The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell
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Book Reviews of The Power of Myth
Book Review: Highly recommended book on mythology, collective unsconscious and religion
Summary: 5 Stars
Joseph Campbell was a great story teller and presented myths from different cultures in this TV-series hosted by Bill Moyers. Campbell was a prominent scholar and made great contribution in researching and analysing cross-cultural myths. In this popular TV-series, Moyers insisted on bringing back the subject of relevancy to contemporary society as demanded by the media he used. That, in an interesting way, had stretched Campbell's understanding of his subject matter to its limit, which in a way, shed much light to the possible relevancy of mythical studies to our contemporary society.
To be fair, Campbell was a scholar rather than a shaman. As he explained the "possession" or "shamanship" experience as follows (page 108): "He experiences what we might call a possession. But it is described in a flash, a kind of thunderbolt or lightning bolt, which passes from the pelvic area right up the spine into the head". As Campbell described, it is quintessentially a description of kundalini awakening - unlike Jung (whom Campbell mentioned favorably a number of times in his book) who did meditation and ventured into his own collective unconscious (and wrote his experience in his Red Book), and who had a definite objective: to cure his neurotic patients.
To be fair again to Campbell, apart from being a distinguished academic in the subject of mythology with an interpretation using concepts like archetypes, similarly defined as Jung, he was also interested in the subject of understanding (and coming to terms with) life as experienced by man. Campbell was a nostalgic person and wrote metaphorically (and beautifully) on the contribution of myths in past-times, like (page 100): "When a spider makes a beautiful web, the beauty comes out of the spider's nature. It's instinctive beauty. How much of the beauty of our own lives is about the beauty of being alive? How much of it is conscious and intentional? This is a big question."
Campbell however, as evidenced in this book, didn't seek the solution in the practice of shamanship. And he explained the impossibility of seeking it through today's organized religions. He somewhat envied the seeker of personal god(s), but, at least evidenced in this book, he didn't suggest nor offer a road-map to do the same. When "pressed" by Moyers, he did express his hope on art, and literature in particular, being he himself a Joyce expert and wrote a book on Finnegans Wake. Campbell seemed to understand that literature fans on mythic literature (like FW) will always be far-and-few. He talked about modern myths in terms of judges' wigs, the cowboys, Star Wars...all being weak-comparisons, at the same time, can be studied more fruitfully by other disciplines. And again, sometimes "hard-pressed" by Moyers, Campbell, instead of saying something like "this is not my expertise", turned into styles of some Oriental gurus, i.e. using "broad-brush metaphors" or "mythical language" that made further questioning, exploration or communication rather impossible. A limit that, fair to say, should be fully acceptable to be had by a distinguished retired academic on mythology.
All in all I highly recommend this book to readers who are interested in mythology, the collective unconscious or religion.
Book Review: powerful teacher was he, powerful teacher
Summary: 5 Stars
Okay the title is a geeky reference to Yoda. I picked up this book in my library when I was a teenager, checked it out, read parts of it, was interested in somethings, and that was about it. Then for some reason checked it out again a few years latter. Think the same copy. And I became fascinated. To this day few writers or teachers have inspired me as much. Unfortunately, Campbell's work is like a gateway drug of sorts. I became interested in the intellectual underpinnings of his interpretations of the great myths and religions and spirituality. So I started digging a little deeper. I began looking at his influences: Psychologists Carl Jung, Freud. Philosophers Arthur Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. There are other important influences on Campbell, but I developed an interest in philosophy. Well, that was that. I had a sort of mentor or great teacher in Campbell for awhile and at the time I really wanted, maybe needed one. But reading philosophy ruined it for me. I'll not get into that, except just to say that Jung is a quack and I can't swallow the metaphysics that is crucial to Campbell's take on myth. I think he relied on the best philosophy and psychology he was aware of at the time, but it doesn't hold up. Don't listen to me on it of course. I'm just some regular guy wondering about it all, maybe sorta like you. Do your homework and see what ya think. There is a ton of stuff online on Campbell, heh, just like everything else. TOO much stuff.
But I want to say, I love Campbell and appreciate his work and compassionate efforts as a truly wonderful, gifted teacher. I would to this day recommend Campbell.
Can't do better, imo, than "The Power of Myth" as a great introduction and very entertaining read. It is more than a good companion to the PBS series. It contains exchanges between journalist Bill Moyers and Campbell that were deleted from the televised program. Yes, the title is a dorky Star Wars reference, but while I was a Star Wars fan, that was not the principal draw. I really wanted the Truth. Campbell's interpretation of myth is perhaps wrong, fundamentally, in some important ways. But his work STILL inspires and you can get a lot out of it. Campbell recounting of the old stories, his breathing new, vital life into them, continues to amaze and inspire. He said we aren't looking for a meaning, really. What we want is "the experience of being alive so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our innermost being and reality, so that we can actually feel the rapture of being alive." I want to feel the rapture of being alive but I don't believe it is clear or makes sense to talk of "innermost being" and reality like he does. I thoughtlessly did at first, as do most people and probably you. Don't read philosophy -especially from the 20th Century- if your repulsed by the suggestion that innermost being is nonsense. But I still love the stories.
