1. Based on Joseph Campbell’s book, THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES

2. PHASE I : Separation Separation is the culmination of a person
awakening from
a world of
drudgery and despair to pursue
a higher calling.

3. Step 1: The Call to Adventure
The heroic figure is made aware of a place beyond the world he has known his whole life.

4. Step 2: Refusal of the Call
The hero may refuse the adventure or deny the ability to move beyond the status quo. The heralded event may even be ignored – The use of magical intervention is then needed to plunge the hero into the unknown.

5. Step 3: Crossing the 1st Threshold
A portal or threshold represents the transition into the world of adventure. A sense of danger as well as opportunity is conveyed. The threshold guardian or "gatekeeper" must test the hero’s mettle for competency before he may enter the realm.

6. Step 4: Belly of the Whale
The hero having crossed the threshold is swallowed into the unknown, reborn in the new world, and may appear to those he/she left behind as dead or lost.

7. PHASE II: Initiation
The hero and/or heroine is plunged into the adventure. There he must meet and defeat all manner of monsters, demons & other-wordly beings.

8. Step 5: The Road of Trials
The hero encounters a series of tests. These trials show the hero as moving from childish behaviors to self-reliance.

9. Step 6: Meeting with the Goddess
The hero encounters the Queen of the World. The goddess figure is representative of the Earth Mother or source of life. She may be approachable, as the hero’s mother, sister, beloved, or she may be seemingly larger than life.

10. Step 7: Woman as Temptress
The hero may encounter the negative side of woman, a seductress or enchantress intent on delaying or impeding the hero’s progress. While the purified hero will be repulsed by these offerings, the tempted hero must resist her to regain his path.

11. Step 8: Atonement with the Father
The hero must face a parental figure responsible for guiding him through the journey. The Father Figure may be portrayed as the vengeful male threatened by the rise of the hero and so establishes a horrifying conflict. Despite a wrathful figure, the hero has faith that The Father is merciful and he must rely on that mercy.

12. Step 9: Apotheosis
The hero’s transformation could be a realization of the essence of life and ultimate purpose, a sort of culmination or climax of his struggle, followed by a period of rest.

13. Step 10: The Ultimate Boon
The hero wins the supreme price. He achieves illumination that there is an indestructible life beyond the physical body. This spiritual knowledge or understanding is timeless.

14. PHASE III: The Return
In this phase the hero or heroine makes him way back home to live a better life with his loved ones.

15. Step 11: Refusal of the Return
In some cases, the hero does not wish to flee the newfound world. He may hold a belief that those still in the former world cannot comprehend what the hero has learned.

16. Step 12: The Magical Flight
Here, there are two principal scenarios – flight or rescue. Where the hero has won blessings, he is allowed to return to the world to heal it. If the treasure was obtained through conflict or without consent, this will become a flight of difficult obstacles and pursuit.

17. Step 13: Rescue from Without
Here, the hero requires the outside world to pull him back from the adventure --Someone or something may facilitate his miraculous return from apparent death. An overriding reason is necessary to bring the hero back to the world to save it.

18. Step 14: Crossing the Return Threshold
The narrative now brings the hero full cycle – it is his destiny to depart from the mystical world he has discovered, and return to real life with his bounty.

19. Step 15: Master of Two Worlds
On return, the hero must resolve the Two Worlds – divine and human; known and unknown; yin and yang. The key to understanding the myth is that the two kingdoms are actually one.

20. Step 16: Freedom to Live
Our hero achieves the ability to pass freely between realms. The hero is transfigured. He is unencumbered by limitations -- death holds no power over him.