- 1. Read myths with the eyes of wonder: the myths transparent to their universal meaning, their meaning transparent to its mysterious source.
2. Read myths in the present tense: Eternity is now.
3. Read myths in the first person plural: the Gods and Goddesses of ancient mythology still live within you.
4. Any myth worth its salt exerts a powerful magnetism. Notice the images and stories that you are drawn to and repelled by. Investigate the field of associated images and stories
5. Look for patterns; don't get lost in the details. What is needed is not more specialized scholarship, but more interdisciplinary vision. Make connections; break old patterns of parochial thought.
6. Resacralize the secular: even a dollar bill reveals the imprint of Eternity.
7. If God is everywhere, then myths can be generated anywhere, anytime, by anything. Don't let your Romantic aversion to science blind you to the Buddha in the computer chip.
8. Know your tribe! Myths never arise in a vacuum; they are the connective tissue of the social body which enjoys synergistic relations with dreams (private myths) and rituals (the enactment of myth).
9. Expand your horizons! Any mythology worth remembering will be global in scope. The earth is our home and humankind is our family.
10. Read between the lines! Literalism kills; imagination quickens.
2 comments:
Fr. Jordan:
Thanks for sharing this, one can never get too much Campbell...
Funny thing, amidst the debates spawned by "Da Vinci Craze" regarding Gnosticism vs. Orthodox Christianity, one of the most important differences is overlooked, that being the way in which the two paths view scripture. We Gnostics take this Campbellian approach, reading scripture as allegorical myth, while our Orthodox counterparts insist upon taking it all literally (...and hows that werkin' for ya?).
I think our Sufi cousins have it figured out. They call their bringers of wisdom poets and the inspired works they write poetry. Granted this is somewhat compulsory for them but the effect is a much more functional approach to writings of divine inspiration.
That's exactly the problem, though, Padre.
The issues confronting Gnosticism today come from those same orthodox Christians (or scholars, or whatever) looking over the ancient gnostic manuscripts with a "literal" view.
So instead of being looked at as mystical and insightful, we're looked at and judged as they judge themselves: as having two "main" gods, and then they see this lady Sophia come from out of nowhere, and somehow she's Christ's counterpart.
Someone just approaching Gnosticism can get easily confused about the teachings. If only every one could think like Campbell...
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