English 12 Honors Blog

I personally see myself as a sage and an explorer. Both archetypes describe my own thought process and way of life fairly well. I often help others when I can (even when I don’t know the subject and attempt to learn on the fly). I try my best to analyze and study as much as I can because information is a God sent. I love learning new things or anything that has a really cool purpose. The explorer side complements the obsession with learning. I love jumping into new waters in a subject I’ve never thought about or something that makes me think. As a kid, I’ve had a knack for getting into trouble. Nothing serious, just going places where I’m not supposed to be. The first thing I thought when I saw a No Trespassing or a Do Not Enter sign was, “Why not?” Life is too short to sit at home and do nothing. Reading about an abstract philosophy is just as engaging and entertaining as exploring a new continent (or an abandoned development).

Building upon the sage aspect of my personality, I often find myself arguing extensively with others about politics or anything opinionated. I find arguments fascinating because the stronger the argument is, the better the challenge it is to countering it. Logic at its finest. Having an open mind only means having others close it for you; thus creating a stance and holding it is imperative. I love watching old Milton Friedman (legendary monetarist economist) or Will F Buckley (founder of National Review, host of Firing Line and credited with being the father of modern conservatism) not because of their political orientation, but because they are so analytic and methodical. Even when they are on the losing side, they fight intellectually to the death to hold their stance. Exploring new ideas and being able to implement them is a great thing.

Believe it or not, I’ve never compared myself to a hero before! I’m no stronger or any smarter than most other people out there. If anything, I thought I was way below the status of hero when I was younger. I’ve never been the star of a team and I never really got into the popular cliques in my grade school . Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that my classmates didn’t like me, it’s just that I was quiet and never liked to draw attention to myself. But then again, that’s not really what being a hero is about anyway! I would say that one of my “hero-like” attribute is probably listening. People tend to vent to me about whatever or whoever is bothering them. I’m not very good at giving advise though so I usually just listen so they have a chance to just “let it all out.” That’s one thing I can remember being good at when I was younger and at present as well. Another is making people laugh, which I enjoy very much. I always liked brightening people’s day and I hate to see a friend down in the dumps, so I’ve always had a thing for lightening the mood. The way I see it, I’m no hero, but I’m not without one or two heroic characteristics.

From  Carol S. Pearson’s ideas I have the qualities of the seeker,warrior, magician and sage. I also found it interesting that my scores for creator and destroyer were equal. I definitely understand the reasoning behind the summaries of each of my archetypes even though I do see gapes as well . The seeker stands out in my mind. I definitely seek out opportunities, try to expand my abilities, and am not afraid to explore the unknown. I see magician qualities within myself as well, I will always try to make my visions and what I want for myself into reality. I have a positive outlook for my future and will never give up. I believe it’s important (for myself at least) to always more forward. The creator and destroyer came out equal, I think I embody more of the creator, though I do see the qualities for growth and that to grow you must experience some suffering or pain. I think some would think that the goals of the magician are unrealistic but I believe that they are completely realistic and that anything is possible.

Let me begin by saying I’m not convinced that these archetypes apply to our everyday lives, or that we are all in our own heroic journey.  Any parts of the journey that do apply seem to be common sense, such as the fall from grace. Of course things can’t always be perfect everybody knows that. A person is going to make a mistake that makes himself or herself look weak or untrustworthy. It happens to everyone not because we all fit into the heroic journey but because we are only human and we make mistakes.  But if I must categorize myself based on this system I fit into the Destroyer and Caregiver Archetype’s right now. Those characteristics seem like opposites since the “Dragon” for one is “Will take care of it and those it harms.” and the other is “Be destroyed by it or destroy it.”  I somehow managed to score equally high in both though. I think parts of each Archetype describe me better than one complete Archetype. I like helping people, like the caregiver. I like having fun, like the Jester. I strive for understanding, much like the sage does. I do fear death without rebirth much like a Destroyer does. I love discovering new things like an Explorer/Seeker/Wanderer does. (Does that make me a lover too?) And I like getting my way and making a difference like a Warrior does. Well who doesn’t? I don’t think I ever fit into just one Archetype and I don’t think I ever will. I suppose I am approaching my call to adventure on the journey.  I don’t believe I can use this to predict what will come next, however. And as a result I don’t know how these ideas could help me steer my course in any way.

