Transcript Slide 1

The Heroine’s Journey
In World Myth and Popular
Fantasy
Campbell's Model: The Hero's
Journey
My Model: The Heroine's Journey
World of Common Day
World of Common Day
Call To Adventure
Call To Adventure- A Desire to
Reconnect with the Feminine
Refusal of The Call
Refusal of The Call
Supernatural Aid
The Ruthless Mentor & Bladeless
Talisman
Crossing The First Threshold
Belly of the Whale
Crossing the First Threshold:
Opening One’s Senses
Road of Trials
Sidekicks, Trials, Adversaries
Meeting With The Goddess
Woman as Temptress
Marriage to the Animus,
Confronting the Powerless Father
Atonement with The Father
Apotheosis
Atonement with the Mother.
Apotheosis through the Feminine
The Ultimate Boon
Reward: Winning the Family
The Magic Flight
Magic Flight Reinstating the
Family
Master of the Two Worlds
Power over Life and Death
Common Day
The tale begins in the humdrum world of
kitchen chores and powerlessness.
The heroine lives with an absent mother
and brutal stepmother. The father figure,
if there is one, is equally obstructive.
More than anything, the girl longs for
an escape, an adventure. Here the story begins.
Call to Adventure
Without a catalyst, Cinderella might remain in
her kitchen forever. Some event, either a
chance at freedom and happiness or a
devastating act of destruction propels the
heroine from her place of safety and into the
frightening world of the spirit.
From the great
heaven Inana set
her mind on the
great below. My
mistress
abandoned
heaven,
abandoned earth,
and descended to
the underworld.
Call to Adventure
When her father saw her, he was much
shocked, and declared she was not his
daughter… Then poor Eliza wept, and
thought of her eleven brothers, who were all
away. Sorrowfully, she stole away from the
palace, and walked, the whole day, over
fields and moors, till she came to the great
forest. She knew not in what direction to go;
but she was so unhappy, and longed so for
her brothers, who had been, like herself,
driven out into the world, that she was
determined to seek them.
In the oldest forms of
the tale, Persephone
descends without
Hades’ brutality. When
she, as innocent
flower maid, discovers
the wandering spirits
of the dead, she
voluntarily descends
to succor them.
Refusing the Call
Here, the hero is
faced with the
unknown. By contrast,
home represents
safety and security, a
place the child is
loathe to leave.
Dreamer
of Malta
Sleeping
Beauty
Refusing the Call
“During puberty, sleep is the refuge in
which an adolescent girl can absorb the
new sense of herself that she gains from
the prick of the spindle, and changes from
girl to woman: a transformation more
radical than from boy to man.” –Joan
Gould, Spinning Straw into Gold
Brunhilda
Rapunzel
Hero
• Heroes quest to
defeat the Dark Lord
and rule as the High
King
…and Heroine
The heroine quests to save loved
ones, a quest as dangerous as any
journey of the hero.
Modern Questors
Ruthless Mentor, Bladeless Talisman
While heroes almost always
receive a sword (wand,
lightsaber…) from their kindly old
mentor, girls walk away with
household objects. All of the
heroines accomplish their quests
without violence, needing
cleverness and fortitude more
than Excalibur. Actions in the socalled “women’s domain”
frequently save the men and
allow the heroines to accomplish
their goals.
The Heroine’s Treasures
Feminine symbols:
amulet, apple, bag, ball, bird, cauldron, cave, circle,
cloak, clothing, comb, crown, cup, egg, eye, flowers,
forest, girdle, grail, helmet, home, hoop, jewelry, keys,
mirror, moon, night, oven, ring, rose, serpent,
slippers, spindle, spiral, thread, tree, vase, veil, voice,
water, web, well.
Threshold
The heroine must surrender
her reliance on logic and
willingly enter the world of
emotion and fantasy.
Sidekicks,
Trials, Adversaries
Animal helpers and advisers
generally represent part of
the heroine’s psyche,
pointing out things she
doesn’t notice and teaching
her how to outwit her
adversary. They guide her
along her path, bolstering
her courage when the quest
seems daunting.
Prince Charming:
The World of Eros
In the game of love, the hero and heroine each view
their partner as a shapeshifter. This “other half” they
must cleave to like themselves has frightening mood
swings and unpredictable desires. Physically, the two
people are opposites, with contrasting desires and
emotions. Hence, many tales appear about enticing
swan maidens from the sea or taming beastly
monsters into Prince Charmings.
Prince Charming:
The World of Eros
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Shimchong, The Blindman's Daughter (Korea)
The Brahman Girl who Married a Tiger (India)
Bull-of-all-the-Land (Jamaica)
Pretty Polly (Appalachian America)
Egle, Queen of Serpents (Lithuania)
Eros and Psyche (Greece)
The Lizard Husband (Indonesia).
Monkey Son-in-Law (Japan)
The Princess and the Pig (Turkey)
The Frog Prince (Germany)
Bluebeard (France)
The Green Serpent (Italy)
The Frog Prince (Sri Lanka)
Beauty and the Beast Retold
Prince Charming:
The Helpless Father
At some point, the heroine returns home to
discover the prince, or father-figure, cannot save
her. She must leave the patriarchy and rely on
herself.
Descent into Death
The heroine descends
into the realm of
darkness toward
initiation and wisdom,
seeking her own elusive
dark side. There she will
find her greatest
challenge…herself.
Atonement with the Mother
Like the witch-queen of
Snow White, the Terrible
Mother is enraged that
she is no longer fairest in
the kingdom. Therefore,
she plots the destruction
of the heroine. Our
heroine descends to the
darkest place of all, and
there, confronts her.
Villains: The Child-Killer
• The witch is anti-life, killer of
children. She freezes the world
into sterility, forbidding growth or
change. Frequently, she is the
Jungian shadow for the young
questor.
• Llorona, Mexico
• Condenado, South America
• Medea, Greece
• Houmea, Maori
• Lilith, Jewish (pictured)
• Baba Yaga, Russia (pictured)
Villains: The Child-Killer
Reward
Triumphant, the heroine wins what she has
sought for so long. She snatches her lover
from the Fairie Queen’s horse, or saves her
child from certain death. She may find the brief
romance she’s sought for so long. Still, the
quest has not ended, until she returns safely
home.
Mastering Life and Death
To achieve the greatest
success, the heroine
becomes a queen or
“goddess” herself. In this
way she achieves
enormous power and
becomes a guardian for
the next generation. Even
if their ascension isn’t to
royalty or goddesshood, all
train successors, passing
on the wisdom they’ve
learned.
Ascension
Still, the other side
of the benevolent
mother goddess is
the destroyer:
Medea turns
murderous and Gaia
can destroy as well
as create. For the
heroine as goddess
ascended, it’s a
short distance to her
own shadow: the
Terrible Mother.
The Destroyer’s Wisdom
Though the Destroyer may
be the enemy, destruction
allows space for creation.
Kali is the great
goddess whose
stomach is a void and
so can never be filled
and whose womb is
giving birth forever to all
things.
More on the journey
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