The heroic journey and all steps in it are known as Archetypal symbols. It's important to understand what an archetype is first. "An archetype is a word that is used to describe universal symbols that evoke different meaningful responses in the reader." In literary archetypes, we find stories of a quest, descents to the underworld and more steps in the heroic journey. It's common to see the figure of the hero as an archetypal symbol, the courageous one who is always running to save the day.
When we are talking about descriptive symbols in literature, we refer to the symbols that function as a way for the reader to better imagine the world of a specific piece of literature. In the heroic journey, these steps don't function to better imagine the world of a specific piece of literature as heroic journeys are all over the world from many cultures but they use the same symbols to represent the steps in the hero's path. We can find these symbols universally. So archetypal symbols involve important and character symbols in its definition as the steps of the hero's journey are different stages in the hero's life, he will change as a character depending on the quest and their mentor's and these symbols are very important to identify the hero and his path to glory.