If women remember that once up a time we sang with the tongues of seals and flew with the wings of swans, that we forged our own paths through the dark forest while creating a community of its many inhabitants, then we will rise up rooted like trees. (Sharon Blackie, If Women Rose Rooted, 2019, p. 29)
Introduction
This paper explores how Joseph Campbell’s model of the Hero’s Journey – though deeply influential – does not fully reflect the complexity of the human psyche, particularly in relation to feminine energy. It argues that what is missing is the Heroine: not simply as a female hero, but as an archetype of connection, deep feeling, authenticity, and rootedness in the natural world.
This paper will begin with an overview of Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, following on with a reflection on Paul Rebillot’s therapeutic structure, which integrates this mythic framework into a process of personal transformation. It will then refer to James Hillman’s ideas on Heroic ego and will continue with a review of Sharon Blackie’s ideas in relation to the Heroine’s Journey. Finally, the paper turns to the myth of the Sealwoman, presenting it as an alternative mythopoetic structure used in dramatherapy, to invite a post-heroic, soul-centred approach to healing and self-discovery.
The Hero’s Journey
The basic plot of all the world’s greatest stories, Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) asserts, involves a Hero who, suffering from some symbolic deficiency, sets out on a journey, overcoming a supreme ordeal to retrieve what is lost, and bringing the missing treasure back to society.
Campbell argued that there were three stages of the Hero’s Journey, beginning with the phase of separation in which the Hero hears the ‘Call to Adventure’, moving on to the second phase where the Hero experiences the ‘Road of Trials’, where he is challenged and tested, finally overcoming a supreme ordeal. The third phase is where the Hero returns with a gift that benefits himself and society, ‘the return and reintegration with society’. Campbell believed that the Hero’s Journey was not only a common structure within myth, but also a mirror of our own individual journeys through life, reflecting Jung’s idea of individuation.
In 1973, drawing on Campbell's work and integrating Gestalt practice, movement, meditation, ritual, group process, drama, art, and music, Paul Rebillot (1931-2010) designed The Hero's Journey. Rebillot, a member of the human potential movement and author of The Call to Adventure: Bringing the Hero’s Journey to Daily Life, structured a series of self-discovery processes relating to the myth that he believed would enrich, heal, and awaken individuals to their inner quest and the transpersonal dimensions of participants’ lives.
My encounter with the story of the Seal Woman occurred during my training in the Rebillot approach with the Fool’s Dance Gestalt Company (FDGC). The FDGC was formed in Ireland by individuals who had trained with, and worked alongside, Rebillot. A requirement for the Rebillot training was the selection of a myth with which to work. I chose the story of 'The Seal Woman’, also known as the Selke. The story relates to seals who are purported to be capable of shedding their sealskins at certain times – usually under the full moon - and transforming into humans.
I live in Co. Mayo, in the West of Ireland, and one of my favourite haunts is Roonagh Pier, west of the town of Louisburg, where a colony of seals can be seen all year round. I love watching them basking on the rocks, soaking up the sun rays, then arching their blubber bodies and lifting their heads upright before they dive into the water. And through my binoculars, I spot their big, round, sad eyes, and I am reminded of old stories - stories of how seals were once human, with the evidence of their human time still visible in their eyes. Their eyes carry wise, loving, human expressions.
The version of the Seal Woman story I selected for Rebillot training is the version set out by Clarissa Pinkola Estes in Women Who Run with the Wolves. The Seal Woman in the story doesn’t choose the terrestrial life - it is forced upon her by a man. As she becomes consumed temporarily by the landlocked life, her hair turns prematurely grey, her dry skin flakes, she begins to lose her sight, stumbling as she walks - barely able to survive.
The training involved creating a therapeutic structure based on the selected myth following the Hero’s Journey structure. Its unfolding had to follow the trajectory of the Hero's Journey, and include a confrontation between oppositional psychological dynamics - typically representing a protagonist and an antagonist, symbolising conflicting aspects of the personality. For resolution to occur, this inner conflict had to reach a climax.
