Outline Picture

Aries - The Call to Adventure:

The myth of the Golden Fleece sets the stage for the original conflict behind the whole adventure. An angry cloud nymph who’s husband king left her for another woman creates a drought. The new wife plots to have the king’s children sacrificed to save the town’s crops, and the cloud mother sweeps in with a flying ram to save her children. The ram is then sacrificed and its fleece hung on an oak tree sacred to Mars, the warrior god who creates conditions that allow crops to grow.

The call to adventure comes when the old concepts, ideals, and emotional patterns no longer fit, says Campbell. The herald calling to destiny is often dark and judged evil: with Phrixus it’s the stepmother, and later it’s Pelias, sending Jason and the Argonauts on their quest.

Taurus - The Refusal of the Call:

Venus, ruling Taurus in her earthly aspect, can “give military victory, sexual success, good fortune and prosperity,” making life indeed so comfortable the hero might just refuse the call and dismiss the adventure.

Refusing the call converts the adventure into its negative, says Campbell, eventually turning the flowering world of the hero into a wasteland even if, like King Minos, he succeeds in building a great empire. For the king’s greed turns all that fertile energy inward, which results in a walled labyrinth hiding a monstrous creature: the Minotaur. Thankfully, Theseus comes and kills the monster, and so the adventure continues.

Gemini - Some Supernatural Aid:

Every quest comes with some form of help or guidance: the hero meets a mentor, receiving what Campbell calls supernatural aid. This represents some protecting power of destiny, or helpful forces from the unconscious, which appear once the hero is committed to the quest.

This stage happens under the ruler ship of Mercury, messenger of the gods and guide of souls to the underworld. In the myth of the twins Castor and Pollux, regarded as helpers of mankind, one twin is immortal, the other is not. When Castor dies, Pollux strikes a deal with Zeus so that he can share his immortality with Castor. By accepting to be mortal, Pollux makes a real commitment to the adventure of life.

Cancer - Crossing the Threshold:

With the help of supernatural forces, the hero is ready to leave the limits of the ordinary world and cross the first threshold. This stage occurs under the rulership of the moon and its instinctive need for home and security.

Heracles fights the multi-headed monster Hydra, living at the entrance of the underworld and acting as a threshold guardian. Sensing that Heracles is winning, the goddess Hera sends the giant crab Karkinos to distract him but the hero crushes it under his foot. Thus he emerges from the crab’s regressive pull in a kind of rebirth, similar to what Campbell calls the belly of the whale, a final separation from the hero’s known self and world.

Leo - The Road of Trials:

Now moving into the unknown, the hero embarks on the road of trials where he must face a series of tests to begin the transformation (often in patterns of threes).

Under the ruler ship of the Sun – associated with the conscious ego, personal power, creativity and leadership – Heracles prepares to fight the Nemean Lion. The challenge lasts thirty days, during which he first tries to kill the lion with normal weapons and fails, then with a clever use of darkness (or supernatural aid), he knocks out the lion and strangles it with his bare hands. Failing at skinning the lion with his knife, he again receives supernatural help, with Athena telling him to use one of the lion’s claws. Finally, Hercules wears the lion’s skin, and in this way symbolizes the transformation.

Virgo - The Meeting with the Goddess:

After the trials and transformation comes the meeting with the goddess, a sacred marriage where the hero must reconcile the dual nature of life (or love) and find unity within a greater totality. Ruling Virgo at this stage is Mercury as keeper of boundaries and acting like a bridge between upper and lower world.

Persephone is taken by Hades while picking flowers in a field, then becomes queen of the underworld. In terrible grief, Demeter stops the growing of crops while searching for her daughter, forcing Hades and Zeus to accept the demand for her return. But having eaten a few seeds in the underground, Persephone must stay there part of the year, thus reconciling light and dark, and creating the cycle of the seasons.

Libra - The Woman as the Temptress:

Campbell calls this step woman as the temptress, meaning that the hero now has to face the moral problem of being in a world which includes both light and dark. Thus the side of Venus ruling Libra, at this stage, is her divine aspect – favoring beauty, harmony, grace, and the urge to sympathize or unite with others.