Book Review: "A Revolutionary Impact"
Summary: 5 Stars
I spent many years as a person of faith before I encountered the perspective that I now identify with Joseph Campbell. The guiding idea of this book, as well as his work overall, is that of discovering the deep principles that are at work in the myths or stories of all cultures. He has challenged me to think anew about the "myth of Christianity" and how it is, in the words of Gordon Kaufman of Harvard Divinity School, "an imaginative human construct."
The most intriguing discussion of the book is reported as a conversation of Campbell with Bill Moyers. In response to Campbell's assertion that he was seeeking "for a centering in terms of deep pinciples," Moyers said, "You are talking about a search for the meaning of life." But Campbell would have none of that. He responds, "No! I am talking about the experience of being alive! People say that what we're seeking is a meaning in life. I don't think that is what we are really seeking. I think that what we are seeking is the experience of being alive so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances within our own innermost being and reality so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive."
At this point I want to disagree with Campbell, a choice I make with trepidation. What he is saying doesn't seem anything more than the "will to pleasure," with a dash of ecstasy through in as flavoring. Epicurus didn't convince me and Campbell isn't succeeding either.
But because I have such a genuine respect for the thrust of Campbell's work I knew that I had to think again about the question of the source of meaning. Who is right -- Freud or Adler or Frankl or Campbell? I tend to side with Frankl but there is reason to give other perspectives their due. I understand Campbell's assertion to mean that the "will to pleasure" or "the rapture of being allive" is the heart of the human experience. I doubt that he or Freud can defend that view successfully in a world of such misery. It's a view that is more hopeful than realistic. Not convincing. The darker side of human nature is rejected. Or, at minimun, ignored. Yet the fact that I was confronted in such a way that I had to think my perspective through again is a STRONG recommendation of this book! Read it and enjoy it. The fact it was written several years ago as a report of a television program doesn't lessen its value. Along with "the new cosmology" and the "Jesus Seminar," Campbell's notion of myth has had "a revolutionary impact" on me.
Book Review: Heros and Sacrifice
Summary: 5 Stars
Couple of things, but this one really stands out...all throughout the book Joseph Campbell refers to - out of death comes life, out of life come death. Would this not indicate that birth itself is sacrifice? We are reborn into this life, knowing we will die - knowing that there will come an end to our time of physical being. There are many other sacrifices we make in life - but would birth itself not be the first sacrifice that each and every human participates in? The mother giving birth sacrifices that connection that she had with her child and can no longer have, the child sacrifices the comfort and connection with the mother...and out of that birth the sacrifice of life is being made. Would this not make every new born child a hero? Would this not make every mother a hero? Another thing....on page 90 - toward the bottom - it is said "the animal gives its life willingly, with the understanding that its life transcends its physical entity and will be returned to the soil or to the mother through some ritual restoration." This would be a willing sacrifice - a connection with all that is. An understanding that death is not the end, and that through its death, life emerges and continues...stronger for its death. Then, on page 91, it is said (concerning the Bushmen and their rituals of the hunt) "After the animal has been shot and is dying painfully of the poison, the hunters have to fulfill certain taboos of not doing this and that in a kind of 'participation mystique', [...]" This, to me is a wonderful acknowledgement of the willing sacrifice of the animal - and an honouring of that sacrifice through a willing personal sacrifice of each hunter to honor that. A going without by the hunters to thank the animal for the gift of life. A life given through a life taken. All of it through the understanding that being transcends just life itself. Would this not make the animal a hero? Decide this for yourself, after reading The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell. A worthwhile read. A book that makes you think.
Book Review: Many fine lessons.
Summary: 5 Stars
When I watched the original PBS series of Bill Moyers with Joseph Campbell, I was amazed at how much there was to ponder about almost every sentence. I was left in the dust for the most part. There were a few stories that hit home - such as the story of the boy in the restaurant and following your bliss - but much of it went past me.
Myth in our common language usually means falsehood or illusion. Here it has a much deeper and broader application. It does not apply to such things as legends or folk tales or fanciful stories, but goes to the very heart of experience: to stories that apply to all those travails of life, rites of passage, and what it means to be a human being.
I was spellbound by the scope of the material that is drawn by these dialogues. One person can take a selected set of myths as guides, or models, on how to deal with the soul trying ordeals of everyday life, but to make a inventory of myths from the beginning of civilization all over the world and to synthesize that wealth of material is certainly an enormous task. Bill Moyers is to be congratulated for bringing this material to light, for making Joseph Campbell's work this accessible.
I was struck by what appeared to be a conclusion in this study of mythology: that we cannot afford to take the myths of old as fact, that we have changed our world view since the first millennium BC, and that we have globalized ourselves so much that the primacy of the in-group just does not work these days. Those ancient peoples of Biblical times must have had some sense about how awesome and boundless the universe really is, even though they knew very little about astronomy. They combatted that sense of nothingness in the face of this awesome universe by seeing themselves as God's chosen people who had a special destiny different from all others. They laid down their laws, but applied them only within their own circle. It was all right if they committed murder as long as it was outside their group. That just doesn't work anymore.