about tomorrow”
  • 7:30 why do we procrastinate on our dreams?
  • 9:00 the seven ages of man
  • 10:30 how to live your personal mission on a day-to-day basis
  • 11:00 the one contains the many and the many contains the one
  • 11:30 how to be a good partner, parent, friend
  • 12:00 seeing the world in a grain of sand
  • 13:00 Proust and Siddharta
  • 13:30 the Call to Adventure
  • 13:50 the refusal of the call
  • 14:00 “the cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek”
  • 14:20 my anxiety dream of having a monkey on my back
  • 15:00 the metaphors we live by
  • 15:30 look at the thing you fear and it shrinks in size
  • 16:00 refusing the call and supernatural aids to help you on your way
  • 16:20 crossing the first threshold
  • 16:30 the belly of the whale: Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings
  • 16:50 departure and initiation
  • 17:00 road of trials, woman as goddess and temptress, atonement with the father
  • 17:10 the end of your journey is where you began
  • 17:30 what is your adventure?
  • 18:00 follow your bliss
  • 18:30 Nietzsche on returning to the heart of nature and mistaking metaphor for meaning
  • 19:00 the pagan myths of death and rebirth (Jesus, Dionysus, Osiris)
  • 19:15 fertility rituals and praising the sun (and the Son of God)
  • 19:45 Midsummer Night’s Dream and fleeing the city to the heart of the forest
  • 20:10 the healing properties of nature
  • 20:45 the rituals of baptism, water, transmutation
  • 22:00 death, rebirth, and Jungian psychology
  • 22:30 the meaning of life
  • 23:00 our journey begins

Quest Questions:

1) What quest are you on right now? Every reader here is on a quest through the Great Books. But we're always undertaking new adventures depending on the season in our life. Let us know what part of the adventure you're on.

2) What aids and resources would help move you on your mission? Don Quixote has a lance, steed, and squire. Readers collecting and exploring Great Books have this book club. What else might help you?

3) Have you ever been in the belly of the beast? Have you ever refused a call to adventure? Have you ever struggled to cross the first threshold? 

Happy questing!

Files

Previews only

The Hero's Journey - The Meaning of Myth (Lecture I)

0:00 memory is long when clothed in myth 1:00 myths are public dreams, and dreams are private myths 1:30 what is our quest? How can we be the hero in our own lives? 2:00 the similarities of myths from all over the world 2:30 etymology and meaning embedded in our language 4:00 the meaning of journey, story, narrative, conflict 4:30 unconscious needs vs conscious desires 6:30 day-tight compartments and human’s as herd hunter-gatherers 7:00 the presence of Jesus: “do not worry about tomorrow” 7:30 why do we procrastinate on our dreams? 9:00 the seven ages of man 10:30 how to live your personal mission on a day-to-day basis 11:00 the one contains the many and the many contains the one 11:30 how to be a good partner, parent, friend 12:00 seeing the world in a grain of sand 13:00 Proust and Siddharta 13:30 the Call to Adventure 13:50 the refusal of the call 14:00 “the cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek” 14:20 my anxiety dream of having a monkey on my back 15:00 the metaphors we live by 15:30 look at the thing you fear and it shrinks in size 16:00 refusing the call and supernatural aids to help you on your way 16:20 crossing the first threshold 16:30 the belly of the whale: Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Alice 16:50 departure and initiation 17:00 road of trials, woman as goddess and temptress, atonement with the father 17:10 the end of your journey is where you began 17:30 what is your adventure? 18:00 follow your bliss 18:30 Nietzsche on returning to the heart of nature and mistaking metaphor for meaning 19:00 the pagan myths of death and rebirth (Jesus, Dionysus, Adonis, Osiris) 19:15 fertility rituals and praising the sun (and the Son of God) 19:45 Midsummer Night’s Dream and fleeing the city to the heart of the forest 20:10 the healing properties of nature 20:45 the rituals of baptism, water, transmutation 22:00 death, rebirth, and Jungian psychology 22:30 the meaning of life 23:00 our journey begins

