Lesson 2 - Part 1: The Hero's Adventure - Part 2: The Message of the Myth (of the video versions…oops I have somehow managed to mixed these two together!)
Original journal entry from May 29, 2025 (edited June 20, 2025) – Response to Lesson 2: The Hero's Adventure – Part 2: The Message of the Myth. This was my reflection after watching the Joseph Campbell videos, connecting the hero's journey to religion, Star Wars, and real-life examples of sacrifice and growth.
In this first video, Joseph Campbell explains how every culture and society has its own story of heroes who have all followed the same pattern to become who they are. While the story can be true, historical fact, it does not necessarily have to be. The story can be myth or fiction. What is important is the sequence of actions that the hero takes. And there are two types of actions in what the hero does: a physical action, such as saving someone’s life or sacrificing their life for others, for example, and a spiritual action, such as experiencing something supernatural and telling others about it.
Campbell alludes to the fact that you can find examples of such actions in many of the world’s mainstream religions. For example, Christ giving Himself as the perfect and eternal sacrifice to restore the relationship between God and all mankind. Conversely, Guru Nanak, who founded the Sikh religion, had a supernatural encounter with the god who created the universe and decided to make it his life’s mission to teach everyone about his newfound understanding of the god he encountered, the universe and everything in it. Both heroes in these examples could have walked away from fulfilling their purpose once they became aware of what was at stake and yet they made the decision to continue, no matter what the cost was to them personally.
Both Bill Moyers, the interviewer, and Joseph Campbell, who is being interviewed, mention on more than one occasion how the Star Wars saga is based on Campbell's work on the hero’s journey. Campbell also explains that we all have to go through the same heroes’ steps in different ways in our lives. One example is how when a child is born and grows into becoming an adult there are certain aspects of the child’s life that have to die in order to move into adulthood. Campbell also points out that we do not have to walk the heroes’ path alone and that many, many others have already traveled down the same path before us.
The message from the mythology of the hero’s adventure seen in religion, human history and entertainment, such as the Star Wars trilogy, is that we have all been there and that we all will have to continually take the path multiple times throughout our lives in varying contexts. Early in life, it is the story of becoming of age. And as our lives continue, new challenges will present themselves, new opportunities arise in which we have to let a part of us die in order to advance to the next stage. We will have to choose to sacrifice our hopes and dreams so that we can focus on only one or a few things, and many of us will be faced with the decision to give our lives, physically and/or spiritually, for others or for the greater good.
Having just observed Memorial Day (in the United States), we celebrate and honor the lives of members of the military who have made the ultimate sacrifice, being killed in the line of duty, sometimes directly for their brothers and sisters at arms, right there on the ground them, sometimes for the greater good, the American people, defending the country. On September 11, we remember and honor those, both alive and killed, who risked their lives to save others as the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York collapsed in 2001. These are our heroes who we collectively remember and honor on various national days throughout the year.
Umalohókan
House of Twin Suns
TM: Carlos Martinez
"You don't have to see the whole staircase just to take the first step."
(Signature links to IP Journal, Apprentice Journal, A.div Journal, and Degree Tracker omitted for brevity — these were forum navigation links at the time.)
The following user(s) said Thank You: RosalynJ
Last edit: 20 Jun 2025 20:20 by Yelt97 IPTC
Looking back now: This entry was one of my deeper early reflections — connecting Campbell's hero's journey to both ancient myths and modern real-world sacrifice. It helped me see the Jedi path as part of a larger human story of growth through challenge and letting go.