When I began at the high school I probably would have said that high school was the big journey and that senior year would be either the return or the reign. But now that I am here I am starting to think that I really haven’t yet crossed the threshold in the heroic journey of my life. The heart of the journey is still to come. I think in the grander scheme of things I have recieved the call to adventure (that is, I know what I want), but haven’t gone much further. That said, maybe a person can have multiple heroic journeys of self discovery. It would seem that if you completed your journey, your life would lose purpose afterwards without something to strive for, So, I very well could be completing a journey while starting another.

On the archetype test I scored highly in Creator, Magician, and Ruler. I think these reflect my journey throughout my high school career as they are the qualities that tend to show up later in the journey. But earlier on I definitely could have been more of a seeker and a warrior. Instaed of struggling to conquer the obstacles facing me as a used to, I use my knowledge and experience to enjoy my successes, as well as trying to help those kids facing trials of their own, because I know I needed plenty of help (supernatural or otherwise) to get where I am now, the end of a great journey and the beginning of hopefully a grater one.

There apparently are many different heroic qualities that I have. I scored highly in nearly all of the different categories. However, I would not categorize myself in some of the areas the test said I was in. I personally would assign myself to be mostly revolutionary and a caregiver. I am a person who really cares about others, who wants to support and help others better themselves. I am also a person who looks to change things for the better. I like to challenge the status-quo, reform, and fix problems, sometimes through radical ways. I definitely lead actions and take risks before others do so in some instances, and look at problems and how to fix them.  I believe that in the past I was more of innocent/lover sort of person, but that has since passed. In the future (I hope) I will continue to be a revolutionary. The world needs more people like that.

I don’t necessarily think that the heroic journey can apply to everyone’s daily life. If I were to be in any specific part of the journey it would probably be call to action, but I feel that that might not necessarily be true. I feel that I may also be at the beginning of my journey, not literally born, but rather beginning my own separate life.

Joseph Campbell’s mythical journal may be relative to stories, but not to real life. Though, myths are based off of real life events, they never ens the way life does. Every story has a distinct beginning and end. Don’t our lives? True we’re all born and we all die, but our tales don’t includes the nice organized chart Campbell came up with. For us, there maybe no clear journey or next step. At the end of out lives, there’s no guarantee we’ll have a resolution, share what or if we’ve learned. Besides, unlike 99% percent of all the stories I’ve ever read, many of our lives won’t have a happy ending.

As far as archetypes go, their labels, created human being based off of human beings so of course they work, for the most part, that is. The reason behind archetypes is the need for rationalizations. Humans are always in this constant need to understand things. So they label everything they can, in attempt to do so. But there are some things in this world that are not explainable, and as incredibly near-minded and stubborn creatives, we will never be able to truly except that fact. Such is why we constantly ask questions that really have no meaning at all. If only we acted more than we sat around questioning, our lives would be more accomplished.

Joseph Campbell says that everyone is a hero. There are elements to a hero’s journey that are present in our daily lives. There are mini journeys that we take on throughout our daily lives. According to Carol Pearson, there are many qualities in my life that categorize myself as a caregiver, a lover, and a sage. I always think for others before myself, and I use knowledge that I have learned to help other people. When it comes to the big journey of life, I believe that I am still crossing the threshold. I will be leaving the threshold when I graduate and am sent off to college, and sent to experience new things. I can study Campbell’s cycle and better understand the changes that I experience in my life. There is a hero in everyone, and I know that I am just another ordinary hero.

