Dr. Brown's Blog

The sixth episode of The Power of Myth video series will be shown on Tuesday, April 27th in Goins Auditorium (room 136) from 3:30 to 5:00PM.

The Power of Myth is composed of a series of conversations between world-renowned mythologist, author, educator and scholar, Joseph Campbell (left) and journalist, author, commentator and former White House Press Secretary, Bill Moyers (right).

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In “Masks of Eternity,” Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers discuss elemental energies, circles, mandalas, sand painting, Jung‘s archetypes of the collective unconscious, clowns and tricksters, chakras, peak experiences, James Joyce‘s “epiphanies,” the monstrous, the sublime, time, eternity, poetry, Schopenhauer‘s concept of will, the dance of Shiva, the Logos, Goethe‘s concept of metaphor, and the word that contains all words – AUM.

Though Joseph Campbell‘s talks are always wide-ranging, the unifying idea within his work is that the commonality of themes and characters around the world in stories and myths is due to the existence of common “archetypes” in the human psyche. The etymology of the word “archetype” is as follows:

“original pattern from which copies are made,” 1540s, from L. archetypum, from Gk. arkhetypon ”pattern, model,” neut. of adj.arkhetypos ”first-moulded,” from arkhe- ”first” (see archon) + typos ”model, type, blow, mark of a blow.” Jungian psychology sense of “pervasive idea or image from the collective unconscious” is from 1919.

Archetypes are primal patterns through which human beings make sense of the world. They are the basis through which we derive “meaning.” If we have no mental pattern with which to wrap a physical occurrence, then it appears as chaos. This is analogous to the state described in Genesis 1:2 as Tohu wa bohu (תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ) (formless and empty) before God speaks light into existence:

“And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said , Let there be light: and there was light.”

Things enter the light (of consciousness) in proportion to our ability to match them to a pattern that we already understand. Our first understandings of things, then, are of great importance because they form the basis for our ability to derive meaning from all that comes after. These “first understandings” are what Jung called “archetypes of the collective unconscious.”

Archetypes might be innate in humans at birth or more likely they are formed from processes that are innate. I use the words “might” and “more likely” because we can’t experience an archetype directly, we can only experience an archetype through its embodiment. You might say that archetypes need to be masked or clothed in order to see them.

Humans can be viewed in some ways as “meaning seeking machines.” We seek to understand the world around us and to find our place within it. The basis of religion is in our attempt to connect ourselves meaningfully to all of reality (as far as we can see it).

We find meaning through our unconscious projection of archetypes. By turning this unconscious process into a conscious one, we can begin to see through the material world to the spiritual truth that lies behind the image.

I’ve enjoyed hosting The Power of Myth video series this semester at PSCC. I’ll close this final blog post on the series with a few of my favorite Joseph Campbell quotes from the final episode:

• “God is the ultimate archetype.”
• “God is an idea, but its reference is to something that transcends all thinking.”
• “He who thinks he knows, doesn’t know. He who knows he doesn’t know, knows.”
• “I don’t have to have faith… I have experience.”
• “Eternity isn’t some later time. Eternity isn’t a long time. Eternity has nothing to do with time. Eternity is that dimension of here and now which thinking and time cuts out. This is it. And if you don’t get it here, you won’t get it anywhere. And the experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life.”
• “Eden is.”

I hope that you can join us today for episode 6 (of 6) of The Power of Myth – “Masks of Eternity.”

The fifth episode of The Power of Myth video series will be shown on Tuesday, April 13th in Goins Auditorium (room 136) from 3:30 to 5:00PM.

The Power of Myth is composed of a series of conversations between world-renowned mythologist, author, educator and scholar, Joseph Campbell (left) and journalist, author, commentator and former White House Press Secretary, Bill Moyers (right).

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The fourth episode of The Power of Myth video series will be shown on Tuesday, March 29th in Goins Auditorium (room 136) from 3:30 to 5:00PM.

The Power of Myth is composed of a series of conversations between world-renowned mythologist, author, educator and scholar, Joseph Campbell (left) and journalist, author, commentator and former White House Press Secretary, Bill Moyers (right).

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In “Sacrifice and Bliss,” Joseph Campbell discusses the recurring motif of the “willing victim” in world mythology and ritual and its relationship to the connected ideas of life, sex, death and unity.

“The nature of life must be realized in the acts of life.”

In this episode, Joseph Campbell tells stories of people celebrating on their way to be tortured, stories of athletes having their heads cut off as a reward for winning a competition, and even stories of cannibalistic rites intended to pass on the spiritual essence of the consumed. All of the stories he says carry the same mythological truth – from death comes life, from sacrifice comes bliss.

