The Hero's Journey

The Call: A Threshold Moment of Soul

There comes a moment in every life—quiet or catastrophic, whispered or roaring—when something shifts. Something breaks. Something cracks open. And in that rupture, you hear it: The Call.

In the language of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, this is the archetypal beginning. It is the Call to Adventure—the sacred summons to leave behind the known and step into the mystery of the soul’s unfolding.

The Call is rarely comfortable. It often arrives wrapped in chaos:

• A divorce that leaves you hollow and questioning

• An illness that rearranges your identity

• A financial collapse that shatters illusion

• An empty nest that opens a vast silence inside you

• A betrayal, a death, a dream that no longer satisfies

This is not punishment.  It is initiation.  The Call is your soul’s way of saying: There is more for you than this.  More truth. More depth. More aliveness.  It’s time to journey inward—and downward.

From Surface to Soul: Why the Call Disorients

The first half of life is typically dedicated to ego development. You learn to build, strive, succeed, and belong. You shape a personality that helps you survive in the world. This is necessary and valuable.

But the soul does not live at the surface. The soul is deep, mysterious, and wild. It lives in the subterranean caverns of your psyche, beyond roles and routines. And to find it, you must be willing to descend.

The Call often begins when the surface self begins to crack.  When what once brought meaning no longer satisfies.  When life demands more than performance—it demands presence.

The Descent: Saying Yes to the Journey

To accept the Call is to enter the Underworld—the vast terrain of the unconscious. Here you meet the shadow, the wound, the forgotten fragments of self. This is not a descent into evil, as some traditions have taught. It is a sacred pilgrimage into truth.

The Call invites you to retrieve:

• Repressed emotions

• Disowned desires

• Buried trauma

• Denied gifts

• Forgotten wisdom

You enter the darkness not to stay there—but to bring light. You become the bridge between what you’ve been and what you’re becoming.

This is soul work.  This is alchemy.  This is the sacred act of coming home to yourself.

Western Culture and the Fear of Descent

The Western world has glamorized surface living—productivity, positivity, material comfort, and linear success. It has taught us that pain must be avoided, that suffering is shameful, and that mystery is dangerous.

Religious systems have sometimes demonized the unconscious, painting inner exploration as rebellion or heresy. But ancient esoteric traditions knew differently. They honored the descent as necessary for true transformation.

To go within is not weakness.  It is initiation.  It is the journey every mystic, healer, and awakened soul has walked before.

Soul Evolution and the Purpose of the Call

Every soul is here on an evolutionary journey—to remember, reclaim, and reunite with Source. The Call is the moment your soul says: It is time.  Time to evolve.  Time to shed illusion.  Time to rise, but only after you’ve descended.

In Evolutionary Astrology, we see these moments reflected in transits and planetary cycles. They are timed invitations—Saturn Returns, Pluto transits, Nodal shifts—each one a doorway into a deeper truth.

No two journeys are the same, but the architecture is archetypal. You are being initiated into your wholeness.  Answering the Call may feel like your life is falling apart. And in a way, it is.  But only the false structures are crumbling—so the true Self can emerge.

The Gift on the Other Side

On the other side of this journey, you find:

• Purpose

• Power

• Authenticity

• Creativity

• Inner freedom

• Soul-aligned life

• Peace

This is not about becoming someone else.  It’s about becoming who you’ve always been—beneath the fear, beneath the conditioning, beneath the masks.

Your soul asks: "Are you ready to become a whole being?"

The road will not always be easy.

But it will be true.

And you will never walk it alone.

"You must give up the life you planned, in order to have the life that is waiting for you."  Joseph Campbell