The archetype sheet that we completed in class told me that my top three categories are Destroyer, Creator, and Seeker.  While I was at first concerned with the fact that my top result was Destroyer, reading the description told me that it was pretty accurate.  Over the past few years I’ve gone through some family drama, and had a lot of friends sort of bail out on me.  It sounds really bad, but like the description of Destroyer says, loss opens up to a more expanded range of emotions and receptivity, which I’ve definitely acquired over the past few years.  I feel like I know myself a lot more than I did, and I don’t regret that.  Second to Destroyer, I was tied with Creator & Seeker.  Creator goes with Destroyer really well in that both deal with finding yourself and experiencing a more fulfilling life.  As for Seeker, I would definitely say I can differentiate myself from others to see different experiences and really expand creatively and get a feel for their identity.  All of these three really describe my personality.  I’m sad sometimes, but it’s made me get in touch with myself and my feelings a lot better, and made me realize who my friends really are.  I think it’s interesting that just from filling out a chart with different aspects of the hero’s journey, I was able to pinpoint myself pretty accurately.  It is something I will definitely remember as I go on my own journey into college and the business world.

I wouldn’t call myself a hero in almost any sense of the word, but apparently all of us are undergoing our own heroic journey.  How is it that we can say life is just like Joseph Campbell’s idea of a heroic journey?  I don’t know, nor completely agree.  However, if by using his model I had to place myself in some part of his Hero Myth Map I would have to say it would be in the departure quadrant.  Specifically, I believe between the Call to Adventure and the Threshold of Adventure;  The Call to Adventure being senior year and thus time to start thinking about colleges.  I think this is accurate because, like the Call to Adventure starts the hero’s journey, dedicating yourself to a college is more or less the start of the rest of your life.  The threshold, then, would be the act of actually going to a college.

Another comparison of myself to the mythical hero archetype is by Pearson’s twelve archetypes derived from the work of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell.  Seeing the results of this test, it would almost be easier to tell you what I am not.  According to the results, the outlying score was a low number in the orphan archetype.  I agree with this; the goal of the orphan is to regain safety and security in oneself.  I have no need for that, I already am independent and feel as safe as possible.  That was the only one where there was a glaring difference between the two related archetypes.  The few that had the largest small gains on their partner were the Creator, Ruler, and Sage archetypes.  Even though I highly doubt that all people can be said to fall in these archetypes, I believe I did fall in accurately.  Everyone does have a little of each, and the degree of which they have them determines who they are.  Everyone is going to be mixed, there is not going to be a person who is entirely one or a few archetypes.  Though a person may be the opposite of a hero in their life, Pearson suggests that even the most evil person can have positive qualities attributed to the timeless mythical hero.

Out of Carol Pearon’s twelve characteristics, my strongest now is caregiver. I strive to keep others happy, which is not always a good thing because I sometimes do what others want me to rather than what I want to do. In the past, my strongest was most likely innocent, just as most people once were. I should probably stay a caregiver for the future since I want to be teacher.

As for what stage of the hero journey I’m in, I would say I’m somewhere between refusal of the call and crossing the threshold. I’ve accepted the fact that I have to go to college, and for the most part, I’ve decided where I want to go. Therefore, I’m past the refusal of the call.  But I’m not actually going to college yet. I haven’t graduated from high school so I’m not crossing the threshold. But that’s just where I am in the giant hero journey. I’m currently completing the smaller of cycle of high school. I’m a senior, so that puts me almost at the return home.

