English 11 Honors

“It is only those who know neither an inner call nor an outer doctrine whose situation truly is desperate; that is to say, most of us today…

“But whether small or great, and no matter what the stage or grade of life, the call rings up the curtain, always, on a mystery of transfiguration…”

A. The Hero is called…

1. to live in the now, to be present completely, instead of worried about the future or fixated on the past; to truly live and not just exist…

2. later, called to die (never suicide, but maybe self-sacrifice); the natural end of life…

3. may be to some high historical undertaking…

4. may be the dawning of religious illumination…

5. may be the “awakening of the self”…

ALL: reveal an unsuspected world; the hero is drawn into relationship with forces not clearly understood.

B. Appears to blunder into the adventure

1. However, the blunder is no mere accident.

2. Rather, it is the ripples on the surface of unsuspected springs of desires and confliction within the hero’s psyche.

3. These desires/conflicts may be deep, as deep as the soul itself.

4. And this “blunder opens the hero’s destiny.

C. Transfiguration

1. Regardless of whether the adventure is great or small, the call always opens the mystery of transfiguration.

2. A rite, moment of spiritual passage (a death and rebirth)…

3. marking that the familiar life has been outgrown…

4. the old concepts, ideals, and emotional patterns no longer work.

5. The time for passing the threshold is at hand.

6. The signs (omens or seeming coincidences) will continue to increase…

7. until the call to adventure can no longer be denied.

D. The Herald

1. The herald represents the unconscious deep (where the bottom cannot be seen) where are hoarded …

2. all the rejected, unadmitted, unrecognized or undeveloped elements of existence.

3. He is the announcer of adventure.

4. He is often dark, loathly, or terrifying.

5. He is often judged as evil by the world.

6. Rather he is the repressed instinctual fecundity (fertility or productivity) within ourselves…

7. or the unknown itself.

E. The Refusal of the Call

1. Initially, the hero may refuse the call because he refuses to give up what he takes to be his own best interests (as groomed by the World’s teachings).

2. The future is seen not as a series of deaths and rebirths, but as though one’s present system of ideals, virtues, goals and advantages are to be fixed and made secure.

3. This converts the adventure to its negative.

4. The hero loses his power for affirmative action…

5. and instead becomes one of the victims to be saved.

6. Even though he may build a Worldly empire through great effort whatever house he builds will be a house of death.

7. All he can do is create new problems for himself and await his gradual disintegration.

8. The hero may return to the familiar world for a while, but his former occupations will now be found to be unfulfilling.

F. Heeding the Call

1. The hero may go willingly…

2. The hero may be dragged along by a benign or malignant agent…

3. He may mosey along or blunder into it…

4. Regardless, the call (and the herald) pose an irresistible fascination for the hero.