Comments

Florian Pesantes

What a video, Benjamin, you didn’t promise too much. The illustrations alone. Hardly I get to see it all they show so exuberantly while trying to follow your powerful words. Luckily I can revisit and rewatch it time again until getting it all, putting the questions to myself you are asking us here. The difficult ones, the ones that cut to the core. Asking myself and waiting for the answer. One question I can easily answer right here and now: the season I’m in. While biographically I’m in the autumn of my life, my feeling is of that of early spring, just before the beginning of new life emerging and bubbling up. New ways to read books, to listen to music, to move, to feel myself, to talk to people, to watch the birds and the clouds are emerging. Sometimes unsettling, dizzying. How far can I go, what inner beasts might escape when I’m tearing down old habits and personal taboos. How careful should I be, how careless. I’m eternally grateful for your guidance and empowerment. I can say, you are one of the most important teachers and friends of my journey and I wish to live up to your example.

Len Larsson

Wow, Ben. Such a perfectly formed video. You have obviously spent a lot of time on it. It's giving us context on our journey of discovery, we each take away meaning significant to us. I can't think of anything else you need to do to help us along our way, other than what you are doing. We are the ones that need to unpack the content. I had not considered Myth/Meaning before other than a general awareness they started somewhere in the distant past. I found the mention of etymology interesting. I've ordered the Joseph Campbell book. I heard him mentioned in a Joe Rogan podcast recently - speaking of which there is a video of Guy Ritchie talking about Myth & Meaning, and how all stories are about a Journey - his example is the how the parable of the Prodigal Son & King Arthur are the same - fascinating - you can find it here, starting at 4:34 if you are interested (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd3yeX1-SaM ). It's right up your alley Ben.

Tom Pearsall

Ben, you outdo yourself with each new video. I really relish the art you are bringing in and appreciate it when you show the passages you are quoting and commenting on. These videos hold up well to reviewing (and re-reviewing) in the same way the novels we are reading reveal more with each rereading. I commend you for the effort you are putting into this project of yours and eagerly look forward to the new lectures even while I am still going back through your older ones. I plan to start reading a little bit of Joseph Campbell if I have the time. I wonder if you (or anyone else) have watched the Bill Moyers PBS series on Joseph Campbell. It came out in the 1980s. Is it worth watching? Also, is there an edition of James Frazier’s The Golden Bough you would recommend? I did not realize there were so many editions.

Florian Pesantes

“Be patient towards all that is unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms, like books written in a foreign tongue. Do not now strive to uncover answers: they cannot be given you because you have not been able to live them. And what matters is to live everything. Live the questions for now. Perhaps then you will gradually, without noticing it, live your way into the answer, one distant day in the future.” from Rainer Maria Rilke, written in his letter to Franz Xaver Kappus, a 19-year-old officer cadet and aspiring poet, on July 16, 1903 The original quote; “ich möchte Sie, so gut ich es kann, bitten, lieber Herr, Geduld zu haben gegen alles Ungelöste in Ihrem Herzen und zu versuchen, die Fragen selbst liebzuhaben wie verschlossene Stuben und wie Bücher, die in einer sehr fremden Sprache geschrieben sind. Forschen Sie jetzt nicht nach den Antworten, die Ihnen nicht gegeben werden können, weil Sie sie nicht leben könnten. Und es handelt sich darum, alles zu leben. Leben Sie jetzt die Fragen. Vielleicht leben Sie dann allmählich, ohne es zu merken, eines fernen Tages in die Antwort hinein.” Now is this too lazy, intellectually, spiritually? Or just true? He doesn’t recommend to forget the questions but to keep them, observe them, and not to jump to conclusions.

Gail Doughty

Just chiming in to say that Moyers-Campbell series is a delight and well worth watching. Campbell in person (sort of) is very down-to-earth and has a great sense of humor.

