"From the fairy tale: the princess and the frog.
As a preliminary manifestation of the powers that are breaking in play, the frog, coming up as it were by miracle, can be termed the “herald”; the crisis of his appearance is the “call to adventure”.
The herald’s summons may be to live, as in this fairy tale, or a later moment of the biography, to die. It may sound the call to some high historical undertaking. Or it may mark the dawn of religious illumination. As apprehended by the mystic, it marks what has been termed “the awakening of the self”. In the case of the princess of this fairy tale, it signified no more than the coming of adolescence.
But whether small or great, and no matter what the stage of grade of life, the call rings up the curtain, always, on a mystery of transfiguration - a rite, or moment, of spiritual passage, which, when complete, amounts to a dying and a birth. The familiar life horizon has been outgrown; the old concepts, ideals, and emotional patterns no longer fit; the time for the passing of a threshold is at hand."
As a preliminary manifestation of the powers that are breaking in play, the frog, coming up as it were by miracle, can be termed the “herald”; the crisis of his appearance is the “call to adventure”.
The herald’s summons may be to live, as in this fairy tale, or a later moment of the biography, to die. It may sound the call to some high historical undertaking. Or it may mark the dawn of religious illumination. As apprehended by the mystic, it marks what has been termed “the awakening of the self”. In the case of the princess of this fairy tale, it signified no more than the coming of adolescence.
But whether small or great, and no matter what the stage of grade of life, the call rings up the curtain, always, on a mystery of transfiguration - a rite, or moment, of spiritual passage, which, when complete, amounts to a dying and a birth. The familiar life horizon has been outgrown; the old concepts, ideals, and emotional patterns no longer fit; the time for the passing of a threshold is at hand."
—
Joseph Campbell
The hero with a thousand faces; page 42-43
(Source: books.google.es)