I followed the protoype of the Hero’s Journey in the design of my dramatherapy workshops until 2020, when I emersed myself in exploratory research for a PhD topic. I began my PhD research with an exploration of James Hillman’s theory on the idea of Heroic Ego, which brough me to consider the value of Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, and the value of my two-year training in the Rebillot approach.
Heroic Ego
James Hillman (1926-2011) theorises that the habitual attitude we call ego has become increasingly dominant in the personal and collective psyche. He argues that this dominance has lead to a mutation of the ego into what he terms the ‘heroic ego’. This concept is modelled on the Greek masculine mythological hero (e.g., Hercules, Achilles, Samson). The heroic ego represents certain behaviours, forms of consciousness, and attitudes, including, a drive to activity, outward exploration, achievement, seizing and grasping, and manifesting. When unchecked, these traits can develop into overpowering single mindedness and exagerated masculinity (Eolene et al., 2006, p. 197).
Hillman postulates that it is not enough for the individual to work on his/herself; the psychoanalytical subject-object model is, in his view, just rehashed Western Cartesian thinking. In his book Re-Visioning Psychology (1975), he argues that we have had 100 years of psychotherapy, and the world is getting worse. Unless psychotherapy takes into account the sickness of the world, he contends, it can never really work, because the anima mundi is sick now.
As a depth psychologist, Hillman does not deviate from many of the broad characteristics of classical depth psychology. He concurs with the idea of bringing unconsciousness material into consciousness, asserting that the unconscious affects our thoughts, emotions, and actions to a greater extent than our conscious mind. However, Hillman does deviate from classical psychology in terms of the goal of therapy. While Jung’s ultimate goal is individuation, with a strong and integrated ego as a centre of consciousness and self-awareness, Hillman argues for the relativization of ego. For Hillman, ego has so taken over it acts as all that exists of personality; if a person considers just a part of her ego - heroic ego - to be all that exists of her personality, then she remains unaware of most of herself. She encounters others with only a part of herself and views others only partially. Such drastic distortion requires drastic correction, that is, ego-relativization - soul and archetype as the structures to which ego is made relative.
Hillman contends that all psychology, including depth psychology, must be remain open to the possibility of soul everywhere:
This means re-visioning the idea of soul before we can re-vision the idea of things. If we can get soul out of psychoanalysis, out of the Vatican, out of Kant and Descartes, and your own personal experience ─ all those places where it’s been trapped or defined ─ and return it to the world, as the anima mundi of the Platonists then things, too, would be ensouled. When Plato used the word “psyche” it meant both at once: “my” soul in our sense and also soul as an objective world beyond “me” and in which I am. This is the world-soul, and I interpret it to mean the soul-in-the-world, and that everything has soul in some way or another. (Hillman, 1984, p. 132)
Hillman lauds Freud and Jung for recognising those dreams, fantasies, and images that are forever going on in the collective unconscious: "They’re the background of art, they’re the background of madness, they’re the background of thought, the background of childhood thinking, the background of ritual. The images, the imagination is fundamental" (Hillman, 1983. p. 58). However, as Hillman adds, Freud and Jung brought up the material and then by translation sent it back down again. For Hillman, once you’ve translated the dream into your oedipal situation you no longer need the image; you want to work on your mother complex, change your personality - this still leaves the soul unanimated, unalive. Hillman argues that the images are not walking around on their own legs once they have been turned into meanings.
Hillman’s arguments brought me to revision my workshop design. This revisioning was further enhanced when I encountered the author Sharon Blackie and her idea of The Heroine’s Journey.
The Heroine’s Journey
I was also introduced to Sharon Blackie’s book If Women Rose Rooted (2019) during the early stages of my PhD research. In her book, Blackie contends that the psychoanalytical subject-object model is essentially a rehash of Western Cartesian thinking, a worldview that emerged out of Western philosophy over the last 2,000 years, leading us to believe that we are separate from nature, or, as she points out, that we are above it. This idea of dominion over nature, Blackie adds, aligns with the teachings of Western religious authorities, who cited scripture to argue that God had indeed given humans dominion over nature – and over women.
