The hunter-gatherer’s journey

The Hero’s Journey can be read as social conditioning for young males in stone age hunter gatherer tribes.

The young brave must go out, slay the monster and bring home food. This is the boon. Also, he must win over a woman so he can reproduce.

To fail to undertake the journey is unthinkable cowardice. To fail to return after acquiring the boon is disloyalty to the village.

An exceptional hunter can become a tribal leader. This is the king path. The other path is the shaman path: unite with the Father and re-open the portal to a larger world.

None of this applies to a non-heroic age. But our instincts evolved for the stone age. We are not made to live in civilization. Nowadays, the Hero’s Journey serves as escapism.