Balancing the scales and forces of the universe, Themis – goddess of justice, divine order, law and custom – holds the hero to a high standard, as do the norms of society. Themis is not wrathful, but when she is disregarded Nemesis steps in and brings retribution. Testing the hero’s integrity, the quest may require going against what others think, say or want, in order to remain true to herself or to the adventure.

Scorpio - The Atonement:

Now comes the darkest point of the journey: atonement with the father, by which the hero breaks past the ego and its fear of death. Governing Scorpio at this stage is Pluto, lord of the underworld associated with depth, power and regeneration, as well as a quietly strategic Mars, pulling the strings beneath the surface.

In the myth of the death of Orion, the hunter boasts to Artemis, goddess of wilderness and the hunt, how he could kill any beast on Earth. Upon hearing this, Gaia sends the giant Scorpion to sting and kill Orion – symbolically sacrificing the hero/ego. Then at the demand of Artemis, Zeus (the ultimate father figure) places Orion among the stars – a moment of apotheosis by which the hero transcends life.

Sagittarius - The Ultimate Boon:

After the release of death, the hero catches a glimpse of eternity in a moment of god-like realization. With a greater understanding of his own being and the world, he gets the ultimate boon: immortality or whatever the quest was about. This stage is under the rulership of Jupiter, supreme god of the sky and largest planet – favoring expansion, healing, fortune, and higher education.

The wise centaur Chiron, teacher of heroes and immortal like his father Cronus, is trained by Apollo in the arts of archery, healing, and prophecy. Ironically, he gets wounded by an arrow dipped in the Hydra’s blood – an accident he does not foresee, and which results in a wound he cannot heal. In pain, Chiron makes a deal with Zeus and willingly gives his immortality to Prometheus.

Capricorn - The Return:

Having reached the goal, the hero may then refuse to return, be forced to escape in a magic flight, or pulled back to reality with a rescue from without. Ruling Capricorn at this stage, is Saturn and its concerns for goals, time and reality.

Attacked by the monster Typhon, the nature god Pan jumps in a river, and the parts of his body above the water remain a goat while the parts below turn into a fish tail. The sea goat, climbing up on land while pulled down toward the eternal waters of life, shows how difficult it is for the hero to cross the return threshold. Somehow, the connection with the other world must be kept, or there’s a risk of losing the boon when returning on ordinary ground.

Aquarius - The Master of the Two Worlds:

The hero’s task is now to become a master of the two worlds, stitching the two together. And what better way to reconcile the everyday and supernatural than the two rulers of Aquarius: the reason and objectivity of Saturn with the genius and unpredictability of Uranus.

The flowing vase of Aquarius pouring cosmic waters onto the world would have been a familiar image at a time when many were employed in the old profession of water carrier. With the myth of Ganymede, the symbol turned into a human cup-bearer serving ambrosia to the gods. Both images reflect the social aspect of this stage, whether bringing the supernatural world back to society and everyday life, or feeding the inner world with outer experiences.

Pisces - Freedom to Live:

The hero now flows between inner and outer reality, similarly to Pisces. Like the two fishes tied by a cord, Jupiter rules alongside Neptune with the expansive clarity of the sky, and his brother with the fluidity of the sea.

In a similar union of sky and sea, the myth of Pisces has an egg fall into the Euphrates, rolled onto the shore by two fishes, and hatched by doves. Then out of the egg comes Aphrodite in her celestial form. For the hero, this means he’s released from the adventure and gains a new freedom to live. No longer centered in the ego and its fears but established in the Self, the hero lives in the present. The boon brings vitality to those around and restores the world.

In Summary:

In this brief overview of the hero’s journey through the zodiac you can see how this pattern seems to be embedded in the very fabric of our lives: seasons, planets and all. Year after year, Mars is the one to push us on the adventure, while Venus prefers the status quo. Mercury acts as the mentor, Pluto as the dark father. Jupiter brings the boon, Saturn gets us to return.

Even without knowing much about what the planets stand for or the details of each myth, the images of the cards themselves evoke the emotion of the stage it corresponds to. Sagittarius shows the fantastic feeling of getting the ultimate boon, Cancer the mysterious experience of crossing the threshold, Capricorn the balancing act of the return, and so on. And this emotional recognition may be all you need to know where you stand on the journey.

This is one of the more interesting outlines in my collection. I hope it made you think about The Hero’s Journey differently than you have in the past. What are your thoughts? Drop me a comment below.