The Hero’s Journey: How One Ancient Story Continues to Inspire the World
The concept of the hero’s journey comes from Joseph Campbell, a prolific mythologist. Campbell’s years of research into comparative mythology and its importance in understanding human history culminated in his esteemed 1949 work, The Hero With A Thousand Faces. In this work, Campbell highlights a specific pattern linking various hero stories to one another, including our religious traditions. Campbell left behind a legacy of a deeper understanding of comparative mythology and its ties to religion. One of Campbell’s most memorable moments was due to a 1988 television series, “Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers.” (“About Joseph Campbell”) This six-hour series featured a conversation on myth and faith though storytelling. Campbell’s legacy is now commonly recognized for his concept of the “monomyth” a term borrowed from Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake. Campbell argued with numerous examples that there was a standard pattern linking the hero’s journeys of mythology, religion, fiction, fairytales and modern films. The term is derived from the Latin for “one” or “mono” explaining the holistic view Campbell discovered: that there is one universal human story. When Moyers asks Campbell, “Why does it seem that these stories tell me what I know inside is true? Does it come from the ground of my being, the unconscious that I have inherited from all that has come before me?” Campbell responds, “That’s right. The world is different today from what it was fifty years ago. But the inward life of man is exactly the same.” (Moyers and Campbell, 1988)
When considering the monomyth’s omnipresence in secular and divine stories, it is important to understand exactly what plot devices Campbell defines as being a part of the common pattern. He breaks down this structure into seventeen general steps, noting that it is unnecessary for the hero in question to perfectly match each and every step. Rather, his theory should be viewed as a guideline, a connecting path that guides the major plot points of the hero’s journey while leaving room for slight cultural and literary variations. Campbell viewed the hero’s journey as symbolic of our own personal quest, teaching us about ourselves in terms of personal faith, growth, and love. Campbell describes these shared attributes as:
“A universal motif of adventure and transformation that runs through virtually all of the world’s mythic traditions…A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.” (Campbell, 23)
This concept is strikingly familiar, as it has been proven to be found in every culture’s myths and legends. The concept’s popularity has even remained popular in modern media. For modern scholars, Campbell’s work has remained a reliable source due in large part to the works of screenwriter Christopher Vogel, who studied Campbell’s work and furthered the theory by creating a short summary of Campbell’s use and application in film. He later turned this brief study into his book The Writer’s Journey (2007), which has since become one of the most successful screenwriting books of all time. In his book, Vogel breaks Campbell’s seventeen steps down into twelve stages that can more easily be applied to modern inspirations of the hero’s journey. He breaks them down into: 1) Ordinary World 2) Call to Adventure 3) Refusal of the Call 4) Meeting with the Mentor 5) Crossing the First Threshold 6) Tests, Allies, Enemies 7) Approach to the Inmost Cave 8) Ordeal 9) Reward 10) The Road Back 11) Resurrection 12) Return with Elixir. (Vogel 26)
Vogel further argued Campbell’s theory by agreeing that all seventeen steps need not be present in the narrative, nor did they even need to follow the exact order as laid out by himself or Campbell. The key concept Campbell wanted readers to understand in The Hero With A Thousand Faces is the reason why these stories crop up identically across various cultures: it tells the simple human experience of youth to adulthood, learning morality, ethics and values while improving upon oneself over time until one is a fully realized “hero.” The hero’s journey also soothes humans greatest fear: the unknown. This concept of the hero’s journey can be found most notably in the secular world through literary characters like Harry Potter, and in the non-secular world through the story of Jesus Christ. Campbell argues that this recurring journey always features the symbolic death (commonly in the form of a sacrifice) and resurrection. This is seen in religious texts as a type of cleansing or rebirth, highlighting the importance of the transition from the old, weak form to the new, stronger form.
