In this this, I will explain and explore Joseph Campbell’s hero myth and how the conclusions he reaches are a symptom of patriarchal society. I will then compare Campbell’s hero myth to more female-oriented interpretations while positing my own conclusions. I will speak to what the alchemical female is and how it differs from a classic male hero. I will be looking at Joseph Campbell’s works for the basic structure of the hero myth and the works of Valerie Frankel, Katherine Pope and Carol Pearson for feminist interpretations of Campbell’s structure. I will reference Sir James George Frazer, and Israel Regardie to help define the alchemical female. I will then propose a simplified hero myth structure that is specific to my own conclusions of what a heroic alchemical female is.
Afterwards, I will note how my proposed hero myth for the alchemical female is appropriate and relates to the character and seven paintings that I will make for my thesis. These paintings feature Temi, my avatar of the alchemical lunar/earth goddess Artemis as she undergoes her own adventure cycle. Each painting depicts a key moment and stage in Temi’s heroic development and eventual return to daily life. Her story follows my proposed hero myth and shows how it can be played out using symbolic imagery and language.
Grabbing her bow, she rallies the deer minions to follow her on a path of destruction – her blood-lust grows to a fever pitch as the anger she feels towards her old clan fuels her transformation into an all-destroying, all- birthing goddess (Apotheosis).
Temi awakes on the shore of a milk river, which is flowing from the many breasts of a great deer goddess. Healed, Temi rises and looks up at the Goddess with her troupe of small deer minions, perhaps having a conversation with them order to see her true p
After defeating the serpent, she is dropped from its coils to the cave floor, knocking her head on a rock and passing out. Because her solar traits of strength are already apparent, she goes through a stage of psychic stress and trials in her mind that re
My hero Temi, an anthropomorphic deer, is kicked out of her forest clan due to her odd coloration (her clanmates are brown deer, while she is black and white). Temi is expelled during the initiation rites of planting a
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sapling in her clan’s sacred oa
Coming to, Temi finds herself at home and surrounded by the clan elders. They welcome her back, and ask her to plant her tree in the grove. She brings the wisdom of a whole person to her community, and, while she is still looked at as odd, her cosmic insi
Temi’s destruction of the world around her continues back to the cave where she battled the serpent. However, a small white mage from the Axlotl clan Temi destroyed on the shore follows them and captures the inhuman Temi in a cage of crystal (Wholeness/ R
For Temi, the supernatural aid comes along with her talisman – her weapon. She takes her bow with her, but only uses it after her spear snaps while fighting a giant serpent (the first threshold guardian). She is forced to use the bow and bond with it, fur
