"Furthermore, we have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us. The labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path, and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god. And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outward, we will come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we will be with all the world." -- Joseph Campbell

Welcome to Sharing in the Hero's Journey!

The folks pictured are the winners in our Creative Writing: Short Story contest! You can find out who they are in the Discussion Forum! Check out our class anthology, In the Footsteps... available at Amazon.com; however, it is also available at the following link!

About this site:

I am happy to share with you The 60 Day Sojourn through Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey Pattern and our Creative Writing Fourm. Using references to mythology, literature, television, and film, I intend to illustrate how the Hero's Journey permeates not only our culture, but all cultures across time and geographic location. From there, we will explore how the pattern is part of the human condition and how it can be used as a tool to examine our own lives.

Please limit the topic of discussions to those involving The Hero's Journey. This is not a place to solicit any other materials. There are many other places where that would be appropriate, but this site will be strictly maintained for the purpose of discussing The Hero's Journey pattern.

We are the heroes of our own life stories; how those stories ultimately play out will be based on our reactions to life's challenges and the decisions we make.

After referencing the connections to the stories of humanity (myths, etc), I will provide guided visualizations that will allow you to examine your own journey through life. From there I will ask introspection questions that you can use as a guide to write your blogs.

I hope that you will all be open to sharing your journey with the rest of us here. In examining ancient and recent literature as well as exploring our own life patterns, it will help us to see that we are all connected through our stories. We all have goals, trials to face, dragons to slay, and our Ultimate Boon awaits us for a job well done!

These two are obviously different, yet they manage to share living space. I wonder what THEY talk about! May we who are different also find our commonalities!

THIS IS THE PLAN...

During The 60 Day Sojourn, we will work through each of the steps of the Hero’s Journey a few days at a time.

The first day a step is discussed, I will share examples from movies, television, mythology, poetry, novels, etc. These will be listed in the Forum where you can join in the discussion and respond with examples of your own. The idea is to create a vast pool of examples to draw from when we move on to the next phase.

The second day will offer a quotation from Joseph Campbell and a guided visualization that will lead you to discover specific examples from your own lives. Again, this will be in the Forum where you will be able to share your experiences with the guided imagery. The Forum discussions are meant to be a sharing of examples that came to mind while reading or listening.

The third day is for the blogs. I will ask introspective questions so that you can examine where you are on your own journey and share your insights with the community. As we are all the heroes of our own life stories, these stories deserve to be heard. The more we share, the more we will see how much we all have in common.

The 60 Day Sojourn is an effort to draw people of various nations, cultures, ages, and genders together to examine the things that make us similar. So much effort is spent on diversity (which is a good thing, don’t get me wrong) that we are more conscious of how we are different from one another than of how we are alike.

Be sure to peruse our video collection. I've begun a Hero's Journey series, so look for the various steps!

With a bit of tolerance, perhaps finding the hero within can help create positive change in this troubled world.

This short independent film truly speaks about the power of validating one another.