Hundreds of authors and scholars alike have studied Campbell’s works in the hopes of understanding myth and human tradition. The recurrence of this theme is therefore commonly depicted by comparing Jesus Christ and J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter. Though a change in social standings has caused modern scholars to argue that Harry Potter is a retelling of Christ’s journey, the series managed to sustain its popularity despite enduring years under fire from Evangelical Protestants and Christians alike, who lambasted the series for its glorification of magic. In a letter from March 2003, Cardinal Ratzinger (now known as Pope Benedict XVI) thanked the author of “Harry Potter – Good or Evil” for her “instructive” book:
“It is good, that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly.” (Ratzinger 2003)
If one truly understands this series as it was intended, it is clear that these notions of anti-Christianity are unfounded. The Harry Potter series takes major inspiration from biblical sources, with Harry himself being a Christ-like figure. However, both Harry and other secular heroes are Christ-like figures not because they perfectly reenact Jesus’ works, but because both the secular hero’s stories and the divine are all based off the same central plot. In Brian Arthur Brown’s study, The Three Testaments, he highlights the key threads that connect the sacred scripture of three of the world’s major religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He argues that the main similarities found in the Bible, the Torah, and the Quran are due to a shared cultural interest in the powerful stories of love for community. Brown agrees that there is an even more direct link between the scriptures, stating:
“The Gospel and the Hebrew scriptures was specifically designed by both the authors of Matthew in that Gospel and by the later church leaders, who edited and arranged the order of the canon of the Christian Scriptures, placing the Gospel according to Matthew as the first book in their “New Testament” for a certain reason…it was the deliberate agenda of the authors of Matthew’s Gospel to link the events of the life of Jesus with prophecies concerning the Messiah in Hebrew Scriptures as understood and experienced by Jewish Christians thus presenting Jesus as the Messiah.” (Brown, Rowman and Littlefield, 391)
This linking of divine stories is both fascinating and surprising. Knowing that the writings of Christ were edited to match preexisting religion’s prophecies certainly changes the veracity of the Bible as we know it. Though this single piece of information can strike fear in the hearts of the faithful, both Campbell and other epics authors argue this in fact adds to the beauty of the Christ story. A consenting opinion can be found in God In the Dock, a collection of essays and speeches published posthumously from C. S. Lewis. In it, he writes:
“The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact…We pass from a Balder or an Osiris, dying nobody knows when or where, to a historical Person crucified (it is all in order) under Pontius Pilate. By becoming fact it does not cease to be myth: that is the miracle. … God is more than god, not less: Christ is more than Balder, not less. We must not be ashamed of the mythical radiance resting on our theology. We must not be nervous about “parallels” and “pagan Christs”: they ought to be there—it would be a stumbling block if they weren’t. We must not, in false spirituality, withhold our imaginative welcome.” (Lewis and Hooper 120)
C. S. Lewis understood the purpose of continuing this story for future readers. He agreed with Campbell in that to preserve the stories of our past, we must keep retelling them. Lewis too made use of Campbell’s works, applying them and other Christian traditions to his masterpiece series The Chronicles of Narnia. This theme of epic writers applying Campbell’s works to their fictional worlds continues predominantly in J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Rowling’s Harry Potter follows this same monomyth like many epics writers before her, though Rowling makes an important distinction in her retelling: hers is a story about children, for children. Rowling takes the teachings of the Bible as quoted in John 4:8:
“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”
Harry Potter’s retelling of the hero’s journey therefore is a celebration of not only the Western traditional religious story but the traditional human story. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Rowling acknowledged that the Harry Potter series had an obvious and intentional connection to the stories of Christianity. She said,
“There is a lot of Christian imagery in the books… That’s undeniable. And certainly in Hallows [it is] very clear . . . That’s an allusion to a belief system in which I was raised.” (Rowling, 2010) This connection between Christ, Potter, and their basis on Campbell’s hero’s journey is deeply embedded in the both texts. With a prophecy foretelling their mystical birth, both Christ and Harry follow Campbell’s first phase: Call to Adventure. In Rowling’s series, Harry is the first and only person to be able to survive a Killing Curse; thereby being dubbed “the Boy Who Lived.” The prophecy foretelling this incredible legacy was made by a character named Sybill Trelawney, a professor of Divination at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Rowling’s background in linguistics provided a knowledge of name origin, with the name Sybill coming from the Greek for “prophetess.” Her prophecy foretold:
