“The agony of breaking through personal limitations is the agony of spiritual growth. Art, literature, myth and cult, philosophy, and ascetic disciplines are instruments to help the individual past his limiting horizons into spheres of ever-expanding realization. As he crosses threshold after threshold, conquering dragon after dragon, the stature of the divinity that he summons to his highest wish increases, until it subsumes the cosmos.”
Campbell is interested in understanding culture as the collective humanity's attempt to transcend their base modes of consciousness. Spiritual growth is painful because it demands personal sacrifice. The hero must abandon all semblances of safe zones as he continually shatters his understanding of himself and reality in order to arrive at a consistent, holistic, enlightened perspective. In Campbell's understanding, the hero's journey is directed toward enlightenment and is manifested collectively through cultural imagination (i.e. art).
"It is only when a man tames his own demons that he becomes the king of himself if not of the world."
Campbell's account of the hero's journey in mythology is one of personal responsibility. Lest the reader assume sort of authorial privilege, here, however, Campbell's conclusion is based upon a lifetime of rigorous study in the field of mythology. He merely presents his findings -- that the kings of myth are those who have first learned to control themselves. By "tames" Campbell does not necessarily mean control, either, so much as reinterpreting. He does not advocate for the hero to ignore their desire but instead to learn to achieve them more directly, sincerely, and sacrificially.
"How teach again, however, what has been taught correctly and incorrectly learned a thousand times, throughout the millenniums of mankind's prudent folly? That is the hero's ultimate difficult task."
As Campbell identifies, the hero's journey is perpetuated throughout history. He understands how myths are constantly being re-made through the lens of each successive culture. Although the story reminds essential, the clothes which it wears prove elusive. This is the myth-maker's dilemma. As he says here, Campbell views the hero's ultimate challenge in returning to the ordinary world that of refashioning myths in culturally appropriate ways.
“The psychological dangers through which earlier generations were guided by the symbols and spiritual exercises of their mythological and religious inheritance, we today (in so far as we are unbelievers, or, if believers, in so far as our inherited beliefs fail to represent the real problems of contemporary life) must face alone, or, at best with only tentative, impromptu, and not often very effective guidance. This is our problem as modern, "enlightened" individuals, for whom all gods and devils have been rationalized out of existence.”
Much of the text of The Hero with a Thousand Faces is devoted to the exploration and careful record of mythological traditions of most of the world's civilizations and even tribal peoples. Through his research, Campbell notices the value of the myths to these ancestors of ours. They used myth to defend themselves from psychological problems -- like death -- which still pertain all the same to contemporary societies. In contemporary society, however, these self-same myths have been altogether rejected because rationalism will not allow for belief. Thus Campbell notes how the modern man is alone is solving these psychological riddles which are central to human existence simply because he has been told that stories are false and gods are not real and thus not allowed to participate in a mythological interpretation of his own life experiences.
