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1. Ordinary world

A situation of normality. Often, a world taken for granted.

1a. The call to adventure

The hero receives information or an object, or totem that acts as a call to set off into the unknown

2. Refusal of the call

The hero refuses to heed the call, often out of a sense of obligation to the calculus of the ordinary world, or a sense of fear or insecurity in his/her abilities. The tendency is to hold the hero in place, under the prevailing circumstances or his/her inner beliefs.

3. Supernatural aid, the appearance of the mentor

A guide or helper, often supernatural, “[representing] the benign, protecting power of destiny.” ² becomes known either nudging the hero on the quest or as a gift of the hero’s overcoming of the refusal condition and choice to set off on the quest.

3a. Withdrawal from family for meditation^*

The mentor might put the hero through a series of preparatory trials, which may involve leaving home for the monastery or a place of preparation or spiritual purification. Aspects of the quest could separate the hero form home and family abruptly–even permanently. Inevitably, the departure requires withdrawal from the familiar.

4. Crossing the threshold

The hero enters into the field of adventure. leaving the familiar requires an acceptance of danger and immersion in the unknown.

5. Belly of the Whale

The moment where the final separation from the familiar occurs for the hero., who is presented with a mandate to enter into minor danger, or a setback, often demonstrating a willingness to undergo a metamorphosis.

6. The road of trials

The initiation of the hero to transformation, usually through a series of tests often occurring in threes. The hero may fail at one or two of these tests, but eventually overcomes them, moving along in the transformation.

6a. The vision quest^†

The hero calls upon the supernatural, or a suspected arance force for a sign or information that will aid the quest. This information is often cryptic, manifesting in signs or symbols that may appear later, or may be tied to knowledge the hero already possesses.

7. The meeting with the goddess

The hero gains items often totems that will aid him/her in the future. "This is the crisis at the nadir, the zenith, or at the uttermost edge of the earth, at the central point of the cosmos, in the tabernacle of the temple, or within the darkness of the deepest chamber of the heart. The meeting with the goddess (who is incarnate in every woman) is the final test of the talent of the hero to win the boon of love (charity: amor fati [love of fate]), which is life itself enjoyed as the encasement of eternity." ³

8. Woman as temptress

The hero faces temptation, often of a physical nature, and may abandon the quest. Not necessarily embodied as a woman, but the feminine in myth often serves as metaphor for the material concerns.

8a. Death^*

The hero may die or be betrayed, passing into another realm where new trials begin. Often, the hero will face aspects of his/her self in these trials; psychological and emotional, including deeply held beliefs or traumas.

8b. Descent into the Underworld^*

The hero may self-sacrifice, descending into the underworld to face tials or achieve a task, such a rescuing the soul of a dearly departed loved-one or essence of an object or force.

9. Atonement with the father

The hero confronts whatever holds ultimate power in his/her life, including internalised beliefs or stories. The father is metaphor the power of life and death. Again, this may or may not be represented by a male figure. Consider the phrase, "the child is the father of the man."

10. Apotheosis

The 'aha' moment wherein the hero achieves a greater understanding, often of purpose, gaining a greater resolve to face even more dire challenges ahead.

11. The Ultimate boon

The achievement of the quest's goal. The acquisition of a trascendent item, an exlir of life perhaps or an eteranl and impoverisable substance. It's guardians, often the gods themselves, only release it to the hero who has proven to be worthy/.

12. Refusal of the return

Alternatively, having acquired the boon, the hero may not wish to return with it

13. The Magic Flight

Alternatively, The hero must escape with the boon, often through "marvels of magical obstruction or evasion." ⁴

14. Rescue from without

A guide returns, rescuing the hero from certain doom, or from the pursuit of angry guardians via The Magic Flight, returning the hero to the familiar–especially if he/she has been wounded or weakned by the demands of the quest.

14a. Resurrection and rebirth^*

If a hero has descended into the underworld, he or she may earn a return to the realm of the living through facing trials, completeing a task, or attaining knowledge–often through confronting the self, belief systems or or past traumas.

14b. Ascension, apotheosis, and atonement^*

The "aha" moment reached by the hero may come at a price, sometimes in the form of redemption from past wrongs or allegiances. The hero is reborn in a new, virtuous image, having shed prior allegiances, or belief systems. They may ascend to godhood, achieve enlightenment, or enter paradise if this is the quest's goal.

15. The crossing of the return threshold

The hero is presented with the penultimate challenge: retaining the wisom or knowledge gained during the quest and internalising it.

16. The Master of two worlds

The hero "abandons the attachment to his personal limitations, idiosyncrasies, hopes and fears, no longer resists the self-annihilation that is prerequisite to rebirth in the realization of truth," ⁵ becoming competent in both the inner and outer worlds, transcending the familiar.

16a. The road back

The hero, having acheieved the external goals imposed by the quest, starts the journey back to the familiar, inherently changed, and may be called upon to apply his/her new found knowledge to solve a problem that echoes the quests, or requires the knowledge gained therein.

16b. Return with the elixir

The hero returns to the familiar with the sought after item or wisdom, applying it to solve the problem and restore the ordinary condition to the familiar.

17. Freedom to Live

The hero has attained mastery–over the self and in particular the fear of death, which is inherently freedom to live.

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