{"id":3929,"date":"2019-11-21T11:04:27","date_gmt":"2019-11-21T15:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=3929"},"modified":"2022-03-11T14:48:57","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T18:48:57","slug":"road-of-trials-heros-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/road-of-trials-heros-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Road of Trials: The Hero’s Journey, Stage 6 (Explained)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is stage 6 of Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey<\/a>? What is the “road of trials”?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The road of trials is the stage of a hero’s journey during which the hero undergoes a series of trials and tests<\/strong>. The road of trails is stage 6 of Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey, from The Hero with a Thousand Faces<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will cover what the road of trials may look like and explore two examples of a hero on the road of trials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Road of Trials<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Now we move into the main action of the myth, wherein the hero undergoes a series of trials and tests,<\/strong> with the aid of their supernatural helper. The hero might also discover the existence of a benevolent, omnipotent power guiding all things in the universe. The road of trials in the hero’s journey is the first stage of the second of three larger stages: Initiation.
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Connection with Our Subconscious<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Removed from the confines of their safe and familiar world, the mythological hero now confronts a land of symbolic and allegorical figures\u2014according to the psychoanalysts, the same imagery we see in our dreams. These are the elements of the road of trials. Just as the images are instrumental in helping the hero achieve their transformation, they are also puzzles that each of us must unlock in order to understand what our subconscious is trying to tell us.<\/strong>
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Unlike the ancients, we do not have the benefit of allegory and mythology to help us make sense of the bubbling up of our subconscious. As a secular, rational society, we increasingly lack the language to process this\u2014psychoanalysis may be the closest thing, but it\u2019s not a substitute for the power of mythology and religion. Indeed, we have rationalized and argued our gods away<\/strong>. It is only through studying these ancient soothsayers and shamans and the dead gods they once worshipped that we can truly grasp our fullest humanity.
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Descent into the Underworld<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In mythology, the <\/strong>road of trials of the hero\u2019s journey<\/a> often requires entering the underworld or the land of the dead<\/strong>. 
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Psyche and Her Tasks<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In the ancient Roman novel Metamorphoses<\/em>, Psyche pleads with the goddess Venus to release her lover Cupid (the goddess\u2019 son) so that the two can be married. Venus beats Psyche and orders her to conduct a series of tasks on the “road of trials”:<\/p>\n\n\n\n