Caroline P

I was looking at the book for this, The Hero with a Thousand Faces and wondering if I would get on ok with it. A good few reviewers say it is difficult, a slog…etc …and as I pondered about buying it I read this bit in Swanns Way ‘ thus he had grown into the habit of taking refuge in trivial considerations, which enabled him to disregard matters of fundamental importance.’ And I bought the book!

hardcoreliterature
>>63333818

Thank you, Florian. I really appreciate that. If anybody would like to know what a particular painting is at any point, just let me know :) I must say I had fun searching them out. I think there are a lot of us here who can relate to the autumn/second spring season of life. And I'm eternally grateful for your being here on this journey with us!

hardcoreliterature
>>63382731

Thank you, Tom. I'm trying valiantly :) So it really means a lot to me that you're finding them valuable. I hope you like the Siddharta one coming out today too. The Bill Moyers PBS series with Joseph Campbell is great, and highly recommended. As Gail says below, Campbell is a very charming man and benefits from being experienced - hearing him and seeing him. As for editions of The Golden Bough, I'm working from a very old very cheap and well loved Wordsworth Editions version, which I've had for well over a decade now. I'll see if I can find a link to it, and am thinking I'll do a brief video showing off my copy of that and The Hero with a Thousand Faces - for the latter, I have a copy that's out of print - a shame because it's beautiful.

hardcoreliterature
>>63388781

How wonderful to have the original German here. Thank you, Florian. As you could likely tell, one of my all time favourite quotes is "live the questions" and now I know it as - "Leben Sie jetzt die Fragen!"

hardcoreliterature
>>63439098

Wow!! How is that for serendipity? Proust giving you advice, a little literary nudge, in real time. I love that :) I think you won't find The Hero with a Thousand Faces too difficult. It's mostly a selection of different mythological and religious stories from across word history to illuminate the different stages of the journey. The illustrations alone make it a lovely book to dip in and out of!

Len Larsson

Good for you Caroline. I have bought it as well.

Sharon xx

Thank you for this lecture, Ben. Thought provoking as always. Echoes of the Fool's Journey [Tarot] here in spades. Also a metaphor for our journey through life. I started a course last year called, 'This Mythic Life' offered by Dr Sharon Blackie. I've also read her books, 'The Enchanted Life' and 'If Women Rose Rooted', 'FoxFire, Wolfskin' is next. Learning about Myth and it's place/influence in and on our lives, both past and present has been enlightening and transformative. I have to admit I never truly appreciated what a vast subject mythology is and how it silently insinuates itself into our lives without us even realising. How it is part of us, of our very fabric, through our ancestors both genetic and tribal. 1. QUEST - My current quest is to suck the very marrow out of every single day of my life. To read the best books, to continue to study mythology and the part it plays in my life today and the lives of those who came before me. To work to live, not live to work and to bless every single person who touches my life be that for a moment, a season or a lifetime. 2. RESOURCES - How totally lucky I am to be able to buy all the books I need and quite a few of the books I want. Books are my life really but I so appreciate the addition of audio books to that mix so I can now 'read' and walk/eat/cook/bathe/clean house....... you get the idea. My journals and my tarot cards have a huge part to play too. I only use Tarot for me however but it's a very useful tool for self-help, self-discovery and self-worth. Journaling is an extention of all of the above - I couldn't do one without the other. 3. THE CALL - I am not someone who seeks thrill or adventure; who has the desire to travel and see the world. That is not who I am. I love my home and my family and I am, for the most part, satisfied with that. However, I did ignore the Call to Religious life in my late teens. I have never regretted that because I have six children who would otherwise not be here and that is unthinkable, but I have often wondered; been curious about where that would have taken me and who I would be today as a result. Regret is a waste of life so I don't intend to go there.