“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies….” (Rowling, 366)
Here Rowling heavily introduces the themes of Christianity, using both the numbers three and seven to apply to her hero. In turn, Christ’s prophecy foretells a similar journey of vanquishing evil, as foretold by Isaiah:
“14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
Both these accounts detail a miraculous birth story, and an even more miraculous life. Both Christ and Harry are foretold to be saviors, holding an otherworldly power that will deliver us from evil. However, to fulfill this divine quest, Campbell reveals that all heroes need what he calls a “Supernatural Aid.” For both Harry and Jesus, their supernatural aid comes from their own abilities, Harry with magic and Christ with miracles. Vogel refers to this stage as the “Meeting with the Mentor,” taken from Campbell’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces:
"For those who have not refused the call, the first encounter of the hero journey is with a protective figure (often a little old crone or old man) who provides the adventurer with amulets…protective power is always and ever present within or just behind the unfamiliar features of the world. One has only to know and trust, and the ageless guardians will appear…” (Campbell 23) For Christ, his mentor was also his beloved cousin, loyal follower, as well as a prophet in his own right. Jesus’ first moment with his cousin John the Baptist fulfilling the mentor role is found in Matthew 3:13-4:11. This specific chapter tells the story of Christ’s baptism performed by John:
“13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. 16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
This step as dictated by Campbell and reiterated by Vogel is of extreme importance in the overall journey of the hero. By joining with a mentor who shares the same goals, the hero is given the extra push he needs in order to succeed in their call to adventure. It is an important distinction made by Campbell in that most of these mentors are “… a protective figure (often a little old crone or old man)… it might as well be magical or supernatural equipment, but the most important part of these aids is that they have to have an aspect of vulnerability…” (Campbell 27)
Rowling’s interpretation of this beloved mentor figure comes in the form of a half-giant carrying a pink umbrella, a slight deviation from its biblical counterpart. In Harry’s story, Hagrid takes the role of the protector; a bumbling and flawed guide, who also supplies Harry with various gifts and hints as to navigate his journey more easily. It is Hagrid who first rescues Harry from his near-death experience as a baby, as well as gifting Harry his first ever magical pet as a birthday gift. Hagrid is also the sole caretaker of Harry during his first magical school shopping, overseeing the moment in which Harry gained his most important tool: his wand. Many fans of the series questioned Hagrid’s role of mentor, as in the seventh and final installment of the series, Deathly Hollows, Harry loses both his wand and his pet owl, showing Hagrid as an imperfect aid. However, this too ties into Campbell’s theory as stated in The Power of Myth: “Perfection would have to be a bore. It would be inhuman” (Campbell 198)
For all heroes, before entering into the Initiation part of “The Adventure of the Hero,” one final step must be completed: “Entering the Belly of the Whale.” The origin of this naming comes from the Biblical story of Jonas, (Yunus in the Quran.) In this famous story, Jonas is swallowed by a giant whale and spends three days in it’s belly until Jesus (or Allah) ”lets his ruined life be restored.” “And the whale was commanded by the Lord, and it cast up Jonas on the dry land.” Campbell emphasizes:
“The idea that the passage to the magical threshold is a transit into a sphere of rebirth is symbolized in the worldwide womb image of the belly of the whale. The hero, instead of conquering or conciliating the power of the threshold, is swallowed into the unknown and would appear to have died.” (Campbell 47)
For both Harry and Jesus, the “Belly of the Whale” stage takes place over several key moments. In Harry’s case, there are six “Belly of the Whale” moments, one in each of the six books until his final battle against evil in the seventh and final installment, The Deathly Hallows. Harry is routinely pitted against the source of evil, Voldemort, and comes out stronger after surviving another near death experience. Although Harry’s rebirth comes on slowly as a result of these stretched “Belly of the Whale” moments, there is one defining moment in Christ’s journey that depicts this final challenge of entering the threshold. In the Christian tradition, Christ’s moment on the threshold is recorded in the synoptic gospels of Matthew Mark and Luke. Matthews account details Christ’s forty days and nights of fasting in the desert before being visited by Satan. Satan tempts Christ with worldly desires three times, until he is defeated. The passage is quoted as follows:
“10 And Jesus said to him, ‘Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only’’ 11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.”
