The Rebirth of the Hero: Mythology as a Guide to Spiritual Transformation

In this book, Keiron Le Grice draws on the ideas and life experiences of C. G. Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Friedrich Nietzsche to explore the spiritual journey of the modern self, from existential crisis and the “awakening of the self” to the dramatic encounter with the underworld of the psyche and the arduous labour of psychological transformation. In a work of wide-ranging scope and insight, Le Grice analyzes myths, religious texts, and scenes from a number of popular films—Jason and the Argonauts, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, and more—to illuminate the stages and themes of the hero’s journey, helping to make the deepest of transformative experiences more readily intelligible to us all.

The Rebirth of the Hero:

• Provides a psychological commentary on Joseph’s Campbell’s model of the hero’s journey. Using numerous examples from modern films and classical myths, it takes the reader on a guided journey through the different phases of the hero’s adventure, explaining how these phases relate to the spiritual life and to the process of psychological transformation that Jung called individuation.
• Examines the hero myth/individuation/spiritual transformation in the context of Campbell’s ideas on the evolution of myth through time, the relationship of spirit and nature, the emergence of the freely willing modern self in the Western world, and the new era of individual creative mythology.
• Is an in-depth study of the process of individuation, offering guidance and insight into this process that might help individuals understand the transformative experiences arising from an encounter with the depths of the psyche.

“It is a great gift when a scholar has the ability to synthesize ideas from several deep thinkers and multiple disciplines, and then write with a clarity and directness that renders those ideas accessible to a wide readership. It is an even greater gift when that author has integrated these ideas with his own personal journey, so that what he writes has the emotional authenticity and existential relevance of life lived, not merely books studied. In The Rebirth of the Hero, Keiron Le Grice has brought those gifts to his readers in a way that many will find of immense value as they pursue the spiritual adventure of our age.” ––Richard Tarnas, author of The Passion of the Western Mind and Cosmos and Psyche.

“an outstanding contribution in offering a freshly-laid path for the individuation process. . . .[Le Grice] invites us to renew the value of myth, which, in turn, transforms the individual, culture, and the heartbeat of the earth.” ––Kathryn Madden, Editor-in-Chief, Quadrant: The Journal of the C. G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology, and author of Dark Light of the Soul.

Keiron Le Grice, Ph.D., is adjunct faculty in the Jungian and Archetypal Studies specialization at the Pacifica Graduate Institute, California, and the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is the author of The Archetypal Cosmos and Discovering Eris, and founding editor of Archai: The Journal of Archetypal Cosmology.