The Hero’s Journey interests me partly because it is a dramatic structure. As I spend more time delving into it I see that it is also a metaphor for my own life’s journey. But, if it is a map of the journey, where exactly am I? I see indications are that I have been at […]
According to Joseph Campbell the Hero’s Journey is a magnification of the rites of passage. For Campbell this was a three-part process: separation, initiation, and return. Christopher Vogler broke down this structure into a four-part process: separation, descent, initiation, and return. To overlook the significance of “initiation” may be to defuse the potency of the schema. […]
The story of the “Descent of Inanna” exemplifies, in a poetically vivid way, the “descent” of the Hero’s Journey as presented by Christopher Vogler. Imagine being stripped of everything you have; of everything you know about yourself; of every artifact that represents your life as you know it. This is what Inanna experiences in her descent. This […]