2. The Sacred Number 7 in Joseph Campbell's Monomyth and the Cycle of the Heroic Narrative

Having analyzed thousands of myths, Joseph Campbell holds that all the stories of the world can be seen as a single monomyth composed broadly of three parts—"Departure," "Initiation," and "Return"—like the process by which the son overcomes the Oedipus complex within the father–mother–son relationship.

"Departure" contains the content in which the hero, who has been living peacefully in the ordinary world, receives a call from a reconstituted world. The hero lives peacefully in the ordinary world but receives some call from a new world. In most cases, the hero refuses that call, but through some occasion sets out on an adventure into the new world—this is the basic narrative.

"Initiation" treats the narrative of the part in which the hero undertakes the adventure in earnest. Basically it has the story in which the hero overcomes trials and obtains a reward that will save the world. At this stage the hero undergoes trials and undergoes the greatest trial. In the case of the greatest trial, the object is almost impossible for the hero to overcome, or the hero even undergoes death. Yet the hero overcomes that trial and obtains the reward that will save the world.

In more detail, the three stages can be organized into twelve stages.

Departure stage

· The Ordinary World

· The Call to Adventure

· Refusal of the Call

· Meeting with the Mentor

· Crossing the Threshold

Initiation—Crossing the Threshold

· Tests, Allies, Enemies

· Approach to the Inmost Cave

· The Road of Trials (Ordeal)

· Reward

Return

· Return

· Resurrection

· Return with the Elixir

Each stage may be said to be an element prepared in advance by the divine spirits within the myth in order to overcome the Oedipus complex. Campbell holds that whereas the true hero, upon feeling that the cosmos has become unified, seeks to return to the original world of reality in which he had lived, religious seekers seek to remain in that world—and this is the difference between the true hero and religious seekers. The mythic hero departs from the world in which he had lived, overcomes all manner of obstacles, and reaches the process of accomplishing the final adventure of marriage with the goddess or marriage with the mother, which corresponds to the return. The monomyth of which Campbell's myth speaks has in fact been much verified through countless Hollywood scenarios and game stories.

The structure of departure–initiation–return, which appears in temporal order in Campbell's heroic narrative, may be said to appear, from the standpoint of characters, as the trifunctional system of father–mother–son or producer–warrior–priest, and as the seven characters who bear the three functions.

Turning first to the seven characters: Campbell holds that seven characters appear commonly in the cyclical structure of the narrative that the monomyth possesses. The seven characters appearing in Campbell's monomyth are the hero (protagonist), the mentor, the threshold guardian, the herald, the shapeshifter (trickster), the shadow, and the trickster (jester). Just as Campbell's heroic narrative has been verified in countless films and games, the universality of the seven characters has likewise been verified through many works.

The seven characters are divided, centered on the hero, again into three functions centered on the hero: the side that supports the hero and the side that opposes the hero. Whereas the shapeshifter, the shadow, and the trickster (jester) appear in a form formally opposed to the hero yet empathize with him, the mentor, the threshold guardian, and the herald empathize with the hero in a form that sides with him.

Existing research on Campbell's myth has mainly emphasized the aspect of the single narrative, but recently the cyclical structure that Campbell's myth possesses has been drawing more attention in relation to astronomy. First, the connection between astronomy and Campbell's myth appears across both East and West. In the case of Western astronomy, the heroes of Campbell's heroic myth all become Western constellations; in the case of Eastern astronomy, the entire Eastern constellations—the Azure Dragon of the left, the White Tiger of the right, the Vermilion Bird of the south, and the Black Tortoise of the north—form the cyclical structure of Campbell's heroic myth.

Examining the astronomical aspect of Campbell's heroic myth within the structure of circulation: the narrative structure of Campbell's heroic myth, which appears as seven characters performing three functions, can be interpreted through the framework of a cyclical structure of circulation, namely 3 and 7. Since Campbell's heroic myth appears as seven characters performing three functions, the minimal structure of circulation may appear as 3, and the circulation created by 3 may in turn be composed around the axis of 7. As seen in the trifunctional system, when, centered on the hero, my own side differentiates again into three functions and the enemy side differentiates again into three functions, this becomes 7.

As seen in Campbell's heroic myth, the myths of the world all possess the common elements of 3 and 7. In particular, 3 is related to time, and 7 to spatial structure. Since Campbell's heroic myth is also reflected in the aspect of astronomy, the astronomy of both East and West may likewise be said to express the cosmic circulation of 3 and 7. That myth is not simply the superstition of primitive people but a highly developed scientific system can also be found in the cyclical structure of Eastern and Western astronomy revealed through the application of Campbell's heroic myth to Eastern and Western astronomy today.