The stories are at times literally horrifying. One is especially so as it involves ritualized sex, human sacrifice and cannibalism. Joseph Campbell follows this horrifying retelling of a ritual practice in Guinea with a discussion of the Catholic Mass and communion. (!)

Campbell doesn’t mention this, but the same themes can be seen in the 1973 movie “The Wicker Man” (full-length version) starring Christopher Lee. In an early scene, Sargent Howie, a devout Catholic played by Edward Woodward, is seen taking communion. He is later unwillingly sacrificed in the climactic scene. As he struggles and curses his fate, he is told:

“You’ll simply never understand the true nature of sacrifice.”

According to Joseph Campbell, the true nature of sacrifice is that it involves an awareness of the truth of unity and a willingness to give one’s self over to that unity.

In the Bible, Jesus shares his revelation of the unity of mankind when he advises to “love thy neighbor as thyself” in Matthew 19:19, Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31, and Luke 10:27. This message also appears in Leviticus 19:18, Leviticus 19:34, Romans 13:9, Galatian 5:14, and James 2:8. Jesus even goes so far as to name this admonition, along with loving God, as the two greatest commandments:

“Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:35-40)

Joseph Campbell concludes by expounding on his adage to students to “Follow your bliss,” which in the context of the episode, implies a willing sacrifice…

I hope that you will join us to watch a very interesting episode of The Power of Myth.

The third episode of The Power of Myth video series will be shown on Tuesday, March 16th in Goins Auditorium (room 136) from 3:30 to 5:00PM.

The Power of Myth is composed of a series of conversations between world-renowned mythologist, author, educator and scholar, Joseph Campbell (left) and journalist, author, commentator and former White House Press Secretary, Bill Moyers (right).

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In “The First Storytellers,” Joseph Campbell discusses the primary idea behind all mythology, mysticism and religion: that there is a spiritual realm that supports the physical world.

Many cosmologies divide reality into three realms. In Christian cosmology, these are heaven, earth and hell. In mythological terms, heaven is the realm of mind and consciousness, hell is the realm of emotions and the body, with earth representing our free will and the ability to choose between these conflicting urges.

In Hindu mythology , the arising and receding of consciousness is described in the myth of Vishnu which Joseph Campbell described in “The Message of the Myth:”

“Just think, Vishnu sleeps in the cosmic ocean, and the lotus of the universe grows from his navel. On the lotus sits Brahma, the creator. Brahma opens his eyes, and a world comes into being, governed by an Indra. Brahma closes his eyes, and a world goes out of being. The life of a Brahma is 432,000 years.”

Brahma’s eyes symbolize consciousness. His opening and closing eyes are the birth and death of reality. Without consciousness, nothing exists.

Existence is a process that involves an observer. What exists if there is no conscious being to be aware of it? This is answer to the Zen koan of whether or not a tree falling in the woods makes a sound if there is no one there to hear it. This is also the sound of one hand clapping.

What we perceive as reality doesn’t exist somewhere outside of us. Reality is a constant creative process. We might say that Genesis is happening all of the time within us. Our reality is being created at every moment.

This is a deep and stunning realization and one that implies great responsibility. It means that we are co-creators of reality. Our perception of reality is just that, a perception. We actually experience everything second-hand. This is what is meant in Genesis 1:26 when it is said that man is created in the image of God. We co-create with God (the ultimate ground of being) at every moment.

In the “First Storytellers,” Joseph Campbell describes how mythology and ritual show us the means through which the three worlds can be unified and seen as whole (holy). We thereby achieve atonement (at-one-moment).

I hope you can join us for this viewing of the third episode of Joseph Campbell’s “The Power of Myth.”

The second episode of The Power of Myth video series will be shown on Tuesday, March 2nd in Goins Auditorium (room 136) from 3:30 to 5:00PM.

The Power of Myth is composed of a series of conversations between world-renowned mythologist, author, educator and scholar, Joseph Campbell (left) and journalist, author, commentator and former White House Press Secretary, Bill Moyers (right).

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In “The Message of the Myth,” Joseph Campbell describes how he became interested in mythology at age 10 after seeing a museum exhibit about Native American Indians. He turned this interest into a lifelong passion that would bring him international acclaim and recognition as one of the foremost authorities on mythology in the world.

