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DorineFantasywriterD Hughes

Joseph Campbell - A Scholar's Life - 0 views

www.folkstory.com/...scholars_life.html

joseph campbell

shared by DorineFantasywriterD Hughes on 22 Nov 12 - Cached
  • For Joseph Campbell, the study of myth was the exploration of the possibilities of consciousness. His lifetime of scholarship was nothing less than the search for the Holy Grail of radiant living.
  • It is more than a presentation of fascinating stories from all over the world. It is a vision of a rich inner life available to anyone willing to go on the initiatory adventures.
  • His interest in mythology began at age seven when he saw the Indians in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in Madison Square Garden.
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  • in 1924, he met Jiddu Krishnamurti, not yet the great world teacher of the Theosophists.
  • A principle mentor was Indologist Heinrich Zimmer,
  • Campbell studied how Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung used myth in psychology.
  • The latest incarnation of Oedipus, the continued romance of Beauty and the Beast, stand this afternoon on the corner of 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue, waiting for the traffic light to change.
  • Campbell's description of the hero's journey has been used extensively by generations of artists and scholars. It showed the similarities among the great stories of world mythology.
  • It is a model of initiatory elements in myth, religion, literature, and ritual.
  • The The Hero With a Thousand Faces showed the similarities among the mythological traditions. Campbell followed this with a series of writings on the great differences among the world myths. The four-volume Masks of God: Primitive Mythology (1959), Oriental Mythology (1962), Occidental Mythology (1964), and Creative Mythology (1968) analyzed the distinctions among the mythologies of various regions and cultures.
  • First is the metaphysical function. Myth awakens and supports a sense of awe before the mystery of being. It reconciles consciousness to the preconditions of its own existence. Myth induces a realization that behind the surface phenomenology of the world, there is a transcendent mystery source. Through this vitalizing mystical function, the universe becomes a holy picture.
  • The second is a cosmological dimension deals with the image of the world that is the focus of science. This function shows the shape of the universe, but in such a way that the mystery still comes through. The cosmology should correspond to the actual experience, knowledge, and mentality of the culture. This interpretive function changes radically over time. It presents a map or picture of the order of the cosmos and our relationship to it.
  • Third is the sociological function. Myth supports and validates the specific moral order of the society out of which it arose. Particular life-customs of this social dimension, such as ethical laws and social roles, evolve dramatically. This function, and the rites by which it is rendered, establishes in members of the group concerned a system of sentiments that can be depended upon to link that person spontaneously to its ends.
  • The fourth function of myth is psychological. The myths show how to live a human lifetime under any circumstances. It is this pedagogical function of mythology that carries the individual through the various stages and crises of life, from childhood dependency, to the responsibilities of maturity, to the reflection of old age, and finally, to death. It helps people grasp the unfolding of life with integrity. It initiates individuals into the order of realities in their own psyches, guiding them toward enrichment and realization.
  • Campbell was discovered by a new generation when George Lucas based much of his screenplay for Star Wars (1977)
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