A hero in birth

Everyone is a hero in birth, Campbell states in The Power of Myth, displaying the wonderful complexity and instructive ambiguity that so often blesses both his writing and his speech. The act of birth, he goes on, represents a tremendous psychological as well as physical transformation, both for the child being born and the mother giving birth. The child moves from the condition of a little water creature in a realm of amniotic fluid into an air-breathing mammal which ultimately will be standing.

For the mother’s part, she is not only undergoing physical hardship, but she is also giving herself over to the life of another. Both are key components of any hero’s quest. Motherhood is a sacrifice, Campbell writes, and she is embarking on what will comprise, at least for some extended period of time, an important facet of her life’s work. But Campbell says that birth is not just a physical act. The mother is also undergoing a metaphorical transformation from a maiden to a mother…a big change, involving many dangers. The ways in which she confronts and maneuvers through those dangers, the paths she chooses to travel across that threshold, are part of her own spiritual birth, and represent her own individual hero’s quest.

Jospeh Campbell
The Power of Myth
painting: The Great Mother by Durga Bernhard