William C. Wagoner
5. Crossing the Threshold
"Beyond them is darkness, the unknown, and danger" (Campbell 77). The threshold is the point of no return, where the last vestiges of the ordinary world has been completely left behind. Sometimes it is an explicit boundary line, as in a portal one steps through, other times it is a more subtle change of setting.
6. Tests, Allies, and Enemies
"Once having transversed 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. It has produced a world literature of miraculous tests and ordeals. The hero is covertly aided by the advice, amulets, and secret agents of the supernatural helper whom he met before his entrance into this region. Or it may be that there is a benign power everywhere supporting him in his superhuman passage' (Campbell 97). This is the phase where the hero begins to learn of his or her latent powers with the help of allies, and grows more powerful on the way to the climactic battle with a great enemy.
7. Approach
The approach to the "cave of fear", where the final ordeal takes place can be frightening, a calm before the storm where old fears and doubts may arise, and final preparations take place.
8. Ordeal, Death, and Rebirth
"When he arrives at the nadir of the mythological round, he undergoes a supreme ordeal and gains his reward" (Campbell 246). This is the "final boss" stage of the adventure, where all the hero's abilities are tested. If he proves him or herself a "natural," the monster is slain without much difficulty, but most often, the final trial taxes the protagonist to the limit, and they have a near death experience or quite literally die. But ultimately some magical power or inner fortitude revives them, and they claim their reward.
9. Reward
There is always a reward to claim after the victory. It may be some treasure, or the saving of a friend or the world itself. Along with it comes the ascension of the hero to some new level of being, consciousness, or power.
