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The QUEST...the Hero's Quest
“In this overpoweringly humdrum existence, alas, there is little out of the ordinary that is healthy, and not much room for conspicuous heroism. Not that heroic demands are never put to us: on the contrary—and this is just what is so irritating and irksome—the banal everyday makes banal demands upon our patience, our devotion, our perseverance, self-sacrifice; and for us to fulfill these demands (as we must) humbly and without courting applause through heroic gestures, a heroism is needed that cannot be seen from the outside. It does not glitter, is not belauded, and it always seeks concealment in everyday attire.” Carl Jung

“The modern hero-deed must be that of questing to bring to light again the lost Atlantis of the co-ordinated soul…. And this is not a work that consciousness itself can achieve…. The whole thing is being worked out on another level, through what is bound to be a long and very frightening process, not only in the depths of every living psyche in the modern world, but also on those titanic battlefields into which the whole planet has lately been converted…. Not the animal world, not the plant world, not the miracle of the spheres, but man himself is now the crucial mystery…. The modern hero, the modern individual who dares to heed the call and seek the mansion of that presence with whom it is our whole destiny to be atoned, cannot, indeed must not, wait for his community to cast off its slough of pride, fear, rationalized avarice, and sanctified misunderstanding. … It is not society that is to guide and save the creative hero, but precisely the reverse. And so every one of us shares the supreme ordeal—carries the cross of the redeemer—not in the bright moments of his tribe’s great victories, but in the silences of his personal despair.” Joseph Campbell (1949)
The story of the hero's quest typically begins in the hero's ordinary world, when he or she receives a call to adventure from a herald. Many heroes initially refuse the call, until a mentor reassures them that they are capable. After this meeting with the mentor, they must enter the world of the quest. They meet allies and enemies along the way and are tested frequently. As they near the source of their quest, they usually face one final ordeal. Upon their success, they take the object of their quest, and make their way home. The way home is not always easy, but eventually they return to their ordinary world with their prize.
The hero may search for an object or he may search for knowledge for himself or his people. Sometimes his quest is to right a wrong. The hero's quest may be prophecied. Jason's task is to secure the Golden Fleece and thus reclaim his crown. Percival, one of King Arthur's knights, searches for the Holy Grail. The Babylonian hero Gilgamesh, afraid of death, searches for immortality. Bran, the Irish equivalent of the Greek voyager Odysseus, sails for centuries on a quest for the lands beyond the sea.
Once the questing heroes have faced his or her trials successfully, they return to their people, usually transformed by their experience.


The QUEST...the Hero's Quest