Photo by Brett Patzke on Unsplash

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The Hero’s Journey makes for interesting reading, showing how in 12 stages the boy becomes a man as he journeys through a life. Although based on myths, the underlying idea behind this framework is that these myths work because they represent how we understand how life happens to us. Vogler’s model, which the folk at AoM espouse, is an abridged version of the original in the Joseph Campbell book (The Hero with a Thousand Faces) and identifies 12 steps (from the Wikipedia page) as below:

1. The Ordinary World: the hero is seen in his/her everyday life
2. The Call to Adventure: the initiating incident of the story
3. Refusal of the Call: the hero experiences some hesitation to answer the call
4. Meeting with the Mentor: the hero gains the supplies, knowledge, and confidence needed to commence the adventure
5. Crossing the First Threshold: the hero commits wholeheartedly to the adventure
6. Tests, Allies and Enemies: the hero explores the special world, faces trial, and makes friends and enemies
7. Approach to the Innermost Cave: the hero nears the centre of the story and the special world
8. The Ordeal: the hero faces the greatest challenge yet and experiences death and rebirth
9. Reward: the hero experiences the consequences of surviving death
10. The Road Back: the hero returns to the ordinary world or continues to an ultimate destination
11. The Resurrection: the hero experiences a final moment of death and rebirth so he (or she) is pure when he reenters the ordinary world
12. Return with the Elixir: the hero returns with something to improve the ordinary world

For what it is worth, it feels like in so many parts of my life I am somewhere between Stages 1 and 3, either having just being called or just having rejected the call for the first time. Mentors and mentoring are going to be key for this next phase of my life. This is certainly something that I will need to return to over the next few weeks.