Caroline P

My book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, arrived today..it looks wonderful and has pictures..which is always a bonus. Anyway, while looking at You Tube for the interviews mentioned in this thread I came across the episode called ‘Finding Joe’ (https://youtu.be/s8nFACrLxr0 ) about the author and book. It is brilliant! It did prompt my husband to ask why we have 30 million books in the house if they are all the same story…but since he reads lots of non fiction, sailing books of intrepid adventure on the high seas and epic running success in the face of adversity and indulges in the same journeys himself, he had to agree that this is a pretty amazing concept. Anyway, glad I ordered it.

hardcoreliterature
>>63562058

Thank you, Sharon :) Dr Blackie's course and books sound very compelling. I love all of this stuff - shadow work, integrating archetypes. One book I found quite interesting a while back was called 'King, Warrior, Magician, Lover' - I recall it was quite male-focused, but interesting to discover one's percentages of different archetypes (Lover/Warrior split for me to the tune of 60/40 I believe). I love what you've shared here about your quest, resources, and call. Your levels of self-insight are inspiring :)

hardcoreliterature
>>63576286

That's so exciting :) I will have to check out this documentary (and also show off some of my copies of these books soon). I love your husband's reaction - and I'd be interested to know what sorts of books he enjoys. I was obsessed with the sea narratives of Joseph Conrad a little while back, and would love to know what stories a seafarer opts for!

Florian Pesantes

Just finished Wagner’s “Parsifal” as performed by the Staatsoper Berlin, extraordinary voices and sound quality on Marquee.TV with helpful captions. The story entails all elements of the hero’s journey. Well worth to sign up for the free trial. I’m still enraptured by this work!

hardcoreliterature
>>63662274

Oh, beautiful. Where would you recommend one start with Wagner, Florian? Parisfal? I used to be obsessed with the Tristan chord, but have ear-marked his ring cycle for the future when I can go in person over the course of a week. Tolstoy would no doubt scold me, but I believe Tolstoy was wrong on this account.

Florian Pesantes

The Ring on Marquee is also a very good production. Catherine Foster as Brunhilde particularly. Some flaws in the sound quality at the beginning of “Siegfried”

Florian Pesantes

Which opera to start with? So difficult to say. Wagner definitely wanted the whole of it the music the meaning and the visual. So listening to records doesn’t give you the full experience. One mustn’t blame Tolstoi: Wagner is like Marmite, you either love it or you hate it, there’s no lukewarm perception.

hardcoreliterature
>>63873056

Amazing. Thank you :) I have many hours of fun awaiting me on Maquee I am sure! Well, to be fair to Tolstoy, he argues very compellingly against Wagner. He also argues compellingly against heroes of mine, like Shakespeare. Unfortunately, I feel like he dislikes the people who flock to these artists rather than the artists themselves. I'm sure Anna Karenina could be rather Marmite-esque too :)

Florian Pesantes
>>63873056

I’d like to read Tolstoy’s’ objections,, grateful if you could provide me with a link, Benjamin. I would certainly agree, that his music is intoxicating if consumed in the wrong way by the wrong people. If you should listen to his music and dislike it, all fine, and don’t bother right now. Maybe someday you’ll think it worthwhile to explore

Bill Freeman

Ben – I am a bit behind in your amazing videos but am slowly catching up as I trim the sails and hike over the side to transverse this period of my life. Your lectures continually delight me, and this one most certainly. I am journaling and reflecting. I want to think more deeply and respond more thoughtfully based on this lecture later. I will, however, pick up one of these shiny stones from the shoreline of this lecture in that “the journey IS the destination.” A very Buddhist philosophy with the destination encapsulated by the “isness” of the eternal now; again, destination as the journey. I am in the autumn of life, which I see as part of an ever-turning circle with more winter ahead and eventual spring either in this life or in the next. As you spoke, I recalled something that Vronsky stated in AK that, for me, ties in so well: “It showed him the eternal error people make in imagining that happiness is the realization of desires” (p. 465). Perhaps it isn’t about escaping this period in my life or wish its quick demise (as much as I do) but asking (as Jonathan Faust often reminds us), “what is it here that I need to learn?” That uncomfortable space of Rilke’s “live the questions now.” I’ll share more as things unfold. Thanks so much.