The idea behind this concept is to suggest that the hero is going through a spiritual change willingly, regardless of the dangerous situations that lie ahead, and emerging as a completely different person; wholly awakened and reborn. Though Christ and Harry’s hero’s arch have slight variations, their enemy is an exact replica. In Harry’s world, Voldemort takes the role of antagonist, aiming to control both the magical and human world, as well as death itself. He does everything in his power to achieve this goal, regardless of the consequences other people will face under his tyranny. The name Voldemort is derived from the French, meaning “flight from death.” This is a direct inspiration from 1 Corinthians 15:26, “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death,” which also appears later on in the series as a quote on the memorial of Harry’s parent’s graves. (Rowling, 328) Rowling continues this seamless flow of biblical parallels through the role of Voldemort as Satan. Both Rowling’s Voldemort and the Western religion’s Satan have a similar background; starting with their issues with the father figure, with Voldemort having killed his own and becoming an Oedipal figure, and the biblical character of Lucifer resenting his father, God. Both these figures also despise those they view as “lesser,” be it either the humans God created who are unworthy of his devotion, or a hatred for “Muggles” (non-magical people) who Voldemort deems as being weak, stupid, and disgusting. However, their most important similarity becomes their biggest weakness. This weakness is learned by the heroes and eventually used to defeat both evil figures in the Bible and The Deathly Hollows; following Campbell’s ninth step: “Atonement with the Father.” Campbell defines this step as:
“… The hero going to meet the father has to open his soul beyond terror to such a degree that he will be ripe to understand how the sickening and insane tragedies of this vast and ruthless cosmos are completely validated in the majesty of Being. The hero transcends life with its peculiar blind spot and for a moment rises to a glimpse the source. He beholds the face of the father, understands—and the two are atoned.” (Campbell 82)
This moment in Deathly Hallows takes place between Harry and an unlikely figure. For both Harry and Jesus, their Atonement with the Father results in them understanding they must sacrifice themselves in order to win against evil. This moment is achieved in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows with Harry confronting his Potions Professor, Snape. This father figure is understood by Campbell as having the ultimate power over the hero, preventing him from completing his final trial. In Snape’s case, a complicated history with Harry’s parents as well as a known partnership with Voldemort left Snape in a bad light. However, in Snape’s final moments, he gives Harry his tears, with which he can view Snape’s memories and understand why he did what he did, and what Harry needs to do now that he has died. During this moment, both Harry and the reader come to understand that Snape was a double-agent, working to protect Harry after all these years and fighting for the good side out of an undying love for Harry’s mother. This witnessing of the memory results in Harry understanding that to truly defeat Voldemort, he must die. This acknowledgment leads Harry to leave his friends behind, go off into the woods where Voldemort awaited him, and sacrifice himself. Finally, this understanding gives him what Campbell calls, The Ultimate Boon: “His scar burned, but he was master of the pain; he felt it, yet was apart from it. He had learned control at last, learned to shut his mind to Voldemort, the very thing Dumbledore had wanted him to learn from Snape… Grief, it seemed, drove Voldemort out . . . though Dumbledore, of course, would have said that it was love” (Rowling, 478)
Jesus Christ’s Ultimate Boon is directly comparable, though it differs slightly due to the Church’s definition of “atonement” which is defined in an article from US Catholic as being:
“The idea of atonement interprets Jesus’ death on the cross as a sacrifice that brings us back into relationship with God. In short, we are saved because of the cross.” (Considine, 49)
Because of this understanding, Jesus’ atonement would therefore take place between two scenes, one in the Garden of Gethsemane and one on the cross at Calvary. In Gethsemane, Christ submits to the will of the Father and fully understands the weight of that knowledge. He prays to God by telling Him that he’s learned from these lessons and is ready to sacrifice himself for humanity's sake:
“I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;
“But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;…Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men” (Luke 22:44)
However, for both Harry and Jesus, their deaths are only temporary necessary acts to be done for the hero to fully transcend. For Harry, this understanding comes after suffering his physical death, finding himself in a type of purgatory which gives him ultimate knowledge, as in it, he is reunited with Dumbledore (the God figure of the series). Dumbledore explains to him the mystery of his journey, and gives him the tools to defeat Voldemort once and for all. Applicable to both Christ and Harry, Joseph Campbell refers to this part of the hero’s journey in The Hero with a Thousand Faces as the “Apotheosis” and the “Ultimate Boon.” In the Apotheosis, the hero goes to the ideal state of mind, the heaven, nirvana, or afterlife that brings ultimate peace and understanding. The hero learns that they must die in order to shed the weak, earthly mind and return godlike. Here they gain the “ultimate boon,” gaining divine knowledge and understanding everything of the unknown as well as how to defeat evil. Campbell defines the Boon as:
