How we cite our quotes: (Page.Paragraph)
Quote #1
The standard path of the mythological adventure of the hero is a magnification of the formula represented in the rites of passage: separation—initiation—return: which might be named the nuclear unit of the monomyth. (28.2)
Coming of age starts this process off, but it's also a complete encapsulation of the Hero's Journey in and of itself. You step outside your comfort zone, you take tests to ensure that you can do the things you need to do, and eventually you have what you need to handle whatever else life can throw at you.
Quote #2
A blunder—apparently the merest chance—reveals an unsuspected world, and the individual is drawn into a relationship with forces that are not rightly understood. (46.3)
We all start out like children. We don't know how to find reverse, we can't order a drink in a bar, and we likely haven't been anywhere outside our hometown except on vacation (in other words, in very carefully controlled environments). But then something happens and we get a glimpse of the real world beyond it all. It's scary, but also exciting…and that's coming-of-age.
Quote #3
That is why the approaches and entrances to temples are flanked and defended by colossal gargoyles: dragons, lions, devil-slayers with drawn swords, resentful dwarfs, winged bulls. These are the threshold guardians to ward away all incapable of encountering the higher silences within. They are preliminary embodiments of the dangerous aspect of the presence, corresponding to the mythological ogres that bound the conventional world, or to the two rows of teeth of the whale. They illustrate the fact that the devotee at the moment of entry into a temple undergoes a metamorphosis. His secular character remains without; he sheds it, as a snake its slough. (84.3)
Coming of age is closely connected to transforming…and we're not just talking about puberty. As you grow up, the scary things you need to face – finding a job for example – lead to a change in who you are and the confidence with which you confront other grown-up problems,
Quote #4
The ultimate adventure, when all the barriers and ogres have been overcome, is commonly represented as a mystical marriage of the triumphant hero-soul with the Queen Goddess of the World. This is the crisis at the nadir, the zenith, or at the uttermost edge of the earth, at the central point of the cosmos, in the tabernacle of the temple, or within the darkness of the deepest chamber of the heart. (100.2)
There's a fair amount of sexual innuendo here, where "ultimate reward" translates to "epic nookie." But since it's such a fundamental part of human life and because sexual experience is a pretty good marker of coming-of-age, Campbell isn't out of line to suggest it.
Quote #5
Thus she unites the "good" and the "bad," exhibiting the two modes of the remembered mother, not as personal only, but as universal. The devotee is expected to contemplate the two with equal equanimity. Through this exercise his spirit is purged of its infantile, inappropriate sentimentalities and resentments, and his mind opened to the inscrutable presence which exists, not primarily as "good" and "bad" with respect to his childlike human convenience, his weal and woe, but as the law and image of the nature of being. (105.1)
Campbell always maintains that good and evil are false constructs, which we need to do away with in order to achieve enlightenment. Part of the whole "my enemy is myself" notion, which he likes as well.
Quote #6
Woman, in the picture language of mythology, represents the totality of what can be known. The hero is the one who comes to know. (106.3)
There's no mistaking the coming-of-age theme here and the way it uses sexuality—especially the experienced woman and the young man in need of initiation—to make its point. Get a room, you crazy kids!
Quote #7
The traditional idea of initiation combines an introduction of the candidate into the techniques, duties, and prerogatives of his vocation with a radical readjustment of his emotional relationship to the parental images. (125.5)
And…we're back to Freud. In this case, though, it involves a shifting of focus as well as dealing with the whole "kill your dad and marry your mom" thing. Coming of age in Campbell often means shifting the way you look at the world.
Quote #8
The gods and goddesses then are to be understood as embodiments and custodians of the elixir of Imperishable Being but not themselves the Ultimate in its primary state. What the hero seeks through his intercourse with them is therefore not finally themselves, but their grace, i.e., the power of their sustaining substance. (168.1)
Again, symbols don't hold any meaning in and of themselves, but just represent the true things the hero is looking for. Coming of age, at the end of the day, comes about when the hero understands that.
Quote #9
If the hero in his triumph wins the blessing of the goddess or the god and is then explicitly commissioned to return to the world with some elixir for the restoration of society, the final stage of his adventure is supported by all the powers of his supernatural patron. (182.2)
Interesting that, even though the hero has come of age, he still needs the support of his "patron" (i.e., Mom and Dad) to close the deal.
Quote #10
For the mythological hero is the champion not of things become but of things becoming; the dragon to be slain by him is precisely the monster of the status quo… (311.3)
In terms of coming of age, this is a handy explanation as to why the hero needs to be young: he or she needs to shake things up and get the world out of its complacency. Those crazy kids are usually pretty good at that.