Even as I was deeply immersed into research of the Hermetic tradition and the god Thoth, I could not avoid being drawn into the current events of Barack Obama’s US election. I have always thought that the esotericists (particularly those of Hermetic extract) have been men and women of the world, engaged in the transformation of the world into a better place. Perhaps it is down this line that I want to live as well, so please understand if I may from time to time jump thousands of years from Thoth to Barack Obama and back again. This exercise is, of course, carried out in the spirit of esotericism: looking at the underlying trends behind the surface.
It has hence occurred to me that Obama’s image and story can be compared to Joseph Campbell’s myth of the Hero, which Campbell called the “monomyth” (1). Whether consciously or unconsciously, people – and sometimes Obama himself – tend to project this image upon him. As early as 2006, he was called star and legend (2), and recently I have even read an online blog where the writer called him ‘savior’! (3) Mind you, I’m not laying a claim of profound originality on this – I discovered then that George Lucas has already made note of Obama following the Hero’s Journey (4) and there are two bloggers that talked about it, albeit sketchily (5, 6). However, I would like to look at this more in detail than the others I have read.
Let’s start with the beginning. For those that don’t know, Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) was one of the foremost mythologists of his age (7). He is primarily remembered for his groundbreaking book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. It is in this one that he articulated the myth of the hero’s journey, which directly influenced George Lucas’ Star Wars, Disney’s The Lion King, and countless movies and books ever since (8). The book ‘deconstructs’ the journey of the hero in a number of steps. It is my intention here to compare these steps with the story of Obama’s rise to power and Presidency.
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