Whether or not you’re into mythology, you’ve probably heard of the hero’s journey. At the very least, you’re familiar with heroes and superheroes from movies, books, TV, or comics.
Joseph Campbell identified and described the hero’s journey in his 1949 classic The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The title refers to the hero archetype’s presence in nearly all world mythologies across time, distance, and culture. Some mythological heroes are:
- Hercules (Greek)
- Arjuna (Indian)
- Oduduwa (Yoruba)
- Marduk (Babylonian)
- Quetzalcoatl (Aztec)
- King Arthur (Celtic)
There are a handful of women among them, but most heroes are male.
The hero’s journey is called a monomyth because it is the template or narrative structure underlying a wide range of stories that are only superficially different. Campbell borrowed the term from novelist James Joyce.
The standard path of the mythological adventure of the hero is a magnification of the formula represented in the rites of passage: separation—initiation—return: which might be named the nuclear unit of the monomyth. —James Joyce Encyclopedia
There are 17 stages or steps in the hero’s journey, although some of them may be combined or skipped. Essentially, an individual undertakes a perilous journey, often reluctantly, in order to obtain something valuable or important. He or she encounters both adventure and danger along the way and may experience temporary setbacks but is ultimately victorious, returning home transformed to share what he or she has learned or obtained.
And Then There’s Trickster…
As I’ve said elsewhere, I think Trickster with a Thousand Faces would have made for a much more interesting, enlightening, and entertaining book. There is plenty of scholarly research on tricksters, who have been around as long as heroes and who populate world mythology to the same extent. Among them are:
- Hermes (Greek)
- Coyote (Native American)
- Puck (Celtic)
- Krishna (Indian)
- Anansi (West African)
- Loki (Norse)
As with heroes, most tricksters we know about are male; however, a female trickster does appear in the oldest myth “recorded” (on clay tablets).
Tricksters are disruptors. They break taboos, revel in the destruction of the known, and shatter outmoded ideologies. They question everything and test everything rather than accepting anything automatically or blindly. Tricksters appear when an old way of being or thinking needs to be torn down and rebuilt [see the article on creative destruction below]. In other words, tricksters embody change.
The Monkey of the Mind knows that human beings had a hand in articulating the world they inhabit and so knows that human beings can remake it when they need to. To wake that Monkey is to wake the possibility of playing with the joints of creation. —Lewis Hyde, Trickster Makes This World
If we compare and contrast a few aspects of the hero’s journey with trickster tales, we can get some sense of what the trickster archetype is about. Both heroes and tricksters set off on journeys that involve traveling through liminal space in order to get something—and to create or experience transformation in the process. But that’s where the similarities end.
Enthusiasm vs. Reluctance
You don’t have to ask twice to get a trickster to set off on a journey, perilous or otherwise. Whereas heroes enter liminal space reluctantly, tricksters choose to spend a significant amount of their time in such places: on the road, in the marketplace, at the crossroads, or on the border. Liminal space, a transitional state filled with uncertainty and possibility, is the natural habitat of tricksters.
Adaptation vs. Determination
Heroes tend to be persistent and forthright in their approach, while tricksters are…well, tricky, “moving without prediction,” according to cultural anthropologist Victor Turner. They don’t follow established plans—or rules, for that matter—unlike the hero, whose journey proceeds along a standard path and tends to adhere to a formula with a predictable outcome.
In order to overcome adversity and triumph at the end, heroes must manage to stay the course, no matter how difficult. Tricksters, on the other hand, are committed to the outcome, not to a particular course. They will quickly abandon a course of action that is not getting them what they want. And they are always open to exploring the unexpected.
Agility vs. Strength
Tricksters are inveterate risk-takers, so like heroes they often find themselves in difficult circumstances. Unlike heroes, however, who use bravery and strength (often physical, but mental and emotional, too) to overcome obstacles, tricksters dip into their bag of tricks to access wit, agility, ambiguity, confabulation, mischief, and even magic and shape-shifting to get themselves out of tight spots.
Humor vs. Gravitas
Gravitas was a Roman virtue that can be applied to heroes all around the world. It connotes seriousness, but also dignity, responsibility, and moral rigor. While there is often a moral to a trickster story, trickster tales are not weighed down by gravitas. An element of humor is always present, whether the joke is on someone else or on the trickster him- or herself. In fact being light-bodied is a key characteristic of tricksters.
Trickster is about fluidity—when circumstances change, you can change with them. You don’t necessarily have to be committed to the old image of who you are. —Lewis Hyde