Throughout the The Power of Myth series, Joseph Campbell discusses the archetypal characters, themes and patterns contained in myth, folktales and legends from around the world. He describes how we can use the wisdom of these stories to pierce through the veil of illusory external reality to witness the eternal dance of the spiritual realm and its expression in time and space.

But it is sometimes hardest to see that which is right in front of our eyes…

How often do we seek outside our family, our culture or religious upbringing for truth, only to find that the truth has always been right there staring us in the face, but we were just too blind to see it? Joseph Campbell reminds us that we can learn to see this spiritual essence and truth in all things only if we are brave enough to walk the “Hero’s Path.”

Having been born and raised in the hills of East Tennessee and in the Free Will Baptist church, I found it very difficult to begin to allow myself to question my spiritual authorities. It seemed easier to look completely outside of fundamentalist Christianity for real answers to my questions. I found it easier to accept that Eastern spiritual texts (Taoist/Buddhist) were meant to be read metaphorically and that they pointed to spiritual truths rather than being merely factual expositions of events.

This was (and is) much harder to do with the texts that I grew up reading (primarily the Bible). I have come to feel that the Bible is, like all great spiritual works, is meant to be read (mostly) metaphorically and that far from lowering its value, this greatly magnifies its significance as a guide for life (and death).

I feel that even Joseph Campbell struggles with this problem. There are many times throughout the The Power of Myth series that he “takes shots” at Christianity, while giving all other faiths a knowing nod. I do not mean this as a criticism of Joseph Campbell (whom I greatly admire), but only to point out that even someone who should know better sometimes can’t help himself.

I hope that you will join the PSCC Gnosis Club on Tuesday to hear Joseph Campbell talk with Bill Moyers about the meaning of myth, the inner mysteries and awakening to the experience of being alive.

The first episode of The Power of Myth video series will be shown on Tuesday, February 9th in Goins Auditorium (room 136) from 3:30 to 5:00PM.

The Power of Myth is composed of a series of conversations between world-renowned mythologist, author, educator and scholar, Joseph Campbell (left) and journalist, author, commentator and former White House Press Secretary, Bill Moyers (right).

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The Hero’s Adventure

One of Joseph Campbell’s primary contributions to the field of mythological studies was his identification of the “monomyth” (a term he borrowed from James Joyce) in his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

Campbell noted the similarities among the myths of diverse cultures and identified a central story which he called “The Hero’s Adventure” (aka the heroic quest cycle). The quest cycle involves a characteristic transformative sequence which can be summarized as follows:

1. The Call to Adventure
2. Crossing the Threshold
3. Gathering Allies
4. Complications
5. Facing the Dragon
6. Transformation
7. Celebration
8. The Return

Joseph Campbell believed that all mythology (and in fact, all storytelling) has the quest cycle at its core. Particular stories may not describe the entire cycle, or may only tell what happens to the hero (the main character in the story) if he/she turns away from the quest at a particular point, but the “meta-story” is always the same and is, in fact, the story of what it means to be human.

Campbell felt that the common recurring themes of world mythology are due to the commonality of the human experience. The stories, he said, tell of the nature of the energies of the human body, mind and spirit, what the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung called “archetypes.”

The Hero with a Thousand Faces was one of George Lucas‘ primary sources for the Star Wars saga which Joseph Campbell notes, follows the heroic quest cycle perfectly.

Joseph Campbell felt that the power created by being an engaged and passionate person was the secret motive force that allows each us to change ourselves and, in so doing, to change the world. His catchphrase to students was to “Follow your bliss.”

In conclusion, Joseph Campbell is something of a personal hero for me. I’ve always seen him as a role model for me as a teacher, a passionate awakened human being who seems to vivify those who come into contact with him.

I hope that you will join PSCC’s Gnosis Club for The Power of Myth series, beginning February 9, 2010.

During Spring 2010, PSCC’s Gnosis Club (of which I am co-sponsor with Annie Gray) will be showing the six-episode “Power of Myth” film series in Goins 136. In this series of conversations with Bill Moyers, Joseph Campbell discusses his life work as scholar, author, teacher, storyteller and world renowned expert on mythology. Filmed at George Lucas‘ Skywalker Ranch during the last two summers of Joseph Campbell’s life, “The Power of Myth” is a powerful summary of his life and work.

I will be introducing each episode and then encouraging discussion afterwards. Each episode is about an hour long, so we will have a little time before and after the viewing.

The first episode (“The Hero’s Adventure”) will be shown on Tuesday, February 9 from 3:30 to 5:00PM. Anyone interested in the subject can attend. There is no charge for admission.