129: The hero quest pattern

The boys drink and review an imperial red ale from Mully’s Brewery, then discuss the hero quest pattern and how it applies to different stories.

The common elements of the hero quest include …

• An unusual birth,
• Separated from father / mother, sent to live with aunt / uncle,
• A call to Adventure,
  • Sometimes from an animal, which symbolizes our gut instincts
  • Sometimes from a wizard, or spiritual guide
  • sometimes it requires leaving the influence of your family, or your mother,
• Leaves the familiar world.
• At the boundary of familiar and unfamiliar, the hero encounters the threshold guardian — often his shadow.
• Goes into strange and threatening lands where he might fight monsters to find the hidden potentials.
• Death and rebirth — old self dies, new self emerges with new strength and purpose

They see the pattern in the stories of Moses, Krishna and Mithridates. (They wanted to add Jesus and Buddha, but there wasn’t time.) Then they discuss the larger issue of patterns and archetypes.

What’s the origin of this hero quest pattern, and why do so many compelling stories follow it? What does the hero quest say about each of our lives? Where are these archetypes from, and how do they play out in society?