Our hero’s journey, which lies at the heart of the collective unconscious and of our understanding of the development of individual archetypes, appears more difficult than at any other time in history. We increasingly accept being average and resembling everyone else, while before us stands an enormous and formless mass of people far more powerful than our individuality. In this situation, many of us ultimately surrender to a sense of our own powerlessness.

In the myth of the hero’s journey, the individual enters an unknown world and, by overcoming the enormous difficulties before them, becomes a hero, then returns to their people to share with them the growth and achievement won through the heroic journey. In the modern world, however, it is becoming increasingly difficult not only to find individuals who still believe in the hero’s journey, but also for the individual who returns as a hero to be received and accepted. The tribe has expanded into the shapeless masses of millions who inhabit large cities.

Aydin Areta