The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Once he has entered the new world, the hero will encounter a series of tests. Often, he will receive help from the supernatural aid (whether in the form of a person or special objects). Campbell cites the myth of Cupid and Psyche, during which Cupid’s mother Venus commands Psyche to complete a series of onerous tasks to be with her son. Whether Psyche is sorting grain, gathering wool, fetching water from a dragon-guarded spring, or stealing a box from the underworld, she receives help at every turn.

Native Americans have held rituals in which shamans retrieve the souls of the infirm from the underworld. The shaman twirls in circles, injures himself with an ax, and handles logs from a fire. He falls on the ground in a trance, his spirit wandering the mountains of the next world. Women in attendance who guess the location of the shaman’s spirit initiate the next moments of the ritual, in which the shaman wakes from his trance and shares what he learned on his journey. He endured tests in the underworld that include a confrontation with the Lord of the Underworld, a monster named Erlik. Rituals like these symbolize the psychological mechanisms by which adults conduct their lives.