Joseph Campbell: The Message of Myth #2



  1. Campbell searched for the common themes in all mythology (religion).
  2. Myths are clues to the potentiality of…
  3. The ultimate word in our language for that which is transcendent: God.
  4. Everything in the field of time is dual.
    • Male and female
    • Good and evil
  5. Fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

6. “God against man, man against God…very funny religion!”

  1. You have a different myth when Nature is viewed as good rather than a Nature that must be corrected. God is separate from Nature in Christianity
  2. Shinto garden
  3. Genesis (Basari people West Africa) Upanishads
  4. India- Hospitality as a form of worship. Ancient Greece-Hospitality as custom.
  5. The one forbidden thing
    • Bluebeard
    • Forbidden fruit
  6. Blame the
    • Woman
    • Serpent
  7. The snake represents rebirth and regeneration. Life in the field of time able to throw off death.
  8. Burmese priestess kissing cobra.
  9. In Judeo-Christian tradition all natural impulses are evil unless you have been baptized or circumcised.
  10. Schopenhauer- Life is something that should not have been.
  11. Shri Christina Mennon- “Do you have a question.”
  12. Who are we to judge? - You must affirm!
  13. Bodhisatva- One who has attained Nirvana but stays on earth to teach others.
  14. James Joyce- History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.
  15. The Hero is the one who can participate in the madness of life and do it decently.
  16. Myth is the homeland of the Muses the inspirers of art, music and poetry.
  17. Every religious is true as metaphor, not literally. Do not get stuck in the metaphor and forget the reference.
  18. Thomas Gospel, Gnosticism, Upanishads.
  19. Myth is the expression of the conflicting energies of the body.
  20. Loss of myth means loss of society.
  21. All religions are true for their time.
  22. Will the machine serve or crush humanity?
  23. Religion as software. The complete metaphor.
  24. Indra, Vritra and Krishna (blue-black). An example of the sin of pride (hubris of the Ancient Greeks.)