When I took that archetype quiz thing, my results showed that I had a mix of qualities from a ton of different categories, the main ones being lover, caregiver, and creator. Works for me, at any rate! I don’t think any person can straight up fall into one specific category, because all these are referencing is personality, and everyone’s personality changes due to events in their lives. Which, now brings be to the hero journey monomyth circle. And that’s just it right there. It is a circle. And everyone goes around this circle countless times until their death. The same situations arrive with the exact same basis; it’s only the details that change. This is why I can not tell you specifically where I am on this circle, because with every event I would tell you I’m in a different place. One reason I would say that some people don’t realize its the same situations is that their personalities have changed. They are handling events with a whole different outlook than they had before. The cycle wont ever end, but hey, I wouldn’t say that is is a bad thing. Shaking things up a little is just what we need to keep going, otherwise we’d all get bored and stop caring all together.

The journey through life can be a difficult task.  However, sometimes you need to forget about how much you may struggle and enjoy it instead.  Life should never be boring, but when it is people should look for the little things that make them feel alive.  Whenever you have a ton of work to do, make it fun.  If there’s a million things you have to get done off your “checklist”, ignore how stressful it can be and live in the moment.  If you haven’t guessed, my highest archetype is a fool.  Not because I like to play tricks on others all the time, but because I try to stay positive and show others a carefree life.  Though I scored highest as a fool, I don’t believe this is always true.  Yes, I try to turn difficult things into pleasureable and enjoyable moments, but it doesn’t always work.  I still stress out and have pessimistic qualities, but I do my best to overcome them. 

Right now, I feel that my strongest qualities are more related to a caregiver( my second highest archetype).  I always try to make others happy, and have the tendency to put other peoples’ happiness before my own.  I will do my best to help others, and when I can’t it makes me upset.  It makes me happy to know I helped someone out, cheered them up, or even just made them laugh.  I try to be as generous as I can, and I think being a fool and a caregiver is not a bad mixture of qualities.

Now first of all I do not particularly feel as if this “journey” is necessary or useful. It’s a bunch of baloney. It’s a way to reason with ourselves and it allows us to measure our own lives when really our lives are unmeasurable. It is not appropriate to measure each individuals life by the same measure when all individuals are different in multiple aspects. Everyone, if they were looking to plot their lives out, would each have their own personalized map.

However, if I were forced to decided upon which part of this traditional heroic journey I was going through at this stage in my life I would have to settle upon crossing the threshold. I am sitting at the gates. I am awaiting the chance to jump into the real world and move on to bigger and better things as soon as i get past those gates. College and acceptance into a college are the major gates i am attempting to cross at this particular moment. Therefore, I’m about to cross that threshold.

Over the millennia, myths have emerged and been passed down as explanations of the natural phenomena that our ancestors lacked the technologies to provide scientific reasons for. And larger-than-life heroes accompanied these stories and filled with them with derring-do and supernatural journeys that excited and inspired lesser beings that came after their times. Myths also carry universally recognized themes and characters, despite their various origins. This is accredited to Carl Jung’s theory of Collective Unconscious which is proposed to be a part of the nervous system in all life forms. It also details how the structure of the psyche automatically organizes experience. The Collective Unconscious creates these models, or archetypes, based on these experiences, which all people attribute to.

Carol Pearson is one of the philosophers who sought to organize these archetypes, coming up with twelve categories: The Innocent, Everyperson, Hero, Caregiver, Explorer, Lover, Revolutionary, Creator, Magician, Ruler, Sage, and Jester. These personalities can be applied not only to the characters in storybooks, but to ourselves and the people who surround us. According to Pearson’s personality tests, I am prominently an Innocent and a Sage. As an Innocent, I strive to be optimistic and to see the best in people at all times. I also  love to help people through listening and giving advice when they have troubles and supporting them as a friend. As a Sage, I like reading things that incorporate deeper meanings within seemingly simplistic settings like The Little Prince and The Phantom Tollbooth.

In my past, I was very intuitive and energetic, as well as stubborn, which I believe made me an Innocent. As for the future, I know the kind of person I don’t want to be. And for my journey, I am currently on several. For some, I am at the very end, well on the return home. On others, I am still refusing the call. Now that I know the cycle, I feel that I will both anticipate and dread the new stages I will have to face.