Blackie argues that, emerging out of this tradition, Campbell’s Hero’s Journey fails to acknowledge how deeply we are enmeshed in the web of life on this planet. It also does not reflect the full reality of women’s lives, whether inner or outer:
In it, women appear either as the Temptress, there to test the Hero and lead him off-course (there goes poor Eve again...); or in the guise of the Great Goddess, who represents the ‘unconditional love’ which must be won by the Hero to give him the courage to go on with his quest. In other words, at their very best, women can be no more than the destination: we represent the static, essential qualities that the active, all conquering Hero is searching for. (Blackie 2019, P:26)
We live in a culture, Blackie argues, in which most women are doomed to fail. It is far easier to follow the status quo, because the world values those women who stick to the rules - the women who do not rock the boat, or push for more – "women who are like men, or women who become what men want them to be" (Blackie, p. 48). As she points out, in becoming what men want, in colluding with the patriarchy, women are cut off from their authenticity, "from the source of our own creativity, from the wild mystery and freedom from which makes our heart sing" (ibid, p. 48).
For Blackie, The Heroine’s Journey involves a life-changing path from the wasteland of modern society to a place of nourishment and connection:
The Wasteland burns us up and burns us out. Instead of following our own instincts, instead of discovering what it is that gives us joy, what makes our heart sing, we spend most of our lives trying to make other people happy, squeezing ourselves into their boxes, living from our head rather that our instinct for what is good and healthy. And following these conventions, living these lives of arid appropriateness, kills all that is alive and vibrant inside us. (Blackie, p. 52)
In addition, Blackie contends that what is missing from the Hero’s Journey is the Celtic story. To journey out of the wasteland, women must look to their own guiding stories. She notes how often we look eastward for our spiritual practices - to Taoism and Buddhism - or we look to indigenous stories from the Americas to teach us how to live in harmony with the land. While these are fine as traditions, she emphasises, they are not our stories. We need to be guided by the narratives deeply rooted in the heart of our own native landscapes. In the Celtic tradition, the divine feminine, in her various forms, is grounded and rooted in place, indivisible from her haunting, distinctive landscape.
Blackie refers to the story of the Seal Woman, also known as The Selkie, one of those stories that remind us of what we might once have been and what we might become again:
[...] at the right time of the day, you will find (if you are lucky) a hidden sandy beach; a tiny thing which vanishes completely at low tide, set on the edge of a small calm bay protected by an arc of high rock on both sides. It is there that you will find the seals. More often than not, you will find just one, her grey head popping up from the sea, bobbing in the waves, large dark eyes staring straight at you. She’s waiting for a song, so sing to her. Above all songs, she’ll love to hear 'The Sealwoman’s Sea-Joy’, written to express the delight of the Selkie who finds her lost skin. (Blackie, p. 83)
My research, like finding a lost skin, brought me to a different approach in the Sealwoman dramatherapy workshop design.
The Sealwoman in Practice
In the current design of the Sealwoman workshops, I now avoid attributing human individuality, character, and achievement solely in terms of the Hero’s Journey as prescribed in Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, or Paul Rebillot’s interpretation. Instead, my approach seeks to acknowledge the full reality of the psyche. While appreciating the importance of rational and intellectual dimensions, the approach recognises the feminine energy so often suppressed, particularly the capacity to feel, and to express legitimate pain.
The Sealwoman workshop allows an opportunity to bring in the feminine quality to feel, for both female and male participants – not in opposition to the masculine, but as an equally vital part of human experience. The design of the workshop also engages with the idea of a third kind of energy, that is the idea of the individual soul as responsible for much of individual character, encompassing both masculine and feminine dimensions.
My approach engages with the idea of world soul, the soul in the world, that we are ensouled, and that everything has soul in some way or another.
