The Hero with a Thousand Faces Exploration Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Page.Paragraph)

Quote #4

With the personifications of his destiny to guide and aid him, the hero goes forward in his adventure until he comes to the "threshold guardian" at the entrance to the zone of magnified power. Such custodians bound the world in the four directions — also up and down—standing for the limits c the hero's present sphere, or life horizon. Beyond them is dark less, the unknown, and danger; just as beyond the parental watch is danger to the infant and beyond the protection of his society danger to the member of the tribe. (71.2)

Exploration only counts if it involves things you haven't seen before…and the terrors and dangers they might hold.

Quote #5

Once having traversed the threshold, the hero moves in a dream landscape of curiously fluid, ambiguous forms, where he must survive a succession of trials. This is a favorite phase of the myth-adventure. (89.1)

Every type of exploration involves tests and trials, which is why it's so dangerous. If the goal of exploration is to learn, then it needs to be a test like this.

Quote #6

In a vocabulary of more modern turn; this is the process of dissolving, transcending, or transmuting the infantile images of our personal past. (92.2)

And again, exploration in this book doesn't just mean a physical journey, but a spiritual one as well. By exploring the spiritual side of yourself, you invariably change into someone new.