“Like the Buddha himself, this godlike being is a pattern of the divine state to which the human hero attains who has gone beyond the last terrors of ignorance.” (Campbell 150-151)
Christ’s Apotheosis is fully realized within his ultimate sacrifice: the Crucifixion. After his atonement in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is fully prepared for his fate. His crucifixion is explained in full detail in Matthew 27:32-56, including the taunting of Christ after his death by hanging a sign above his head written: this is Jesus, the king of the jews) Harry experiences his own humiliation in the form of Voldemort forcing Hagrid to carry his “dead” body back to the remaining defenders. In this scene, Voldemort yells out to the survivors:
“You see? Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived is dead! Do you understand now, deluded ones? He was nothing, ever, but a boy who relied on others to sacrifice themselves for him!” (Rowling, 478)
Though both heroes endure these taunts, both carry on to complete the final part of their journey: Master of Two Worlds. Campbell describes the step as:
“Freedom to pass back and forth across the world division…not contaminating the principles of the one with those of the other, yet permitting the mind to know the one by virtue of the other—is the talent of the master… The individual, through prolonged psychological disciplines… no longer tries to live but willingly relaxes to whatever may come to pass in him; he becomes, that is to say, an anonymity.” (Campbell, Jewett, and Lawrence 23) Christ’s moment of Mastering Two Worlds is shown in the gospel of John, depicting Jesus having risen from the tomb where his body was kept for three days after his crucifixion. John writes:
“19 So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for a fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
Harry follows Jesus’ path by resurrecting after death, coming back to the world of the living, and using his lessons learned on the other side to conquer evil on this earth. Harry, now being the rightful master of all three tools to conquer death, has achieved Voldemort’s primary goal. Though he now has Godly powers, Harry rejects the temptation as he is now a fully realized hero, understanding the consequences of this power and acknowledging his sacrifice to eradicate them. After making the decision to hide, destroy, and save each of the three Deathly Hollows, Harry states: “I’ve had enough trouble for a lifetime.” (Rowling, 749)
In addition to being the Master of the Two Worlds, the hero, having fully defeated the evil on Earth, has the “Freedom to Live as he chooses” (Campbell 243). For Harry, this means marrying and having children. (Rowling, 753) However, Christ fulfills his destiny by returning to Heaven, being seated at the right hand of the Father. The story of Christ’s ascension is told in Acts 1:6-12:
“6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.”
Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero’s Journey” has given many storytellers a solid framework ever since first recognizing the pattern in 1949. The most modern example of one of these storytellers who took advantage of this knowledge is J.K. Rowling through her Harry Potter series. Through the use of Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, Rowling was able to tell a story that inspired, educated, and defined a generation. With the same passion in their hearts as the most faithful of Christians, followers of both Harry and Christ will find beauty in their message: the greatest gift is love. For both Christians and booklovers alike, the end result of the hero’s journey can be eloquently summarized by a quote found in the gospel of Matthew and used in Rowling’s series:
“Where you treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:19)
Rowling perfectly emulates the story of Christ as well as directly applies the patterns of Campbell’s Hero’s Journey throughout the seven-part series, showing the development of human understanding through the eyes of a child. Throughout her series, Harry grows from a weak boy with no knowledge of the magical world to a young hero who has defeated death countless times. By the end of the series, Harry has learned that death is not to be feared, having been taught by Dumbledore: ”Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living and above all, those who live without love.” (Rowling, 742)
Rowling illustrates the concepts of Christianity through Harry, teaching her readers the power of sacrifice for a loved one, how we all must cope with devastating loss, learn to live despite that pain, and above all, to not fear death. Just as Harry develops into a hero over the course of seven books, the reader’s understanding of death evolves as well. With these life experiences, readers can relate to Harry’s story, and therefore relate themselves to Christ. Perhaps by reading these heroes’ stories we can better emulate their values. Like Luke Skywalker, Frodo Baggins, Muhammad, Buddha, Jesus Christ, and even Harry; we too could be a hero.