The Power of Myth

The full meaning of the term "myth" is something you should learn. Understanding the role of myth in your life is perhaps the most powerful tool you can attain. It is a tool that you can pragmatically apply to help you live your life with joy.

I consider Joseph Campbell one of the wisest scholars of the 20th century. In some ways he is wiser than Bucky Fuller. Campbell's book The Power of Myth changed my life. The Power of Myth is a book and six part television documentary (available on DVD) originally broadcast on PBS in 1988. The documentary comprises six one-hour conversations between mythologist Joseph Campbell and journalist Bill Moyers and includes selections from Moyers' interview with Star Wars creator George Lucas. 

Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience. His philosophy is often summarized by his phrase: "Follow your bliss."

George Lucas was the first Hollywood filmmaker to credit Campbell's influence. Lucas stated following the release of the first Star Wars film in 1977 that its story was shaped, in part, by ideas described in The Hero with a Thousand Faces and other works of Campbell's.

Check out the YouTube video: The Mythology Of Star Wars which is a Bill Moyers interview of George Lucas and his thoughts of God and "The Force."  Lucas says Mythology creates a context for the unknown. The video includes a great clip of when Luke Skywalker first meets Yoda and receives his first lesson about "The Force." Lucas says that when Star Wars first came out, almost every single religion took Star Wars and used it as an example of their religion and related the Star Wars mythology to the Bible, the Quaran and the Torah. He goes on to say if the Star Wars mythology is a tool to make old stories be new and relate to younger people - that's what the whole point was.

When Campbell published his book Historical Atlas of World Mythology,  a reporter interviewed Campbell and confronted him with some tough questions:

Reporter: "The word 'myth,' means 'a lie.' Myth is a lie." 

Campbell: "No, myth is not a lie. A whole mythology is an organization of symbolic images and narratives, metaphorical of the possibilities of human experience and the fulfillment of a given culture at a given time." 

Campbell: "That which human beings have in common is revealed in myths. Myths are the stories of our search through the ages for truth, for meaning, for significance. Myths are clues to the spiritual potentialities of the human life.

Joseph Campbell defined myths as having four basic functions: 

1. the Mystical Function--experiencing the awe of the universe
2. the Cosmological Function--explaining the shape of the universe
3. the Sociological Function--supporting and validating a certain social order
4. the Pedagogical Function--how to live a human lifetime under any circumstances

See more in an interview with Campbell regarding The Function of Myth In the Individual Life.

Some inspirational quotes by Joseph Campbell:

Follow your bliss.

If you do follow your bliss,

you put yourself on a kind of track

that has been there all the while waiting for you,

and the life you ought to be living

is the one you are living.

When you can see that,

you begin to meet people

who are in the field of your bliss,

and they open the doors to you.

I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid,

and doors will open

where you didn't know they were going to be.

If you follow your bliss,

doors will open for you that wouldn't have opened for anyone else.

☼

People say that what we're seeking is a meaning for life. 

I don't think that's what we're really seeking. 

I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive, 

so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.

☼

Find a place (inside) where there's joy,

and the joy will burn out the pain.

☼

The goal of life

is to make your heartbeat

match the beat of the universe,

to match your nature with Nature.