The Cycle of Initiation is one of the elemental patterns of the archetypal hero. Typically, it includes four stages: 1) the Separation, 2) the Departure, 3) the Transformation, and 4) the Return (Guerin, Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, 1969). 

The Separation
Growing up in an isolated community, the Initiate (Hero) has no vision (and understanding) of the larger world outside. In a moment often accompanied by considerable shock and trauma, the Hero responds to a calling from beyond the walls of the community and determines to venture forth. 

The Departure
The Hero leaves the security and safety of the former community to explore the outer world. At this point the Hero joins a fellow traveler, a "priest-like" figure who is, in fact, the Hero's Mentor who knows the journey and the ways of the world. Together, along the "journey of life," the two encounter obstacles along the way which threaten the completion of the sojourn. With each encounter, the Hero gains a fuller appreciation of the Mentor and self-confidence that will lead him ultimately to independence. 

The Transformation
Sometimes characterized as a moment of spiritual illumination or "epiphany," the Hero experiences an inward transformation, manifested in his new self-discovery. He has learned all that can be learned from his Mentor who has led him to the point of transformation and his new identity as the next "priest." 

The Return
The Hero returns to his original (or another) community, carrying once more the voice of the Mentor for new "Heroes" yet to begin their own journey. 

It should be noted that not all Heroes complete the cycle. In Irish Celtic mythology, after responding to voices off the familiar path to join in a feast, the Hero finds himself the main dish on the menu and is slain. His gleaming white bones, picked clean and lying beside the road, warn others not to linger at the crossroads. 

As an interesting sidebar, you might be interested in comparing the cycles above to the research of William Perry in his examination of American college students in the late 1960s (Forms of Ethical and Intellectual Development in the College Years, 1970). Perry notes three distinctly discernible stages in the process of intellectual and ethical development: 1) the dualistic stage, 2) the relativism stage, and 3) the commitment stage. Through these stages, modern-day hero counterparts experience the shift of "agency" (authority) from outside themselves to a complete transferance of "agency" to themselves. Like the "Initiation" candidates passing along the Irish highway, not all students complete the journey of transformation, some never moving from the security of dualistic certainties. 

Geoff Grimes 

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This page was last modified on October 15, 2001,
and is maintained by Dr. Geoffrey Grimes.
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