Central to this approach is Hillman’s concept of anima mundi – the soul in the world – a reminder that not only are we ensouled, but everything around us possesses soul in some form. The Sealwoman narrative allows us to return to this soul-connectedness, reclaiming parts of ourselves lost to cultural expectation, psychological repression, or spiritual disconnection.
Through dramatic structure and mythic engagement, the Sealwoman workshops invite participants into deeper connection – with self, others, and the wider natural and mythological worlds. They offer therapeutic potential while also inviting a re-enchantment of the psyche – a post-heroic journey rooted in soul, story, and the sea.
A Post-Heroic Path: The Sealwoman Approach
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Fig. 1: Applying the Story of the Sealwoman
Applying the story of the Sealwoman enabled me to engage with participants as collaborators, allowing for the articulation - through artistic and dramatic form - of multiple experiences of grief and loss, both as individuals and within their family units. The approach also created opportunities to explore the idea of a third energy, a higher wattage. The techniques and skills I incorporate in the design cultivate imagination, which is key to connection with soul.
Fig. 2: Participants paint the outside of the masks
Participants paint the outside of the masks to represent the role they play in the world, and the inside to reflect what they are feeling. They then imagine that the outside and inside masks can come to life and speak. The recorded monologues and dialogues that emerge from this process become a script.
Fig. 3: Creative Responses
Fig. 4: Creative Responses
A creative, immediate response following the narration of the story. The use of the Sealwoman story provides safe containment, while the structure of the workshop allows participants full freedom to feel the pull of the currents of their individual, unique stories - following the idea that when we know our stories, our stories no longer live us. The approach also supports participants in reclaiming parts of themselves they may have had to put away, having been consumed by societal expectations.
Conclusion
The Sealwoman dramatherapy approach offers a post-heroic, soul-centred path toward healing - one that honours connection, rootedness, and the deep stories that live within us. Moving beyond the traditional Hero’s Journey, it embraces a more inclusive mythopoetic structure that values both feeling and imagination. In doing so, it invites participants to reconnect with parts of themselves long hidden or forgotten. In accordance with ethical considerations, consent was obtained for all accounts and images included in this report.
Bibliography
Blackie, S. (2019). If women rose rooted. September Publishing.
Butler, J. (2016). Archetypal psychology: The clinical legacy of James Hillman. Routledge.
Campbell, J. (1988). The hero with a thousand faces. Paladin.
Boyd-MacMillan, E. M. (2006). Transformation: James Loder, mystical spirituality, & James Hillman. Peter Lang.
Hillman, J. (1975). Re-visioning psychology. HarperCollins.
Hillman, J., Pozzo, L. (1983). Inter Views: Conversations with Laura Pozzo on Psychotherapy, Biography, Love, Soul, Dreams, Work, Imagination, and the State of the Culture. United States: Spring Publications.
Pinkola Estés, C. (2008). Women who run with the wolves: Contacting the power of the wild woman. Random House.
Rebillot, P., & Kay, M. (1993). A call to adventure: Bringing the hero’s journey to everyday life. HarperCollins.
Anne Connolly
Anne Connolly holds a Master’s Degree in Drama & Theatre, and a Master’s Degree in Dramatherapy. She holds an Advanced Certificate in the Rebillot Approach from the Paul Rebillot School in Ireland. This course specialises in creative, experiential structures based on myth and story.
Anne has been working creatively with groups since 2014. She is a recipient of the UPSTART 2018 award for her workshop, The Cloth of Dreams. Upstart is an initiative of Mayo County Council Arts Service. Anne has been commissioned to work with various groups including Women Traveller Groups in Galway and Mayo, Men Traveller Groups in Cork, charity groups in the West of Ireland, including the Irish Wheelchair Association, and Down Syndrome Mayo.
Anne is also a trauma informed counsellor. Following her training in the Galway Rape Crisis Centre, she volunteered in the Sexual Assault Trauma Unit in Galway for two years. Anne also has a private practice in her creative space at ‘The Yurt’ in Partry, Co. Mayo
Anne is currently a PhD candidate with TUS Limerick (Technological University of Shannon), the Art & Psyche Department.