Episode 93 What is a Herald? Who or What is Calling You into the Great Adventures of Your Life?

Episode 93 What is a Herald? Who or What is Calling You into the Great Adventures of Your Life?   Welcome back to the Love Your Story Podcast. Today we are picking up the story archetype discussion – specifically the archetype of the Herald. Remember in episode 72 when we talked about the Threshold Guardian and the things that test us to see how badly we want what we think we want? Well, today we are going to dig into the Herald archetype. Stay tuned for a look at who your heralds are and the invitation they are bringing, and why you should probably say “yes.” Joseph Campbell, in his book The Hero of a Thousand Faces, posited that the most popular stories over millennia and across cultures, share a specific formula– the heroes journey. You have consumed this “monomyth” in pop culture classics like Star Wars, the Matrix, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, to name only a few. The Hero’s Journey has a specific plot structure, but it also has a repeating cast of characters, known as character archetypes. Archetypes tell us the role a character plays in the story. Thinking about the characters in your story – or the people in your story as these pivotal characters adds a bit of a perspective shift that often provides clarity in your story, but most of all, when you look closely the archetypes of story provide the handbook for life, an instruction manual on the art of human stories and creating and recognizing your own hero’s journey. If nothing else it’s very interesting to consider the things that challenge you as threshold guardians, the people in your life who invite you into adventure and new ways as heralds, and the villains we face as shadows of our own possible dark side. The central archetypal cast of the Heroes Journey fall into one of these eight character roles: Hero, Mentor, Ally, Herald, Trickster, Threshold Guardian, Shape Shifter, Villain or Shadow. Today I want to talk about the Herald. According to the definition on Mythcreants – Fantasy and Science Fiction for Story Tellers, “The Herald appears near the beginning to announce the need for change in the hero’s life. They are the catalyst that sets the whole adventure in motion. While they often bring news of a threat in a distant land, they can also simply show a dissatisfied hero a tempting glimpse of a new life. Occasionally they single the hero out, picking them for a journey they wouldn’t otherwise take.” Why do we care who the heralds are in our stories? I don’t know, maybe you don’t, but the reason I do is because they are key players in the directions we head in our lives. They may be in the script for a very short moment, but the role they play is incredibly significant, and that merits at least a 15-minute conversation. And, personally, once I have identified the heralds in my own story they take on a pedestal place in my book because they are the catalysts, the instigators for my greatest pivotal events. They opened the doors to adventure. Life is one big journey, and within it we take lots of different kinds of journeys – we take emotional journeys, we take learning journeys, we take professional journeys and journey through relationships. We take literal journeys filled with travel and adventure, and the heralds who extend those invitations, who show me the door, well, they have a special place in my heart. The great stories begin with the “call to adventure.” The human spirit is born to explore and grow, and change is happening to us all the time, but often it is our choice as to whether or not we accept the invitation. We have to act when the Herald shows up. Let’s talk about some heralds we are all familiar with from pop-culture: R2D2 brought the message of Princess Leah that started Luke on the journey of his life.  The letter announcing the ball in the Cinderella story opened a door to...