We each must be our own hero and follow the path that’s no path…

There are two aspects of the hero, I think. The hero is somebody whom you can lean on and who is going to rescue you; he is also an ideal. To live the heroic life is to live the individual adventure, really. One of the problems today is that with the enormous transformations in the forms of our lives, the models for life don’t exist for us. In a traditional society–the agriculturally based city–there were relatively few life roles, and the models were there; there was a hero for each life role. But look at the past twenty years and what has come along in the way of new life possibilities and requirements. The hero-as-model is one thing we lack, so each one has to be his own hero and follow the path that’s no-path. It’s a very interesting situation. — Joseph Campbell from, An Open Life: Joseph Campbell in conversation with Michael Toms

 

More Joseph Campbell on Beyond Meds:

●  If your bliss is just your fun and your excitement, you’re on the wrong track

●  What are we going to do with our aggression?

●  Love of your fate — Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens

●  You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.

●  You must find your own path

●  Myths come from the psyche and point back to the psyche

●  Good life is one hero journey after another

Books by Joseph Campbell

The Hero with a Thousand Faces – the classic

Myths to Live By

Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation