Product Description: The brilliant author of The Masks of God shares his ideas and speculations on our universal myths, in a fascinating, very personal work which explores the enduring power of the myths that influence our lives and examines the myth-making process from the primitive past to the immediate present.
Mythology at it's best Brilliant! The Master of Mythology. If you are into reading spiritual text such as Deepak, Eckhart...this provides the foundation to where they have gone.
Liberate Your Faith Without a doubt Joe's best book. I have given it as a gift to several friends. Some are ready for the message and get it, but truthfully, some do not. But if you can get the message, it will liberate your faith, raise your thoughts to a new, better level and help you let go of your old way of thinking about all religions.
I have read six of Joe's books. The Masks of God series will give much more detail. The Hero With a Thousand Faces concentrates on the classic hero journey. This book is a combination of all of them. The essays are transcripts of lectures and are very easy to read. His stories are funny, timely and, like dreams, "they shine of themselves". Joseph Campbell will change your life. Enjoy
A treasure of knowledge and inquiry This book is based on a series of lectures, and as such, has more of a direct, conversational tone than the author's more academic works, which though no less forceful, contain numerous allusions to artwork, artifacts, and other specifics that make it harder to follow. It helps to have familiarity with these prior works - like the MASKS OF GOD - or prior experience with the study of myth. Such background gives the reader a depth of perspective that would make the concepts more difficult to grasp otherwise; and gives the vantage point of a summary or review.
From my point of view, a special appeal of the book concerns comparing and contrasting the mythology of East and West. The author notes how mythical elements such the serpent, the tree, and the garden of immortality have a common, deeply rooted past. In the Biblical myth of the Garden of Eden, the serpent is the enticer, the one who leads Adam and Eve astray with the knowledge of good and evil from the tree, the cause of all the trouble. In the Buddhist myth, on the other hand, rather than being cursed, the serpent is accepted as being the protector of the Buddha; and the tree of immortality is not out of reach in the same way that it is in the Bible. Rather than being banished from the Garden or Paradise because of disobedience, what is keeping mankind alienated from the original source is ignorance, a mistaken attachment to the impermanent.
Also, reaching into the past, the author notes that the first ever cities were based on a astronomical order that was applied by priests, who wielded a special religious authority, to all of social life. The East, he maintains, has never really strayed very far from holding onto the necessity of a cosmically based order. Everyone has a pre-ordained role to fill, and it is folly for anyone to step out of his or her role. The West, on the other hand, although it has had long spells of religious suppression, has valued the individual as being worthy of development and expression. This humanism can certainly be seen in the Greeks in their laying a foundation for modern science; and finds it's most extreme expression in the myth of Prometheus. It can also be seen in the Tristan and Isolt myth, and the remarkable daring which the poet Gottfried expressed in "challenging hell", in defying the imposed religious order of the Middle Ages.
A chapter of special interest, especially in the unfolding of world events, is the "Mythologies of War and Peace". As revealed in myths of primitive planting and hunting cultures, humankind does not extend itself in this world in any appreciable way without killing. One would think that planting cultures would be the most life-revering, but throughout the tropics and in the ancient world, the most horrific sacrifices have been made in the interest of extending fertility. Even kings have been sacrificed. A comparison is made between the war mythology of the Greeks and Hebrews, who were roughly contemporaries. The Hebrews had no consideration for their opponents, thinking that their way was the only sanctified way and even worth slaughtering for (the author quotes passages from Deuteronomy and Joshua). Zoroastrianism, a cosmic conception of the forces of light against the forces of darkness, became the basis for the Jewish and Christian apocalyptic traditions, providing further justification for fighting and killing an enemy. With Jesus Christ, however, there is a clear break with the traditions of war and the drive to eradicate the evils of an enemy. "Love thine enemy as thyself" represents a very different approach from much of history. The author compares Jesus with Buddha and the ascetic tradition of the East.
Picking out some of the salient myths gives me a sense of how much depth and breadth is involved here. In this attempt not to over-generalize, I have barely scratched the surface.
Marvelous Everything by Joseph Campbell is wonderful, but these transcribed talks are the most approachable.
Our own, and the world's, divine ground I am glad that I finally got around to reading this collection of Campbell's lectures delivered between 1958 and 1971. Since they deal with eternal subject matter there is little chance of them being "dated." The common theme running through them all is the deep power of myth on the inner, spiritual lives of human beings throughout the ages. This includes our own age, whether we personally want to admit or recognize it.
The Lectures include: 1) The Impact of Science on Myth (1961), 2) The Emergence of Mankind (1966), 3) The Importance of Rites (1964), 4) The Separation of East and West (1961), 5) The Confrontation of East and West in Religion (1970) 6) The Inspiration of Oriental Art (1958), 7) Zen (1969), 8) The Mythology of Love (1967), 9) Mythologies of War and Peace (1967), 10) Schizophrenia- the Inward Journey (1970), 11) The Moon Walk- The Outer Journey (1970), 12) Envoy: No More Horizons (1971),
The reader will recognize much of the subject matter from the later talks with Bill Moyers in the "Power of Myth" series. All in all there is enough material covered to make this an excellent introduction to myth, true spirituality, and depth psychology.
One of the topics that stuck with me was the fundamental difference in the nature of religion in the East, the Near East, and the West. Traditional Eastern societies were seen as governed by one great cosmic law through which all members were seen to draw their purpose, their worth, their meaning. God was in all things and the divine spark was in all individuals. Union with the divine was possible to those that transcended their ego. In the Near-East human beings (including the King) were seen as the groveling "tenant-farmers" of God. Men were the slaves of the Gods and could only beg and sacrifice to obtain boons. Man was in no way a part of God- matter and spirit were artificially split (mythic dissociation.) Finally, there was the Greek model- mankind as the rivals and competitors of the Gods. The Greek had turned ego into God, laying the foundation for the total denial of the very existence of spirit. That is, except for the initiates of the Mysteries....
There is a section of reference notes citing sources in the back of the book, as well as, a full index for quick reference.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tailipoe
Trevor
