Campbell’s Initial Outline of the Hero’s Journey

The Hero with a Thousand Faces pp. 36-37

I. The Separation or DEPARTURE
(1) “The Call to Adventure,” or the signs of the vocation of the hero;
(2) “Refusal of the Call,” or the folly of the flight from the god;
(3) “Supernatural Aid,” the unsuspected assistance that comes to one who has undertaken his proper adventure;
(4) “The Crossing of the first Threshold”;
(5) “The Belly of the Whale,” or the passage into the realm of night.

II. The Trials and Victories of INITIATION
(1) “The Road of Trials,” or the dangerous aspect of the gods;
(2) “The Meeting with the Goddess” (Magna Mater), or the bliss of infancy regained;
(3) “Woman as the Temptress,” the realization and agony of Oedipus;
(4) “Atonement with the Father”;
(5) “Apotheosis”; and
(6) “The Ultimate Boon.”

III. The RETURN and Reintegration with Society
(1) “Refusal of the Return,” or the world denied;
(2) “The Magic Flight,” or the escape of Prometheus;
(3) “Rescue from Without”;
(4) “The Crossing of the Return Threshold,” or the return to the world of common day;
(5) “Master of the Two Worlds”; and
(6) “Freedom to Live,” the nature and function of the ultimate boon.