 | |
| The Hero of 1000 Post-Its |
“…First of all, I begin by saying
my theory of the Monomyth, as introduced in my popular work THE HERO WITH A
THOUSAND FACES, has been much misunderstood and misrepresented as of late.
The conclusion of my work was that the stories found in myths and legends are
all symbolic reminders that a healthy life must be a continual process of
psychogical DEATH and REBIRTH. All our lives are made up of stages; childhood
and adolescence, adulthood and marriage, old age and death. The transitions
between these stages, usually accompanied by initiation rituals in primitive cultures,
requires that the old self “die” and then be “reborn” as a new person with new
sets of values and priorities. The old must die. Only death can bring new life.
And only new life can bring death.
Like how the deep subconscious
summons symbolic images in dream to give shape and form to otherwise
inexpressible turmoils of the psyche, the myth acts as a tool of the psyche of
society. The gods and heroes are no more than symbolic archetypes used to express
experiences of social and psychological change universal to man – The
Universal Will. Death and rebirth. This is the way progress is made. Even
the two most revered moments of Western Christianity, the story of Christmas
and the story of Easter, both continually reenacted on ritual holidays, are
clear symbolizations of the death of an old age and the birth a new, purer,
more illuminated age. Such is the power of Myth.
The contemporary Americans have a
charming tale called “Office Space.” When the tale begins, the land has
grown old and corrupt. People are suffering under the weight of a power that no
longer serves its true purpose. Ruling this land is Tyrant-King HOLDFAST. “Hold
fast!” the Tyrant-King cries. “All shall remain as it is!” In all his forms
throughout myth, Holdfast is hoarder for his own benefit, one who has succumbed
to greed and avarice, who now uses his mighty power to maintain the status quo.
But change is inevitable. No man can resist the cosmic cycle. Death must come
to the land of Holdfast.
And it can only come from one source: a newborn child. For in terms of the
land, only DEATH can bring NEW LIFE! And in terms of the hero, only NEW LIFE
can bring that DEATH!
 |
| All has become old and corrupt. |
The hero of our story is the simple
young man Peter Gibbons (no mention is made of his parents, so possibly of
Virgin Birth). Peter is one of many who bend under the oppression of the
Tyrant-King. Little does he know that destiny has chosen him to be the
world-savior, the Renewer of Life, the Bringer of the Ultimate Boon.
One morning, whilst crossing a
grassy glen with two of his cohorts, Peter is met by a fat dwarf bearing
tidings of ill! (its supernatural resemblance suggestion that he has a
connection with The Power.) This is the Herald, a figure repeated
innumerable times in fantasy and lore. In the same manner as the Grim Reaper,
in the same manner as Virgil’s first appearance to Dante, the Herald says
“Stop! Change must come! Leave this road and follow me!” This is the Call to
Adventure, the narrative equivalent of the psychological anxiety one feels
when dreaming that signals time has come for a change.
Peter does not know if he believes
the dwarf’s story, but the dwarf begs that Peter take action. Here we have a Refusal
of the Call. He would not dare risk challenging King Holdfast. Like Sigmund
Freud’s cases of childhood neuroses continuing into adulthood, Peter wants to
cling to his existing material world out of a fear of losing what one assumes
is valuable. The first step in answering the call is to let go.
Peter’s period of refusal ends when
he encounters the Supernatural Aid of a monstrous old wizard. As an amulet to
protect Peter from the dangers that lie ahead, the wizard casts a spell on
Peter to render him invincible to his enemies. His life’s mission fulfilled, the
wizard turns to dust the moment his spell is cast.
However, the invincibility spell is
in fact a spell of rebirth. With the wizard’s last words, Peter dies and is
immediately reborn. We see him burst from his placenta of entrancement, and
look about his surroundings with infant wonder in his eyes. This is a purified
Peter, untainted by corruption, unbound to any former loyalties. This is an
essential step in the hero-journey. Re-birth can only come from re-birth.
............................................................
Armed with his amulet of power, the
hero now feels confident to follow his call of destiny into the land of
unknown. However, just as societies of old projected their fears of the unknown
into imagined monsters that lurked beyond the safety of the village, just as
our own minds erect fears and imagined bogeymen in our subconscious to resist
the uncertainties of psychological change, so it is in myth. The entrance to
the zone of magnified power is overwatched by Threshold Guardians, ogres
created to threaten the weak of heart and keep out those not ready for the
challenges which lay beyond. At Peter’s threshold stands twin ogres, both by
the name of Bob. The Bobs crush and cripple every man that faces them. His
weaker-willed cohorts warn Peter to turn back, but armed by his new-given
power, Peter is undaunted. In his purified state, Peter is able to trick the
twin ogres. He not only convinces them to yield the way, but gains their
enthusiastic assistance.
 | |
| Hi. We're here to eat your bones. |
It is imperative to point out that
Peter’s victory does not come due to guile or show of force, but by the
effortless nature of his newborn purity. His innocence, honesty, and absolute
lack of rationalized fear baffles the Bobs. This is reminiscent of the tale of
the future Buddha’s battle with the demon Stickyhair, where the future Buddha,
at the physical mercy of the demon, nevertheless fells the monster through
nothing more than his forthright confidence.
(the editor now asks the reader to
imagine the next line in the snootiest voice possible.)
The “Damn, it’s Good to be a
Gangsta’” montage presents, in quick succession, a series of Tests and
Trials of which every hero must face on his journey. The office through
which Peter journeys is a deadly desert, fraught with obstacles. With the
invincibility of his amulet, Peter passes these trials with godlike ease. He
has crossed the rocks that clash! And the reeds that cut! And the sand that
burns! And when he finally meets King Holdfast, he brushes him aside with a
brush of his hand. He is proved mighty. The kingdom is his for the taking.
From here, Peter can advance to the
Marriage with the Goddess-Mother. The name of this stage has been a
source of much confusion, as the Goddess-Mother is not an actual personage
(though repeatedly represented as so), but a symbolic form of an intangible
ideal. The “Goddess” represents the apex of comfort and happiness a mortal man
may hope to achieve from the material world. A blissful all-assurance not
encountered since the mother’s womb. Hence, the feminine symbolic form of the
Goddess-Mother. As such, achieving this state is often represented in Western
culture through the hero winning the heart of a beautiful young maiden. The
Goddess is Life. By the act of wedding with her, the hero gains Supreme
Knowledge of Life.
In this story, our hero claims the
hand of his goddess-figure Joanna. The mythical overtones of their courtship
are quite apparent. Even before Peter receives his Call to Adventure, he
captures a glimpse of the goddess, much like the Greek tales of the hunter who
should chance upon the sight of the goddess Diana in the forest, and is
enraptured by her flawless beauty. Upon receiving his power from the wizard,
Peter approaches the goddess and casts his spell upon her, for only her divine
eyes can perceive the aura of pure light which now surrounds him. With each
test and trial Peter overcomes in the deadly desert, he is drawn closer to the
goddess’s love until the point where hero and goddess become one with each
other.
Now, nestled in the bosom of the
Goddess-Mother, Peter believes he has achieved true happiness. However, many a
hero soon finds that such material pleasures are hollow and fleeting. The Paradise
turns to rot as the hero finds there to be filth and corruption in all earthly
things. Peter’s childlike bliss is shattered with such a revelation. Though his
amulet has saved himself from destruction, corruption continues across the land
of Holdfast, spreading and
infecting Peter’s garden of earthly delights. He has entered the Woman as
Temptress stage of the monomyth. Like Adam in Eden,
he bites the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and is transformed once more. The
scales fall off his eyes and he becomes aware that he is tainted by the stench of a
world of wickedness and decay. Even Peter’s goddess-figure fades from beauty as
our hero is fooled by a trickster who impugns the goddess as being
stained by Holdfast’s seed.
 | |
| Our heroes encounter an idol of corruption. And hence, it is destroyed. |
Now, earthly things must be cast
aside. Peter’s only chance for salvation is to achieve Atonement with the
Father. In the most primordial of creation-myths, the earth is female and
the sky male. Hence, in myth, the Mother represents all earthy care and
comfort, while the Father, the heavenly and divine. The Father is the
All-Creator, the Source of all Wisdom, the Essence from which all life is
renewed; whether that Father be present or not, made physically manifest or
remain abstract. Peter knows the comfort of the earth-mother will not bring the
boon of salvation necessary to renew the land. He can complete his hero’s
journey only by reaching atonement (“at-one-ment”) with the Father and gain the
enlightenment of His pure wisdom and truth.
However, the Father is a divinity
with two faces. When first approached, He seems a figure of pure fury and
terror. To gain his favor, the hero must undergo a Supreme Ordeal, an
ultimate test of the hero’s character and worth. Only once the test is
surpassed is the hero allowed to see the second face of the Father, the face of
benevolence and mercy, and is embraced into his kingdom.
Unfortunately, our hero Peter is
not first aware of his need to atone, and readies himself for battle in
potentially self-destructing pride. The Father initiates Peter’s Supreme Ordeal
with a flip of His divine hand, laughing at Peter’s folly by reversing his
fortunes with what seems to be a simple accident, turning his situation into
one of impending doom. Like Aeneas and Gilgamesh before him, Peter must descend
into the darkest valley of death, face terrors and anxieties most profound,
(including a comical aside where Peter is allayed by a mischievous shape-shifter
trying to trick him into buying false wares), whereby Peter’s soul is purified
by fire until he reaches a state of utmost humility, emptying his vessel and
making himself ready to receive the Father’s truth.
Peter reaches the stage of Apotheosis
with the decision to sacrifice himself, all that he has, and all that he
knows by returning the world-tainted treasure foolishly stolen from Tyrant-King
Holdfast and offering his own life in exchange for those of his cohorts.
Apotheosis is the process by which an earthly soul transcends to a divine
plane, reaching a place amongst the gods themselves. As expressed by the East
Asian traditions such as the Buddhist and Hindu, Apotheosis is only possible
through absolute self-denial. All pride must be abandoned, all sense of self
must be discarded, even the conscious ego itself must be shattered. Only once
the envelope of self-consciousness is annihilated will the hero become free of
all worry and fear, a being beyond the reach of change.
Peter achieves this transcendence with his act of purest self-sacrifice; and within a breath, he is atoned with the
Father and is allowed to rejoin the side of the Goddess-Mother. Peter is then
saved from destruction by a coincidence that could only be the work of the divine
interception of the Father. Castle Holdfast burns, death clearing the path for
the renewal of this world.
It is interesting to note that this
final destruction comes not by the hand of the hero, but through the magic
intercession of a humble troll. This suggests that the troll was a secret servant
and agent of the Father the entire time. In fact, the Troll of Fire and the
Herald Dwarf can bee seen as twin servants of the Father; two creatures hatched
from the same egg, one dark and one light; one the Caller for Rebirth, the
other the Agent of Destruction. This notion is supported by how both Dwarf and
Troll are rewarded by the Father by story’s end. Both, by strokes of what the unenlightened may consider “luck” or “fate,” are taken from their land of
earthly toil and ascend to plane of blissful paradise.
Finally begins the short Return
portion of the hero’s journey as found in the monomyth. At the Crossing of
the Return Threshold, Peter faces the same question every hero must
consider when returning to the everyday world. Will such common-minded mortals
be able to understand the transcendent wisdom the hero has gained on the other
side? Are they willing to drink the magical elixir he has available to share?
Sadly, the answer is no. His cohorts remain too short-sighted. Nevertheless, he
has cleansed the land and brought back the promise of freedom and beauty. Peter
has become the Master of the Two Worlds and has achieved the Freedom
to Live.
Hence, through the continual
life-affirming process of death and renewal, the story ends happily ever after.
............................................................
On a closing note, “Office
Space” is a tale so permeated with the Universal Theme of Salvation through
Death and Rebirth that, through the subconscious of its creators, this
World-Redeeming truth is pronounced clearly in its text, hidden in plain sight
through what might seem the most trivial line of speech.
As Samir leaves Peter’s home after
their celebration, he is heard to say, as if incanting a spell of his own:
“Back up in Yo’ Ass with the
Resurrection.”
Indeed, Samir. Most indeed…”
(Disclaimer: In case it needs to be said, I have to make clear that this article was not actually written by Joseph Campbell. It was written by me. Joseph Campbell died in 1987.)
