Mythology

Joseph Campbell Foundation

April 19, 2008

The Joseph Campbell Foundation website has been redesigned. The new site is really nice. They’ve done a great job tying together the many sections into a single design. It’s an excellent site to discuss Campbell’s books and ideas. It has an active, intelligent discussion group that has also given rise to several “Round Table” groups in cities around the world where people take the online discussion offline and in person. If you’re not a member, you should sign up and join the conversation … it’s free.

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By What Myth Am I Living?

February 17, 2008

I haven’t really written much in the past few months – other than posting stuff on politics from other sites. I’ve been reflecting on the past. I remember someone once telling me that as you get older you get the most vivid flashback memories of your life. That is what’s been happening to me. Every moment I spend unglued from the internet or work, I am forced to confront those memories. For the most part, my memories of the past are quite good.

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Indra’s Lesson

January 29, 2007

There is a wonderful story in one of the Upanishads about the god Indra. Now, it happened at this time that a great monster had enclosed all the waters of the earth, so there was a terrible drought, and the world was in a very bad condition. It took Indra quite a while to realize that he had a box of thunderbolts and that all he had to do was drop a thunderbolt on the monster and blow him up. When he did that, the waters flowed, and the world was refreshed, and Indra said, “What a great boy am I.”

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Featured Conversation: A Woman’s Hero Journey

September 19, 2005

In our Conversations of a Higher Order, threaded discussion forums, over 25,700 messages have been posted! This week we feature A Woman’s Hero Journey: Is it different?, where JessicaP says: I would love to hear other people’s thoughts on whether you think the hero’s journey is different for women than it is for men. I’ve felt I can identify with the stages of the hero’s journey despite the fact that many of the heroes in our literature tend to be male. (Perhaps this is partially due to the fact that I do not have children.) However, if we look at myths with female heroes, do we find a different journey, different archetypes? Do we need to adjust the stages of the hero’s journey to fit the female life or do we just need to search for heroes (male or female) that we can relate to. What are your thoughts?

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Why Speak With Symbols?

September 5, 2005

In our Conversations of a Higher Order, threaded discussion forums, over 25,500 messages have been posted‚—a thousand more since our last featured thread in July! In this featured conversation, Nandu begins:We speak of the symbolism and metaphor of myth. It is part and parcel of any art form, too. Why? What is the universal attraction of symbols? Why does everything (dreams, myth, legends, literature, art) have to use symbols to communicate?

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Practical Campbell: Smoke or Mirrors?

August 1, 2005

“The occult” – an emotionally charged term evoking sinister associations, everything from fraudulent and greedy fortune tellers to satanic rituals, images reinforced on movie screens and in pulpits across the country … but is this the reality, or merely projections of the public imagination? Is the practice of occult arts–particularly popular forms of divination, including astrology, tarot, and the I Ching–simply ignorant superstition? Do such represent at best an exercise in futility, an abdication of responsibility for one’s own life? Or do they really work?

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Who Wrote this Novel?

July 26, 2005

“Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may never forgive you. But encourage me, and I will never forget you.” – William Arthur

Though we sometimes feel like a pinball arbitrarily bouncing around inside the pinball machine of life, there is often a hidden order to the chaos. Our lives are influenced by so many people: people that love us and want the best for us, as well as people who just seem to have it out for us and would love to see us fail. Luckily, my life has been blessed with more of the former and less of the latter. My failures have been all my own while my successes have been the hard work and effort of so many. My life is pretty ordinary – the people in it are anything but. My life has been better because these people have lived:

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Featured Conversation: The Nature of Fear

July 11, 2005

Is the root of all fear the fear of death? Are fears a teaching tool where the ultimate aim is to confront and move beyond fear? Is fear an essential driving component of creativity? Is fear a human quality that makes the living of life even more of a precious experience? This conversation is in full swing right now. We look forward to hearing your thoughts on the nature of fear.

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