But she's also the embodiment of death and the end of the world: womb and tomb in one.

The first part of the Queen Goddess, on the other hand, is the all-nurturing mother, with accompanying examples from the Tantric books from India (cue the slinky music).

The example for this second part of the goddess is Diana, who turned the hunter Actaeon into a stag when he spotted her bathing in the nude.

She can also be a bad mother or lover: selfish, forbidding or in some cases absent entirely.

She is all the gifts and the bounties of the earthly world: the promise of perfection.

The Queen represents the feminine in all its forms: mother, lover, sister, friend.

Example du jour: The Prince of the Lonesome Isle, from Ireland, who meets with the Queen of Tubber Tintye.

The encounter with her usually takes place at the edge of the world, or the bottom, or somewhere else where you literally can't go any further.

Once the obstacles are overcome, the hero joins with 'the Queen Goddess of the World,' which is not, in fact, Oprah Winfrey's new title but rather the representation of the whole universe.

Example time: the goddess Inanna's descent into the underworld from ancient Sumerian mythology.The hero's obstacles are symbolic of those fears and anxieties in our dreams.

In dreams, we still face these obstacles, often with no idea how to vanquish them.This is a part of a ritualistic cleansing, focusing the hero on spiritual rather than worldly matters.Any figure who undertakes the Hero's Journey comes across a 'spiritual labyrinth,' populated by 'symbolic figures' that test him or her.He follows with a report from the ancient Lapps about a shaman who needs to handle a number of different obstacles during a supposed visit from the land of the dead.Campbell tells the story of Cupid and Psyche as an example of the challenges faced on the road of trials: surviving the wrath of Venus with help from an army of ants.Once the first threshold is passed, the hero faces a series of challenges that he or she must overcome.

The hero with a thousand faces amazon